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Why the Daughter of Herodias Must Dance (Mark 6.14-29)

Department of English, Skidmore College Saratoga Springs, NY 12866, USA rjanes{at}skidmore.edu

To some modern scholars' disapproval, Mark's and Matthew's John the Baptist dies because of two women and a dance. Historically improbable, but theologically essential, the episode in Mark makes theology through narrative structure, juxtaposing the Baptist's death with the raising of Jairus's daughter through the dance of Herodias's daughter and paralleling Jairus's daughter's rising with Jesus' in Mark's original ending, 16.8. While the two daughters point to resurrection and Jesus' feeding the faithful, Herodias confirms John's identity as Elijah by acting the murderous Jezebel to Herod's sympathetic Ahab. Matthew and Luke embrace Mark's Elijanic identification of the Baptist but alter the Herod-Herodias story to accommodate different theological interests. Erasing the Herodian family altogether, John imitates Mark's structural placement of the Baptist as integral to the promise of resurrection.

Key Words: John the Baptist • death of • Herodias • Mark 6.14-29 • narrative structure

Journal for the Study of the New Testament, Vol. 28, No. 4, 443-467 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0142064X06065694


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