How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #7
HEROD Enough on this subject. I have already given you my answer. I will not deliver him into your hands. He is a holy man. He is a man who has seen God.
A JEW That cannot be. There is no man who hath seen God since the prophet Elias. He is the last man who saw God face to face. In these days God doth not show Himself. God hideth Himself. Therefore great evils have come upon the land. (218-19)
According to this Jew, evil and sin have come upon the land because God has not shown himself. It follows that the reemergence of God would vanquish that evil.
Quote #8
THE VOICE OF JOKANAAN Ah! The wanton one! The harlot! Ah! the daughter of Babylon with her golden eyes and her gilded eyelids! Thus saith the Lord God, Let there come up against her a multitude of men. Let the people take stones and stone her…
HERODIAS Command him to be silent!
THE VOICE OF JOKANAAN Let the captains of the hosts pierce her with their swords, let them crush her beneath their shields.
HERODIAS Nay, but it is infamous.
THE VOICE OF JOKANAAN It is thus that I will wipe out all wickedness from the earth, and that all women shall learn not to imitate her abominations. (266-270)
Jokanaan's call to kill the harlot, the daughter of Babylon, is more than an insult to Herodias —it is a call to destroy all sin.
Quote #9
HEROD Peace! you are always crying out. You cry out like a beast of prey. You must not cry in such fashion. Your voice wearies me. Peace, I tell you!... Salomé, think on what thou art doing. It may be that this man comes from God. He is a holy man. The finger of God has touched him. God has put terrible words into his mouth. In the palace, as in the desert, God is ever with him… It may be that He is, at least. One cannot tell, but it is possible that God is with him and for him. If he die also, peradventure some evil may befall me. Verily, he has said that evil will befall some one on the day whereon he dies. On whom should it fall if it fall not on me? Remember, I slipped in blood when I came hither. Also did I not hear a beating of wings in the air, a beating of vast wings? These are ill omens. And there were other things. I am sure that there were other things, though I saw them not. Thou wouldst not that some evil should befall me, Salomé? Listen to me again. (367)
Herod is afraid to hurt Jokanaan because he is afraid of the wrath of God. He's a man who has killed dozens of people (including his brother) but seems to understand that to kill a holy man is to commit a super-big sin.