Chapter 17

Causing Controversy: Intriguing Biblical Women

In This Chapter

Viewing the evil acts of Herodias and Salome

Seeing how Pilate’s wife tries to save Jesus

Glimpsing the hospitality of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law

Understanding the concept behind the whore of Babylon

T he stories of several mysterious women in the Bible still cause controversy, even today. Because of their actions, words, or just their very existences, they have been the focus of questions that have sparked much discussion and debate over the years among people with opposing positions.

In this chapter, we look at such women by examining the actions of Herodias and Pilate’s wife, the very existence of Simon Peter’s mother-in-law, and the concept behind the whore of Babylon.

Vengeful Herodias and Her Dancing Daughter, Salome

The quintessence of evil and personification of malice in the New Testament has to be Herodias (Matthew 14:3–11; Mark 6:17–28; and Luke 3:19). Like Jezebel (see Chapter 16) in the Old Testament, the very name Herodias conjures up images of a vindictive, vile, and venomous woman. She is the person primarily responsible for the beheading of John the Baptist (more on him in the sidebar “Was John a Baptist?” in this chapter), and the method by which Herodias accomplishes this task proves the depth of her depravity. Whereas Queen Athaliah went so far as to murder her own grandchildren to seize the throne (see Chapter 12), Herodias uses her own daughter, Salome, to make a disgusting seduction toward her own husband, Salome’s stepfather.

Mother and daughter both abuse their position and influence to attain selfish and wicked goals. They have opportunity, privilege, wealth, and power, but instead of using them for good, they selfishly use them for personal gain and revenge.

Following in familiar footsteps

Herodias was certainly influenced by her environment. She hailed from notoriously wicked people. Her grandfather was Herod the Great, the former king who had ordered the slaughter of the Holy Innocents (Hebrew male infants) in futile hopes of killing the Christ Child. Born between 9 and 7 BC, Herodias was the sister of Herod Agrippa I (grandson of Herod the Great; he executed James the brother of John and he had Peter imprisoned). While she was an infant, good old granddad arranged her marriage to her uncle, Herod Philip, with whom she has a daughter. The Bible doesn’t give the name of that daughter, but the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (AD 37–100) identifies this child as Salome, and he is the one who provides most of what we know of the family history of Herod.

This is where the story begins to sound like a Jerry Springer episode. When Salome is about 10 years old, Herodias and Herod Philip are living in Rome. Another uncle, Herod Antipas, comes to visit. More visits follow. Herodias and Herod Antipas engage in an affair, and there is speculation that she pursues him because he is more powerful than her current husband, Herod Philip. (The historian Flavius Josephus is also the primary source of information about this bizarre family.)

Herodias can’t stand Herod Antipas’s first wife, the daughter of King Aretas of Arabia. Herodias dislikes the wife because she is an Arab and there is bad blood between the Kingdom of Arabia and Herodias’s family, known as the Hasmoneans. So by plotting with Antipas to divorce his first wife, Herodias not only leaves her husband to marry her lover (also an uncle), but she also boots out an enemy (Herod Antipas’s first wife). The unnamed wife flees to her daddy, and hostility between Herod Antipas and King Aretas escalates over time because of this insult. They finally go to war with each other in AD 36.

Even though Jews were allowed to remarry according to Mosaic law (the laws Moses gave to the Hebrew people, especially as found in the Book of Deuteronomy and as interpreted by the Talmud, the commentaries and opinions of respected rabbis), there were limits. This bizarre relationship — an uncle marrying his half brother’s former wife — is just too much for the devout Hebrews to stomach.

Was John a Baptist?

The Bible calls John the Baptist a “baptizer” in some translations and a “baptist” in others. The word “baptist” in this context merely means one who washes or dips in water, from the Greek work baptizein. It doesn’t mean that John belonged to the Christian Baptist Church. (The Baptist Church wasn’t even established until AD 1612, when John Smyth and his entire congregation separated from the Church of England, which was Anglican.) John the Baptist, however, was a Jew. His father, Zechariah, was a priest of the Temple in Jerusalem and of the Hebrew tribe of Levi. He gets the name baptist because he dipped people in the Jordan River as a symbolic gesture of being spiritually washed clean for repentance for one’s sins.

