Birthday celebrations were a Greek and Roman rather than Jewish custom, which Antipas readily accommodated (compare also m. `Aboda Zara 1:3); his full brother Archelaus had also been known for drunken parties (see Jos. War 2.29). According to Josephus's briefer account of John's execution, this scene must have taken place at Herod's fortress Machaerus in Perea, near where John had often preached (compare Kraeling 1951:9-10, 92-93). This fortress included a dungeon where John was kept.

Nearly all Jews would have found Herod's lust disgusting: because the girl was the daughter of a woman with whom Antipas was sleeping, desire for her constituted incest (compare Amos 2:7). According to some accounts the girl, Salome, may have been between six and eight years old; more likely she was a virgin of marriageable age (twelve to fourteen), but possibly she was already betrothed or married to Philip the tetrarch (see Hoehner 1972:155-56; Theissen 1991:90-91).

Jewish scholars had devised ways to release people from oaths that would lead to more evil, so no one would have faulted Herod for breaking his promise: life took precedence over oaths. But Antipas is concerned about more than his oath itself. Once Herod has given his oath in front of dinner guests, his "honor" is at stake (compare Esther 1:10-19; Jos. Ant. 18.299); here short-range political considerations take precedence over the long-term ones, and Antipas remains captive to what others may think. In this account Matthew graphically illustrates his earlier principles about the dangers of lust, divorce and oaths (5:27-37).