But when Herod heard this, he said, John, whom I beheaded, has been raised from the dead! — Herod's specific identification of Jesus with the risen John reveals Herod's guilty conscience about the execution. The whom I beheaded is the admission of the act; the raised from the dead communicates Herod's supernatural explanation for the powers being reported. Herod does not believe in resurrection as a theological principle (the Herodian household was associated with the Sadducees who rejected resurrection) but the powers being reported about Jesus have no other explanation Herod can reach.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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