Avenging her reputation

John the Baptist was Jesus’ cousin, a prophet, and holy man who spoke with conviction. John denounces Herod for marrying his brother’s wife, Herodias: “It is not lawful for you to have her” (Matthew 14:4). The Gospel of Mark says that Herodias doesn’t take lightly to this criticism, bearing a grudge against John so serious she wants to kill him (Mark 6:19). Her only stumbling block is that in spite of the fact that John denounced Herod’s marriage, Herod Antipas likes to listen to John. And there is the problem of John’s popularity. The crowds like John, and Herod is afraid of inciting a riot if he casually orders his execution.

So Herodias has to endure the public ridicule and repudiation of her illicit marriage until she can spring her trap. The cunning and crafty Herodias sees an opportunity to rid herself of the nuisance and embarrassment of John the Baptist. When her husband, Herod Antipas, throws a formal birthday party for himself with local dignitaries, Herodias gets her only daughter involved in the nefarious plan. She knows that her husband has a lustful eye for his stepdaughter, Salome, and instead of rebuking him, Herodias uses his behavior for personal advantage.

At the party, Salome dances an elaborate and provocative dance. This seductive routine has been called the “dance of the seven veils” by Oscar Wilde in his play Salome and by Richard Strauss in his operatic version, even though the Bible itself never uses that term.

According to legend, Salome dances and gyrates, removing layers of veils until she is scantily clad, if not scandalously naked at the end of the dance. Her stepfather is so excited that he promises her a gift of anything — she only needs to ask! And Salome falls right into her mother’s grand plan. “She went out, and said to her mother, ‘What shall I ask?’ She replied, ‘The head of John the baptizer’ “ (Mark 6:24). The trap had been sprung. Herodias had patiently waited until the right day, time, and occasion. She stoops to using her own flesh and blood as means to an end. Worse yet, she encourages her daughter to flirt with her husband just to lure him to make an irresistible offer.

Because Herod Antipas makes the oath to grant Salome’s any request in front of political dignitaries, public officials, and local aristocrats, protocol demands that he keep his word. Neglecting to do so would have been worse than embarrassing; it would have been an attack on his authority and his manhood. Although the Bible says he is deeply grieved over the request, he nevertheless orders his soldiers to bring the head of John the Baptist on a platter.

The Bible mentions no more about Salome, and the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus says only that she later married Philip the Tetrarch, who was also her uncle (like mother, like daughter). Herodias disappears from the radar screen as well, even though she most likely was in court when Jesus was brought before her husband, Herod Antipas (Luke 23:6–12). Roman Governor Pontius Pilate had sent Jesus there, hoping Herod would keep the prisoner, but instead Herod sent Christ back to Pilate, who finally had Jesus crucified.

Secular history does say that Herodias becomes jealous of her brother, Agrippa, whom Caesar had made king, while her husband remains a tetrarch (one of four governors of a divided province).

Again Herodias shows her power-hungry nature. She foolishly gets Herod Antipas to complain to Emperor Caesar Caligula. Agrippa informs Caligula of the political maneuverings of the tetrarch and banishes Herod to Gaul (modern-day France). Because she is Agrippa’s sister, Caesar offers sanctuary to Herodias, but she turns it down and joins her exiled husband.

The Bible, and history for that matter, doesn’t paint a pretty picture of Herodias. She uses her office and her marriages as tools for her own agenda. Even her daughter is fair game. John the Baptist was scratching the conscience of Herod, rebuking him for his adulterous marriage to Herodias, who made sure the voice of morality got squelched. But imprisoning the prophet isn’t enough, so Herodias enlists the aid of her own daughter.

While Herodias seems to most people to be a reprehensible person, her daughter, Salome, is more mysterious. The mother had reason to hate John because he denounced her illicit relationship with Herod. Salome, however, wasn’t a target of John the Baptist’s criticism.

But Salome was no innocent bystander. She did participate in a scheme with Herodias to have John killed. Conspiracy to commit murder is what the police would call it today. Whatever her motivation, Salome cooperates in the evil done that day as much as her mother, Herodias, and Herod himself, who finally issued the order to execute John the Baptist.

