Mark 6:14

ἤκουσεν : Herod heard, what? Christ's name, τὸ ὀ. α. (φανερὸν γὰρ ἐγέν., a parenthesis)? Or all that is stated in Mark 6:14-15, court opinion about Jesus (from φανερὸν to προφητῶν, a parenthesis)? Both views have been held, but the simplest view is that Herod heard of the doings of the Twelve, though it is difficult to believe that the report of their mission was the first tidings he had received of the great work of Jesus, especially in view of the understanding between the Pharisees and Herodians mentioned in Mark 3:6. In the reports which reached Herod the Twelve were merged in their Master. He was the hero of the whole Galilean movement. Such is the import of the statement that His name had become known. βασιλεὺς : strictly, Herod was only a tetrarch (Matthew and Luke), but it was natural for Mark writing for the Roman world to use this title, as it was applied freely in Rome to all eastern rulers. ἔλεγεν, he said, i.e., Herod. ἔλεγον, the reading of [42] [43], and adopted by W.H [44], puts the saying into the mouth of the court people. Matthew has taken it the former way, Luke the latter. The theory that Jesus was John risen looks more like the creation of a troubled conscience than the suggestion of light-minded courtiers, unless indeed it was thrown out by them as a jest, and yet it appears to be the aim of the evangelist first to report the opinions of others and then to give the king's, emphatically endorsing one of the hypotheses. ἐγήγερται, is risen, and is now alive and active, the latter the point emphasised. ἐνεργοῦσιν αἱ δ.: vide notes on Matthew.

[42] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

[43] Codex Bezae

[44] Westcott and Hort.