Beheading of the Venerable Head of the Glorious Prophet, Forerunner and Baptist John
August 29
Apolytikion in the Second Tone
The memory of the just is celebrated with hymns of praise, but the Lord's
testimony is sufficient for thee, O Forerunner; for thou hast proved to be
truly even more venerable than the Prophets, since thou was granted to baptize
in the running waters Him Whom they proclaimed. Wherefore, having contested for
the truth, thou didst rejoice to announce the good tidings even to those in
Hades: that God hath appeared in the flesh, taking away the sin of the world
and granting us great mercy.
Reading:
The divine Baptist, the Prophet born of a Prophet, the seal of all the Prophets
and beginning of the Apostles, the mediator between the Old and New Covenants,
the voice of one crying in the wilderness, the God-sent Messenger of the
incarnate Messiah, the forerunner of Christ's coming into the world (Esaias 40:
3; Mal. 3: 1); who by many miracles was both conceived and born; who was filled
with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb; who came forth like
another Elias the Zealot, whose life in the wilderness and divine zeal for
God's Law he imitated: this divine Prophet, after he had preached the baptism
of repentance according to God's command; had taught men of low rank and high
how they must order their lives; had admonished those whom he baptized and had
filled them with the fear of God, teaching them that no one is able to escape
the wrath to come if he do not works worthy of repentance; had, through such
preaching, prepared their hearts to receive the evangelical teachings of the
Savior; and finally, after he had pointed out to the people the very Savior,
and said, "Behold the Lamb of God, Which taketh away the sin of the world"
(Luke 3:2-18; John 1: 29-36), after all this, John sealed with his own blood
the truth of his words and was made a sacred victim for the divine Law at the
hands of a transgressor.
This was Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of Galilee, the son of Herod the Great.
This man had a lawful wife, the daughter of Arethas (or Aretas), the King of
Arabia (that is, Arabia Petraea, which had the famous Nabatean stone city of
Petra as its capital. This is the Aretas mentioned by Saint Paul in II Cor.
11:32). Without any cause, and against every commandment of the Law, he put her
away and took to himself Herodias, the wife of his deceased brother Philip, to
whom Herodias had borne a daughter, Salome. He would not desist from this
unlawful union even when John, the preacher of repentance, the bold and austere
accuser of the lawless, censured him and told him, "It is not lawful for thee
to have thy brother's wife" (Mark 6: 18). Thus Herod, besides his other unholy
acts, added yet this, that he apprehended John and shut him in prison; and
perhaps he would have killed him straightway, had he not feared the people, who
had extreme reverence for John. Certainly, in the beginning, he himself had
great reverence for this just and holy man. But finally, being pierced with the
sting of a mad lust for the woman Herodias, he laid his defiled hands on the
teacher of purity on the very day he was celebrating his birthday. When Salome,
Herodias' daughter, had danced in order to please him and those who were
supping with him, he promised her -- with an oath more foolish than any
foolishness -- that he would give her anything she asked, even unto the half of
his kingdom. And she, consulting with her mother, straightway asked for the
head of John the Baptist in a charger. Hence this transgressor of the Law,
preferring his lawless oath above the precepts of the Law, fulfilled this
godless promise and filled his loathsome banquet with the blood of the Prophet.
So it was that that all-venerable head, revered by the Angels, was given as a
prize for an abominable dance, and became the plaything of the dissolute
daughter of a debauched mother. As for the body of the divine Baptist, it was
taken up by his disciples and placed in a tomb (Mark 6: 21 - 29).
August 29
Apolytikion in the Second Tone
The memory of the just is celebrated with hymns of praise, but the Lord's
testimony is sufficient for thee, O Forerunner; for thou hast proved to be
truly even more venerable than the Prophets, since thou was granted to baptize
in the running waters Him Whom they proclaimed. Wherefore, having contested for
the truth, thou didst rejoice to announce the good tidings even to those in
Hades: that God hath appeared in the flesh, taking away the sin of the world
and granting us great mercy.
Reading:
The divine Baptist, the Prophet born of a Prophet, the seal of all the Prophets
and beginning of the Apostles, the mediator between the Old and New Covenants,
the voice of one crying in the wilderness, the God-sent Messenger of the
incarnate Messiah, the forerunner of Christ's coming into the world (Esaias 40:
3; Mal. 3: 1); who by many miracles was both conceived and born; who was filled
with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb; who came forth like
another Elias the Zealot, whose life in the wilderness and divine zeal for
God's Law he imitated: this divine Prophet, after he had preached the baptism
of repentance according to God's command; had taught men of low rank and high
how they must order their lives; had admonished those whom he baptized and had
filled them with the fear of God, teaching them that no one is able to escape
the wrath to come if he do not works worthy of repentance; had, through such
preaching, prepared their hearts to receive the evangelical teachings of the
Savior; and finally, after he had pointed out to the people the very Savior,
and said, "Behold the Lamb of God, Which taketh away the sin of the world"
(Luke 3:2-18; John 1: 29-36), after all this, John sealed with his own blood
the truth of his words and was made a sacred victim for the divine Law at the
hands of a transgressor.
This was Herod Antipas, the Tetrarch of Galilee, the son of Herod the Great.
This man had a lawful wife, the daughter of Arethas (or Aretas), the King of
Arabia (that is, Arabia Petraea, which had the famous Nabatean stone city of
Petra as its capital. This is the Aretas mentioned by Saint Paul in II Cor.
11:32). Without any cause, and against every commandment of the Law, he put her
away and took to himself Herodias, the wife of his deceased brother Philip, to
whom Herodias had borne a daughter, Salome. He would not desist from this
unlawful union even when John, the preacher of repentance, the bold and austere
accuser of the lawless, censured him and told him, "It is not lawful for thee
to have thy brother's wife" (Mark 6: 18). Thus Herod, besides his other unholy
acts, added yet this, that he apprehended John and shut him in prison; and
perhaps he would have killed him straightway, had he not feared the people, who
had extreme reverence for John. Certainly, in the beginning, he himself had
great reverence for this just and holy man. But finally, being pierced with the
sting of a mad lust for the woman Herodias, he laid his defiled hands on the
teacher of purity on the very day he was celebrating his birthday. When Salome,
Herodias' daughter, had danced in order to please him and those who were
supping with him, he promised her -- with an oath more foolish than any
foolishness -- that he would give her anything she asked, even unto the half of
his kingdom. And she, consulting with her mother, straightway asked for the
head of John the Baptist in a charger. Hence this transgressor of the Law,
preferring his lawless oath above the precepts of the Law, fulfilled this
godless promise and filled his loathsome banquet with the blood of the Prophet.
So it was that that all-venerable head, revered by the Angels, was given as a
prize for an abominable dance, and became the plaything of the dissolute
daughter of a debauched mother. As for the body of the divine Baptist, it was
taken up by his disciples and placed in a tomb (Mark 6: 21 - 29).
