It has been a week of unprecedented crisis and one which has seriously threatened the rule of King Herod. It followed an interview with Salome, the king's stepdaughter, published in the Palestine Times on Monday.
She claimed the preacher John, known as "the Baptist", had been beheaded last month by order of the king. A palace spokesman had said at the time that John had died of natural causes. Ms Salome also claimed the beheading had been at her mother's instigation.
John had been arrested because of his relentless condemnations of the king's marriage to Herodias, Salome's mother.
Herodias had been married to the king's brother, Prince Philip. She was particularly incensed by John's criticisms but King Herod, who admired the preacher, refused to have him killed at the time. Salome said this had made her mother very angry.
On the king's birthday last month there was a banquet at the palace. Salome, who is a very talented dancer, performed after the meal and everyone was greatly impressed.
"Ask me for whatever you want and you can have it . . ." the proud king said to her as his guests applauded ". . . anything you want!" Salome didn't know what to ask for. Her mother said: "Ask for John's head . . . on a platter!" And she did.
There was a shocked silence in the banqueting hall. Salome told the Palestine Times it was then she realised the enormity of what she had done. But it was too late. The request had been made. King Herod was upset, she said, but felt he could not refuse her. He called for the deed to be done.
The subsequent moments were the longest of her life, she said. "Everything was ruined. Everyone just stared at me. I used be a favourite with these people but looking around I could see this was no longer the case. I wanted to be anywhere else."
The executioner soon arrived back with John's dripping, bloody, open-eyed head on a platter. Some of the guests were sick and had to leave the room. The king was pale. Herodias smiled.
A spokesman for the palace dismissed Salome's story as "hysterical nonsense". He said she was being treated by doctors at the palace for months because she "suffered disturbances". This failed to reassure the public. There were calls for the release of John's body.
"Show us the body," demanded the preacher's friends. The palace had said at the time that John was buried in the grounds there to avoid likely public disorder at his funeral.
John's friends petitioned the Governor, Pilate, to have the body released. He said that it was an internal matter. But it is known he made strong representations behind the scenes.
The palace resisted. Herodias told reporters that her life had been hell because of rumours since John died. The king, her husband, was the most decent man she had ever known and it was grossly unfair to make her family suffer in that way, she said.
In interviews with selected reporters the king said he had done nothing wrong. He and his associates at court had always worked to help people, and as a team, he said. They had been accessible, not aloof. "This is not an ivory tower," he was quoted as saying.
"Show us the body," demanded John's friends.
On Friday evening the palace issued a terse statement saying John had indeed been beheaded but that it had been "a mistake". Another prisoner had been sentenced to death for murder and the executioner had been misinformed as to who was sentenced, it said. The executioner had himself since been put to death for his error, it continued.
"Then, following careful reflection and acting solely in the best interests of public order, it was felt that John's body should not be released, or details of his death. We deeply regret this decision but it cannot be undone. We wish to express our deepest sympathy to the relatives and friends of this man who was admired so much by us all," it said.
It ended by saying John's body would be released later that evening.
This was done in an orderly fashion amid scenes of great grief but little trouble. And John was buried quietly by his friends.