And she, having been instructed beforehand by her mother, said, “Give me here, on a platter, the head of John the Baptist.”
This verse reveals why Herodias’s daughter came with such a cruel demand: she had already been instructed beforehand by her mother. This shows that the dance was not a random occasion, but a planned plot whose aim was the beheading of John. Herodias, unable to endure the prophetic rebuke, had stored up deep hatred toward John. She could not tolerate the life of a man who exposed her sin. But since she could not act directly, she used her daughter—both as an instrument of temptation and as the one to deliver the request. This verse also highlights the deep danger of sin: when the heart does not repent, it begins to carry out its evil intentions through others. Here the mother makes her daughter an instrument of cruelty with an appearance of innocence. She not only asks for an execution, but demands the head—publicly and in a humiliating manner—on a platter. This passage warns that sin not only kills the soul, but also drives a person to do evil, rejecting mercy, truth, and life.