The beheading of John the Baptist, also known as the decollation of Saint John the Baptist or the beheading of the Forerunner, is a biblical event commemorated as a holy day by various Christian churches. According to the New Testament, Herod Antipas, ruler of Galilee under the Roman Empire, had imprisoned John the Baptist because he had publicly reproved Herod for divorcing his first wife and unlawfully taking his sister-in-law (his brother's wife) as his second wife Herodias. He then ordered him to be killed by beheading.
As a non-Biblical source, Jewish historian Josephus also recounts that Herod had John imprisoned and killed, stating, however, that the real reason Herod had for doing so was "the great influence John had over the people", which might persuade John "to raise a rebellion (for they seemed ready to do anything he should advise)". Josephus further states that many of the Jews believed that the military disaster that later on fell upon Herod was God's punishment for his unrighteous behavior towards John.[1]
Traditional accounts
According to the synoptic Gospels, Herod, who was tetrarch, or sub-king, of Galilee under the Roman Empire, had imprisoned John the Baptist because he reproved Herod for divorcing his wife (Phasaelis, daughter of King Aretas of Nabataea) and unlawfully taking Herodias, the wife of his brother Herod Philip I. On Herod's birthday, Herodias' daughter (whom Josephus identifies as Salome) danced before the king and his guests. Her dancing pleased Herod so much that in his drunkenness he promised to give her anything she desired, up to half of his kingdom. When Salome asked her mother what she should request, she was told to ask for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Although Herod was appalled by the request, he reluctantly agreed and had John executed by beheading in the prison.[2] In art, the episode is known as The Feast of Herod.
Jewish historian Josephus also relates in his Antiquities of the Jews that Herod killed John, stating that he did so, "lest the great influence John had over the people might put it into his [John's] power and inclination to raise a rebellion, (for they seemed ready to do any thing he should advise), [so Herod] thought it best [to put] him to death." He further states that many of the Jews believed that the military disaster that fell upon Herod at the hands of Aretas, his father-in-law (Phasaelis' father), was God's punishment for his unrighteous behavior.[1]
John the Baptist preached to people and baptised them in the Jordan.
John the Baptist baptised Jesus.
Luke 3:1–22; Acts 1:5, 1:21–22, 10:37–38, 11:16, 13:24–25, 18:25, 19:3–4
John the Baptist preached to people and baptised them in the Jordan.
John the Baptist baptised Jesus.
John 1:19–42, 3:22–36, 4:1
John the Baptist preached to people and baptised them in the Jordan. He denied being the Messiah.
It is unstated whether or not John the Baptist baptised Jesus. He insisted Jesus was superior: the Son/Lamb of God.
Two of John the Baptist's disciples – including Andrew – defected to Jesus at John's own insistence.
John the Baptist baptised at Enon/Salim before being arrested. His disciples told him Jesus was successful; John endorsed Jesus as his superior and the Son of God.
Jesus heard the rumour he was more successful than John.
Jewish Antiquities 18. 5. 2.
John the Baptist preached to people and baptised them.
John the Baptist was therefore arrested by Herod Antipas.
John the Baptist, in prison, heard about Jesus' deeds, sent some disciples to ask if Jesus was the awaited one. Jesus listed his miracles and said: 'Blessed is he who doesn't reject me'. The disciples returned to John the Baptist.
Herod wanted to kill John, but was afraid of the people.
John the Baptist criticised king Herod Antipas for marrying his brother's ex-wife Herodias.
John the Baptist was therefore arrested by Herod Antipas.
Herodias wanted John killed, but Herod Antipas protected John because he knew John was a just and holy man.
John the Baptist was executed by beheading by Herod Antipas on the request of Herodias' daughter. His disciples buried his remains.
Luke 3:19–20, 7:18–25, 9:9
John the Baptist criticised king Herod Antipas for marrying his brother's ex-wife Herodias and other evils.
John the Baptist was therefore arrested by Herod Antipas.
John the Baptist [in prison?] heard about Jesus' deeds (in Capernaum and Nain), sent 2 disciples to ask if Jesus was the awaited one. Jesus listed his miracles and said: 'Blessed is he who doesn't reject me.' The disciples returned to John the Baptist.
[no execution motive mentioned]
John the Baptist was executed by beheading by Herod Antipas.
John 3:24
[no arrest motive mentioned]
John the Baptist was arrested.
[no execution motive mentioned]
[no execution mentioned]
Jewish Antiquities 18. 5. 2.
John the Baptist gained a large following.
Herod Antipas feared the widely popular John the Baptist would incite his followers to launch a rebellion against his rule.
