Antipas believes that John has returned from the dead in the temporary sense exhibited in some biblical resuscitations (1 Kings 17:21-22; 2 Kings 4:34-36), not the final resurrection, which Jewish people generally understood as a corporate event (Dan 12:2). Although Antipas had executed John, he knew very well that John was a righteous man and feared his influence. The more evil a society becomes, the more likely its members are to kill the righteous whose words or lives reproach its character, even if they recognize that the righteous speak truth.