Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 14:2

"and said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist; he is risen from the dead; and therefore do these powers work in him." — Matthew 14:2 (ASV)

This is John the Baptist — In Matthew 16:14 and Luke 9:7-9, this is one of three opinions circulating among the people about our Lord’s identity. The other two were:

1. that He was Elijah, and
2. that He was one of the old prophets who had risen again.

The tetrarch's policy connected him with the Sadducean priestly party rather than the more popular and rigid Pharisees. A comparison of Matthew 16:6 with Mark 8:15 suggests that the “leaven of Herod” is identical to that of the Sadducees.

Given this connection, Herod's acceptance of the first of these rumors is especially remarkable. The superstitious terror of a guilt-stained conscience proved stronger than his skepticism as a Sadducee, even though it was likely mixed with the wider unbelief of Roman Epicureanism.

To him, this new Prophet—who worked signs and wonders that John had never performed—was the reappearance of the man he had murdered. It was more than a ghost from the unseen world, more than the metempsychosis of John’s soul into another body. It was John himself.