It is not hard to see why readers of the Book of Mormon have often connected these two stories. Both involve an unnamed daughter (“daughter of the said Herodias” is how Salome is described in Mark 6:22). Both involve a female performing a dance before a powerful male figure (Akish and Herod). Both involve demands for decapitation—one realized (John the Baptist), the other foiled (Omer, though his rebel son Jared is later beheaded). Both involve revenge against a perceived injustice (John the Baptist’s denunciation of Herod’s marriage to Herodias and Jared’s removal from the throne) leading to captivity. And both involve the swearing of oaths with unfortunate consequences (the beheading of John the Baptist and the destruction of the Jaredites).

However, there are also four important differences between the two accounts. The first is that in Ether 8 the daughter of Jared is the primary actor; it is she who puts the evil ideas into her father’s head and dances before Akish. In Mark’s account Salome acts at her mother’s behest and presumably does not know that her dance will result in John’s death until her mother instructs her after the dance to ask for John’s head (see 6:24). She is as much of a pawn in her mother’s game as Herod is. Because of this, the daughter of Jared seems to occupy the position or role of both Herodias and Salome, as if both figures were collapsed into one Jaredite female. A second major difference is the audience of the dance: Salome dances for her father and his friends, while the daughter of Jared dances for a potential husband. The presence of Herod’s guests presumably ensures that Salome’s request will not be dismissed, an action that would likely have caused Herod to lose face. The daughter of Jared, in the same fashion, has exactly the audience she requires. This leads to a third major difference, the nature of the request. Herod is clearly uncomfortable offering up John’s head, but he has little choice—his promise must be kept. Akish appears completely comfortable with the request to carry out the murderous plot, as are, one assumes, both Jared and his daughter. Finally, a fourth major difference is the nature of the dance itself. The daughter of Jared’s dance is prefaced by Moroni’s statement that Jared’s daughter was “exceedingly fair,” suggesting a likely sensual element to her dance, one that is expected to appeal to Akish and that will lead to his matrimonial request. While there is nothing in the text to suggest a salaciousness to the dance itself, it does appear designed to highlight the woman’s physical attractiveness. In contrast, Salome is described simply as a “damsel” (Mark 6:22), and no mention is made of her physical appearance. Nor is there any suggestion that her dance was in any way seductive or erotic, only that it “pleased Herod” (v. 22). Again, to suggest without textual evidence that Salome’s dance contained a lascivious element or that it was, in the words of one scholar, “hardly more than a striptease” is to surely go beyond the mark.