And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist’s head in a charger.
8. instructed ] Rather, impelled, instigated.
a charger ] The original word = “a flat wooden trencher” on which meat was served. This appears to have been the meaning of the old English word “charger,” which is connected with cargo and with French charger, and signified originally that on which a load is placed, hence a dish.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 8. Give me here John Baptist’s head in a charger.] The word charger formerly signified a large dish, bowl, or drinking cup: the Saxon has [Anglo-Saxon], a dish, Tindal, a platter; any thing is better than charger, which never conveyed much meaning, and now conveys none. The evangelist says she was instructed before, by her mother, to ask the Baptist’s head! What a most infernal mother, to give such instructions to her child! and what a promising daughter to receive them! What a present for a young lady!-the bloody head of the murdered forerunner of Jesus! and what a gratification for an adulterous wife, and incestuous mother! The disturber of her illicit pleasures, and the troubler of her brother-husband’s conscience, is no more! Short, however, was their glorying! See Clarke on Mt 14:3.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Mark, Mar 6:24,25, reports it more largely: And she went forth, and said unto her mother, What shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist. And she came in straightway with haste to the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist. The meaning is plain, so as the words need no interpreter: they let us see;
1. The power of the lust of malice and desire of revenge; surely Herodias might have prompted her to have asked something which might have done her more good than the blood of a holy and innocent man. The guilty soul is never at rest. John Baptist was a prisoner; she should not need have feared the influence of Johns word to have caused a divorce, but she cannot be at rest while John is alive.
2. The great evil of wicked parents, and the contrary blessing of parents fearing God: the former, by commanding or persuading their children to sin, are great instruments towards their childrens damnation; the other, by their admonitions, precepts and instructions, great instruments of their salvation and eternal happiness.
3. We may observe the genius of flattering courtiers, not one of them interposes to save the Baptists life.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And she being before instructed of her mother,…. What request to make; for as Mark says, “she went forth” to her mother immediately, as soon as she had received the king’s promise, and took advice of her, what she should ask; who bid her ask for the head of John the Baptist; and accordingly she went in, “straightway with haste unto the king”, as the same evangelist observes, to take him at his word, and whilst he was in the mood; being urged and hastened on by her mother, who was eager to satisfy her revenge on John; and said,
give me here John Baptist’s head in a charger: she desires his head, and this to be brought to her in a large dish, that her mother might be sure of his death; and have an opportunity of insulting that mouth and tongue, that had spoke against her incestuous marriage: and she desires to have it given “here”, in that very place, at that very time, where, and while the company was together, who were witnesses of the king’s promise and oath; and this she did, lest when the festival was over, and he was out of his cups, he should repent of his folly and rashness. The mother and daughter seem to be much alike, both for lasciviousness, revenge, and cruelty: and if what the historian says w be true, that this same person Salome, the daughter of Herodias, as she walked over a river which was frozen in the winter season, the ice broke, and she fell in, and the pieces of ice cut off her head; the “lex talionis”, the law of retaliation, was righteously executed on her.
w Nicephorus, Hist. l. 1. c. 20.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Put forward (). See Ac 19:33 for a similar verb (), “pushing forward.” Here (Acts) the Textus Receptus uses . “It should require a good deal of ‘educating’ to bring a young girl to make such a grim request” (Bruce).
Here (). On the spot. Here and now.
In a charger ( ). Dish, plate, platter. Why the obsolete “charger”?
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Being before instructed [] . Wyc., monestid, with warned in explanation. Both wrong. Rev., rightly, being put forward. Compare Act 19:33, where the right meaning is, they pushed Alexander forward out of the crowd; and not as A. V., drew out. The correct rendering slightly relieves Salome of the charge of wanton cruelty, and throws it wholly upon Herodias.
Here [] . She demanded it on the spot, before Herod should have had time to reflect and relent; the more so, as she knew his respect for John (compare was sorry, ver. 9). The circumstances seem to point to Machaerus itself as the scene of the banquet; so that the deed could be quickly done, and the head of the Baptist delivered while the feast was still in progress.
In a charger [ ] . The Revisers cannot be defended in their retention of this thoroughly obsolete word. A charge is originally a burden; and a charger something loaded. Hence, a dish. Wyc., dish. Tynd., platter.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And she, being before instructed of her mother,” (he de peobibastheisa hupo tes metros autes) “Then she being (or having previously been) instructed by her mother,” having entered into a plot, having been coached, educated what to do, perhaps refusing to do her orchestrating, titillating, lust-enticing dance, until she got the oath from Herod.
