Mark 6:23 — Community Reflections

MARK 6:23 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom.”

And he promised her with an oath: whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom — the oath elevates the promise to a sworn commitment — in Jewish legal terms, an oath is more binding than a promise. Up to half my kingdom is the conventional hyperbolic form of a royal offer (cf. Esther 5:3, 6) — it is not a literal offer of territorial division but a dramatic affirmation of generosity. Herod is publicly committed beyond the possibility of graceful retreat. The oath that Herod thought demonstrated his royal generosity will cost him the life of the man he was protecting.

Church Fathers on Mark 6:23

The Evangelist Mark, taking occasion from what went before, here relates the death of the Forerunner, saying, 'For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip’s wife: for he had married her.'
Theophylact · 11th century

Ancient history relates, that Philip, the son of Herod the great, under whom the Lord fled into Egypt, the brother of this Herod, under whom Christ suffered, married Herodias, the daughter of king Aretas; but afterwards, that his father-in-law, after certain disagreements had arisen with his son-in-law, had taken his daughter away, and, to the grief of her former husband, had given her in marriage to his enemy; therefore John the Baptist rebukes Herod and Herodias for…
Bede · 8th century

Or else, the head of the law, which is Christ, is cut off from His own body, that is, the Jewish people, and is given to a Gentile damsel, that is, the Roman Church, and the damsel gives it to her adulterous mother, that is, to the synagogue, who in the end will believe. The body of John is buried, his head is put in a dish; thus the human Letter is covered over, the Spirit is honoured, and received on the altar.
Pseudo-Jerome · 5th century

Read all 17 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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