{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/106/1060140.htm","path":"chr/ecf/106/1060140.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/106/1060140.htm","text":"Chapter XLIII.\u2014Of the Mutual Consistency of the Accounts Which are Given by Matthew, Mark, and Luke of What Was Said by Herod on Hearing About the Wonderful Works of the Lord, and of Their Concord in Regard to the Order of Narration.\n91. Matthew continues: \u201cAt that time Herod the tetrarch heard of the fame of Jesus, and said unto his servants, This is John the Baptist: he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do show forth themselves in him.\u201d 1038 Mark gives the same passage, and in the same manner, but not in the same order. 1039 For, after relating how the Lord sent forth the disciples with the charge to take nothing with them on the journey save a staff only, and after bringing to its close so much of the discourse which was then delivered as has been recorded by him, he has subjoined this section. He does not, however, connect it in such a way as to compel us to suppose that what it narrates took place actually in immediate sequence on what precedes it in the history. And in this, indeed, Matthew is at one with him. For Matthew\u2019s expression is, \u201cat that time,\u201d not \u201con that day,\u201d or \u201cat that hour.\u201d Only there is this difference between them, that Mark refers not to Herod himself as the utterer of the words in question, but to the people, his statement being this: \u201cThey said 1040 that John the Baptist was risen from the dead;\u201d whereas Matthew makes Herod himself the p. 146 speaker, the phrase being: \u201cHe said unto his servants.\u201d Luke, again, keeping the same order of narration as Mark, and introducing it also indeed, like Mark, in no such way as to compel us to suppose that his order must have been the order of actual occurrence, presents his version of the same passage in the following terms: \u201cHerod the tetrarch heard of all that was done by Him: and he was perplexed, because that it was said of some, that John was risen from the dead; and of some, that Elias had appeared; and of others, that one of the old prophets was risen again. And Herod said, John have I beheaded: but who is this of whom I hear such things? And he desired to see Him.\u201d 1041 In these words Luke also attests Mark\u2019s statement, at least, so far as concerns the affirmation that it was not Herod himself, but other parties, who said that John was risen from the dead. But as regards his mentioning how Herod was perplexed, and his bringing in thereafter those words of the same prince: \u201cJohn have I beheaded: but who is this of whom I hear such things?\u201d we must either understand that after the said perplexity he became persuaded in his own mind of the truth of what was asserted by others, when he spoke to his servants, in accordance with the version given by Matthew, which runs thus: \u201cAnd he said to his servants, This is John the Baptist: he is risen from the dead; and therefore mighty works do show forth themselves in him;\u201d or we must suppose that these words were uttered in a manner betraying that he was still in a state of perplexity. For had he said, \u201cCan this be John the Baptist?\u201d or, \u201cCan it chance that this is John the Baptist?\u201d there would have been no need of saying anything about a mode of utterance by which he might have revealed his dubiety and perplexity. But seeing that these forms of expression are not before us, his words may be taken to have been pronounced in either of two ways: so that we may either suppose him to have been convinced by what was said by others, and so to have spoken the words in question with a real belief [in John\u2019s reappearance]; or we may imagine him to have been still in that state of hesitancy of which mention is made by Luke. Our explanation is favoured by the fact that Mark, who had already told us how it was by others that the statement was made as to John having risen from the dead, does not fail to let us know also that in the end Herod himself spoke to this effect: \u201cIt is John whom I beheaded: he is risen from the dead.\u201d 1042 For these words may also be taken to have been pronounced in either of two ways,\u2014namely, as the utterances either of one corroborating a fact, or of one in doubt. Moreover, while Luke passes on to a new subject after the notice which he gives of this incident, those other two, Matthew and Mark, take occasion to tell us at this point in what way John was put to death by Herod.\nMatt. 14:1, 2.\n145:1039 145:1040\nDicebant; so that the reading \u1f14\u03bb\u03b5\u03b3\u03bf\u03bd is followed instead of \u1f14\u03bb\u03b5\u03b3\u03b5\u03bd in Mark vi. 14. [Westcott and Hort give the plural in their text, following the Vatican codex and some other authorities.\u2014R.]\n146:1041 146:1042\n[Augustin gives the reading followed in the Revised Version (\u201cJohn whom I beheaded, he is risen\u201d). The translator gives the words of the Authorized Version.\u2014R.]","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VI: The Harmony of t...","type":"page"}