Salome, a bad steward, our creation “Stewards are both a ruler and servant; they exist to please their master.” At what age? At what time of life, in what culture, is a person responsible for their choices? Do we have any real choices at all? Are victims, like puppets, responsible – even in a small part – for their actions? Salome’s name is never mentioned in the Bible. Not in Matthew 14: 13; not in Mark 6: 14; and not in Luke 9: 7-9, the narratives of John the Baptist’s beheading. Yet, her name is well-known through the ages, recognised instantly as a ‘fille fatale’ or a younger version of a femme fatale. Her image has become that of a living puppet; a creation that exists for the pleasures of others. Throughout the ages, from Oscar Wilde’s play of her name; Richard Strauss’ opera; Moreau’s painting, and the dance of the seven veils, Salome exists as an icon in male erotic musings and imaginings. Why is this image so well-known and so well-used? First, historically, she was a living, breathing person. The Jewish historian Josephus identifies her and her story is so embedded in our imaginings that she is put in by most readers within the Biblical accounts of John the Baptist’s beheading. Mark tells the story:
For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested…. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married. For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him… Finally the opportune time came. On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests.
The king said to the girl, “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.” And he promised her with an oath, “Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.” She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?” “The head of John the Baptist,” she answered. At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother. Though her name is not in this biblical text, her person and body surely is. Matthew refers to her as “the girl”. She was no older than sixteen, and in all probability younger. She was a girl and perhaps Matthew, Luke and Mark purposefully did not put her name in their narratives to protect the person of Salome. I believe they did not want total blame to be attached to her: she was a young person. Why brand her for life? She moved in immediacy and her movements, as her dancing had one purpose: to please others. She cannot, as a person, be assigned total blame for John’s death. Herod gave the final death order. But male culture does blame her and they do so by creating and recreating the image of Salome. When you look up ‘Femme fatale’ in Wikipedia you see not just Salome’s name but a reproduced colour portrait of her dancing. The accompanying text to the half nude illustration condemns her: ”No longer was she merely the dancing-girl who extorts a cry of lust…from an old man; (she) … breaks the will, masters the mind of a King; (hers is) the Curse of Beauty above all other beauties…indifferent, irresponsible, insensible, poisoning.” This quote from a novel is reproduced without any reflection by Wikipedia on how the image of Salome has been being used in the past and is being used today. Male erotic fantasies rule. The young siren and vixen break wills by her dancing; a young girl’s promise masters a King; men are the puppets who dance to the desire Salome awakens. For men, the devil made me do it, and Salome is the devil. It wasn’t me. Guys: it is us. How is it us? We dance to what ‘pleases’ us – desires we both create internally and act out in our imaginations and, at times, in the real world. We are Herod’s dinner guests, and we desire to be ‘pleased’. Start the video; turn on the DVD; go on the internet. In my recent past I worked in a large church community and the counselling centre in that community. In a vast number of the cases I encountered, either directly and indirectly, male erotic fantasies were a controlling issue. Men could not stop themselves from watching ‘the dancing’. They made the choice to look; to create and recreate; wind and rewind.
The unnamed daughter, the young historical person, is a bad steward because she never questions. She dances at “the opportune time”; she dances to “please”; she dances off to her mother and confirms her mother’s desire; and she “hurries” back to place her request for John’s head in front of all. She moves with the sole desire, the sole emotion of pleasing. She pleases Herod, a step-father, his birthday guests, the leaders of Galilee, her mother. She dances and pleases the small, the very small kingdom in front of her. Salome the icon, the image, the male fantasy, is a puppet onto which others project their desires. This Salome exists only to please created desire. Salome, the cultural creation, will be forever dancing for others. She is our slave, our creation, our bad steward. Only by questioning such images, and removing and replacing them with God’s word can we become His stewards. Whom do we live to please? Whom are we dancing with and for? Who do we “hurry” to serve? And why? Let’s dance for the Master.
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