daughter Salome, at a feast on the birthday of Herod, when he was probably heated with wine, won his favor by dancing before him, and gained from him a promise, given with an oath, that he would grant any favor that she might ask of him, even (Mark vi. 23) to the half of his kingdom. She went. to her mother, and being instructed by her, came back immediately with earnest haste, and said, "I desire that thou give me forthwith on a dish the head of John the Baptist." This extreme haste probably arose from a fear lest the king, after the excitement of the hour was over, should relent, or refuse to grant her request. See Robinson's Calmet, art. Antipas. The evident reluctance of Herod, even then, to comply with her demand confirms this view of the case. An executioner was sent immediately, and the head of John was brought to the girl, who carried it to her mother. John, as we have seen in chapter xi. was imprisoned near the Dead Sea. The narrative of the Evangelists, particularly that of Mark, indicates that he was not far off from the festive party, who must therefore have been in that part of Herod's dominions which was most distant from Galilee.

Herod had thus beheaded John from a false sentiment of honor, and grievously against his will, for he feared him, (Mark vi. 20,) "knowing that he was a righteous and holy man;” and, though he desired to put him to death, he feared the people, for they accounted John as a prophet. The circumstances attendant on the life of John, his uncompromising attitude as a prophet of God, the reverence in which he was held, and the strange ascendency which such men sometimes gain over the imagination of the worldly minded and corrupt, may have wrought with peculiar force on Herod, and roused his superstitious apprehensions. So that when he heard of Jesus and his extraordinary acts, and the sensation that he was producing in his dominions, he may have been (Luke ix. 7) sorely perplexed, and have broken out in the words which were spoken, half in rage and half in fear, "John have I beheaded; but who is this?" And

in order to allay his apprehensions, to satisfy himself whether the reports that he heard were true, and also, as we might infer from the words and conduct of Jesus (Luke xiii. 31, 32), to get him into his power, he sought to see him. At another time his words, as in the passage before us, took a different turn; and, as Mr. Norton in his note on Matt. xiv. 1–12, suggests, may be regarded as the excited, figurative language of an angry man; as if he had said: "John have I beheaded. But what have I gained by it? Here we have him, the same thing over again, raised from the dead, and therefore showing forth these powerful works."

Herod, it has been said, was a Sadducee, and as such (Matt. xxii. 23, Acts xxiii. 8) believed in "no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit." We find no evidence that he was a Sadducee. But even if he were so, it would not have secured him from all dread of the supernatural, under the circumstances in which he was placed. The annals of superstition are marked by no greater absurdities than those which are drawn from the most unbelieving times. Nor have any men, when under the pressure of extraordinary circumstances of emotion, shown themselves more the victims of an unreasonable credulity than those who have prided themselves most on their philosophical unbelief. Herod, more than half a Jew, with the superstitious ideas of his nation hanging over his mind, driven by the more powerful will of a woman into crimes at which his own nature revolted, on hearing from all quarters accounts of sick men healed, demoniacs exorcised, and the dead raised to life, may, in spite of his hardness and unbelief, have been so disturbed and conscience-smitten as in amazement and terror, to utter the language attributed to him in the Gospels. In Shakespeare's Macbeth we have, drawn by a master's hand, the inconsistencies, absurdities, and horrors which mark the speech and conduct of a man, betrayed like Herod into crimes which he could never have committed unless impelled by the overpowering ambition of an artful, merciless,

unscrupulous woman. The perplexities which oppressed the mind of Herod, and drew from him the exclamation, "It is John whom I beheaded; he has been raised from the dead, and by him these mighty works are wrought," may have been not unlike those which wrenched from the terrified Macbeth at the appearance of Banquo whom he had murdered: the words,

"The times have been,

That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
And there an end: but now, they rise again,

With twenty mortal murders on their crowns,
And push us from our stools."

