Herod and John the Baptist.

The king was saddened, but for the sake of the oath and for the sake of his fellow-constables, he did not want to disappoint her. Immediately, he sent an executioner and ordered John’s head to be brought. He went away, beheaded him in prison, brought his head on a platter, gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother” (Mk 6:17-29).
John did not accuse Herod of rejecting his first wife or of being polygamous, as these were situations permitted in the Bible, but of taking his brother’s wife, which is condemned in the Book of Leviticus (Lev. 18:16). Herodias was the daughter of Aristobulus, the brother/half-brother of Philip and Herod Antipas. Thus, the tetrarch has a concubine as his wife who is also his sister-in-law and niece: he could not have done worse. The very ambitious woman then brings about the ruin of Herod Antipas, and together with him, Caligula kills her.

According to Josephus Flavius, the death of the Baptist had a political motive; Herod feared that the popularity the Baptist had among the people would cause a revolt that would threaten his position. The evangelist wants to make a point about the Baptist’s actions: it is not a moralistic condemnation, but a connection between power and religion that keeps people in subjection. It is unlikely that the daughter of Herodias, the princess, would dance in public. Prostitute dancers were called in for these occasions. This expresses a humiliating flattery of power. In a story where everyone has a name, only the daughter is nameless. We know from Josephus Flavius that her name is “Salome,” but the Gospels are silent on this because she is a representative figure. She is a characterless figure, without personality, she has no will of her own and has to ask her mother what she wants. Through the anonymity of the daughter, the Evangelist presents us with the situation of a people who are ready to prostitute themselves just to remain attached to the representatives of power. The author of the text thus recalls the theme of prostitution of the people of God through the dance, a typical role of prostitutes.
From a certain point on, the plot of the story shifts to a representational plane. Proper names disappear: the daughter will remain nameless, Herod will be ‘king’, Herodias ‘mother’. The evangelist brings a figurative sense to the story. The title “king” makes Herod the enemy of God, the true king of Israel. Herod is presented as the bearer of a power that, in order to maintain itself, feeds on death and violence. Between his own prestige and the life of an innocent, he chooses the former. A foreign king who is not of David’s line represents an illegitimate power that is contrary to God’s promises. In order to retain power, Herodias allies himself with an illegitimate king at the expense of the people. He thus represents a Jewish ruling class that is unfaithful to God. The Jewish aristocracy is more ruthless than the ruling political power, has less reverence for God, and does not hesitate to prostitute the people it cares about just so it can take advantage of them. The nameless daughter without personality and will represents the people, subjugated and manipulated by the ruling class. The image of the daughter represents a people whose efforts are aimed at supporting the powerful, even at the cost of renouncing their own dignity.
At the feast, the only course, the only food, is the decapitated head of John the Baptist; a ghostly menu. Power serves as a dish, on a “platter,” to the girl and her mother, the head of a dead man. In the world of the dead, they feed on corpses. The condemnation of the illegitimate union of Herod and Herodias serves as a backdrop that shows the unfaithfulness to God on the part of the Jewish leaders; John condemned not only Herod’s personal immorality, but also the connection between the Jewish leaders and Roman power. The death of the Baptist was the result of the incitement of Jewish, It has nothing to offer. The only instrument it wielded was political power. The connection between political power and religious power does not allow the people to have an intimate relationship with God, but manipulated by this connection, the people prostitute themselves. This is the charge that cost the Baptist his life, and the same fate would befall Jesus.