And said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do show forth themselves in him.
All Commentaries on Matthew 14:2 Go To Matthew 14
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Do you see the intensity of his fear? For neither then did he dare to publish it abroad, but he still speaks but to his own servants.
But yet even this opinion savored of the soldier, and was absurd. For many besides had risen from the dead, and no one had wrought anything of the kind. And his words seem to me to be the language both of vanity, and of fear. For such is the nature of unreasonable souls, they admit often a mixture of opposite passions.
But Luke affirms that the multitudes said, This is Elias, or Jeremias, or one of the old prophets, but he, as uttering forsooth something wiser than the rest, made this assertion.
But it is probable that before this, in answer to them that said He was John (for many had said this too), he had denied it, and said, I slew him, priding himself and glorying in it. For this both Mark and Luke report that he said, John I beheaded. But when the rumor prevailed, then he too says the same as the people.
Then the evangelist relates to us also the history. And what might his reason be for not introducing it as a subject by itself? Because all their labor entirely was to tell what related to Christ, and they made themselves no secondary work besides this, except it were again to contribute to the same end. Therefore neither now would they have mentioned the history were it not on Christ's account, and because Herod said, John is risen again.
But Mark says, that Herod exceedingly honored the man, and this, when reproved. Mark 6:20 So great a thing is virtue.
