The first husband of Herodias was Herod II. Herodias’ second husband was ** you do not have permission to see this link **. He was the half-brother of Herod II. The execution of John the Baptist was after Herod Antipas and his marriage to Herodias. I assume that, in 34 CE, Herod Antipas divorced his first wife Phasaelis, the daughter of King Aretas IV of Nabatea, so that he could marry Herodias the same year. Phasaelis flees to Nabatea for safety and to alert her father of the disgrace she had suffered.
In retaliation, King Aretas and the Nabateans. in 36 C.E. defeats Antipas’ army. Antipas was forced to appeal to Tiberius for help. Aretas defeated Herod Antipas in 36 CE, but withdrew under threat from Rome. What are the historical records for this battle?
The death of the Roman Emperor Tiberius was in the year 37. A Roman counter-offensive against had been ordered by Tiberius, but abandoned upon that emperor’s death in 37 AD.
The Jews believed God had punished Antipas for killing John. The attack must have been not very long after the death of John, since his execution must have still been fresh in the minds of the Jews when Aretas attacked Herod Antipas, so John must have died no earlier than 35 or early 36 CE.
Jesus died in the year 30 or in the year 33, there are scholarly arguments for both dates, and in the book of Mark, it states that John the Baptist already was dead by that time.
Is this timeline historically accurate? What are the primary historical sources of the year of the decollation(execution) of John the Baptist outside of the Gospels?
Prof. Robert Eisenmann, professor of Middle East religions, Prof. Dennis Nineham, British theologian(1921-2016) , Prof. Jay R. Crook and writer Agron Belica all tend to accept the possibility of Josephus’ account in ** you do not have permission to see this link ** of year 36 A.D. being an accurate time of John the Baptist’s death. It seems that Joel Marcus and Charles Kraeling diverge and stick to the traditionalist timeline that puts it about 10 years earlier. Josephus is therefore mixed up or mistaken in his Jewish history on this matter. There is no marriage record for Herod Antipas and Herodias, and I'm not aware of any other way to corroborate secondary timelines from other independent sources. To wade into this controversy, I am tending to accept the latter timeline of 36 A. D., and there must have been some embellishment in Jesus Christ’s ministry to make him seem more important character than John the Baptist. For that reason, he (John the Baptist) had to be killed off first. ** you do not have permission to see this link ** .."very likely that this passage on John the Baptist is authentic to the publication of the Antiquities by Josephus."
Yes, Agron Belica is going down a rabbit hole in that regard (Simon of Cyrene being John the Baptist). OTOH, the “swoon theory” of Jesus’ death sounds more plausible, and at least it has a lot more adherents. Belica does use the Qur’an extensively, i.e. “… for they slew him not nor crucified him, but it appeared so unto them.” Christian orthodoxy needs to be constantly challenged by science and critical thinking. I’m hoping to read Joel Marcus’ book, “John the Baptist in History and Theology” through Kindle Cloud reader as it’s not widely found in libraries locally yet. Kirsopp Lake loses me completely with his 1920’s "The Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus". Not yet able to read any of his research wrt the year of Jesus’ death. John the Baptist does not appear to have a non-stop series of miracles that were attached in his ministry, unlike Jesus. Interesting that Mark is suddenly writing about feeding the five thousand not long after we read of the death of John the Baptist. As if the writer wanted to reinforce the concept that Jesus' ministry was qualitatively better than John's. Which makes everything less real and less plausible to me, and tends to support the possibility of John the Baptist’s simple execution coming after the death of Christ. And they had to downplay John's independent and righteous example, and boost their chosen holy man. The positive side is that the decollination of John the Baptist has generated a lot of wonderful and exquisite ‘Salome’ artwork in the centuries since then. Including my favorite, Romere Bearden’s “Salome(John the Baptist)” 1974 collage. He’s considered one of the greatest American artists in the 20th century.
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