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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Matthew 14:11 - 14:11
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11. ἤνεγκεν τῇ μητρὶ αὐτῆς. The revenge of Herodias recalls the story of Fulvia, who treated with great indignity the head of her murdered enemy Cicero, piercing the tongue once so eloquent against her. Both are instances of ‘furens quid femina possit.’ The perpetration of the deed on the occasion of a birthday feast would heighten the atrocity of it in the eyes of the ancient world: it was an acknowledged rule, ‘ne die qua ipsi lumen accepissent aliis demerent.’
The great Florentine and other mediæval painters have delighted to represent the contrasts suggested by this scene at Machærus. The palace and the prison—Greek refinement and the preacher’s simplicity—Oriental luxury and Oriental despotism side by side—the cause of the world and the cause of Christ. In all this the ‘irony’ of the Greek dramatists is present. The real strength is on the side that seems weakest.