Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Mark 6:26
And the king was exceeding sorry; [yet] for his oath’s sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her.
26. exceeding sorry ] The Greek word thus translated is very strong, and denotes very great grief and sorrow. It is used of (1) the rich young ruler, “when he heard this, he was very sorrowful,” Luk 18:23; (2) of our Lord Himself in the Garden of Gethsemane, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death,” Mat 26:38; Mar 14:34.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Mar 6:26
And the king was exceeding sorry.
Crisis hours
The acute and watchful physician knows that a disease runs to a crisis, and that there are points of time when, if the patient is carefully nursed and cared for, curative tendencies will set in, and his health may be restored. Now, men are in the same condition spiritually, and if there were only some oversight of them they might be saved; but, alas l they themselves cannot perpetuate these hours; they will not; and we stand outside and know nothing of them. (H. W. Beecher.)
Sorrow not always Divine
Herod was sorry when Salome asked for the head of John. But sorry for what? Was it on account of respect and love for the prophet? or was he sorry because he feared popular indignation? or because he felt that this was going a little too far in cruelty and injustice? Men are sorry in various ways. One is sorry for his sins, and another is sorry for his scruples. One is sorry that he made a fraudulent profit, and another is sorry that he did not. One, with strong anguish, mourns the loss of a friend, and another the loss of a fortune. One sheds drops of pity, and one of mortification. The mother is sorry for her dead babe that lies upon her breast like a withered blossom, and the miser is sorry to part with a dollar. Sorrow is not always Divine, and tears are not always of the kind that consecrate. In Herods case it is quite significant that we cannot exactly tell why he was sorry. One thing we know, that his sorrow was not strong enough to stop the hand of the executioner, and keep himself from crime. It was not strong enough to resist the sense of shame, and the impulse of the hour. (E. H. Chapin.)
Conditions of promise keeping
Must a man, then, always keep a promise? I say, No. Let us look at some of the conditions.
1. A promise of that which in itself is impossible, I need not say, a man cannot fulfil. It is the making of such a promise that is a sin.
2. When the fulfilment of a promise is rendered impossible by the happening of subsequent events, a man who makes it is released from fulfilling that promise-at any rate, so far as those events hinder him from fulfilling it. Where a man promises to settle upon his son-in-law a certain stipulated amount in case of the uniting of his daughter in marriage to him, if, when the occasion comes, the father-in-law is bankrupt, how can he fulfil his promise? Circumstances have changed. His power to fulfil his promise is gone.
3. When the thing promised is contrary to the law of the land it is void.
4. Where a promise is made which involves a violation of morality, or the laws of God, no man has the right to keep it. And this is exactly the case that Herod found himself in. He was a fool to make the promise; he was a demon to fulfil it. (H. W. Beecher.)
The course of sin
Herods sin began in a very common place for the beginning of deadly sin. It began in the riot and levity of sensual amusement. The fact is, that Satan only wants the occasion of a beginning of a sin from us; however slight that may be though we may have removed from the sure ground of a clear and undefiled conscience, by a step of a hairs breadth, he has gained all that he wants. He has removed us from the ground where we could watch and pray: he has put the fear of God, and love of Christ, out of our hearts; he has withdrawn us from the presence of God, tempted us to come forth from the hiding place of His pavilion, and the secret of His tabernacle; and to come down from the rock on which we had been set up through His merciful protection; and then we are completely in his power. Who, then, that knowingly begins a sin, can tell where it will end? Most men begin it with a notion that they can stop in its course when they like, and that they will have the opportunity and the will to repent. But how miserably they are mistaken in both those notions; they hardly need even Herods example to warn them. We have seen at length already, how utterly unable they are to stop; and a very few considerations will show how little reason they have to look forward to a genuine repentance. They forget, in the first instance, the nature of sin, which is to harden the heart, to sear the conscience, and to blind the understanding. All these effects are the very contrary to repentance. And they may, therefore (since they have put God out of the question), as well expect corn to come out of thistle seed as repentance out of wilful sin. On the whole, the text gives us a solemn warning upon the nature of sin. It is not always barefaced and audacious, even when most heinous. The sinner may even set about his dreadful task work which Satan has set him, with exceeding sorrow, as did Herod. But this does not avail to abate its violence, or to lessen their guilt. (R. W. Evans, B. D.)
