Herodias took this as an unforgivable insult and determined to murder him, but Herod stood in her way although, to please her, he imprisoned John in the remote mountain fortress of Machaerus perched high above the Dead Sea. (1) So in that lonely border fortress Herod reached the crisis of his life.  St Mark tells us that he had a tremendous respect for the prophet whose fearless love of justice and whose absolute integrity he could not help admiring.

The presence under his own roof of two such diverse characters as Herodias, the Lady Macbeth of the New Testament, and of the Saint who was under his protection, reduced him to a state of indecision which was increased by the long conversations he had with John in his cell.  As St Mark puts it, “When he had heard him speak he was greatly perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to him” (Jerusalem Bible, 6:20).

The struggle for Herod’s immortal soul was on, but the fateful issue still hung in the balance.  It is not overstating the case to say that Herod was on the threshold of conversion, but then came that ill-fated banquet and his foolish oath to Salome which her mother, Herodias, was quick to turn to her own account.  It was Herod’s weakness which tipped the scales.  Dominated at last by Herodias and anxious to maintain his prestige before his guests, who comprised his civil and military chiefs and the principal Galilean landowners, he gave way and ordered the immediate execution of John the Baptist.