Death of Herod Agrippa

Act_12:20-24
There was great consternation in the prison the next morning,
when it was found that Peter was absent. It would seem as if the
guard had been thrown into a deep sleep, seeing that they had
not been awakened by any of the circumstances that occurred; for
had they been cognizant of them, but passive through terror, they
would not have been so much surprised as soon as it was day.
Herod was in much wrath when he heard that, notwithstanding
the precautions he had directed to be taken, the apostle had
disappeared. He caused a diligent search to be made for him; and
when no trace of him could be found, he examined the soldiers;
and finding that they could not, or, as he perhaps supposed,
would not, throw any light on the matter, he ordered that they
should be put to death. It was in ancient times very generally
regarded as a capital offence for those to whose charge a
prisoner was entrusted to suffer him to escape; and it must have
seemed clear that in this case the guards had either slept upon
their post, or had been consenting parties to the escape. Herod
was probably the more induced to enforce this penalty, for the
purpose of conveying the impression that the soldiers had aided
in the escape of Peter.
Herod then proceeded to Caesarea, which had become the
political metropolis of the country since the great works and public
buildings which his grandfather had founded there. Soon after his
arrival, a grand commemoration was held in honor of the
emperor. The precise occasion we do not know. Some suppose it
was in honor of his birth-day; others that it was to celebrate his
return from Britain. There was, on this occasion, a large

concourse of the great and noble to Caesarea; and the theater,

built by the elder Herod, must have presented a splendid
appearance when the stone seats, rising tier above tier in the
open air, were lined with persons arrayed in the gorgeous
vestures of the East. Here the usual games were celebrated, such
as gladiatorial combats and the like. Herod Agrippa had
contracted at Rome a taste for these savage sports, and had
introduced them into Judea. Josephus mentions, that on one
occasion he had, at Berytus, given no fewer than seven hundred
pairs of men to fight in these mortal combats; thus, as the
historian approvingly remarks, using up his malefactors in such a
manner that, by the very act of getting rid of them, he made them
subservient to the pleasure of the people. The stricter Jews,
however, had a creditable dislike to these sports. But there were
many more accommodating in this respect; and in such places as
Caesarea, where a very large proportion, if not a majority, of the
inhabitants were Greeks, there never was want of spectators to fill
the theater.
On the second day Herod appeared in the theater, attired with
extraordinary splendor, as it was his intention, before the games
of the day commenced, to give audience to ambassadors from
Tyre and Sidon. These anciently renowned and still thriving cities
were not in the kings own territory, but enjoyed some share of
independence under the Romans. As their domains were small,
and all their attention was given to manufactures and commerce,
they depended almost entirely upon Herods territory for the
requisite supplies of corn and other agricultural produce, their
country being in fact, as the sacred historian remarks, nourished
by the kings country. It was therefore of the utmost importance
to them that they should be on good terms with him. But they had,
from some cause or other, incurred his deep displeasure; and to

put an end to the evils thus threatened or incurred, they repaired

to Caesarea, where having first of all made Blastus, the kings
chamberlain, their friend, doubtless by means of a handsome
douceur, for that has always been the way of the East, they
succeeded in obtaining a public audience, and of composing their
difference with him.
Josephus informs us that the kings dress on this day was of silver
tissue, which shone most effulgently in the morning sun. This
effulgence was probably heightened by numerous splendid
jewels. At this day, as in ancient days, the kings of Persia appoint,
for the reception of ambassadors, such an hour as, according to
the season or the situation of the intended room of audience, will
best enable them to display in full sunshine the dazzling brilliancy
of their jeweled dresses; and it is on record, that the title, He was
of resplendent raiment, was added to the name of one monarch,
because, on some high festival, his regal ornaments, glittering in
the suns rays, so dazzled the eyes of the beholders, that they
could scarcely endure the refulgence, and some courtiers
professed their inability to distinguish between the person of the
monarch and the great luminary of the day.
Arrayed in such royal attire, Herod took his place upon his high
seat in the theater. He proceeded to make a speech, probably in
the matter of the Tyrian embassy; and just as he concluded, the
rays of the morning sun played upon his dress, and gave to his
person a most dazzling appearance. Upon this, the heathen
courtiers, of whom there were many present, and probable the
Tyrian ambassadors prominently, raised a shout, hailing him as a
god! This idea was not unfamiliar to the heathen mind. In the
Greek mythology we read of many mortals raised to divinities
after their death. Among the Greek kingdoms of the East it was