Therefore, he had John the Baptist arrested and imprisoned at Macherus.
Herod Antipas later had John the Baptist executed 'to prevent any mischief he might cause, and not bring himself into difficulties'.
Epilogue
Matthew 14:1–6
Word of Jesus' miracles spread.
Herod Antipas concluded Jesus was actually John the Baptist risen from the dead.
Mark 6:14–16
Word of Jesus' miracles spread; some people believed Jesus was actually John the Baptist risen from the dead, others believed he was Elijah, still others he was like a prophet of the past.
Herod Antipas agreed with those saying Jesus was actually John the Baptist risen from the dead.
Luke 9:7–9
Word of Jesus' miracles spread; some people believed Jesus was actually John the Baptist risen from the dead, others believed he was Elijah, still others that an old prophet had risen.
Herod Antipas didn't believe Jesus was John the Baptist, but had to be someone else.
John 5:30–38
Jesus said his claims were reliable, because he knew John the Baptist's testimony about Jesus was reliable, even though Jesus didn't need human testimony.
John 10:40–42
The narrator downplays John the Baptist's deeds in comparison to Jesus, and claims John's testimony of Jesus had convinced many people to believe in Jesus.
Jewish Antiquities 18. 5. 2.
Some Jews believed God later destroyed Herod Antipas' army as a punishment, because he had unjustly executed John the Baptist.
Feast day
The liturgical commemoration of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist is almost as old as that commemorating his birth, which is one of the oldest feasts, if not the oldest, introduced into both the Eastern and Western liturgies to honour a saint.
The Beheading of St John the Baptist by Jan Rombouts
There are two other related feasts observed by Eastern Christians:
First and Second Finding of the Head of St. John the Baptist (24 February). According to church tradition, after the execution of John the Baptist, his disciples buried his body at Sebastia, except for his head, which Herodias took and buried it in a dung heap. Later, Saint Joanna, who was married to Herod's steward,[7] secretly took his head and buried it on the Mount of Olives, where it remained hidden for centuries.
The First Finding is said to have occurred in the fourth century. The property on the Mount of Olives where the head was buried eventually passed into the possession of a government official who became a monk with the name of Innocent. He built a church and a monastic cell there. When he started to dig the foundation, the vessel with the head of John the Baptist was uncovered, but fearful that the relic might be abused by unbelievers, he hid it again in the same place it had been found. Upon his death, the church fell into ruin and was destroyed.
The Second Finding is said to have occurred in the year 452. During the days of Constantine the Great, two monks on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem reportedly saw visions of John the Baptist, who revealed to them the location of his head. They uncovered the relic, placed it in a sack and proceeded home. Along the way, they encountered an unnamed potter and gave him the bag to carry, not telling him what it was. John the Baptist appeared to him and ordered him to flee from the careless and lazy monks, with what he held in his hands. He did so and took the head home with him. Before his death, he placed it in a container and gave it to his sister. After some time, a hieromonk by the name of Eustathius, an Arian, came into possession of it, using it to attract followers to his teaching. He buried the head in a cave, near Emesa. Eventually, a monastery was built at that place. In the year 452, St. John the Baptist appeared to Archimandrite Marcellus of this monastery and indicated where his head was hidden in a water jar buried in the earth. The relic was brought into the city of Emesa and was later transferred to Constantinople.[8]
Third Finding of the Head of St. John the Baptist (25 May). The head was transferred to Comana of Cappadocia during a period of Muslim raids (about 820), and it was hidden in the ground during a period of iconoclasticpersecution. When the veneration of icons was restored in 850, Patriarch Ignatius of Constantinople (847–857) saw in a vision place where the head of St. John had been hidden. The patriarch communicated this to the emperorMichael III, who sent a delegation to Comana, where the head was found. Afterwards, the head was again transferred to Nyc, and here on 25 May, it was placed in a church at the court.[9]
John the Baptist is said to have been buried at the Palestinian village of Sebastia, near modern-day Nablus in the West Bank. Mention is made of his relics being honored there in the fourth century. The historians Rufinus and Theodoretus record that the shrine was desecrated under Julian the Apostate around 362, the bones being partly burned. The tomb at Sebastia continued, nevertheless, to be visited by pious pilgrims, and St. Jerome bears witness to miracles being worked there. Today, the tomb is housed in the Nabi Yahya Mosque ("John the Baptist Mosque").