The great misdeeds and consequent misfortunes of Herod's life, his repudiating of his wife, the daughter of Aretas, king of Petræa, and his disastrous defeat by that monarch, his murder of John the Baptist, his attempt to supplant the influence of his wife's brother Herod Agrippa with the Roman emperor, Caligula, and to secure for himself the title of king, and his consequent banishment, first to Gaul, A. D. 39, and thence to Spain where he died, were caused by the instigations of the jealous, unprincipled, ambitious woman, with whom he was united by an adulterous and incestuous marriage.

Herod is referred to again on two occasions. The Pharisees (Luke xiii. 31, 32) tell Jesus to depart; for Herod is seeking his life. The reply of Jesus, "Go ye and tell that fox," &c. shows how well he understood his crafty character. He appears again in the trial of Jesus. He was (Luke xxiii. 8) exceedingly glad to see him, for he had long desired it on account of the reports which he had heard of him, and, besides, he now hoped to see him perform some miracle. But when Jesus not only refused to do anything to gratify his curiosity, but would not even reply to his wordy questions, he gave way to the natural and cruel levity of his character, and, by the most extravagant marks of homage, subjected him to the heartless mockery and scoffs

of the soldiers. The Herod who appears in the thirteenth chapter of Acts is Herod Agrippa I., grandson of Herod the Great, and brother of Herodias.

13-21. FEEDING THE FIVE THOUSAND.

After Jesus knew that Herod was making inquiries concerning him, 13, as connected with 1 and 2, he crossed over the lake with his disciples to an uninhabited place, near the city of Bethsaida, which was at the northeastern corner of the lake, not far from the entrance of the Jordan. They sought rest; "for there were many coming and going, and they had not leisure even to eat." (Mark vi. 31.) Jesus probably desired also to have a season of undisturbed intercourse with his disciples. For this purpose he went up into a mountain with them. But the people soon saw which way he had gone. They ran together round the lake, and some of them reached the spot even before Jesus had come to the shore. He could not therefore long be left with his disciples. They were flocking towards him from all the neighboring villages. And when, on the mountain where he was sitting with his disciples, he lifted up his eyes, he saw an immense multitude coming towards him. He came out to meet them, and, being moved with compassion for them, he healed their sick, and taught them many things. But seeing that in their haste they had come without their customary supply of food, he asks Philip (John vi. 5) how they are to be fed. Philip probably conferred with the other disciples, and they advise Jesus to send the multitude away, that they may purchase bread in the neighboring fields and villages. They need not go away," said Jesus. "Give ye them to eat.” “But we have nothing here," say they, "except five loaves and two small fishes." And these, according to John vi. 9, belonged to a lad who was with them. Jesus directed the multitudes to be seated on the green grass of which there was much there, in

companies, by hundreds and fifties. They sat down as it were in garden plots, each company making a square by itself. Jesus, having lifted up his eyes to heaven and blessed the food, caused it to be distributed among the people, and they all, five thousand men, besides women and children, ate as much as they desired, and twelve baskets of fragments remained.

In the different accounts here, we have the characteristics of the different Evangelists. In Matthew there is the plain statement of facts, with his peculiar exactness as to numbers, he being the only one who adds to the 5,000, "besides women and children." Luke's is a clear historical account. He mentions the name of the place, Bethsaida. There were two cities of this name, one on the west side, and the other where they now were, near the northeastern corner of the lake. Mark, on the other hand, throws in those graphic details, which indicate an eyewitness. "For there were many coming and going, and they had not leisure even to eat." He speaks of many finding out whither Jesus had gone, and "running together on foot," so that they reached the place before him. He speaks of the green grass, and of the appearance-like garden plots of the separate groups, as the multitude reclined at their meal. John's account also has the marks of an eyewitness. He alone speaks of Jesus as going up into a mountain and sitting there with his disciples, of his lifting up his eyes and seeing the great multitude coming towards him, of the conversation with Philip, of the lad with his five barley loaves, and two little fishes." These graphic details and the parenthetical clause now there was much grass in the place are characteristic of one who was personally present. 22, 23. After the miracle Jesus constrained his disciples to and go back to the other side before him. indicates a reluctance to go on their part.

66

enter a vessel,

The language

Probably they

had become aware of the disposition in the multitude