also not unusual for a sovereign to cause divine honors to be

rendered to his predecessor; and among the Romans nearly all
the emperors were thus deified, as well as many of their wives
and female relatives. There are medals extant commemorating
the names of sixty persons who received the honors of deification
between the times of Julius Caesar and Constantine the Great,
when the custom ceased. There are also sculptures symbolizing
the fact of deification, or representing its ceremonies. In the
British Museum there is a curious sculptured tablet, representing
the apotheosis of Homer. For persons to receive divine honors
during life was less common, but not absolutely rare. Very lately
we saw Caligula claiming worship as a god; formerly Mark Antony
had assumed in Egypt the character of Osiris. Alexander the
Great had also affected to be a god; and the Scripture history
records the fact, that Darius was prevailed upon to be a god for a
month (Dan_6:7). Indeed, the manner in which Herod Agrippa
accepted this profane adulation, reminds one of the poets
description of Alexander under the like circumstances
A present deity! they shout around:
A present deity! the vaulted roofs rebound.
With ravished ears
The monarch hears,
Assumes the god,
Affects the nod,
And seems to shake the spheres.
In like manner the King of Judea accepted this homage, or at
least did not repel it, though, as a Jew, he ought to have repelled
it with horror and indignation. Of all who ever accepted such
adulation, none was so guilty as Herod; for he knew the truth
that there was but one God, the creator of heaven and earth; and

that he was a very jealous God, and would not give his glory to
another. Of this he was instantly reminded, for immediately the
angel of God smote him, because he gave not God the glory. It
may be that the rays of the sun, which by shining upon his
raiment, did, in conjunction with the eloquent beneficence of his
speech, call forth this blasphemous adulation, were, in the shape
of a sun-stroke, made the appropriate instrument of his
punishment. He was seized with horrid torments in the intestines;
and he who had just been greeted as a god, was borne forth, in
all his splendid raiment, amid groans, and cries, and tears,
declaring that he had received the death-stroke, and
acknowledging the hand of God in his punishment. He survived
five days in extreme torture, being eaten of worms, and then
died of that horrid and loathsome death, which, as we formerly
showed, Note: Evening Series: Thirty-First WeekSunday. has
so peculiarly been the doom of tyrannous persecutors and
blasphemers, as if to show what weapons the Lord had reserved
with which to bring down into the very dust the loftiness of the
most proud.
We have combined, in this account of Herods death, the
statements of St. Luke and of Josephus. There is a remarkable
agreement between them, although Luke, in his more concise
statement, omits some circumstances which Josephus, in his
more full account, supplies, and which fit very well into the shorter
narrative. Thus both agree that his disease was of the intestines;
but Josephus says nothing of the worms, while Luke, as a
physician, naturally notices the cause as well as the fact of the
tortures Herod endured. Both also agree that the real cause of his
death was his acceptance of divine honors; for although Josephus
was tender of the memory of this king, and gives a more favorable
character of him than is warranted by the facts he records, he was

too good a Jew to suppress or disguise this circumstance, which,

indeed was acknowledged by Herods own conscience, and was
known to all the people.
Still Herod was not, as times went, a bad ruler; and in the
apprehension that a worse condition of affairs might ensue, his
demise was deeply lamented by his subjects. The Christians,
however, had no cause to deplore his death; and it must not
escape remark, that the sacred historian, after recording that
Herod gave up the ghost, emphatically adds, But the word of
God grew and multiplied.