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Real Life Biblical Kings and Other Historic Bible Facts and Figures

Khalid Elhassan April 25, 2025 18 min

Bible - Yul Brynner as the pharaoh in 'The Ten Commandments' — Yul Brynner as the pharaoh in 'The Ten Commandments'. Wikimedia

9. A Deadly Biblical Dance

Dance of Salome, by Armand Point, 1898. Wikimedia

Herodias and Salome wanted John the Baptist’s head, but Herod declined. So Salome seduced her stepfather with a dance at his birthday party. Sources do not reveal the dance’s details, but she performed it so well, that Herod was enchanted. He offered to reward her spectacular performance with anything she wanted, up to half his kingdom. Salome wanted the head of John the Baptist. Trapped by his promise, a reluctant Herod had John beheaded. It is a fascinating tale that titillated Bible readers for centuries, as they imagined just what kind of dance Salome performed for Herod. Recently, as seen below, a new twist was added to the story: an archaeological find of the dance floor upon which Salome enchanted her stepdad.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.