The beginning of evil is like the letting out of water. The poet tells us that the destruction of the lute begins with the first rift; and the rottenness of the fruit with the first speck. Resist, I pray you, the first temptation. Endeavour to conquer Herod. (W. Walters.)
The effects of the preaching of John the Baptist upon Herod
The case of Herod and Felix much alike. We are not told of Felix that he ever did more than tremble; there is no register of his having taken any steps in consequence of his conviction. Herod did many things in consequence of what he heard from the Baptist.
I. Now it is very carefully to be observed (for upon this we shall throughout have to lay no small stress), that Herod feared John, but that nothing is said from which we can infer that Herod feared God. We are not, perhaps, aware what power there is in the principle of the fear of man, for it will often cause persons to disobey God, and peril their eternity, rather than run the risk of a frown: And this principle may operate as well to the withdrawing men from vice, as the confirming them in it. It is not indeed by this denunciation of sin in the general, that the preacher will become an object of fear, and a motive to reform; for a man will sit with the greatest complacence under the universal reproof, and think it nothing to be condemned in common with all. But when he denounces particular sins, and thus, as it were, singles out a few from the mass, he may cause those few to feel so sensitively, as though all eyes were upon them; so that if the sins be such as may be abandoned without great pain, they will be likely to abandon them just to prevent the being again thus exposed. They give up one thing after another, according as conscience is more and more urgent; but the favourite practice, the darling passion, this still retains its mastery, whilst less cherished habits are broken, and less powerful desires are subdued. The man whose master passion is covetousness may become most rigidly moral, though he had not heretofore been distinguished by purity of life; but measured morality, in place of being attended with diminished covetousness, may be only a make weight with conscience against the abiding and even the grooving eagerness for gain. The man again, whose master passion is sensuality, may give much in alms to the poor, though he had previously been accounted penurious; but is he, therefore, necessarily less the slave of his lust? Ah, no. He may only have bought himself peace in the indulgence of his appetites by liberality in relieving the destitute. It is the same in the case of every other master passion. Unless it be Herodias that is put away, there is no evidence of genuine repentance; all that is surrendered may be nothing more than a proof of the value put upon what is retained. And therefore, if you would discriminate between reformation and repentance, if you would know whether you have limited yourselves to the former and are yet strangers to the latter, examine what it is you keep, rather than what you give up. Reformation will always leave what you love best to the last; whereas repentance will begin with the favourite sin, or go at once to the root, in place of cutting off the branches.
II. But we said that it was a yet more remarkable statement, in reference to Herod, especially as contrasted with Felix, that he heard John gladly. There is a pleasure in being made to feel pain, even where a long course of dissipation has not generated the disease of ennui. Is it not thus with the frequenters of a theatre, who flock eagerly to their favourite amusement when some drama of terror and crime is to have possession of the stage? They go for the purpose of being thrilled, and of having the blood made to creep, and of feeling an indefinable horror seize upon their spirits. They are altogether disappointed if no such effect be produced; and unless the exhibition of fictitious suffering quite carry them away, and so produce all the emotions which witnessed suffering will produce, they lay blame upon those who have conducted the mimicry, and count them deficient in skill and in power. We repeat, then, our words, that there is a pleasure in being made to feel pain even with those who cannot be said to have worn out their sensibilities, and, of course, in a greater measure with others to whom such description applies. And would it, therefore, follow that Herod could not have heard John gladly had John so preached as to make Herod tremble? Oh! far enough from this. It may just have been the fact of trembling which made Herod a glad hearer of the Baptist. There was a power in the Baptist of exciting the torpid feelings of a jaded voluptuary. Because you are made to tremble, and because, so far from shrinking at the repetition of the process, you come with eagerness to the sanctuary and submit yourselves again to the same overcoming influence, you may easily fancy you have a just apprehension of Gods wrath, and even that you have duly prepared yourselves for a day, of whose terror you can hear with something of pleasurable emotion: and therefore we have laboured to show you that there may be a complacency and gladness beneath the preaching of the Word, when that preaching is the preaching of vengeance, which is wholly unconnected with any effort to escape what is threatened, but may quite consist with the remaining exposed to it with no shelter against its fury, no real dread of its coming. It is not merely possible, but in a high degree probable, that a man addicted to gambling might gaze in anguish at the scenic representation of a gambler, hurried on until utter ruin crushed his family and himself, and then pass from the theatre to the gambling table, and there stake his all on the cast of the dice. We should not necessarily conclude, from observing the frequency with which the gambler came to the representation of the gamester, and the riveted interest which he felt in the harrowing drama, that he was at all sensible to the evils of gambling, or would at all endeavour to extricate himself from its fearful fascinations; we should, on the contrary, see nothing but a common exhibition of our nature-a nature that has pleasure in excitement, though the exciting thing be its own ruin, if we knew that on the very night, after listening to the thrilling cry of the maddened victim of the hazard table, he hurried to the scene where he and others did their best towards making the case precisely their own. We need not draw out a parallel between such an instance and that of a sinner, who can listen with an eager interest to the descriptions of the sinners doom, and then depart and be as resolute as ever in doing evil deeds. The parallel must be evident to you all, and we only exhort you so to form it for yourselves, that you may never confound the having pleasure in the hearing future judgment energetically set forth with the being alive to that judgment, and watchful to remove it from yourselves. But we do not design, as we have already said, to ascribe the gladness of Herod exclusively to such causes as we have alone been endeavouring to trace. If Herod were at times made to tremble, and if that very trembling were acceptable as a species of animal excitement, we may yet suppose that this was not the only account on which he heard the Baptist gladly. Herod had done many things, and it is therefore likely that he thought himself sufficiently righteous and secured against the vengeance which John denounced against the wicked. He may have become that most finished of all hypocrites, the hypocrite who imposes on himself; and having wrought him self into a persuasion of safety, he may have hearkened with great delight to the descriptions of dangers in which others stood. It is therefore a matter of prime moment, that we warn our hearers against the inferring that they have undergone a moral change, from the finding they have pleasure in listening to the gospel. For even where men have not, like Herod, done many things, they may, like Herod, hear the Baptist gladly. There is many an enthusiastic lover of music, who mistakes for piety and religious emotion, the feelings of which he is conscious, as the sacred anthem comes pealing down the aisle of the cathedral, just because he feels an elevation of soul and a kindling of heart. As the tide of melody poured forth from the orchestra comes floating to him, he will imagine that he has really an affection towards spiritual things, and really aspires after heaven. Alas! alas! though music be indeed an auxiliary to devotion, it proves no devotion that you can be thrilled and lifted out of yourselves by the power of music. It is altogether on natural feelings and sensibilities, which may or may not be drawn out by religion, that the lofty strain tells with so subduing an effect; and even when you are most carried away and overcome by the varied notes, I see no reason whatsoever, why you might not return from the oratorio of the Creation and ascribe the universe to chance, and from that of the Messiah and be ready with the Jews to crucify the Christ. The case is altogether the same with the preaching of the gospel. In sacred music, it is not the words, it is only the machine by which the words are conveyed, that produces feelings which the man mistakes for devotion. He may be without a care for the truth which is uttered, and yet be fascinated by the melodies of the utterance, and thus take the fascination as proof of his delight in spiritual things. And thus in the case of preaching. Indeed, the cases are so identical, that it was said by God to Ezekiel, when multitudes of the impenitent flocked to the hearing of him, Thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that has a pleasant voice, and can play well upon an instrument. (H. Melvill, B. D.)
Sin haunting the guilty
In illustrating how Herod was haunted by the ghost of his sin-recall some points from former lessons, as, for instance, the witness of Abels blood from the ground against Cain; and the self-reproaches of Josephs brethren, when the memory of their sin came upon them in after years. Reference should be made to the poem of Eugene Aram; to the night scene in Macbeth, where Lady Macbeth tries to cleanse her guilty hands; and to the story of the man who, to gain an inheritance, flung his brother into the sea, and, ever after, when he looked upon water, saw his brothers dead face staring up from the depths. There is one stone in the floor of an old church in Scotland which stares out at you blood red from the gray stones around it. The legend tells of a murder committed there, and of repeated fruitless attempts to cover the tell-tale colour of that stone. Morally, the legend is true; every dead sin sends its ghost to haunt the soul of the guilty.
The progress of sin
A drop of poison is poison as really as a phial of it is. The drop and the phial differ in quantity, not quality. Make ever so slight a cut on your finger with a poisoned blade, and the canker is carried through your system, polluting all your blood. The leaven put into the meal leavens the whole lump. The train which has been carelessly left to stand at the top of an incline begins to move down slowly at first, but at an ever-increasing speed, till at last it thunders down with irresistible swiftness, carrying destruction to whatever opposes it. Trace the progress of Herodias sin, from hate-which is latent murder-to actual murder.
The sinful snare
When we wish to trap an animal, we bide the snare and show only the tempting tit-bit. We hide the hook beneath the bait. Compare Satans trap for Herod-a dancing girl, practising her seductive arts.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 26. For their sakes which sat with him] Probably these persons joined in with the request, and were glad of this opportunity to get this light of Israel extinguished; he being a public reprover of all their vices.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
26. And the king was exceedingsorryWith his feelings regarding John, and the truths which sotold upon his conscience from that preacher’s lips, and after sooften and carefully saving him from his paramour’s rage, it must havebeen very galling to find himself at length entrapped by his own rashfolly.
yet for his oath’s sakeSeehow men of no principle, but troublesome conscience, will stick atbreaking a rash oath, while yielding to the commission of the worstcrimes!
and for their sakes which satwith himunder the influence of that false shame, which couldnot brook being thought to be troubled with religious or moralscruples. To how many has this proved a fatal snare!
he would not reject her.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the king was exceeding sorry,….
[See comments on Mt 14:9]
yet for his oath’s sake, [and] for their sakes which sat with him; as Matthew adds, “at meat”, Mt 14:9; for it seems as if supper was not over, when all this was transacting.
He would not reject her; deny her her request, or send her away without granting it which could not be without grieving her, and treating her with contempt, and defrauding her of the promise; all which ideas are expressed by some versions.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He would not reject her ( ). He was caught once again between his conscience and his environment. Like many since his day the environment stifled his conscience.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Exceeding sorry. Where Matthew has sorry.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) ”And the king was exceeding sorry,” (kai perilupos genomenos ho basileus) ”And the king became deeply grieved,” was shocked that his daughter would be used of the devil and her mother to pry out of him this murderous act, to satisfy their desire for revenge, Rom 6:23; Mat 27:3-4.
2) ”Yet for his oath’s sake,” (dia tous horkous) “Because of the oaths,” promises or pledges that he had made, one by promise, and at least one with a strong public oath, Mat 15:7; Mat 15:9; Num 30:2; Num 30:10; Ecc 9:2.
3) “And for their sakes which sat with him,” (kai tous anakeimonous) “And those who were reclining,” with him in the banquet hall, lest failing to keep his promise with an oath to his daughter might cause them to doubt promises or pledges made to them.
4) “He would not reject her.” (ouk ethelesen athetesai aute) “He did not wish to reject her request,” for the head of John the Baptist, would not attempt to treat her request as a joke, perhaps also because of the wicked adulterous wife Herodias, the hated agitator of the gory request.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
26. And the king being sorry. His heart, as we have said, was no longer influenced by religious sentiments; but, foreseeing the detestation that will be excited by such a crime, he dreads both the loss of character and positive harm, and consequently repents of his levity. And yet he has not the courage to give a refusal to a dancing girl, lest he should incur the reproach of unsteadiness; as if it were more dishonorable to retract a rash and foolish promise than to persist in a heinous crime. With the wonted vanity of kings, he does not choose that what he has once uttered shall be recalled, and orders that the prophet shall be instantly slain. We infer that Herod was at that time supping in the castle of Macherus, where, Josephus tells us, John was imprisoned, (Ant. 18. 5:2.)
