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Archaeologists claim that they have identified the deadly dance floor where John the Baptist...was sentenced to death around A.D. 29. The Bible and the ancient writer Flavius Josephus (A.D. 37-100) both describe how King Herod Antipas, a son of King Herod, had John the Baptist executed. Josephus specified that the execution took place at Machaerus, a fort near the Dead Sea in modern-day Jordan. ...Herod Antipas was set to marry a woman named Herodias, both of whom had been divorced — something that John the Baptist objected to. At Herod Antipas' birthday party, Herodias' daughter, named Salome, performed a dance...

There are three principal reasons why the 4 B.C. date has prevailed over 1 B.C. These reasons were articulated by Emil Schürer in A History of the Jewish People in the Time of Jesus Christ, also published in the 19th century. First, Josephus informs us that Herod died shortly before a Passover (Antiquities 17.9.3, The Jewish War 2.1.3), making a lunar eclipse in March (the time of the 4 B.C. eclipse) much more likely than one in December. Second, Josephus writes that Herod reigned for 37 years from the time of his appointment in 40 B.C. and 34 years from...

We do not generally celebrate the birthdays of saints. We celebrate the date of their deaths, because how we end our lives is more important than how we begin them. However, St. John the Baptist is one of the two exceptions to this rule. We celebrate both the conception and the birth of St. John as well as the Theotokos, because these two people are the holiest of the saints. St. John was, we are told in the Gospels, filled with the Holy Spirit while still in his mother's womb (Luke 1:15), and so he was a great saint,...

“In 600 B.C., when Babylon invaded Israel, thousands of Israelis were moved to Babylon (today’s Iraq) and the Edomites were moved into Israel. The Edomites even helped the Babylonians destroy Jerusalem and the temple (Psalm 137). When a remnant of Israel returned after the Babylonian captivity, the Edomites were there to wage war against them while the city and the temple were being rebuilt. “While the scriptures are silent for the 400 years between the book of Malachi and the birth of Jesus, Josephus records the struggle between the Edomeans and the Israelites. This racial division and strife in the...

A Christian man was executed during the night by a high-profile ruler after making an uncompromising defense of real marriage. The Christian, who was renowned for his holiness, had told the ruler in public that his relationship with his partner was “against the law” of God. The Christian’s words enraged the ruler’s partner who successfully plotted to have him permanently silenced. John the Baptist was first imprisoned before he was beheaded. The Catholic Church honors him today, August 29, as a martyr and saint. While John’s death happened a little less than 2,000 years ago, his heroic stance for real...

Today being Palm Sunday prompts me to pick a film based(very loosely) on a story from the Gospels. Despite some glaring inaccuracies(the most notorious being the daughter of Herodias dancing before Herod Antipas in an effort to SAVE rather than to behead John the Baptist. Not how it happens in the book, folks), this film manages to entertain thanks to the villainy of Charles Laughton and Judith Anderson and, most of all, the loveliness of Rita Hayworth. I also like how instead of "THE END" appearing at the finale, the film shows the Sermon on the Mount with "this was...