John Gill Commentary Matthew 14

At that time Herod the tetrarch
Not Herod the Great, in whose reign Christ was born and who slew the infants of Bethlehem, but his son. This was, as the Jewish chronologer ^F3 rightly observes, ''Herod Antipater, whom they call (yqrtyj), "the tetrarch"; the son of Herod the First, and brother of Archelaus, and the third king of the family of Herod.'' And though he is here called a "tetrarch", he is in (Mark 6:14) called a king. The reason of his being styled a "tetrarch" was this; his father Herod divided his large kingdom into four parts, and bequeathed them to his sons, which was confirmed by the Roman senate: Archelaus reigned in Judea in his stead; upon whose decease, that part was put under the care of a Roman governor; who, when John the Baptist began to preach, was Pontius Pilate; this same Herod here spoken of, being "tetrarch" of Galilee, which was the part assigned him; and his brother Philip "tetrarch" of Ituraea, and of the region of Trachonitis; and Lysanias, "tetrarch" of Abilene, (Luke 3:1).

The word "tetrarch" signifying one that has the "fourth" part of government: and in Munster's Hebrew Gospel, he is called "one of the four princes"; and in the Arabic version, "a prince of the fourth part"; and in the Persic, a "governor of the fourth part of the kingdom".

The "time" referred to was after the death of John the Baptist, and when Christ had been for a good while, and in many places, preaching and working miracles. The particular instant to which respect is had is the sending forth of the twelve disciples to preach and work miracles, which might serve the more to spread the fame of Christ, and which reached the court of Herod; who, it is said here,

heard of the fame of Jesus :
what a wonderful preacher he was, and what mighty things were done by him.

FOOTNOTES:

• F3: David Ganz. Tzemach David, par. 1. fol. 25. 2. and so in Juchasin, fol. 142. 2.

And said unto his servants
Those of his household, his courtiers, with whom he more familiarly conversed; to these he expressed his fears, that it might be true what was suggested by the people, and he was ready to believe it himself;

this is John the Baptist :
some copies add, "whom I have beheaded", as in (Mark 6:16) the guilt of which action rose in his mind, lay heavy on him, and filled him with horror and a thousand fears:

he is risen from the dead ;
which if he was a Sadducee, as he is thought to be, by comparing (Matthew 16:6) with (Mark 8:15) was directly contrary to his former sentiments, and was extorted from him by his guilty conscience; who now fears, what before he did not believe; and what he fears, he affirms; concluding that John was raised from the dead, to give proof of his innocence, and to revenge his death on him:

and therefore mighty works do show themselves in him ,
or "are wrought by him"; for though he wrought no miracles in his lifetime, yet, according to a vulgar notion, that after death men are endued with a greater power, Herod thought this to be the case; or that he was possessed of greater power, on purpose to punish him for the murder of him; and that these miracles which were wrought by him, were convincing proofs of the truth of his resurrection, and of what he was able to do to him, and what he might righteously expect from him.

For Herod had laid hold on John
By his servants, whom he sent to apprehend him:

and bound him ;
laid him in chains, as if he was a malefactor;

and put him in prison ,
in the castle of Machaerus ^F4 ,

for Herodias's sake ;
who was angry with him, had a bitter quarrel against him, and by whose instigation all this was done; who was

his brother Philip's wife .
This Herodias was the daughter of Aristobulus, son to Herod the Great ^F5 , and brother to Philip, and to this Herod; so that she was niece to them both; and first married the one, and then the other, while the former was living.

Philip and this Herod were both sons of Herod the Great, but not by the same woman; Philip was born of Cleopatra of Jerusalem, and Herod Antipas of Malthace, a Samaritan ^F6 ; so that Philip was his brother by his father's side, but not by his mother's;

the Evangelist Mark adds, "for he had married her": the case was this, Herod being sent for to Rome, called at his brother Philip's by the way, where he fell into an amorous intrigue with his wife, and agreed, upon his return, to take her with him and marry her; as he accordingly did, and divorced his own wife, who was daughter of Aretas, king of Arabia Petraea; which occasioned a war between Herod and his wife's father, in which the former was beaten ^F7 ,

FOOTNOTES:

• F4: Joseph. Antiqu. 1. 18. c. 7.
• F5: Ib. c. 6.
• F6: Joseph. Antiqu. 1. 18. c. 6. de Bello Jud. l. 1. c. 28. sect. 7.
• F7: Joseph. Antiqu. 1. 18. c. 6.

