6:14 Herod Antipas was not really a king. He was the tetrarch who ruled over Galilee and Perea. Mark probably called him a king because that is how the people in his territory spoke of him popularly.150It was natural for Mark, who was writing for Romans, to use this title since the Roman government used it to describe all eastern rulers.151
The antecedent of "it"(NASB) or "this"(NIV) seems to be the ministry of Jesus' disciples (vv. 7-13). Their ministry focused on the identity of Jesus, which is the subject of this pericope. Interestingly Jesus sent them out on this mission even though their own understanding of His identity was still partial. He wanted them to share what they knew then even though they would understand more later.
Matthew recorded that Herod had heard the report concerning Jesus (Matt. 14:1), and Luke wrote that he heard of all that happened (Luke 9:7). These are complementary, not mutually exclusive descriptions. Herod heard about the ministry that Jesus was carrying on.
People were explaining Jesus' miraculous powers in several different ways. Mark mentioned three. Some said John the Baptist had risen from the dead, and he was the person doing these miracles. Of course, John had not performed miracles before his death (John 10:41), so this view may have arisen from superstition.
"John was a forerunner of Jesus in his birth, ministry, and death. Also the way people identified John the Baptist was as varied as the way they identified Jesus."152
6:15-16 Perhaps the view that Jesus was Elijah owed its origin to John's description of Jesus as "the Coming One"(Mal. 3:1; 4:5; cf. Deut. 18:15-19). Some people concluded that Jesus was a prophet because of His preaching and miracle working powers. Herod's view that Jesus was John returned to life seems to have originated from his guilty conscience since he had murdered John. Evidently Herod had not heard about Jesus before he killed John.
