Mat 11:2 | PNT | STEP | When John had heard in the prison . Compare . John had now been a year in prison, to which he had been sent by Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee, because he had rebuked his adulterous marriage with his brother Philip's wife ( ). Josephus says that Machaerus, a strong fortress built by Herod the Great, the father of Antipas, about ten miles east of the Dead Sea, was the prison. He sent two of his disciples . To make the inquiry found in the next verse. The course of Jesus was so different from what John himself, in common with other Jews, expected of the Messiah, that after lying in a dungeon for a year, he began to be uncertain. If Jesus was the Christ, why did he not proclaim himself the Messiah King, destroy the power of the Romans and of Herod, and release John himself from prison? So he reasoned.

‏ Matthew 11:2

When John had heard in the prison. Compare Mr 6:14-29 Lu 7:19-28. John had now been a year in prison, to which he had been sent by Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee, because he had rebuked his adulterous marriage with his brother Philip's wife (Mt 14:1-11). Josephus says that Machaerus, a strong fortress built by Herod the Great, the father of Antipas, about ten miles east of the Dead Sea, was the prison.

He sent two of his disciples. To make the inquiry found in the next verse. The course of Jesus was so different from what John himself, in common with other Jews, expected of the Messiah, that after lying in a dungeon for a year, he began to be uncertain. If Jesus was the Christ, why did he not proclaim himself the Messiah King, destroy the power of the Romans and of Herod, and release John himself from prison? So he reasoned.