A lawless king surrounded by even more lawless wives is a creature of the devil, where lies and hypocrisy, debauchery and malice are all intertwined in a rebellion against truth, purity, and God. It intertwined and poured into a feast, choked first with wine, and then with righteous blood. And alone against the whole ocean of this evil is the righteous prophet, whose "life is blameless and the precedence is honest," John is the preacher of repentance and the denouncer of temptation.

"Thou shalt not have the wife of Philip thy brother," resounds the formidable denunciation of the desert dweller, the revered prophet, the depraved ruler and his even more lawless concubine.

This "ought not" sounded from the wilderness, where the prophet asceticized, it sounded from the crowd of people when John went out to preach, and the people's rumor repeated after him: "It is not right, it is not lawful for him who is called to keep it to violate the Law of God." "It must not be," God commanded. "Everyone has his own wife, and each has her own husband..." (1 Corinthians 7:2). And this "one shall not kill the prophet" sounded in the conscience of the king, when the evil bloodsucker, the dissolute Herodias, reveled in her bloody revenge on the righteous man and prophet.

But what was it only for John to be silent, to close his eyes to the iniquities of the emperor, as did the teachers of the people's law, the wise men of this age? Why did John persist in his preaching-denunciation, thus hastening the hour of his insolent death, when the shameless hands of the prostitute would carry his sacred head, still smoking with blood, on a platter amidst a vile feast, revelry of all kinds of passions and violent drunkenness, and when the devil in the form of a woman in the triumph of his victory over the truth would prick with a needle the tongue that proclaimed the truths of God?

Why did John not spare his life? Because he is the Voice of God, the Voice of Truth. Because he "kept the law of righteousness," because he had to stop the temptation that corrupted those for whose sake the Son of God came to earth. Zeal for God devoured him and did not allow him to remain silent. And God suffered the unlawful murder of His prophet, as He suffered the death of His Son, in order to save the world.

May the will of God be done!

And God's people, the lamps in the world, go through the "shadow and shadow" of death after God, carrying with them the light of truth in the darkness of a world swallowed up by iniquity. And the truth of their prophecies, fulfilled in the world, strengthens the faith of some people and gives birth to faith in others. And the truth of their life and death, which proclaims heavenly truths, gives strength and abundant consolation to those who henceforth follow God in patience with unrighteousness, evil and sickness from those who rise up against God's righteousness.

And can the suffering of John the Baptist now be compared with the glory that shone upon him from beyond the grave? "John's mortal vessel was thrown to the ground," says Chrysostom, "but the unflickering lamp of his spirit shone with the bright light of faith and those who are in hell."

After his death, John the Baptist, having descended into hell, preached to the righteous of the Old Testament the coming deliverance from their bonds by the appearance of Christ the Savior. He descended from hell with Christ after the Resurrection of Christ and was vouchsafed many crowns in heaven as a virgin, as a desert dweller, as a preacher of repentance, as a prophet, as Christ's Forerunner and Baptist, and, finally, as a martyr. The headless body of the righteous man was buried with honor by his disciples near Samaria together with the prophets Elisha and Obadiah.

His blessed head, having endured reproach from the mad Herodias, in time appeared in glory, and the light of this glory could no longer eclipse anything in the world. And the Church sings:

"Herod the fool cuts off the head of the Forerunner, but Christ makes him as the Baptist, the head of the Church, with the radiance and preaching of the Saviour who came into the world..."

And the wicked family reaped the fruits of their lawless life and their abominable evil deed against the righteous of God. Herod, tormented by his criminal conscience, saw the head of John the Baptist at his refectory during the rest of his life and heard a menacing voice denouncing him: "You must not have the wife of Philip your brother."

Salome, who at the instigation of her mother asked mercy for herself in the murder of the prophet, died in the waters of the river, falling through the ice. Her neck was sawn by fragments of ice, on which she hung, performing with her feet in the water the terrible dance begun at a mad feast.

Herod and Herodias, according to tradition, were swallowed up by the living earth. The earth was opened, and hell parted, having received their souls. And their bitter memory as lawless and murderers is preserved only in connection with the eternal memory of the righteous man, which is alive to this day.