Who was Salomé? – A Dialogue with Varsha Dewan (Part 1)

Maud Allan became famous with her Visions of Salomé. But who was Salomé? Because of the amount of material encountered, the research into Salomé is split into 2 parts:

1)    Salomé, theological and historical perspectives

2)    Salomé as a European artistic inspiration: Oscar Wilde’s Salomé and interpretations

This blogpost will focus on Salomé in theological and historical perspective. Attached to the Blogpost you will find an audio clip by Varsha giving more details of the theological and historical perspective.

But first here the Bible section with the story. Please note, Salome is not named here (see explanation below) - the Bible only refers to a girl, daughter of Herodias and stepdaughter of Herod), who dances at Herod’s birthday feast: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+6%3A14-29&version=NIV

Theological and historical perspectives:

1)    Varsha says, that in order to understand Salomé (and John the Baptist) one has to look at her from a theological and historical perspective.

Theology: In the Bible there is a reference to Herod (stepfather/uncle) and Herodias (mother), and an unnamed girl who dances. In that story, Herod is seen as a reluctant participant in the murder of John the Baptist, because he fears retribution from God (God of John the Baptist, who was Jewish, not Roman God – Herod and Herodias are Jewish; John the Baptist tells people to live by Jewish law – also Herod and Herodias – who were breaking Jewish Law according to John the Baptist, since Herodias married her husband’s brother)

Herod and Herodias are ruling over the Jordanian region of the Roman Empire (-> west of River Jordan all the way to Egypt;all the biblical stories are happening here) under the Roman Empire. Actually, the Roman Republic is transitioning from Republic to Empire. (Note: The Egyptian region of the Roman Empire was ruled by someone else).

The first parts of the Bible were written down about 20 or 30 AD. Up until then it was oral stories. Salomé is not mentioned by name (Varsha thinks, either she was not significant enough to remember or, her name was maybe forgotten, see questions below)

a)    History: Book: The Antiquities of the Jews (first historical document of the Jewish people) written by Josephus around 97 AD. Here John the Baptist and Salomé are mentioned – in fact this is the book where the dancing girl from the story that lead to John the Baptist’s murder is named as Salomé.

Here Josephus is putting a story from 3 BC into written form- into history. He is writing about his own history – the history of the Jews, but he is writing it for the Romans. Josephus was Jewish and a slave in the Flavian dynasty.  He had pledged his allegiance to the Flavian Kings of the Roman Empire. He takes on the Roman name Flavius Josephus and gets a lot of benefits from the Flavian King (who believes in the Jewish stories). Josephus is writing this document for the 2^nd generation King of the Flavian dynasty (Rome is now no longer a Republic, but an Empire). He refers to Jesus only in passing. He mentions a man named Jesus also known as Christ. Therefore he refers to Jesus not as a Jew but founder of Christianity- biggest threat to Roman Empire (Note: politics: message- Jews are not the threat, Christians are).

More references and longer chapters on John the Baptizer, who he identifies as Jewish (he died before Jesus therefore cant be a Christian. He is seen as a Jewish hero from 100 years earlier.) John the Baptist was killed around 3 or4 BC, because in the Bible Jesus’ ministry or work is only for 3 years- between  age 30 and 33. Jesus starts his work around the time when John the Baptist is imprisoned (John the Baptist’s voice is crushed- Jesus raises his voice at that time).

Josephus, as mentioned above, brought an app. 100 year old oral story (theology) into historical text, in which Jewish (nomadic) history is interweaving with Egyptian history (Cleopatra) and Roman history (Marc Anthony).

In this text by Josephus, Salomé is mentioned by name as being the daughter of Herodias and Herod.

Varsha’s questions about Salomé are: if Josephus’ reference to this incidence of  app. 100 years prior is based on the written Bible, which does not have Salome’s name, how come he suddenly remembers her name? Where is that information/name coming from?

Varsha feels that maybe he (Josephus) chose the name of Salome, because there are already many shades of Mary in the Bible

1)    Mary the Virgin, Mother of God

2)    Mary the Harlot, who Jesus saved from getting stoned

3)    Mary Magdalene, the woman who found that Jesus had risen (today, Mary Magdalene is the woman who had sex with Jesus and children – famous Dan Brown stories and conspiracy theorists’ favorite topic)

In the Jewish and Catholic faith, women are seen as temptresses, the reason for Man’s plight, because it was Eve who bit the apple.

Eve is the creator of Man and the destructor of Man by biting the apple.

Mary is the Mother of God and the Harlot.

Varsha feels maybe Josephus called the girl Salomé, because the Bible has a Salomé who is the mother of 2 disciplines of Jesus - James and John (John wrestled with the Devil and wrote the Book of Revelations). James and John were also the nephews of Jesus, because Salomé was the daughter of Joseph from his first marriage , i.e. Jesus’ stepsister. So like the positive and negative characters of Eve/Mary in the Bible he might have called that girl Salome so that there is then a positive and negative character of Salomé.

Salomé is a Saint of the Greek Orthodox Church.

So now there is the same dichotomy of saint/slut in Salomé as well.

Also, there were some coins of Salomé found but they is no way to prove that she was the girl who danced for Herod (coin of Herodian queen Salome)

Herodian coin was minted in 56-57 AD.

Soundfile from Varsha
https://soundcloud.com/babli/who-was-salome-part-1/s-HkHXz

Sources: 
Varsha's own memory of history . Theological and Church history because of my own interest in ancient civilizations of the world especially Egyptian and Mesopotamian Civilization (Ottoman Empire) since age 12 and her  dad's talks and such. 

As well as Online sources:
Salome coin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodian_coinage
Herod:  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_the_Great
Flavius Josephus: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Flavius-Josephus (note: Varsha Dewan: Why I feel Josephus wrote the history for the Roman Empire Glory and not the history of the Jewish people. I feel many Jewish elders don't trust n respect him and see him as a traitor to the Jewish cause)

PS: Here is a 1953 film with Rita Hayworth as Salome. The storyline is slightly different: