Herodias

Herodias is the woman whose marriage to her brother-in-law forms the hinge of the imprisonment and death of John the Baptist. Her appearances are gathered under a single heading — daughter of Aristobulus — and the references run through Matthew 14, Mark 6, and Luke 3. Matthew 14 lies outside the UPDV's in-scope window, so what remains is the parallel notice in Luke 3 and the fuller narrative chain in Mark 6. Across both Gospels she is identified the same way: not by lineage but by the marriage that defines her — "his brother Philip's wife," now married to Herod the tetrarch.

Identified by an Unlawful Marriage

Luke names the political frame before Herodias herself enters: "Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis" (Lu 3:1). Against that backdrop the Baptist's reproof is summarized in a single sentence: "Herod the tetrarch, being reproved by him for Herodias his brother's wife, and for all the evil things which Herod had done" (Lu 3:19). Mark records the same identification with the same construction: Herod "had sent forth and laid hold on John, and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife; for he had married her" (Mr 6:17). In both Gospels the offense is named the way the marriage itself was named — by the prior husband's relation. Herodias is never introduced through her father or her own house; she enters Scripture as the wife of one brother who has become the wife of another.

The Animus Against the Baptist

Where Luke compresses the conflict into a single notice, Mark traces its motion. Herod hears of John's powers — "King Herod heard [of it], for his name had become known. And they said, John the Baptist is risen from the dead, and therefore do these powers work in him" (Mr 6:14) — but the imprisonment that occasioned that hearing is laid at Herodias's door. Mark gives her the active verbs: "And Herodias set herself against him, and desired to kill him; and she could not" (Mr 6:19). The grudge belongs to her, and the inability to act on it directly is the point of the verse — the reproof was Herod's to receive, but the answering hatred was hers, and his protection of the prisoner stood between her and what she wanted.

The Daughter and the Banquet

The path around that obstacle runs through her daughter. Mark's banquet scene turns on the dance: "and when the daughter of Herodias herself came in and danced, she pleased Herod and those who sat to eat with him; the king said to the girl, Ask of me whatever you will, and I will give it to you" (Mr 6:22). The promise is the king's, but Mark has already established whose desire would shape the request. The verse ends with the open offer; the verses that follow — outside the indexed selection for Herodias — record what was asked for. Within that selection the picture is left at the moment Herod's word has been pledged and Herodias's daughter stands before him, the instrument by which the animus of Mr 6:19 finally finds its opening.

What Lies Outside the UPDV Window

The topical index also lists Mt 14:3 and Mt 14:6 — Matthew's parallel to Mark's prison and banquet — but Matthew 14 is excluded from the UPDV's in-scope text, so those verses are not drawn on here. The Lukan notice (Lu 3:19) and the Markan sequence (Mr 6:14, 17, 19, 22) together carry the whole of what the in-scope Gospels say of her: the marriage that defined her, the reproof that named the offense, the hatred that could not reach its object, and the daughter through whom the offer was finally made.