Kata Markon

["Doug Geyer" <dgeyer AT aol.com>]

This is a late response to an interesting question.
The story in Mark indicates that only Herod Antipas believes the figure
out in the countryside/towns performing miracles is John the Baptist. 
Mark gives us a unique insight as to the reason: the murder of John the
Baptist at Herod's command. In my forthcoming book, <Fear, Anomaly, and 
Uncertainty in the Gospel of Mark> (December
2001)--"take a look"--I argue the the reasons for Herod's belief are
religious and political. I should argue that the story indicates that
Herod Antipas is afraid that John has returned from the dead, to seek
vengeance for his violent death at Antipas's command, and to do this by
creating mayhem through miracles (the ghost of John is bringing more
benefit to people than ever has Herod--who always was a struggler,
anyway).

The crime against John is wonderfully sketched in Mark, and only in Mark.
Beides the atrocious murder by beheading, and the trivial reasons for it,
there is also the following plumb, if I may suggest it:
John the Baptist's head is not asked for and put on a "platter" for a
banquet, but on a "tablet" (pinax) that emulates a "tablet" of the OT
stories about the 10 commandments.  The story has John's prophetic voice
silenced, his bloody head that once spoke on behalf of what is fitting and
proper now sitting silently on a symbol of the law that guided him when he
spoke.