2) “Said, Give me here John Baptist’s head in a charger.” (dos moi, phesin hode epi pinaki ten kephalen loannou tou Baptistou) “She says, (impulsively, without delay, before the party guests) give to me, right here, on a platter, the head of John the Baptist.” The idea is “give it to me on the spot, without delay.” There was a palace, as well as a fortress-prison, in Machaerus in Perea, apparently near where the feast was being held, so that but a few minutes only were required for the bloody murder of John and the delivery of his head to the dance floor and banquet-hall, Mr 6:24,25.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(8) Being before instructed of her mother.Better, being prompted, or instigated. The word does not imply that the girl had been instructed before she danced what to ask for, and St. Mark distinctly states (Mar. 6:24) that she went out from the banquet-hall to ask her mother what use she was to make of the tetrarchs promise. The mothers absence shows that the supper was one for men only, and that it was among them, flushed as they were with wine, that the daughter had appeared in reckless disregard of all maiden modesty.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
8. A charger The Greek word signifies a flat board, used for any purpose, as for a writing-table or tablet. In Luk 11:39, it is translated a platter; that is, a large dish, in which meat or other food is carved or served up. The old English word charger is connected with the whole family of words implying the idea of something carrying or carried. As the simplest root in the English language may be specified the syllable car, then we have cart, carriage, chariot, cargo, charge, carry, carrier, and charger. Hence the platter was called a charger, because it was charged with a burden to carry.
‘And she, being put forward by her mother, says, “Give me here on a large dish the head of John the Baptist.” ’
So Herodias stepped in and impressed on her daughter that she should ask for the head of John the Baptist. It tells us all that we need to know about Salome, whose anger and bitterness must have been stirred up by her mother, that instead of protesting at such a thought, she fell in line with it. Both must have known what even the worst of their ‘friends’ would think about such a move, but they were filled with such intense bitterness against John that it overcame everything else. Salome, therefore, made her request to Herod, “Give me here on a large dish the head of John the Baptist.” This was to be her birthday dish. The idea was probably that it suited birthday celebrations, and the hope may have been that it would be seen as a grotesque joke, deserving a laugh at such an assembly as her ‘meal’ was served up. The very grotesqueness of the request demonstrates to what depths of depravity Salome had sunk, helped on by her mother. She was worthy of the house of Herod.
Mat 14:8. And she, being before instructed Being before urged. Doddridge. When the plot had thus succeeded, and Salome had obtained the king’s promise, she went out to consult with her mother, who immediately disclosed her purpose, bidding her ask the Baptist’s head. A counsel of this kind, no doubt, surprised Salome, for she could not see of what use the head could be to her; besides, she might think the demand improper, as their quarrel with the Baptist, and the cause of it, were universally known; not to mention, that when she consented to dance, it was natural to imagine her fancy had been running on very different subjects: Probably, therefore, at the first she scrupled to comply, as may be gathered also from the force of the word , (rendered in our version before instructed), by which St. Matthew expresses the effect that her mother’s solicitation had upon her. According to Hesychius, the Greek word , signifies to urge, excite, or impel; and consequently supposes reluctance in the person urged. Herodias, however, full of the fiercest resentment against the holy man, would take no denial. She peremptorily insisted that her counsel should be followed, without question representing to her daughter that John had attempted to expel and ruin them both; and that, considering the opinion which the king still entertained of him, he might sometime or other, though in irons, regain Herod’s favour, and accomplish his design; for which reason, the present opportunity of taking away his life was not to be neglected, if she regarded her own safety. These and the like arguments wrought up Salome to such a pitch, that she not only consented to do as she was bidden, but became hearty in the cause; for we read in Mar 6:25. (where the narration is by far the most circumstantial, and very animated) that she came in , immediately, with eagerness; and while all the guests sat mute, expecting what mighty thing would be asked, she demanded the holy Baptist’s head, as of greater value to her than half the kingdom. Give me here (fearing that, if he had time to consider, he would not do it,) John the Baptist’s head in a charger, , a large dish, which the antiquated word charger well expresses. We must just observe, that it was and is customary with princes in the Eastern parts of the world, to require the heads of those whom they had ordered to be executed to be brought to them, that they might be assured of their death: The grand signior does it to this day. See Lardner’s Credibility, as above; Beza; and Blackwall’s Sacred Classics, vol. 1: p. 383.
8 And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist’s head in a charger.
Ver. 8. And she being before instructed, &c. ] Partus sequitur ventrem, the birth follows the belly. Here was like mother like daughter, neither good bird nor good egg, as they say. . The mother and daughter both had an aching tooth at the Baptist, and sought an opportunity to be meet with him ( , Mar 6:19 ): which now having gotten, they pursued to the utmost. The damosel came with haste to the king, saith St Mark, Mar 6:25 , when once she had her lesson, as fearing, belike, she should come too late. Such another hussy as this was dame Alice Pierce, a concubine to our Edward III. For when as at a parliament in the fiftieth year of that king’s reign, it was petitioned that the Duke of Lancaster, the Lord Latimer, chamberlain, and this dame Alice might be removed from court, and the petition was vehemently urged by their speaker, Sir Peter la Mare; this knight afterwards at the suit of that impudent woman (working upon the king’s impotencies) was committed to perpetual imprisonment at Nottingham. And another such history we have of one Diana Valentina, mistress to Henry II, King of France, whom she had so subdued, that he gave her all the confiscations of goods made in the kingdom for cause of heresy. Whereupon many were burned in France for religion, as they said, but indeed to maintain the pride and satisfy the covetousness of that lewd woman. This was in the year 1554. And in the year 1559, Ann du Bourge, a counsellor of state, was burnt also for crime of heresy; not so much by the inclination of the judges as by the resolution of the queen, provoked against him: because, forsooth, the Lutherans gave out that the king had been slain, as he was running at tilt, by a wound in the eye, by the providence of God, for a punishment of his words used against Du Bourge, that he would see him burnt.
