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Mat_14:4 f. Οὐκ ἔξεστι ] Because Philip was still living, and had a daughter. Lev_18:16; Lev_20:21; Joseph. Antt. xviii. 5. 1, 2; Lightfoot on this passage. For ἔχειν γυναῖκα , as expressing matrimonial possession, see note on 1Co_5:1. It is probable that Herod only made John’s bold rebuke a pretext for putting him in prison; the real cause, according to Josephus, 18:5. 2 f., was fear lest he should be the means of creating an insurrection.
εἶχον ] not: aestumabant (a common but ungrammatical rendering), but: they held him as a prophet, i.e. they stood to him as to a prophet. This is in conformity with classical usage, according to which ἔχω τινα , with a predicate, expresses the relation in which a person stands to some other person; for example, φίλους αὐτοὺς ἔχεις (Xen. Symp. iv. 49): thou standest related to them as to friends; Eur. Herc. fur. 1405: παῖδʼ ὅπως ἔχω σʼ ἐμόν , I stand to thee as to a child; Herodian, i. 13. 16; and see likewise the note on Luk_14:18; Phm_1:17. The appended ὡς means: not otherwise than as. Krüger, § 57. 3. 1 and 2; Kühner, II. 2, p. 995. Similarly also in Mat_21:26. Otherwise in Mar_11:32.