Bible Dictionaries
Machaerus

Holman Bible Dictionary

(muh chee' ruhss) Palace-fortress located about fifteen miles southeast of the mouth of the Jordan on a site rising 3,600 feet above the sea. Herod the Great rebuilt the fortress. Josephus gives the Machaerus as the site of the imprisonment and execution of John the Baptist. Mark's reference to Galilean nobles among Herod's guests has prompted some interpreters to suggest a site further north. The Gospels, however, associate John's ministry with the Judean wilderness (Mark 1:5; Matthew 3:1; John 3:22-23 ). That John's disciples claimed his body (Mark 6:29 ) suggests a site, such as the Macherus, near the center of John's ministry.