XIII. HEROD AND THE SADDUCEES

We do not read a great deal respecting Herod the tetrarch in the Evangelists; but all that is said of him will be perceived, on examination (for it may not strike us at first sight) to be perfectly harmonious.

When the disciples had forgotten to take bread with them in the boat, our Lord warns them to “take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.” So says St. Mark, 8:15. The charge which Jesus gives them on this occasion is thus worded by St. Matthew, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees, ” 16:6. The obvious inference to be drawn from the two passages is, that Herod himself was a Sadducee. Let us turn to St. Luke, and though still we find no assertion to this effect, he would clearly lead us to the same conclusion. Chap. 9:7, “Now Herod 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 some, 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.”

The transmigration of the souls of good men was a popular belief at that time amongst the Pharisees (see Josephus, B. J. ii. 83.14); a Pharisee, therefore, would have found little difficulty in this resurrection of John, or of an old prophet; in fact, it was the Pharisees, no doubt, who started the idea: not so Herod; he was perplexed about it; he had “beheaded John,” which was in his creed the termination of his existence; well then might he ask, “who is this of whom I hear such things?” Neither do I discover any objection in the parallel passage of St. Matthew, 14:1: “At 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.” It is the language of a man (especially when taken in connection with St. Luke), who began to doubt whether he was right in his Sadducean notions: a guilty conscience awaking in him some apprehension that he whom he had murdered might be alive again—that there might, after all, be a “resurrection, and angel, and spirit.”