* the king.
Mt 14:10,11
* an executioner. or, one of his guard.
[Spekoulator [,] in Latin, speculator,
from speculor, to look about, spy, properly denotes a
sentinel; and as these sentinels kept guard at the palaces of
kings, and the residences of Roman governors, so they were
employed in other offices besides guarding, and usually
performed that of executioners. As, however, we learn from
Josephus, that Herod was at this very time engaged in war with
Aretas, king of Arabia, in consequence of Herod's having
divorced his daughter in order to marry Herodias, his brother
Philip's wife; and as this event occurred at an entertainment
given at the castle of Machaerus, while his army was on its
march against his father-in-law; we are furnished with an
additional reason why a speculator, or sentinel, should have
been employed as an executioner; and are thus enabled to
discover such a latent and undesigned coincidence as clearly
evinces the truth of the evangelical narrative.
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