On account of the oath, and of those who sat at table with him. It deserves our attention that the Evangelists state this to be the reason of his grief; and hence we infer that, though he had sworn a hundred times, yet if there had been no witness, he would not have held by his oath. No inward feelings of religion constrained Herod to do this, but the mere love of power drove him headlong; for he reckoned that he would sink in the estimation of those who were present, if he did not fulfill his engagement. Thus it frequently happens that ungodly men fail to perform their duty, because they do not look to God, but are only intent on this object, that they may not incur the reproaches of men. (369) But though Herod had kept before his eyes the sacredness of an oath alone, and not the dread of the opinion of men, he committed a more heinous offense in fulfilling a foolish promise than if he had violated his oath. First, he was deeply in fault for such haste in swearing; for the design of an oath is to confirm a promise in a doubtful matter. Next, when it appeared that he could not be relieved from his engagement without involving himself in an aggravated crime, he had no right to implicate the sacred name of God in such wickedness; for what could be more at variance with the nature of God than to lend his countenance to a shocking murder? If a private loss is at stake, let him who has made a rash oath suffer the punishment of his folly; but, when a man has taken the name of God in vain, let him beware of doubling his guilt by employing this as a pretense for committing some enormous crime. Hence it follows, that monastic vows, which are attended by open impiety, do not bind the conscience any more than the enchantments of magicians; for it is not the will of God that his sacred name shall give support to what is sinful. But this passage teaches us, that we ought to beware of making promises without consideration; and next, that lightness must not be followed by obstinacy.
(369) “ Et ne se soucient seulement que d’eviter le blasme et la moquerie des hommes;”— “and are only anxious to avoid the censure and ridicule of men.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
The execution:
v. 26. And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath’s sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her.
v. 27. And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought; and he went and beheaded him in the prison,
v. 28. and brought his head in a charger, and gave it to the damsel; and the damsel gave it to her mother.
v. 29. And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb. The fact that the wish of Salome could be carried out so rapidly makes it very probable that the banquet was held at Machaerus. When the girl made her gruesome request, there may have been some gasping in the table-round, and Herod himself may have been sobered by the unexpected turn of events. But it was too late, in his opinion, to retract. And there may have been a feeling of relief mingled with his regret and sorrow. But though he was so very sorry, he thought he must keep his words and oaths like a gentleman; for such is the excuse and explanation usually offered. He did not want to break faith with the young lady by slighting her, by treating the matter as a joke. And so the ghastly spectacle was enacted to the bitter end. There was an officer at the king’s court who combined in his person the work of a courier, police officer, and executioner. To him the king’s command went to furnish the head of John the Baptist. And, the execution having been performed in prison, the head of John was brought on a platter, as by the request of the dancer, and she, having formally received it, brought, it to her mother. There was nothing for the disciples of John to do but to come and lay his body into a grave, mourning bitterly meanwhile the untimely end of one of the greatest prophets that ever spoke the Word of God.
“What here is related of the court and court life of King Herod is a faithful picture of the world, of the life of the world, and of the lust of the world. The smooth, pliant children of the world are for the most part, even when they pretend to be honorable, what Herod and Herodias were, harlots and adulterers, and if not murderers, yet thieves, deceivers, perjurers, etc., But the chief sin of the world is this, that she will not listen to admonition, that she spurns the Word of God, and is angry against those that warn her against destruction and perdition. wherever the world, even the apparently decent, cultured, fashionable world, celebrates her festivals, there the delights of feasting, of Revelation ling and drunkenness, are indulged in, there one finds swearing, blaspheming, cursing, there gambling and dancing and rioting are the order of the day, and wine and passion inflame heart and mind. There a dissolute, godless conduct is in evidence, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life. And the end of the wild delight and joy is often murder, the shedding of blood, and other great shame and vice. ” On the other hand, there is a lesson for the faithful believers in this story. “Therefore let no one have a terror concerning suffering and cross. Let no one envy the persecutors of the Gospel that they are enjoying honors, are great and mighty. For cross and suffering is the only way by which thou shalt come to the heritage and the kingdom of Christ; and all saints, and Christ Himself, have gone this way. Who, then, would be terrorized and complain about it? And it will be seen how quickly the change will come for the tyrants, that their suffering will come upon them in due time and finally last in eternity. From this may God mercifully keep us, and rather let us, with the sainted John the Baptist, suffer all manner of ignominy and disgrace, that we may but come to the kingdom of God; as our Lord Christ says that it is appointed to us, as to Him, cross and suffering.”
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Mar 6:26. Reject Refuse.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
26 And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath’s sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her.
