And when he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet.
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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 to...
He feared the people. The fear of God corrects us, the fear of man restrains us, but removeth not the desire of evil. Hence it renders such as have been restrained by it for a time, more eager afterwards to indulge their evil propensities. (Glossa.)
Non occ.: The Evangelist had above shown the Pharisees speaking falsely against Christ's miracles, and just now His fellow-citizens wondering, yet despising Him; he now relates what opinion Herod had formed concerning Christ on hearing of His miracles, and says, “At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the fame of Jesus.”.
ord.: Having mentioned this supposition of John’s resurrection, because he had never yet spoken of his death, he now returns, and narrates how it came topass.
ord.: And perhaps he observed the Jewish Law, according to which John forbade him this adultery. "And desiring to kill him, he feared the people.”.
ord.: The fear of God amends us, the fear of man torments us, but alters no tour will; it rather renders us more impatient to sin as it has held us back fora time from our indulgence.
One of the Ecclesiastical interpreters asks what caused Herod to think that John was risen from the dead; as though we had to account for the errors of analien, or as though the heresy of metempsychosis was at all supported by this place—a heresy which teaches that souls pass through various bodies after along period of years—for the Lord was thirty years old when John was beheaded.
The old history tells us that Philip the son of Herod the greater, the brother of this Herod, had taken to wife Herodias daughter of Aretas, king of the Arabs; and that he, the father-in-law, having afterwards cause of quarrel with his son-in-law, took away his daughter, and to grieve her husband gave her in marriage to his enemy Herod.He preferred to endanger himself with the King, than to be forgetful of the commandments of God in commending himself to him.
He feared a disturbance among the people for John’s sake, for he knew that multitudes had been baptized by him in Jordan; but he was overcome by love ...
It is not without reason that the Evangelist here specifies the time, but that you may understand the pride and carelessness of the tyrant; inasmuch as he had not at the first made himself acquainted with the things concerning Christ, but now only after long time. Thus they, who in authority are fenced about with much pomp, learn these things slowly, because they do not much regard them.
Observe how great a thing is virtue; Herod fears John even after he is dead, and philosophizes concerning the resurrection; as it followers; “And he saithto his servants, This is John the baptist, he is risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works are wrought in him.”.
And this relation is not set before us as a principal matter, because the Evangelist's only object was to tell us concerning Christ, and nothing beyond, unless so far as it furthered this object. He says then, “For Herod had seized John, and bound him.”.
Yet he speaks not to the woman but to the husband, as he was the chief person.
“And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people.” That person readily turns away from justice who, in matters at issue, fears not God but people. Such fear can restrain the power to sin but is unable to remove the will to sin. Hence, those whom it has restrained from crime, it makes all the more eager to return to crime. It is only the fear of God that can set minds straight, repel criminal actions, preserve innocence and give steadfast power. But let us focus on the passionate intensity of blessed John.
From this place we may learn how great the jealousy of the Jews was; that John could have risen from the dead, Herod, an alien-born, here declares, without any witness that he had risen: concerning Christ, whom the Prophets had foretold, the Jews preferred to believe, that He had not risen, but had been carried away by stealth. This intimates that the Gentile heart is more disposed to belief than that of the Jews.
All men have well thought concerning the power of the resurrection, that the saints shall have greater power after they have risen from the dead, than they had while they were yet weighed down with the infirmity of the flesh; whereforeHerod says, “Therefore mighty works are wrought in him.”
. In what has gone before, Matthew has not given an account of John, as it was his intent to write only about Christ. Nor would he have mentioned it now if it did not relate to Christ. John had rebuked Herod for unlawfully taking the wife of his brother. For the law decreed that a man should take the wife of his brother only when that brother had died childless. But in this case Philip had not died childless, for the dancing girl was his child. Some say that Herod had seized both wife and tetrarchy from Philip while he was still living. Whether the former or the latter is correct, what was done was a transgression of the law. He postponed the murder because he feared the multitude, not because he feared God; yet the devil found the opportune moment for him.
