Mark 6:14 Commentary and Bible Study

In this passage we see Herod moved at times to what seems like deep conviction, but was it natural or spiritual conviction? People may experience either. They may experience a great pressure on the conscience, a great concern about eternal life, concern for spiritual things, but sadly, these may turn out to be entirely natural fears and feelings, and they will, in the course of time, die and disappear. On the other hand it may be that they are convictions that turn out to be spiritual convictions, and the Spirit of God is at work and there is a real concern about standing before God, and about readiness to hear the message of salvation, the preaching of the gospel, and there is a deep hungering and thirsting for Christ. We then speak of spiritual convictions and the call of Christ is heard; the person will bow the knee and come to him in repentance and faith, and be surely converted and changed by the power of God. We read here of King Herod, Herod the tetrarch, ruler over Galilee and the Perea (east of the Jordan), parts of the Roman Empire, on behalf of Cesar. ‘And king Herod heard of him.’ ‘Of him’ is in italics; it isn’t in the original Greek. Our King James translators have supplied these words to make good grammar and to be helpful, but the verse is better as it stands, ‘and King Herod heard’. ‘Heard of him’ turns out to be a little misleading, because he would by now have known all about Christ. He was the tetrarch; Christ was preaching in Galilee, part of the area over which Herod ruled, and great crowds were attending him. This is Herod Antipas, one of the four sons of Herod the great, so-called, and he would have known all about Christ. What King Herod now heard was of Christ’s many miracles and of the substance of his message and his preaching. At first when he heard of Christ, he probably paid little attention. Then he paid a little more when he heard of the great crowds. Could this be some manifestation of extreme nationalism? Was there going to be a rebellion and insurrection? That would always be the mind of a tetrarch, ruling on behalf of Rome. He was in power to stop any such thing from happening. But then when he heard of the miracles and how many there were, and how remarkable they were – so sudden and powerful – and how the people were reacting, then he began to think much more deeply and become more concerned to find out. ‘And king Herod heard of him; (for his name was spread abroad).’ His reaction – it’s somehow summarised here by Mark. He said that John the Baptist was risen from the dead.