John the Baptist's head
What became of the head of John the Baptist is difficult to determine. Nicephorus[10] and Symeon Metaphrastes say that Herodias had it buried in the fortress of Machaerus (in accordance with Josephus). Other writers say that it was interred in Herod's palace at Jerusalem; there, it was found during the reign of Constantine and thence secretly taken to Emesa, in Phoenicia, where it was concealed, the place remaining unknown for years, until it was manifested by a revelation in 453.
Over the centuries, there have been many discrepancies in the various legends and claimed relics throughout the world. Several different locations claim to possess the severed head of John the Baptist. Among the various claimants are:[11]
In medieval times, it was rumored that the Knights Templar had possession of the head, and multiple records from their Inquisition in the early 14th century make reference to some form of head veneration.[12]
During the Crusaders' looting of Constantinople in 1204, Wallo or Walo(n) de Sarton, canon of Picquigny in Picardy, discovered a half-ball of transparent crystal on a silver plate that contained front facial bones of the skull without mandible. The Greek lettering around the plate indicated that the bones were from John the Baptist but he could not read Greek and so went from monastery to monastery trying to get information. Walon sold the plate in order to pay for his voyage back home, brought the relic and gave it to the bishop at Amiens. This made the Amiens Cathedral a major pilgrimage site in France, and was the main impetus for building the magnificent Gothic cathedral that still stands.[13][14]
At the beginning of the 17th century there was some confusion about whose relics were venerated in the Basilica of Saint Sylvester the First: some claimed they were bones of St. John, the martyr of Rome, and the others that they were the Baptist's. Pope Clement VIII, to remove all reasonable doubt, requested that the canons of Amiens provide a particle of the relics of St John for the basilica. In 1604, he was given a part of parietal bone that was inserted into a wax skull, and is still kept in the basilica.[15][16] The Roman Catholic tradition holds that the bone on display in San Silvestro in Capite is a true relic of John the Baptist.[17]
The occipital bone of St John's skull is said to be kept at the Topkapı Palace Museum together with parts of the right hand.[18]
According to some traditions, Luke the Evangelist went to the city of Sebastia, the place of John's burial site, from which he took the right hand of the Forerunner (the hand that baptized Jesus) and brought it to Antioch, his home city, where it performed miracles. It is reported that the relic would be brought out and shown to the faithful on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (14 September). If the fingers of the hand were open, it was interpreted as a sign of a bountiful year; if the hand was closed, it would be a poor harvest (1 September was the beginning of the liturgical year and the harvest season).
The arm is then said to have been transferred from Antioch to Constantinople in 956. On 7 January, the Orthodox Church celebrates the "Feast of the Transfer of the Right Hand of the Holy Forerunner" from Antioch to Constantinople and the Miracle of Saint John the Forerunner against the Hagarines at Chios.
Having been brought from Antioch to Constantinople at the time of Constantine VII, the arm was kept in the Emperor's chapel in the 12th century, then in the Church of the Virgin of the Pharos, then in the Church of Peribleptos in the first half of the 15th century. Spanish envoy Clavijo reported that he saw two different arms in two different monasteries while on a visit to Constantinople in 1404.
The Turks allege that in 1585, Sultan Murad III managed to retrieve a part of the relic from the Christian Knights and had the arm brought back to Constantinople (presently Istanbul, Turkey), where it remains up to this day at the Topkapı Palace. The arm is kept in a gold-embellished silver reliquary. There are several inscriptions on the arm: "The beloved of God" on the forefinger, "This is the hand of the Baptist" on the wrist, and "belongs to monk Dolin" on the band above the elbow.[20]
The right hand of John the Baptist that is kept in Siena Cathedral (in the chapel in the north arm of the transept) was acquired by the first Serbian archbishop Saint Sava, as testified by the inscription on the reliquary, sometime after the fall of Constantinople. It was kept in the Žiča monastery, and around 1290, when warfare made the northern areas of Serbia unsafe, transferred to the newly established archiepiscopal see of the Serbian Orthodox Church at Peć. From there it was presumably relocated by Helena, daughter of the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos and widow of the despot of Serbia, Lazar Branković, either to Constantinople or directly to her uncle Thomas Palaiologos, despot of the Morea, who fled to Italy in 1461 and sold his whole collection of relics to Pope Pius II. The pope bequeathed the hand to Siena cathedral in 1464. A special chapel was built for it. The relic is displayed only once a year, on Whit Monday. [24]
Other purported relics include:
It has also been claimed that a fragment of the right forearm is kept at the Dionysiou Monastery on Mount Athos, Greece. At the beginning of the 19th century, the advisor to Prussia in Constantinople, John Frangopoulos, was in possession of this relic and he adorned it with jewels. On 10 March 1802 it was brought to Dionysiou Monastery through the efforts of its abbot, Joachim Agiostratiti.[25]
Aachen Cathedral, in Germany, contains a robe supposedly worn by John the Baptist, adored as a relic.
