Matthew Chapter 14 verse 6 Holy Bible

ASV Matthew 14:6

But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced in the midst, and pleased Herod.
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BBE Matthew 14:6

But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias was dancing before them, and Herod was pleased with her.
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DARBY Matthew 14:6

But when Herod's birthday was celebrated, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod;
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KJV Matthew 14:6

But when Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod.
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WBT Matthew 14:6


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WEB Matthew 14:6

But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced among them and pleased Herod.
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YLT Matthew 14:6

But the birthday of Herod being kept, the daughter of Herodias danced in the midst, and did please Herod,
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Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 6. - But when Herod's birthday was kept; came (Revised Version); γενεσίοις δὲ γενομένοις τοῦ Ἡρῴδου, dative of time (Winer, § 31:9), with the addition of a participle. Birthday. So "Pharaoh's birthday" (Genesis 40:20, ἡμέρα γενέσεως). Thayer's Grimm refers to "Alciphr. Epp. 3, 18, and 55; Dio Cass., 47, 18, etc.," for γενέσια being used in the same sense. The Talmudic גיניסיא (see Levy, s.v.) apparently represents the same word, and (preceded by יום) has the same meaning (cf. Schurer, I. 2:27). Possibly Jews found γενέσια an easier word to pronounce than the more classical γενέσλια. The daughter of Herodias; i.e. Salome, daughter of Herod Philip and Herodias; she afterwards married her half uncle, Philip the tetrarch (ver. 3, note). She could not now be less than seventeen or eighteen years old (cf. Gutschmid, in Schurer, I. 2:28), so, in the East, could only just be still called a κοράσιον (ver. 11). Mark's text (like the Greek of Codex Bezae here) speaks of her as though she herself was called Herodias, and was the daughter of Antipas and Herodias; but the issue of this union could not then have been more than two years old (Schurer, loc. cit.). Besides, the trait mentioned by Mark (Mark 6:25), that she came back with haste to the king, asking for the head of the Baptist, implies that she was more than a child. Rendel Harris ('Texts and Studies,' II. 1. p. 68) suggests that the confusion is due to an early Latinization of the Greek from an ambiguous ejus. Danced. Probably with the same kind of voluptuous dance as that of the Egyptian almd described by Warburton ('Crescent and Cross,' chap. 14.). But that a member of the royal family should so dance before a company must have been almost unheard cf. Before them; in the midst (Revised Version). Matthew only. Such a dance with men sitting round would be specially abhorrent to the Jewish mind. And pleased Herod. And of course, as St. Mark adds, "them that sat with him" (cf. ver. 9).

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(6) Herod's birthday.--Some critics have looked on the feast as one commemorating Herod's accession--his birth-day as a ruler; but there seems no reason for not accepting the word in its simple natural sense. Such feasts were common enough in the imperial life at Rome, and that of Herod's birthday had become proverbial even there (Persius, Sat. v., i. 180).The daughter of Herodias danced before them.--Dances in filmy garments that but half concealed the form, commonly of an impure or voluptuous nature, were common enough both at Eastern and Roman banquets, the guests being simply spectators. But the dancers were for the most part women who made it their calling, like the nautch-girls of India; and it was a new thing, at which every decent Jew would shudder, for the daughter of a kingly house to come-thus into a shameless publicity and expose herself to the gaze of the banqueters, including as they did the chief captains and chiliarchs of the Roman legions, as well as Herod's own courtiers and the chief men of the province (Mark 6:21). But Herodias, it would seem, knew the tetrarch's weak point as well as Madame du Barry knew that of Louis XV. of France, and sought to bend him to her will, even though it were by the sacrifice of her daughter's modesty. She danced before them--literally, in the midst of them--as they reclined on their couches indolently gazing. Her name is given by Josephus (Ant. xviii. 5, ? 4) as Salome.