Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Mark 6:16

"But Herod, when he heard [thereof], said, John, whom I beheaded, he is risen." — Mark 6:16 (ASV)

Herod’s view—that Jesus was John the Baptist raised from the dead—arose not so much from what he had heard about Jesus as from the proddings of a guilty conscience, since Herod had been directly responsible for John’s death. The mention of the death of John causes Mark to interrupt the account of the mission of the Twelve in order to tell the story of John’s murder.