King Herod when hearing of Jesus says he is John risen from the dead!

King Herod knew and protected John the Baptist.  He had him beheaded against his will in the end.  When the reports about Jesus got to Herod's ears he said that this man must be John back from the dead as in risen from the dead. 

Nobody understands this for Jesus and John were supposedly ministering at the one time and Herod knew John.  The explanation is that the gospels were lying that John and Jesus's careers overlapped or that people were so gullible that they were able to believe in resurrections and not let the facts stop them. 

Herod could believe John rose but did not believe Jesus rose.  That says a lot. And Herod had a lot to lose - eternal life - he would have been a man of his time and believed that stuff. Even if the apostles died for their testimony to Christ his testimony against was the stronger for he risked eternal damnation.  And he did have a severe conscience problem over John's murder so he would have been susceptible to the hope offered by the resurrection of Jesus. 

I do not consider the suggestion that perhaps Herod's reasoning was that Jesus was possessed by John's spirit and so John rose in that sense to be plausible. This view is based on Carl Kraeling who says Herod actually said, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead and because of this the powers are at work (dia touto ener-gousin ai dunameij) in [Jesus].”  Because of the occult connotations of the powers, Matthew in his revision of Mark leaves the expression out.

To quote Peter Bolt, " Despite the fact that so few have noticed it, and so many have ignored it, it seems that the narrative is saying clearly that Herod considered Jesus to be a magician who had raised John’s spirit in order to capitalize upon its power. This is why the focus is upon John’s beheading. A beheaded man, as a biaioqanatoj, would make a powerful ghost and would be highly sought after by the magicians. When Herod suggests that Jesus has ‘raised’ John, he uses language that regularly appears in the magical material for the summoning of the ghostly daimon from its rest in the underworld in order to do the magician’s bidding. "  The powers Jesus had are according to Carl and Peter referring to how a man can use a dead person's ghost to do miracles.  Rising from the dead meant rising from the dead and Herod would have expected John to have magic powers if he got back from the dead in a new body. 

Ross Kraemer notes how Mark's gospel despite space being tight and its eagerness for shortness dwells at length on John's death as if to convince readers that John really died and was buried and was not coming back.  The implication is that John's head was missing so John could not rise. 

However we are not told where John was buried or if the tomb was checked!

All that shows us that the idea of a prophet rising from the dead to save the world could have started with King Herod!!  Who knows what debt the Christians owe Herod!

WORKS CONSULTED
 
Alleged Discrepancies of the Bible, John W Haley, Whitaker House, Pennsylvania, undated
Decoding Mark, John Dart, Trinity Press, Harrisburg, PA, 2003
Evidence that Demands a Verdict, Vol 1, Josh McDowell, Alpha Scripture Press Foundation, Bucks, 1995
Handbook of Christian Apologetics, Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli, Monarch, East Sussex, 1995
In Defence of the Faith, Dave Hunt, Harvest House, Eugene, Oregon, 1996
In Search of Certainty, John Guest Regal Books, Ventura, California, 1983
Jesus and the Four Gospels, John Drane, Lion Books, Herts, 1984
Jesus Lived in India, Holger Kersten, Element, Dorset, 1994
Jesus the Evidence, Ian Wilson Pan, London 1985
Mind Out of Time, Ian Wilson, Gollanez, London, 1981
Mother of Nations, Joan Ashton, Veritas, Dublin, 1988
The Bible Fact or Fantasy? John Drane, Lion Books, Oxford, 1989
The Encyclopaedia of Bible Difficulties, Gleason W Archer, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1982
The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh & Henry Lincoln, Corgi, London, 1982
The Jesus Conspiracy, Holger Kersten and Elmar R Gruber, Element, Dorset, 1995
The Jesus Inquest, Charles Foster, Monarch Books, Oxford, 2006
The Messianic Legacy, Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh & Henry Lincoln, Corgi, London, 1987
The Metaphor of God Incarnate, John Hick, SCM Press Ltd, London, 1993
The Passover Plot, Hugh Schonfield, Element Books, Dorset, 1996
The Resurrection Factor, Josh McDowell, Alpha Scripture Press Foundation, Bucks, 1993
The Resurrection of Jesus, Pinchas Lapide, SPCK, London, 1984
The Truth of Christianity, WH Turton, Wells Gardner, Darton & Co Ltd, London, 1905
The Turin Shroud is Genuine, Rodney Hoare, Souvenir Press, London, 1998HoarHo
The Unauthorised Version, Robin Lane Fox, Penguin, Middlesex, 1992
The Vatican Papers, Nino Lo Bello, New English Library, Sevenoaks, Kent, 1982
The Virginal Conception and Bodily Resurrection of Jesus Raymond E Brown Paulist Press, New York, 1973
The Womb and the Tomb, Hugh Montefiore, Fount – HarperCollins, London, 1992
Verdict on the Empty Tomb, Val Grieve, Falcon, London, 1976
Who Moved the Stone? Frank Morison, OM Publishing Cumbria, 1997
Why People believe Weird Things, Michael Shermer, Freeman, New York, 1997
 

BIBLE VERSION USED
The Amplified Bible
  
THE WWW
 
Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead? Dan Barker debates Mike Horner.
www.ffrf.org/debates/barker_horner.html

A Naturalistic Account of the Resurrection
http://www.phlab.missouri.edu/~c570529/PhilosoStop/resurrection.html

Earliest Christianity, G A Wells, Internet Infidels
www.infidels.org/library/modern/g_a_wells/earliest.html

A Resurrection Debate by G A Wells,
www.infidels.org/library/modern/g_a_wells/resurrection.html

Still Standing on Sinking Sand, Farrell Till,
www.infidels.org/library/magazines/tsr/1997/1/1sink97.html

Why I Don’t Buy the Resurrection Story, by Richard Carrier
www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/resurrection/index.shtml

The Resurrection by Steven Carr
www.bowness.demon.co.uk/resr.htm
 
The Evangelical Apologists: Are They Reliable? Robert Price
www.infidels.org/library/modern/robert_price/beyond_born_again/chap5.html

Did Jesus Really Rise from the Dead? Dan Barker versus Mike Horner www.ffrf.org/debates/barker_horner.html
 
Jesus Slept! This page asks if Jesus could have been doped on the cross meaning that the explanation for the resurrection was that he was never dead.
http://www.forteantimes.com/articles/146%20mandrake.schtml
 
Beyond Born Again
http://www.infidels.org//library/modern/robert_price/beyond_born_again/chap6.html
 
Did Early Christians use Hallucinogenic Mushrooms? Archaeological Evidence. Franco Fabbro.
http://people.etnoteam.it/maiocchi/fabbro.htm
 
Blessed Easter
www.mindspring.com/~bab5/BIB/lessons.htm
 
Craig’s Empty Tomb and Habermas on the Post-Resurrection Appearances of Jesus
www.infidels.org/library/modern/richard_carrier/indef/4e.html
 
The Case For Christianity Examined: Truth or Lies?
www.askwhy.co.uk/awstruth/ChristianCase.html
 
Challenging the Verdict
A Cross-Examination of Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ
http://human.st/jesuspuzzle/CTVExcerptsThree.htm#Twelve