Mat 14:8 . : not “before instructed,” as in A. V [87] , but “brought to this point”; urged on. It should require a good deal of “educating” to bring a young girl to make such a grim request. But she had learnt her lesson well, and asked the Baptist’s head, as if she had been asking a favourite dish ( , Chrys., Hom. xlviii.). Kypke cites two instances of the rare use of the word in the sense of instruction. here and now, on the spot, in Mk. That was an essential part of the request. No time must be left for repentance. If not done at once under the influence of wine and the momentary gratification given by the voluptuous dance, it might never be done at all. This implies that the Baptist was at hand, therefore that the feast was at Machaerus, where there was a palace as well as a fortress.
[87] Authorised Version.
before instructed = prompted, or instigated.
of = by. Greek. hupo.
in = upon. Greek. epi.
charger = a wooden trencher, or dish. Greek. pinax;. Occ only here, Mat 14:11. Mar 6:25, Mar 6:28 and Luk 11:39 (“platter”). The Eng. is from the French chargrer = to load. Then by Figure of speech Metonymy (of the Subject) App-6, put for what is laden; hence, used of a horse, as well as a dish.
Mat 14:8. , being before instructed) i.e. before she asked.-, here) Before the king could repent.-, in a charger) which perhaps she held in her hand. The ungodly know how to propose the most horrible things with elegance of language and sweetness of sound.
being: 2Ch 22:2, 2Ch 22:3, Mar 6:24
Give: 1Ki 18:4, 1Ki 18:13, 1Ki 19:2, 2Ki 11:1, Pro 1:16, Pro 29:10
a charger: Num 7:13, Num 7:19, Num 7:84, Num 7:85, Ezr 1:9
Reciprocal: 2Ki 10:7 – slew seventy Pro 16:30 – moving Dan 6:16 – the king Luk 23:20 – General
14:8
Before instructed of her mother. Herodias knew the nature of Herod, in that he was willing to marry her while her husband was living. Doubtless it was her suggestion that caused the girl to dance before the group and display .her charms in the way she did. She further prompted her daughter what to do in.case her dancing produced the effect she anticipated. Consequently she asked for the head of John the Bapist in a charger which means a large dish. The wicked woman would not risk merely request ing the death of John for she would never be sure that it was carried out. But if his head is severed from this body and brought to her she would know the deed was done.
Mat 14:8. Being let on by her mother. Instigated rather than instructed. She went out and consulted her mother, but the mothers purpose had already been formed, and her answer (Mar 6:24) shows great vindictiveness and determination, as does the demand, not for the death, but for the head of the Baptist.
Upon a platter. A large dish. This seems to have been added by Salome herself, as a hideous jest, implying an intention to devour it (J. A. Alexander).
Mat 14:8. And she, being before instructed of her mother Namely, before she made her request: for, after the king had made her this promise, she immediately went forth and said to her mother, What shall I ask? And her mother, having now obtained the wished-for opportunity of executing her revenge, eagerly replied, Ask the head of John the Baptist; representing, no doubt, to her daughter, that he had attempted to expel and ruin them both; and that, considering the opinion which the king still entertained of him, he might some time or other, though in irons, regain Herods favour and accomplish his design; for which reason, the opportunity of taking his life was not to be neglected, if she regarded her own safety. These, or such like arguments, wrought up the young lady to such a pitch, that she not only consented to do as she was bidden, but became hearty in the cause: for, Mar 6:25, she came in straightway with haste, Greek, , immediately with eagerness; and while all the guests sat mute, expecting what mighty thing would be asked, she demanded the holy Baptists head, as of greater value to her than the half of the kingdom. Give me here Fearing if the king had time to consider, he would not do it; John Baptists head in a charger , a large dish, or bowl. And the king was sorry Knowing that John was a good man; yet, for the oaths sake, &c. So he murdered an innocent man for mere tenderness of conscience! Such was the tenderness of the consciences of those Jewish rulers, who, while they were using their utmost efforts to take away, by a most unjust and cruel process, the life of Christ, yet scrupled going into the judgment-hall of Pilate, lest they should be defiled! But Herod was influenced also by a regard for those who sat with him at meat. Doubtless he was unwilling to appear either rash, or fickle, or false before them, as they were probably the first persons of his kingdom for rank and character. Thus out of a misplaced regard to his oath and his guests, this king committed a most unjust and cruel action, which will ever reflect the greatest dishonour upon his memory.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments