salome Summary and Overview

perfect. (1.) The wife of Zebedee and mother of James and John (Mat. 27:56), and probably the sister of Mary, the mother of our Lord (John 19:25). She sought for her sons places of honour in Christ's kingdom (Matt. 20:20, 21; compare 19:28). She witnessed the crucifixion (Mark 15:40), and was present with the other women at the sepulchre (Matt. 27:56). (2.) "The daughter of Herodias," not named in the New Testament. On the occasion of the birthday festival held by Herod Antipas, who had married her mother Herodias, in the fortress of Machaerus, she "came in and danced, and pleased Herod" (Mark 6:14-29). John the Baptist, at that time a prisoner in the dungeons underneath the castle, was at her request beheaded by order of Herod, and his head given to the damsel in a charger, "and the damsel gave it to her mother," whose revengeful spirit was thus gratified. "A luxurious feast of the period" (says Farrar, Life of Christ) "was not regarded as complete unless it closed with some gross pantomimic representation; and doubtless Herod had adopted the evil fashion of his day. But he had not anticipated for his guests the rare luxury of seeing a princess, his own niece, a grand-daughter of Herod the Great and of Mariamne, a descendant, therefore, of Simon the high priest and the great line of Maccabean princes, a princess who afterwards became the wife of a tetrarch [Philip, tetrarch of Trachonitis] and the mother of a king, honouring them by degrading herself into a scenic dancer."

(peaceful). 1. The wife of Zebedee, #Mt 27:56; Mr 15:40| and probably sister of Mary the mother of Jesus, to whom reference is made in #Joh 19:25| The only events recorded of Salome are that she preferred a request on behalf of her two sons for seats of honor in the kingdom of heaven, #Mt 20:20| that she attended at the crucifixion of Jesus, #Mr 15:40| and that she visited his sepulchre. #Mr 16:1| She is mentioned by name on only the two latter occasions. 2. The daughter of Herodias by her first husband, Herod Philip. #Mt 14:6| She married in the first the tetrarch of Trachonitis her paternal uncle, sad secondly Aristobulus, the king of Chalcis.

SALO'ME . 1. The wife of Zebedee, and the mother of James the elder and John the Evangelist, and probably the sister of the Virgin Mary, John 19:25; was one of the followers of Christ, Matt 27:56; Mark 15:40; Mark 16:1, though she seems, like many others, to have at first mistaken the true nature of his kingdom. Matt 20:21. 2. The name of "the daughter of Herodias" who danced before Herod. Matt 14:6; Mark 6:22. She is not named in the N.T., but by Josephus (Antiq. 18,c.5,'4). The graphic account of Herod's feast may be traced to Chusa, the wife of Herod's steward, Luke 8:3, who was probably present. Salome married her uncle Philip, tetrarch of Trachonitis, and next Aristobulus, king of Chalcis. SALT is abundant in Palestine. The famous Jehel Usdum is substantially a mountain of rock-salt about 7 miles long, from 1 1/2 to 3 miles wide, and several hundred feet high. This ridge, almost entirely composed of this mineral, extends to the south from the south-west corner of the Dead Sea. Besides the rock-salt to be obtained from this ridge and its vicinity, the Jews used, and preferred for domestic purposes, salt obtained by evaporation from the waters of the Mediterranean and Dead Seas. On the eastern shore of the latter it is found in lumps often more than a foot thick, in places which the lake had overflowed in the rainy season. The stones on the shore are covered with an incrustation of lime or gypsum. Branches and twigs which fall into the water from the bushes become encased in salt; and if a piece of wood is thrown in, it soon acquires a bark or rind of salt. From this fact some have attempted to explain the transformation of Lot's wife into a pillar of salt. Gen 19:26; while others suppose that the expression is figurative, denoting that she was made an everlasting monument of divine displeasure (salt being an emblem of perpetuity), and others still think that she was miraculously transformed into a solid column of salt. At the south-western extremity of the Dead Sea there is a plain of considerable extent east of Jebel Usdum, the soil of which is entirely covered with salt, without the slightest trace of vegetation. This is believed by Robinson to be the "valley" (or plain) "of salt," where David's army vanquished the Edomites, 2 Sam 8:13; 1 Chr 18:12; 2 Chr 25:11. By the "salt-pits," Zeph 2:9, we are not to understand quarries from which rock-salt is extracted, but such pits as the Arabs, even at this day, make upon the shore of the Dead Sea, in order that they may be filled when the spring freshets raise the waters of the lake. When the water evaporates, it leaves in the pits a salt crust about an inch thick, which furnishes the salt used throughout the country. Pits of this sort seem to be alluded to in Eze 47:11. In Josh 15:62 a "city of salt" is mentioned, in the neighborhood of the Dead Sea. The uses of salt are sufficiently known. Most food would be insipid without it. Job 6:6. Salt being thus essential to the enjoyment of food, the word was used to denote the subsistence which a person obtained in the service of another. Thus, in Ezr 4:14, the words translated "we have maintenance from the king's palace" are in the original "we salt" (or are salted) "with the salt of the palace." And even now, among the Persians and East Indians, to "eat the salt" of any one is to be in his employment. Salt was also used in sacrifices. Lev 2:13; Mark 9:49. In the last passage reference is had to the perpetuity of suffering. New-born children were rubbed with salt. Eze 16:4. Salt, as a preservative from corruption, symbolized durability, fidelity, and purity. Hence an indissoluble and perpetual covenant is called a "covenant of salt." Num 18:19; Lev 2:13; 2 Chr 13:5. The idea of sacred obligation to the king is involved in the above quotation from Ezra. Among the modern Arabs, to "eat salt" with any one is a pledge of perpetual and mutual friendship. No plants can germinate in a soil covered with salt. Hence a "salt land" is an unfruitful, desert land. Jer 17:6. Salt was also used as a visible emblem of sterility. When Abimelech took Shechem, Jud 9:45, he "beat down the city and sowed it with salt," as a token that it should continue desolate. In like manner, the emperor Frederick Barbarossa, when he destroyed Milan, in the year 1162, caused the ground to be ploughed and strewed with salt. On the other hand, as salt renders food savorv, it is employed as an emblem of holy life and conversation. Mark 9:50; Col 4:6. In Matt 5:13, Christ calls his disciples "the salt of the earth" - i.e., of mankind, because the latter was to be enlightened and purified by their agency and preserved for their sake. There is reference in the remainder of the verse to the fact that, as Oriental salt often contains mineral impurities, by exposure to rain or dampness this material may lose its savor or valuable part, and become "good for nothing but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men."

1. Wife of Zebedee; among the "women who followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto Him" (Matthew 27:55-56; compare Mark 15:40). Supposed to be the Virgin Mary's sister. (But see on John 19:25 frontMARY OF CLEOPHAS.) Salome requested for her two rams seats of honour on Christ's right hand and left in His kingdom (Matthew 20:20), and shared with her sons in His rebuke, but was not the less zealous in her attachment to Him. Size was at His crucifixion, "beholding afar off," when even her sons had withdrawn; and at His sepulchre by early dawn (Mark 16:1). 2. Herodias' daughter by her former husband Herod Philip (Josephus Ant. 18:5, section 4; Matthew 14:6; Mark 6:22). She danced before Herod Antipas, and at her mother's instigation asked for John the Baptist's head. frontHEROD ANTIPAS; JOHN THE BAPTIST Salome married first Philip, tetrarch of Trachonitis, her paternal uncle; then Aristobulus, king of Chalcis.