<p>9:7 <i>Now Herod the tetrarch- </i>Literally, &lsquo;one of a fourth&rsquo;; a reference to how after the death of Herod the Great in 4 BC, the kingdom was divided amongst four others.</p><p><i>Heard of all that was done- </i>The Lord had recently used the same word in saying that unbelievers &quot;By hearing shall hear and shall not understand&quot; (Mt. 13:14). The connection may be to demonstrate that pagan Herod was no better than the unbelieving Jewish religious leaders. Even in the Old Testament, unbelieving Israel are often described in terms of the Gentile world. We can also note that the Gospels were designed for memorization, and such word plays are common in order to assist committing them to memory. The Gospels likewise should be the lifeblood of all serious Christian living and thinking in this age of electronic memory.</p><p><i>And he was very worried, because of what was said by some, that John had risen from the dead</i>- The people thought that Jesus was John the Baptist resurrected (Mk. 6:14). Perhaps this was because they looked somehow similar, as cousins?&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;<i>redivivus</i>&nbsp;in another form. This was widely believed about Nero- and there are allusions to the legend of Nero&nbsp;<i>redivivus&nbsp;</i>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;<i>redivivus</i>; 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>