In July 2010, a small reliquary was discovered under the ruins of a 5th-century monastery on St. Ivan Island, Bulgaria. Local archaeologists opened the reliquary in August and found bone fragments of a skull, a hand and a tooth, which they believe belong to John the Baptist, based on their interpretation of a Greek inscription on the reliquary. The Bulgarian Orthodoxbishop who witnessed the opening speculated that the relics might have been a gift from an 11th-century church on the island possibly dedicated to the saint.[27] The remains have been carbon-dated to the 1st century.[citation needed]
A reliquary with a purported finger of Saint John the Baptist is displayed in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri.[28]
On 29 August 2012, during a public audience at the summer palace of Castel Gandolfo, Pope Benedict XVI mentioned the traditional crypt in the Palestinian town of Sebastia, where relics of the Baptist have been venerated since at least the fourth century.[17] The Pope also noted that a religious feast particularly commemorates the transfer of John's head relic to the Basilica of San Silvestro in Capite in Rome.
St. John died a martyr to his calling. Having been called by God to be a preacher of penance, he represented Herod’s sin to him, and reminded him of the law of God. On this account he died a violent death at the age of thirty-two. To him applies the eighth beatitude: “Blessed are they who suffer persecution, for justice’ sake.” His soul passed directly into Limbo, where he, like St. Joseph, awaited the arrival of the Messias, and the speedy accomplishment of the work of Redemption. When our Lord ascended into heaven, he was taken up with Him into everlasting happiness. The Church honours him as a great Saint, and on the 24th of June celebrates his nativity, because he was born without original sin. [29]
The subsequent history of Herod and Salome is related in the great commentary of Cornelius a Lapide:
Wherefore the just vengeance of God burned against all who were concerned in this crime. Herod was defeated by Aretas. Afterwards he was banished with Herodias to Lyons, and deprived of his tetrarchy and everything by Caligula, at the instigation of Herod Agrippa, the brother of Herodias, as Josephus relates (xvii. 10). Moreover, the head of the dancing daughter was cut off by means of ice. Hear what Nicephorus says, "As she was journeying once in the winter-time, and a frozen river had to be crossed on foot, the ice broke beneath her, not without the providence of God. Straightway she sank down up to her neck. This made her dance and wriggle about with all the lower parts of her body, not on land, but in the water. Her wicked head was glazed with ice, and at length severed from her body by the sharp edges, not of iron, but of the frozen water. Thus in the very ice she displayed the dance of death, and furnished a spectacle to all who beheld it, which brought to mind what she had done.[30]
Depictions of Salome, Herod, and the death of John the Baptist
Scenes from the events around the death of John were an extremely common subject in the treatment of John the Baptist in art, initially most often in small predella scenes, and later as a subject for larger independent works. The following list does not attempt completeness but begins with works with their own articles, then includes many of the best-known depictions in chronological order (to see each work, follow the link through the footnote):[31]
↑ Wendy M. K. Shaw (2010). "Between the secular and the sacred: a new face for the Department of the Holy Relics at the Topkapı Palace Museum". Material Religion (6/1). Taylor and Francis Ltd.: 129–131. ISSN1743-2200.
↑ Danica Popović (January 2017). "The Siena relic of St John the Baptist's right arm". Zograf (41). Department of History of Art, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade: 77–94. ISSN0350-1361.
John the Baptist was a Jewish preacher active in the area of the Jordan River in the early 1st century AD. He is also known as Saint John the Forerunner in Eastern Orthodoxy, John the Immerser in some Baptist Christian traditions, Saint John by certain Catholic churches, and Prophet Yahya in Islam. He is sometimes alternatively referred to as John the Baptiser.
Zechariah is a figure in the New Testament and the Quran, and venerated in Christianity and Islam. In the Bible, he is the father of John the Baptist, a priest of the sons of Aaron in the Gospel of Luke, and the husband of Elizabeth who is a relative of the Virgin Mary.
According to apocrypha, as well as Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's canonical gospels. In writing, Anne's name and that of her husband Joachim come only from New Testament apocrypha, of which the Gospel of James seems to be the earliest that mentions them. The mother of Mary is mentioned but not named in the Quran.