Daughter of Herodias

Salome is never mentioned by proper name in the Bible — she is referred to only as the daughter of Herodias from Herodias’s first marriage to Herod Philip. The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (first century AD) first identifies the daughter as Salome, a name that has stuck as a result of plays, operas, and movie adaptations over the centuries. One legend from the historian Nicephorus claims that Salome died tragically in the same way John the Baptist died. Allegedly, she was walking on a frozen lake one day when the ice beneath her broke. She fell in up to her neck and was decapitated by the ice fragments.

Speaking Out: Pilate’s Wife

Although Pilate’s wife is mentioned only briefly in the Bible — and never by name — her story is no less significant. Her memory and example live on in the hearts of many, and the Greek Orthodox religion even considers her a saint, celebrating her in a feast day on October 27. She is beloved because she had the courage to stand up for what she believed to be right — opposing the persecution of an innocent man, Jesus.

In the Bible, Pilate’s wife wakes quite upset one day because of a disturbing dream. The Romans believed dreams had profound meanings. She had dreamed that Jesus was arrested and brought before her husband, Pilate, the governor of Judea (Matthew 27:19).

Based on her dream, she feels an urgency to tell her husband to not pronounce judgment on an innocent man. Pilate himself believes that Jesus is innocent, but he also wants to avoid embarrassment and possible displeasure from Caesar should the crowd in Jerusalem get out of control. (Tiberius was Caesar at the time, and he had reprimanded Pilate on two previous occasions for instigating a riot among the Jews. Pilate was therefore not eager to have another incident occur that could further irritate Tiberius.)

Jesus’ political and religious enemies are inciting the crowd to demand the release of Barabbas, a common criminal, rather than demanding Jesus’ release (Luke 23:18–23). Pilate’s wife tries to warn her husband that it is unwise to have innocent blood on his hands. During the turmoil and upheaval of political and religious unrest that was brewing among many in Jerusalem, the wife of Pilate gives a brief warning, which is crucial, though ignored: “Have nothing to do with that innocent man” (Matthew 27:19). Disregarding his wife, Pilate literally washes his hands of responsibility and condemns to death a man he knows is innocent, turning him over for crucifixion (Matthew 27:24–25).

The apocryphal (see Chapter 2) Gospel of Nicodemus, which has never been considered canonical by any Christian religion, identifies Pilate’s wife as Claudia Procula, the granddaughter of the Emperor Caesar Augustus and the illegitimate daughter of the Emperor Caesar Tiberias and his (Tiberias’s) third wife (Augustus’s daughter). Although the Bible never mentions her by name, she is still commonly referred to as Claudia today.

Pilate’s wife is remembered as someone who tried to intervene in Jesus’ crucifixion, though it was to no avail. She wasn’t content to sit silently and witness injustice. Many others who had influence or authority said and did nothing, despite, perhaps, their private reservations about what was happening. The wife of Pilate used whatever influence she had, offering wise counsel to her husband.

Some Bible scholars think Pilate’s wife was merely superstitious, as most Romans were back then, and reacted to the dream she had the night before. Others see her as a good woman wanting her husband to do the right thing and avoid having innocent blood on his hands (despite Pilate’s ceremonial washing of them).

If Pilate’s wife is indeed the Claudia who was the granddaughter of Caesar Augustus, she would have been raised and exposed to the politics in Rome, especially among the imperial family and the Roman Senate. She could have been savvy enough to know that getting rid of Jesus would not be the panacea to calm the crowds. One day it is Jesus’ blood they demand; the next it is someone else’s. We’ll never know her complete motivation or all the circumstances, but the Bible does show that she made an attempt to save Jesus, which is more than others did. The Bible doesn’t mention her again.

The Enigmatic Mother-in-Law of Simon Peter

Another intriguing woman is referred to in the Bible only as the mother-in-law of Simon Peter, the fisherman and later chief apostle (Mark 1:29–34; Matthew 8:14–17; Luke 4:38–41). Simon Peter’s mother-in-law shows selflessness and service even under difficult circumstances. Although mentioned in only a few lines of the Gospel, she is intriguing for what she reveals just by her very existence.

