Tool Beta
Is It Actually in the Bible?
Phrases people quote as Scripture. The real verse, or the honest answer that there is not one.
Herod "observed" John the Baptist (Mark 6:20) sounds like he was merely watching him with curiosity.
Herod "observed" John by protecting him from Herodias, not by simply keeping an eye on him.
Mark 6:20
Mark 6:20, in every translation this tool compares.
What is actually going on
The underlying Greek doesn't mean "observe" in the sense of watching: it means to protect or keep safe. Herod feared John as a righteous man and kept him in custody specifically to shield him from Herodias's designs to have him killed, even while listening to him gladly.
"Observe" in 1611 could carry this older sense of "keep" or "guard" (as in "observe the commandments"), which is why modern translations render this verse "protected him" or "kept him safe."
