And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet.
All Commentaries on Matthew 14:5 Go To Matthew 14
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Luke’s words are, “John have I beheaded: who is he of whom I hear such things? As Luke has thus represented Herod as in doubt, we must understand rather that he was afterwards convinced of that which was commonly said—or we must take what he here says to his servants as expressing a doubt—for they admit of either of these acceptations.
De Cons. Ev., ii, 44: Luke does not give this in the same order, but where heis speaking of the Lord’s baptism, so that he took beforehand an event which happened long afterwards. For after that saying of John’s concerning the Lord, that His fan is in His hand, he straightway adds this, which, as we may gather from John’s Gospel, did not follow immediately. For he relates that after Jesus was baptized, He went into Galilee, and thence returned into Judaea, and baptized there near to the Jordan before John was cast into prison. But neither Matthew nor Mark have placed John's imprisonment in that order in which it appears from their own writings that it took place; for they also say that when John was delivered up, the Lord went into Galilee, and after many things there done, then by occasion of the fame of Christ reaching Herod they relate what took place in the imprisonment and beheading of John. The cause for which he had been cast into prison he shows when he says, “On account of Herodias his brother’s wife. For John had said unto him, It is not lawful for thee to have her.”
