There are two women named Salome in the Bible: one was righteous; the other unrighteous.

There are two women named Salome in the Bible: one was righteous; the other unrighteous.

The righteous Salome was the wife of Zebedee, the mother of James and John. She, too, knew Christ and came to Him asking that her sons be given a “place of honor” in the Kingdom. She was one of the women who witnessed the Crucifixion and also one of the Myrrh-bearers on the third day.

The other Salome is not actually named in scripture, but the historian Josephus documents her. She was part the Herod dynasty, and her family history was quite complicated: Herod Antipas (the “King Herod” of Mark 6:14) had divorced his wife and married Herodias, who was the wife of his half-brother Philip (Mark 6:17). However, Herodias herself was the daughter of another of Herod’s half-brothers, Aristobulus, making her not only the wife but the niece of both Philip and Herod - and a sister-in-law of Herod. Salome was Herodias’s daughter through Philip. Thus, Salome was the daughter (and grandniece) of Philip and the step-daughter (and grandniece by marriage) of Herod; she was also both daughter and grandniece to her own mother. When Herodias came to live with Herod Antipas, Salome came with her. She is the one who danced provocatively for Herod, and who asked for John the Baptists Head on a platter.

Fr. John