John the Baptist was killed on the orders of Herod Antipas, prompted primarily by a combination of political caution and personal grievance. The specific trigger was John's rebuke of Herod’s unlawful marriage to Herodias, who was both Herod Antipas’s niece and formerly Philip’s wife. John publicly condemned this marriage and the resulting moral scandal, which angered Herodias deeply and led her to seek John’s death. Herod, though initially reluctant and respectful of John as a righteous and outspoken prophet, felt pressured by Herodias and the political need to keep peace and his public promise to Herodias’s daughter, whom Herod had promised something in return for her dancing. When the moment arose, Herod complied with the request to behead John, delivering him to satisfy Herodias’s vendetta and to quell the potential political instability stirred by John’s growing influence and bold rebukes. John’s disciples later recovered his body and buried him. [Type: web] [Type: web] [Type: web]