1At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus 2and said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him.”
Matthew now turns to an incident about the tragic death of John the Baptist to indicate a more general rejection of Jesus as the Messiah.
In this chapter, Jesus withdrew from the crowd to instruct His disciples because of the rise in threat to His person. He moved to a series of private ministries beginning in this chapter.
14:1
At that time
“That time” refers to Jesus’ ministry in Nazareth.
Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus
News about the phenomenon of Jesus’ ministry reached Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great, the Edomite (37 B.C. to 4 B.C.). Herod the Great had nine wives and killed some of his own sons and wives. He killed infants in Bethlehem (2:13-18). Herod Agrippa I imprisoned Peter and killed James (Ac 12). Herod Agrippa II, the son of Agrippa I, tried Paul (Ac 25:13ff). All Herods were Edomites and practiced the Jewish religion to suit their purposes.
Herod Antipas (4 B.C. to A.D. 39) was the “tetrarch,” meaning that he ruled over the fourth part of the kingdom. Antipas lived on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee in the city of Tiberius. Antipas is most prominent in the gospels since his authority was over the geographical area of Perea and Galilee, where Jesus and John conducted their ministries. He imprisoned John the Baptist. On three occasions Jesus and Antipas came into each other’s purview:
This occasion, when Antipas heard about Jesus’ ministry;
Herod Antipas’ fear that someone would kill Jesus as He passed through Perea (Lu 13:31-33);
The only occasion where Herod Antipas actually met Jesus was when Pilate sent Him for examination (Lu 23:6-12).
14:2
and said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him.”
Herod previously beheaded John the Baptist and leaped to the conclusion that he was resuscitated from the dead. A bad conscience creates paranoia and superstition.
PRINCIPLE:
The conscience is one means whereby God deals with people.
APPLICATION:
People with skeletons in the closet have a tendency toward a guilt complex. Conscience is not an absolute standard but a measurement for determining what is right. No rationalization can console those with a bad conscience. God uses the conscience to bring people to Himself.
Dr. Grant,
I have heard defenders of Jesus' resurrection say that no Jew in Second Temple Judaism would have expected the resurrection of anyone before the general resurrection at the end of time. However, does this passage, along with those that have the disciples tell Jesus that some people think he is John the Baptist, undercut that argument?
I have serious questions about N.T. Wright and others of his ilk but here is a comment by him: Had the cross been God’s final action, there would be no future hope; the resurrection is the key to God’s purposes. In Second Temple Judaism, belief in resurrection was linked, not merely to personal survival beyond death, but rather to the good purposes of God in restoring his creatures to their proper destiny. (See Wright, New Testament, pp. 267–268.) ‘So the unexpected resurrection of the one man Jesus ahead of all others determined the church’s conviction that the End had already begun’ (Bauckham, in NBD, p. 334). In the resurrection the whole story from creation onwards has reached its climax. Jesus came announcing, effecting and embodying the kingdom of God. The last days are here and the day of deliverance is at hand. Jesus is actually ‘God with us’ in his saving power. ‘He is the embodiment of God’s eschatological purposes, promised by the prophets and realized in the new covenant community with the promised in-the-heart Torah’ (Brower, in Reader, p. 143).
Also, here are some comments by Rene A Lopez: Predominant belief of second-temple Judaism on resurrection came to the fore unambiguously through the martyrs of the Maccabees. As the Syrian oppressor Antiochus Epiphanes tortured a Jewish mother and her seven sons to death, they claimed that they would return victoriously in a new body at the resurrection. "After him, the third was the victim of their sport. When it was demanded, he quickly put out his tongue and courageously stretched forth his hands, and said nobly, ‘I got these from Heaven, and because of his laws I disdain them, and from him I hope to get them back again’ " (2 Macc. 7:10–11).86
Apocalyptic literature of this period, like that of 1 Enoch 51:1–2 (though at times it is not explicitly clear),87 makes a bold claim
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for bodily resurrection. "And in those days shall the earth also give back that which has been entrusted to it, and Sheol also shall give back that which it has received, and hell shall give back that which it owes. For in those days the Elect One shall arise, and he shall choose the righteous and holy from among them." Similar to the "Elect One," the "Son of Man" with a righteous remnant will receive a bodily resurrection in a judgment scene described in Daniel 7:13; 12:2; and Isaiah 52–53. First Enoch 91:10 also says, "And the righteous shall arise from their sleep, and wisdom shall arise and be given unto them." Other passages make the same point of the righteous attaining to a future bodily resurrection.88
Many rabbis viewed the Hebrew Scriptures as teaching a bodily resurrection, as seen in the Talmud and the Mishnah. For example Gamaliel said, "‘From the Prophets: as it is written, ‘Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body they shall arise. Awake and sing, you that live in the dust, for your dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out its dead’ (Isa. 26:19).’"89
Josephus also held the view that God will raise the dead bodily at the end of time. "God himself affords such a one, he believes that God hath made this grant to those that observe these laws, even though they be obliged readily to die for them, that they shall come into being again, and at a certain revolution of things receive a better life than they had enjoyed before."90
Though not as dogmatic as the rabbis, the Qumran community also believed in a bodily resurrection of the dead. "That bodies, covered with worms of the dead, might rise up from the dust to an et[ernal] council; from a perverse spirit to Your understanding (1QHa 19:15)."91
Thus rabbis in second-temple Judaism believed that God
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would raise everyone bodily, as Daniel 12:2–3 clearly states.
Similarly the church fathers also believed in a bodily resurrection but with a slight variation. They taught that a future resurrection is possible because of Jesus’ present bodily resurrection.92
Yet the most telling New Testament passage informing Christians that Paul clearly believed Jesus rose bodily is 1 Corinthians 15:44. "It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." By a metaphor about seeds sprouting (vv. 36–38) and by several contrasting analogies (vv. 39–41) Paul explained that the resurrection body contains continuity though it is discontinuous from one’s former earthly existence. The contrasts in the analogies do not denote two different substances of human existence ("immaterial spirit" versus "material flesh"). Instead they refer to two different kinds of material substance ("material spirit-controlled" versus "material fleshly controlled"). The resurrection body will not be of the same kind of material substance that people now possess; yet it will have some material substance. Paul was not saying that the "spiritual" resurrection body will be an "immaterial" body. Instead he was saying that the resurrection body will not be subject to weakness, sickness, and all the elements of the fallen world that control it now and can influence believers to sin. In fact Paul’s use of the adjectives "natural" (ψυχικ?ς) and "spiritual" (πνευματικ?ς) in the Corinthian letter do not refer to objects or persons composed of immaterial or material substance.93 Instead he employed the terms to emphasize what kind of powers control a person.94 Either fleshly, carnal, or human forces control a person, or the Holy Spirit controls the person (1 Cor. 2:13, 15; 3:1; 14:37).95
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Jesus’ numerous appearances, in which He was seen, ate, and was touched (Luke 24:34–43; John 20:19–25; 1 Cor. 15:5), reveal what first-century believers expected to occur at the end of the age (e.g., John 11:24; see also Isa. 26:19; Dan. 12:2–3). Because of what transpired in Jesus’ bodily resurrection, all believers can be assured that they too will have a bodily resurrection (1 Cor. 15:1–50).
Very informative. So, I guess the difference is that no one was saying the eschaton had begun when some claimed John had been resuscitated (rather than "resurrected", which carries a lot of end-of-time implications with it), but in Jesus' case they were. Is that accurate, or not because some thought that because John had been raised he now had new powers at work in his body?
Jakob, the problem, I think, is that people are trying to read too much into the situation without adequate facts to substantiate the interpretation.