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Mat_14:2. Τοῖς παισὶν αὐτοῦ ] to his slaves (comp. note on Mat_8:6), who, according to Oriental ideas, are no other than his courtiers. Comp. 1Sa_16:17; 1Ma_1:6; 1Ma_1:8; 1 Maccabees 3 Esdr. Mat_2:17; Diod. Sic. xvii. 36.
αὐτός ] indicating by its emphasis the terror-stricken conscience: He, the veritable John.
ἀπὸ τῶν νεκρῶν ] from the dead, among whom he was dwelling in Hades. The supposition of Wetstein and Bengel, that Herod was a Sadducee (erroneously founded upon Mar_8:15, comp. Mat_16:6), is no less inconsistent with what he here says about one having risen from the dead, than the other supposition that he believed this to be a case of metempsychosis (Grotius, Gratz, von Cölln); for he assumes that not merely the soul, but that the entire personality of John, has returned. Generally speaking, we do not meet with the doctrine of transmigration among the Jews till some time after; see Delitzsch, Psychol. p. 463 f. [E. T. 545 f.]. Herod’s language is merely the result of terror, which has been awakened by an evil conscience, and which, with the inconsistency characteristic of mental bewilderment, believes something to have happened—though contrary to all expectation—which, in ordinary circumstances, was looked upon as theoretically impossible; while, again, the opinions that were circulating respecting Jesus (Luk_9:7 f.) would suggest, in the case before us, the particular idea to which Herod here gives expression. The Pharisaic belief in the resurrection, which was not unknown to Herod, became, in spite of himself, the psychological starting-point.
διὰ τοῦτο ] on this account, because he is no ordinary man, but one risen from the dead.
αἱ δυνάμεις ] the powers manifesting themselves in his miracles.