Matteo 14:3

3 Perciocchè Erode avea preso Giovanni, e l’avea messo ne’ legami, e l’avea incarcerato, a motivo di Erodiada, moglie di Filippo, suo fratello.

Matteo 14:3 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 14:3

For Herod had laid hold on John
By his servants, whom he sent to apprehend him:

and bound him;
laid him in chains, as if he was a malefactor;

and put him in prison,
in the castle of Machaerus ^F4,

for Herodias's sake;
who was angry with him, had a bitter quarrel against him, and by whose instigation all this was done; who was

his brother Philip's wife.
This Herodias was the daughter of Aristobulus, son to Herod the Great ^F5, and brother to Philip, and to this Herod; so that she was niece to them both; and first married the one, and then the other, whilst the former was living. Philip and this Herod were both sons of Herod the Great, but not by the same woman; Philip was born of Cleopatra of Jerusalem, and Herod Antipas of Malthace, a Samaritan ^F6; so that Philip was his brother by his father's side, but not by his mother's; the Evangelist Mark adds, "for he had married her": the case was this, Herod being sent for to Rome, called at his brother Philip's by the way, where he fell into an amorous intrigue with his wife, and agreed, upon his return, to take her with him and marry her; as he accordingly did, and divorced his own wife, who was daughter of Aretas, king of Arabia Petraea; which occasioned a war between Herod and his wife's father, in which the former was beaten ^F7,

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 Joseph. Antiqu. 1. 18. c. 7.
F5 Ib. c. 6.
F6 Joseph. Antiqu. 1. 18. c. 6. de Bello Jud. l. 1. c. 28. sect. 7.
F7 Joseph. Antiqu. 1. 18. c. 6.

Matteo 14:3 In-Context

1 IN quel tempo, Erode il tetrarca udì la fama di Gesù. E disse ai suoi servitori:

2 Costui è Giovanni Battista; egli è risuscitato da’ morti; e però le potenze operano in lui.

3 Perciocchè Erode avea preso Giovanni, e l’avea messo ne’ legami, e l’avea incarcerato, a motivo di Erodiada, moglie di Filippo, suo fratello.

4 Perciocchè Giovanni gli diceva: Ei non ti è lecito di ritenere costei.

5 E volendolo far morire, pure temette il popolo; perciocchè essi lo teneano per profeta.