GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 6:25
Evil is Still Evil
There’s an interesting English word inherited from Latin: “obfuscation,” a combination of the preposition “ob,” meaning in front of or before, and “fuscare,” to make dark. In English, the word means to obscure the meaning of something—an event, a behavior, a communication. In this study, the word applies to making evil appear to be something else, to dilute or change its appearance. However, regardless of how it’s dressed up, evil is still evil.
A classic example of obfuscation was the serpent’s suggestion to Eve that doing what God prohibited would be good. “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen. 3:5) The prophet Isaiah warned his audience against obfuscation when he said, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” (Isa. 5:20)
In the United States, some writers obfuscated slavery by claiming that it was biblical because it “civilized” Africans. In other instances, evil has been obfuscated by claiming that some policy or activity protected the presidency. According to a recent report, a bank redirected some customers’ loan payments to pay other operating expenses. Someone made this decision in a clean, elegantly appointed room, while dressed in business attire, but the policy was still ugly and nasty—evil is still evil.
According to Mark, Herod Antipas, the tetrarch, made a likely wine-inspired promise to his stepdaughter, who performed a dance for his dinner guests, that he would give her whatever she desired—even up to half of his kingdom. The dancing girl went and asked her mother what she should request, and the mother said that she should request the head of John the Baptist. “And she returned immediately, with haste, to the king and asked, saying, ‘I want that, right now, you might give to me, on a platter, the head of John the Baptist.’” (Mark 6:25) Putting the head of the murdered man on a platter seems to be an attempt to obfuscate the deed, but murder was still murder, vengeance was still vengeance, and evil was still evil—even if it was on a platter.
Evil may be dressed in the finest of fashions, renamed, or conducted in elegant surroundings, but evil is still evil.
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