Ver. 26. And for their sakes that sat with him ] Sic plerique, malum iter ingressi, post cum se errare resciscant, non desciscunt tamen, ne leves videantur: sui dicti domini, ut dicunt, esse volunt. (Cartwright.) Some, rather than be worse than their words, will violate their consciences.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Mar 6:26 . : a concessive clause, understood = and the king, though exceedingly sorry, yet, etc. : there might be more oaths than one ( vide on Matthew), but the plural was sometimes used for a single oath. Schanz cites instances from Aeschylus and Xenophon. ., to slight her, by treating the oath and promise as a joke; a late word, used, in reference to persons, in the sense of breaking faith with (here only). Kypke renders the word here: “noluit fidem illi datam fallere,” citing instances from Diod., Polyb., and Sept [53] [53] Septuagint.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Mat 14:9, Mat 27:3-5, Mat 27:24, Mat 27:25
Reciprocal: 2Sa 14:21 – I have done Jer 44:17 – whatsoever Dan 6:14 – was sore Mat 19:22 – he went Mar 6:14 – king Herod Mar 10:22 – sad Luk 12:24 – the ravens Luk 13:32 – that fox Luk 18:24 – he was
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
ONE SIN
And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oaths sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her. And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought: and he went and beheaded him in the prison.
Mar 6:26-27
The power of one sin. Remember Herodias! There was one admitted wrong affection (we do not read that Herod had any other), and yet that one wrong affection, daily allowed, was enough to countervail all Johns preaching, and all Herods resolving! It was quite compatible with many good feelings, and many religious actions; but it was incompatible with the comforting, sanctifying, saving grace of God.
The three miserable and invariable consequences of such a life of conflict and vacillation came on.
I. A reckless self-indulgence.What an image does it not give us of the abandonment of licentiousness! The birthday routthe daughters unblushing dancethe probably half-drunken oaththe riotous and cruel courtthe mad, desperate, and horrid catastrophe of bloodshed within the prison wallsand the ghastly charger in a maidens hand! And this is he who used to sit so rapt at the preachers solemnising word!
II. A miserable cowardice.Or look again at the crouching of his dastardly cowardice. He fears his God, and he fears his wife; but the fear of the creature is greater than the fear of the Creator, and he gives up his religion for a woman! He issues the order; though it be contrary to every better principle of his heart, he issues it, and commands the murder which, all the while, his soul abhors!
III. A perverted judgment.Has not reason left her seatis not the moral judgment of that unhappy man destroyedwhen he is willing, for one guilty pledge to man, to break every pledge to God?
Do you see these things well? You see the hand of a man who, like yourself, plumed himself once on his soft, tender emotions; who, like you, drank in gladly the Gospel sound; who, like you, did many things for God; but like you, in opposition to conscience and the Word, retained one sin, and for that one sins sake incurred such guilt and wrath that the name of Herod is left but as a beacon by the way, to warn every future traveller over lifes deep waters!
Illustration
Sin is the most expensive thing possible. It wastes money. It wears the body into decay. But, bad as these things are, there are even worse behind; for it blights the intellect and withers the moral nature of the man. It weakens the will; it blunts the conscience; it hardens the heart. It dries up all the finer feelings of the soul, so that ultimately all regard for truth and holiness and purity is gone. But worse yet. Sin is an enslaving thing. It becomes the master of the man who indulges in it, and sets him to do the hardest drudgery.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
6
The king was sorry because he knew that John was a righteous man. But his pride of position under the eyes of the guests, together with a false notion of the sacredness of oaths, prevailed over his better judgment and feelings.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mar 6:26. Exceeding sorry. Marks language is stronger than that of Matthew.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Verse 26
Their sakes which sat with him. They were glad to have the reprover of their sins slain, especially as it could be done by means of the crime of another.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
The only other time Mark used the Greek word perilupos, translated "very sorry" or "greatly distressed," was in Mar 14:34 where it describes Jesus’ agony in Gethsemane. This shows the extent of Antipas’ anxiety over the dilemma Salome’s request created for him. His pride got him in trouble, as Pilate’s did later. Both of these rulers sacrificed a righteous and holy man on the altar of their personal popularity.
The Greek word spekoulatora, translated "executioner," is a Latinism reflecting the Roman influence on Mark’s Gospel. It refers to a bodyguard of Herod’s. The fact that John’s head finally went to Herodias shows that she was the person responsible for his death. However, her husband gave the order to execute him, so he was also culpable. In Jesus’ case, the Jewish religious leaders called for His death, as Herodias had done, and Pilate gave the official permission for execution.