But sending an executioner, that Isaiah , a hangman; for soldiers were executioners and attendants of the prætors, and were armed with javelins (spicula). Hence they were called spiculators. (the word in the Vulgate translated executioner is spiculator). Our Gretzer (lib1 , de Cruce, c25) is of opinion, from Suidas, that hangmen (carnifices) were called speculatores (for the Greek has ×£× ×•×š×Ÿ×¥×›ï¢×¤×©×–ב, which is really a Latin word, and the same as speculator), Gr. ×ŸÌ‰× ×¤×—Ìƒ×–×‘×¢, because it was their office to spy out the plans and movements of an enemy, to be around princes as their bodyguard, and to execute those whom they condemned. So also Franc. Lucas on this passage, Lipsius on Tacitus, and some others. These assert that Suetonius and Tacitus call a carnifex, speculalar. But they cite no passage in support of what they say. Neither have I been able to find any in which the word speculator is used for an executioner (carnifex), with the exception of this one in S. Mark. Spiculator, then, becomes ×£× ×•×š×Ÿ×¥×›ï¢×¤×©×¡ in Greek. For the Greeks often change the vowel i into e, as the Italians also do.
He commanded his head to be brought in a dish. Thus did the savage season his feast with this horrible spectacle of cruelty. Bede adds, he wished all his guests to be associated with him in his cruelty. Moreover, S. Gregory says (Moral. lib3 , c4), "God afflicts His own with infirmities, because He knows how to reward them in the highest. If God exposes to anguish those whom He loves, what are those about to suffer whom He rejects?"
S. John , then, has many laurels—1That of doctor; 2nd of virginity; 3of martyrdom; 4th of a prophet; 5th of a hermit; 6th of an apostle; 7th of the precursor, index, and baptizer of Christ.
You will ask, At what time was John put to death? 1st Abulensis says it cannot be determined.
2nd. Bede, and from him Baronius (A.C33), Maldonatus, and Barradi think that John was slain about the time of the Passover in Christ"s thirty-third year. They support this view, because Matthew says ( Matthew 14:13) that Christ departed into the wilderness when He heard of the death of John , and there fed the5000 , an event which happened about the time of the Passover (John vi4).
3rd. And very probably, our Salianus (Annal. tom6 , in fin. ad ann. Christi32 , Numbers 20) thinks that John suffered at the end of the thirty-second year of the life of Christ, probably in December. He proves this, because Nicephorus (lib1 , c19) says that John at his death was thirty-two years and a half old; that Isaiah , at the completion of Christ"s thirty-second year. For John was born on the24th of June, and was just six months older than Christ, who was born on the25th of December of the same year. He gives us a second reason, because although Christ"s departing into the desert (Matt. xiv.) occurred about the time of the Passover, yet John"s death preceded it by some considerable time. For Christ departed not so much on account of John"s death, as because the fame of His own miracles had so greatly increased that many thought John had risen again in Him. But this took place when some considerable time, comparatively speaking, had elapsed after John"s death. That is to say, John"s being put to death took place in December, and Christ"s retiring into the desert about the following March. And the intervening period must have been taken up by the miracles which Christ wrought after John"s death, and by the fame of them being so widely spread abroad as to lead Herod to suspect that John had risen again in Jesus. This led Jesus to retire into the desert lest Herod should kill Him also.
Lastly, some think that John suffered on the29th of August, because the Church keeps the Feast of the Decollation of S. John the Baptist on that day. Baronius, however, thinks that this day is kept in memory of the Invention of the head of S. John.
