<p>14:2&nbsp;<em>And said to his servants: This is John the Baptist!</em>- The people thought that Jesus was John the Baptist resurrected (Mk. 6:14). Perhaps this was because they looked somehow similar, as cousins?</p>
<p><em>He has risen from the dead-</em>&nbsp;The idea of bodily resurrection was around in the first century, but very often in the sense of a dead person not really dying but returning&nbsp;<em>redivivus</em>&nbsp;in another form. This was widely believed about Nero- and there are allusions to the legend of Nero&nbsp;<em>redivivus&nbsp;</em>in Revelation (they are deconstructed there as being untrue- the ultimate resurrection was of the Lord Jesus, not Nero). Herod's words show that a 'resurrected' person was expected to do great miracles as proof of their resurrection. The Lord's resurrection was likewise accompanied by &quot;mighty works&quot;- but not by Him personally, but by the community of believers. This accommodation to contemporary views of resurrection was therefore a way of demonstrating that the believers doing the miracles after the Lord's resurrection were being presented to society as Jesus&nbsp;<em>redivivus</em>; as if they truly were the body of Jesus revived. Which of course they were, and we are. Paul uses the same Greek word translated &quot;show forth themselves&quot; to describe how the Lord Jesus worked through both Peter and himself through the doing of miracles (Gal. 2:8; 3:5).&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>And therefore do these powers work in him</em>- The Greek could more likely mean &lsquo;the powers&rsquo;, a reference to the popular beliefs in various &lsquo;powers&rsquo; rather than one God. Jn. 10:41 is plain that &ldquo;John did no miracle&rdquo;, and yet such was the evident spirituality of John that the theory quickly arose that the miracles of Jesus were really being done by John&nbsp;<em>redivivus</em>.</p>