Mk 6:14-29
14King Herod heard about [Jesus whose] fame had become widespread, and people were saying, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead; that is why mighty powers are at work in him.”
...17Herod was the one who had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, whom he had married. 18John had said to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” 19Herodias harbored a grudge against him and wanted to kill him but was unable to do so. 20Herod feared John, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man, and kept him in custody. When he heard him speak he was very much perplexed, yet he liked to listen to him. 21She had an opportunity one day when Herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for his courtiers, his military officers, and the leading men of Galilee. 22Herodias’s own daughter came in and performed a dance that delighted Herod and his guests. The king said to the girl, “Ask of me whatever you wish and I will grant it to you.” 23He even swore [many things] to her, “I will grant you whatever you ask of me, even to half of my kingdom.” 24She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” She replied, “The head of John the Baptist.” 25The girl hurried back to the king’s presence and made her request, “I want you to give me at once on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” 26The king was deeply distressed, but because of his oaths and the guests he did not wish to break his word to her. 27So he promptly dispatched an executioner with orders to bring back his head. He went off and beheaded him in the prison. 28He brought in the head on a platter and gave it to the girl. The girl in turn gave it to her mother. 29When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
THE DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST: Mark’s Gospel contains two “passion narratives”: that of John the Baptist and that of Jesus. The death of the precursor heralds that of the Messiah.
Herodias was the daughter of Aristobolus who was the son of Herod the Great. She was married initially to Philip, and she bore him Salome. Herod Antipas is the son of Herod the Great and a half-brother of the first husband of Herodias. Antipas had divorced his first wife, a Nabatean princess, to make room for Herodias. John the Baptist denounces this marital irregularity and is arrested and jailed.
While Mark presents Herod Antipas as vacillating between anger and respect for John the Baptist, Herodias schemes to kill John. She bids her time and may have deliberately sent her daughter Salome into the feast to dance, in order to induce Herod to grant her desire and get her revenge: the head of John the Baptist on a platter.