For John said to him
John having heard of this incestuous marriage, went to Herod, and reproved him to his face for it; and, as Luke says, "for all the evils he has done", (Luke 3:19) for he was a very wicked man, and guilty of many flagitious crimes: John, in so doing, showed his zeal for holiness, his hatred of sin, his courage and faithfulness in reproving thus freely so great a man; and made it manifest, that he came in the spirit of Elijah: what he said to him was,

it is not lawful for you to have her,
being forbidden, (Leviticus 18:16) for though by another law it was right to marry a brother's wife, after his decease, when he left no issue, yet this was not the case here; Philip was now living, and, had he been dead, such a marriage would have been unlawful, because there was issue; she has a daughter, who afterwards is said to dance before Herod; and besides, he himself had another wife, whom he put away; so that his sin was a very aggravated and complicated one: lying with a brother's wife, was one of those sins which, according to the Jewish ^F8 canons, deserved cutting off, or death by the hand of God.

Josephus ^F9 gives another reason of the imprisonment and death of John, that Herod feared that the people of the Jews, through his means, would be moved to sedition, and revolt from his government; which might be what Herodias suggested to him, or what he gave out himself, to cover the true cause of his proceedings: but the true reason is, what is here given, and is to be confirmed by the testimony of Jewish writers.

One of their chronologers ^F11 delivers the account in these express words: "Herod Antipater was a very wicked and pernicious man, many of the wise men of Israel he slew with the sword; and he took to wife, his brother Philip's wife, whilst he was living; and because John the high priest (for so through mistake they call him) (hz le wxykwh) "reproved him for this"; (see (Luke 3:19) ) he slew him with the sword, with many of the wise men of Israel." And, says their historian ^F12 , "also he, Herod, slew John, because he said to him, it is forbidden you to take the wife of Philip, and he slew him; this is that John that practised baptism."

FOOTNOTES:

• F8: Misn. Ceritot, c. 1. sect. 1.
• F9: Antiqu. lsss. 18. c. 6.
• F11: Ganz. Tzemach David, par. 1. fol. 25. 2.
• F12: Joseph. Gorionides, 1. 5. c. 45.

And when he would have put him to death
As soon as he apprehended him, and put him into prison; being provoked by his reproving him, and being stirred up by Herodias, who was greatly incensed and enraged, and would have killed him herself, but could not, being hindered by Herod: who, though he had a good will and strong inclination to take away his life, yet what with fearing the terror of his own conscience, and the reverence and respect he had for John, as a good man; and especially for the reason here given, he did not do it, for

he feared the multitude :
not God, but the multitude; and these, not only the large number of people that attended on John's ministry, and were baptized by him, and became his disciples, but the generality of the people, the whole body of the Jewish nation. So God is pleased oftentimes to restrain the wickedness of princes, by the fear of their subjects:

because they counted him as a prophet ;
a holy good man, and who was sent of God; they respected him as such, believing him to be a true and real prophet, and treated him with honour and reverence, suitable to his character; wherefore Herod was afraid, should he take away his life, that the people would mutiny, rise up against him, and revolt from him. In what esteem John was with the people of the Jews in general, may be learned from the character Josephus gives of him, as a good man; who stirred up the Jews to the practice of virtue, especially piety and justice; which made the common people fond of him and his doctrine; and who were of opinion, that the defeat of Herod's army, which followed the death of John, was a just judgment of God upon him for it ^F13 .

FOOTNOTES:

• F13: Antiqu. 1. 18. c. 6.