Was Incest The Only Problem With Herod And Herodias’ Marriage?

About John the Baptist, Mark 6:17-18 says “For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison for Herodias’ sake, his brother Philip’s wife: for he had married her. For John had said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife.” Obviously, John was rebuking Herod for a sinful marriage. Many claim the only problem with Herod’s marriage to Herodias was incest, because Herod was marrying his brother’s wife.

But we don’t really know Herodias being Herod’s brother’s wife was the critical issue, or was that just being stated as one of the additional facts of the case? Ask yourself this question: If Herodias had been the wife of a man not kin to Herod, would it have then been okay for Herod to marry her? Of course not. Parallel: Would the fornication of I Corinthians 5:1 have been okay if the Christian had been sleeping with a stranger’s wife, not his father’s wife? Obviously not. It is very possible brother and father are not the crucial problem in these cases respectively, but additional pieces of information. For example, if we say “Jack slept with his boss’s wife,” “boss” isn’t what makes the sex wrong; instead, that is additional info that makes it worse. If you replace “brother” and “father” in Mark 6:17 and I Corinthians 5:1 with “friend,” it would still be sin; am I right? Brother and father just make the adultery worse, much worse, correct?

If Herodias’ divorce of Philip had been scriptural, or Philip was dead, then she wouldn’t be Philip’s wife anymore (Deuteronomy 24:1-2, 25:5-6), and therefore this wouldn’t be a case of incest. So even if this was a case of incest, that wasn’t the only problem; it was also adultery (marriage after unscriptural divorce).

But assuming incest only here, this Old Law era case of Herod and Herodias still illustrates the principle that unlawful marriages must be terminated. And wouldn’t the result “committeth adultery” prove the remarriage of Matthew 19:9 is unlawful based on New Testament law?

It’s actually irrelevant whether a marriage is sinful because it’s incest or because it’s adultery: in either case, the ongoing sex is the problem (Leviticus 18:6, Hebrews 13:4); that illicit sex has to stop upon repentance! And it doesn’t really matter why Herod’s marriage was “not lawful,” as they were under a different covenant than us anyway. What is illustrated by this case is that unscriptural marriages (under whatever covenant) must be terminated. Don’t ever compromise that truth.

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