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Mat_14:6 ff. Γενέσια , Birthday celebration. Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 103 f.; Suicer, Thes. I. p. 746; Loesner, Obss. p. 40. Others (Heinsius, Grotius, Is. Vossius, Paulus) interpret: a festival by way of commemorating Herod’s accession, because the latter is often compared to a birth, Psa_2:7; 1Sa_13:1. An unwarranted departure from ordinary usage. Wieseler likewise takes the word as referring to the accession, but improperly appeals, partly to the fact of its being used to denote a celebration in memory of the dead (Herod. iv. 26), comp. Lex. rhet. p. 231, a figurative sense which only tells in favour of our interpretation, and partly to the Rabbinical âðåñéà ùì îìëí (Avoda Sara i. 3), where, however, the royal birthdays are likewise meant. No instance is to be found in the Greek classics (for the Latin natalis, see Plin. Paneg. 82).
For the dative of time, see Winer, p. 205 [E. T. 276].
ἡ θυγάτηρ τῆς Ἡρωδ .] and of Philip. She was called Salome, and married her uncle, Philip the tetrarch. See Josephus, Antt. xviii. 5. 4. Her dancing was, doubtless, of a mimetic and wanton character. Hor. Od. iii. 6. 21. Wetstein on this passage. Moreover, this circumstance of the girl dancing is in keeping with the view that fixes the date of this scene as early as the year 29; while it is entirely at variance with Keim’s supposition, that it occurred in the year 34–35, by which time Salome had been long married, and, for aught we know, may already have been left a widow; for which reason Keim considers himself all the more justified in ascribing a legendary character to the narrative, though without interfering in any way with the historical nucleus of the story, which he believes has not been affected by the plastic influence of legend; while Volkmar again declares the whole to be a fabrication.
ἐν τῷ μέσῳ ] In the centre of the banqueting hall. The subject of ἤρεσε is still ἡ θυγάτ .
ὅθεν ] as in Act_26:19, frequently in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and common in classical writers.
προβιβασθεῖσα ] urged, induced, prevailed upon, not: instructed (neither is it to be so rendered in Exo_35:34). See Plat. Prot. p. 328 B; Xen. Mem. i. 5. 1; Polyb. iii. 59. 2, xxiv. 3. 7; Bremi, ad Aeschin. Ctesiph. 28; Kühner, ad Xen. Mem. i. 2. 17.
ὧδε ] therefore without any delay.
ἐπὶ πίνακι ] upon a plate.