Peter and his brother, Andrew, were fishermen when Jesus called them to follow him and be his disciples (see Mark 1:16–18), but no mention is ever made of Peter being married and having a wife. We find out that he was married only when the existence of a mother-in-law is revealed by her miraculous healing from Jesus. This then raises the question: Who was the wife of Peter? Does she accompany Simon Peter on his missionary work or does she stay home? Is she even alive when Jesus calls him? Could Peter be a widower? These logical questions arise as soon as the mother-in-law appears.

Peter’s mother-in-law shows up in the Bible briefly when she is sick and in need of healing:

Now Simon’s mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once. He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

—Mark 1:30–31

The original Greek text uses the word diakoneo, meaning that Simon Peter’s mother-in-law “ministered” to Jesus, Peter, and his brother Andrew, with James and his brother John, as soon as she was miraculously cured. While the context of the passage indicates that Peter’s mother-in-law ministered by attending to the protocols of hospitality (a very big thing back then), the same Greek word diakoneo is used by the early church to identify the seven men who are called to “minister” to the poor, the sick, the orphans, and the widows (see Acts 6:1–6).

To show her gratitude for being healed and to show respect to Christ as a guest in her home, Peter’s mother-in-law waits on everyone in the house, even though she had up until then been on her sickbed. The scriptures portray this woman as someone who immediately takes on the role of a good hostess as soon as she is well. This is more than just good manners for Peter’s mother-in-law. In ancient times, hospitality to guests was a sign of respect for the other person and almost a religious duty because you never knew whether an angel of the Lord in disguise might show up as a guest one day. Showing kindness to guests gives us a small glimpse into what kind of woman she was, even though we don’t hear of her again.

The appearance of this mother-in-law is important because her presence creates big questions about Peter’s marital status. On the one hand, Peter’s wife is conspicuously absent (not mentioned at all) during the scene where Jesus comes to the house and cures the sick mother-in-law and she immediately waits on them (Mark 1:30–31). On the other hand, there is an interesting subtle reference in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 9:5) where he says: “Do we not have the right to be accompanied by a believing wife, as do the other apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?” Cephas is the Aramaic name for Peter (Petros in Greek and Petrus in Latin — see also John 1:42). The implication of Paul’s statement could be that Peter’s wife was still very much alive and accompanied him. The debate still continues among scholars.

Will the real whore of Babylon please stand up?

The Great Whore of Babylon is mentioned in the last book of the Bible, called the Apocalypse or Revelation: “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great whore who is seated on many waters” (Revelation 17:1) and “Babylon the great, mother of whores and of earth’s abominations” (Revelation 17:5). Earlier in the New Testament (1 Peter 5:13), Peter uses the word Babylon as a metaphor for the city and the empire of Rome: “Your sister church in Babylon.” Because ancient Babylon was synonymous with imperialism, unbridled power, arrogance, and the persecution of Christian believers, the Roman Empire seemed almost like a reincarnation of the Babylonian Empire for many from the first century AD until the legalization of Christianity by the Emperor Constantine in AD 313 with the Edict of Milan.

There is no actual “whore of Babylon.” Rather this term is a concept, just as Lady Wisdom is (see Chapter 4). Whereas Wisdom is described as a gentle, loving, intelligent, and beautiful lady, the whore of Babylon is associated with infidelity, fornication, lying, cheating, stealing, and idolatry. In essence, the whore prostitutes the faith by ignoring truth and by disregarding God’s religious and moral laws.

The Book of Revelation says that the whore of Babylon will eventually be defeated, as will the Antichrist (Revelation 18:1–24). Bible commentaries and scholars believe that, as a place, Babylon usually represents the city of Rome, the Roman Empire, or the secular world at large. When referring to a person, especially in the case of the whore of Babylon, Babylon refers to the believers who have abandoned their faith and polluted their religion with false teaching and the worship of false gods.

Over the course of history, several individuals and even entire religions have been unjustly and unfairly identified by their opponents as being the Whore of Babylon or the Antichrist (called the beast in Revelation 13:1 and 17:3). For the most part, however, biblical scholars and theologians consider the whore of Babylon to be a metaphor for only those believers who have lost or given up the faith. These include men and women and their assemblies that no longer preach the Gospel, no longer teach the truth, and no longer practice the Christian faith (by following Christ’s commands to love thy neighbor, turn the other cheek, and so on).