In religion, a relic is an object or article of religious significance from the past. It usually consists of the physical remains or personal effects of a saint or other person preserved for the purpose of veneration as a tangible memorial. Relics are an important aspect of some forms of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, shamanism, and many other religions. Relic derives from the Latin reliquiae, meaning "remains", and a form of the Latin verb relinquere, to "leave behind, or abandon". A reliquary is a shrine that houses one or more religious relics.
Salome, also known as Salome III, was a Jewish princess, the daughter of Herod II and princess Herodias. She was granddaughter of Herod the Great, and stepdaughter of Herod Antipas. She is known from the New Testament, where she is not named, and from an account by Flavius Josephus. In the New Testament, the stepdaughter of Herod Antipas demands and receives the head of John the Baptist. According to Josephus, she was first married to her uncle Philip the Tetrarch, after whose death she married her cousin Aristobulus of Chalcis, thus becoming queen of Armenia Minor.
Herodias was a princess of the Herodian dynasty of Judaea during the time of the Roman Empire. Christian writings connect her with the execution of John the Baptist.
The True Cross is said to be the real cross that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified on, according to Christian tradition.
Herod Antipas was a 1st-century ruler of Galilee and Perea. He bore the title of tetrarch and is referred to as both "Herod the Tetrarch" and "King Herod" in the New Testament, although he never actually held the title of king. He was a son of Herod the Great and a grandson of Antipater the Idumaean. He is widely known today for accounts in the New Testament of his role in events that led to the executions of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth. His father, Herod the Great, was alleged to have ordered the Massacre of the Innocents, marking the earliest Biblical account of the concerns of the government in Jerusalem regarding Jesus's existence.
According to the New Testament, a woven crown of thorns was placed on the head of Jesus during the events leading up to his crucifixion. It was one of the instruments of the Passion, employed by Jesus' captors both to cause him pain and to mock his claim of authority. It is mentioned in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and John, and is often alluded to by the early Church Fathers, such as Clement of Alexandria, Origen and others, along with being referenced in the apocryphal Gospel of Peter.
A reliquary is a container for relics. A portable reliquary may be called a fereter, and a chapel in which it is housed a feretory or feretery.
August 2 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - August 4
January 6 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - January 8
Matthew 14:12 is the twelfth verse in the fourteenth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. It refers to the death of John the Baptist and the burial of his body.
Macarius of the Yellow Water Lake and the Unzha, the Miracle Worker (1349–1444) is a Russian Orthodox saint. He is credited with the founding of four monasteries in the Middle and Upper Volga regions of Russia.
Aristobulus of Britannia is a Christian saint named by Hippolytus of Rome (170–235) and Dorotheus of Gaza (505–565) as one of the Seventy Disciples mentioned in Luke 10:1–24 and as the first bishop in Roman Britain.
August 28 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - August 30
Andrew the Apostle, also called Saint Andrew, was an apostle of Jesus. According to the New Testament, he was a fisherman and one of the Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus. The title First-Called stems from the Gospel of John, where Andrew, initially a disciple of John the Baptist, follows Jesus and, recognizing him as the Messiah, introduces his brother Simon Peter to him.
The Feast of Herod refers to the episode in the Gospels following the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, when Salome presents his head to her parents. The account in the Book of Mark describes Herod Antipas holding a banquet on his birthday for his high officials and military commanders, and leading men of Galilee. At this banquet, Herod's daughter dances before Herod, who is pleased and offers her anything she asks for in return. The girl asks her mother what she should request, and she is told to demand the head of John the Baptist. Reluctantly, Herod orders the beheading of John, and John's head is delivered to her, at her request, "on a platter."(Mark 6:17–29)
The Apparition(French: L'Apparition) is a painting by French artist Gustave Moreau, painted between 1874 and 1876. It shows the biblical character of Salome dancing in front of Herod Antipas with a vision of John the Baptist's severed head. The 106 cm high and 72,2 cm wide watercolor held by the Musée d'Orsay in Paris elaborates on an episode told in the Matthew 14:6–11 and Mark 6:21–29. On a feast held for Herod Antipas' birthday, the princess Salome dances in front of the king and his guests. This pleased him so much he promises her anything she wished for. Incited by her mother Herodias, who was reproved by the John the Baptist for her illegitimate marriage to Herod, Salome demands John's head on a charger. Regretful but compelled to keep his word in front of everyone present, Herod complies with Salome's demand. John the Baptist is beheaded, his head brought on a charger and given to Salome, who in turn gives it to her mother.
Salome Dancing before Herod is an oil painting produced in 1876 by the French Symbolist artist Gustave Moreau. The subject matter is taken from the New Testament, depicting Salome—the daughter of Herod II and Herodias—dancing before Herod Antipas.
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