The Death of Herod Agrippa

The consequences of the king’s attack on the apostles were not long delayed. The avenging servant of divine justice overtook him at once, right after his plot against the apostles, as the book of Acts records. He had gone to Caesarea, and there, on a notable feast day, dressed in splendid royal clothing, he made a speech to the people from a high place in front of the tribunal. The whole people cheered the speech as the voice of a god and not of a man, and at once, the Scripture records, an angel of the Lord struck him, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. [a] It is worth marveling at how the account of Josephus agrees with the divine Scripture in this extraordinary event too. He plainly bears witness to the truth in the nineteenth book of his Antiquities, where he tells of the wonder in these very words:

“He had completed the third year of his reign over all Judea when he came to the city of Caesarea, which was formerly called Strato’s Tower. There he held shows in Caesar’s honor, since he knew of this as a festival for Caesar’s safety, and a crowd of the officials and men of rank in the province had gathered for it. [b] On the second day of the shows he put on a robe made entirely of silver, of a wonderful weave, and came into the theater as the day was beginning. There the silver, lit up by the first rays of the sun, shone wonderfully, flashing so that those who gazed at him were struck with fear and a kind of shudder. At once his flatterers raised their voices from every side, in words that did him no good, calling him a god and adding, ‘Be gracious to us! Even if until now we have feared you as a man, from now on we confess that you are above mortal nature.’ The king did not rebuke them or reject their impious flattery. But a little later he looked up and saw an angel sitting above his head. He understood at once that this was the cause of evils for him, as it had once been the cause of good things, and he felt a pain that pierced his heart. [c] A sudden pain gripped his belly, beginning with great violence. So he looked toward his friends and said, ‘I, your god, am now ordered to end my life, and fate at once shows up the false words you have just said about me. I who was called immortal by you am now led away to die. But we must accept our destiny as God has willed it. For we have lived in no poor way, but in the long life that people call happy.’ [d]

“As he said this, he was overcome by the growing pain. He was carried quickly to the palace, and word went through everyone that he was certainly about to die. At once the crowd, with their wives and children, sat down on sackcloth according to the law of their fathers and begged God for the king. Every place was full of wailing and lamentation. The king, lying in a high room and looking down on them as they fell on their faces, could not keep from tears himself. After being worn down by pain in his belly for five days on end, he ended his life in the fifty-fourth year of his age and the seventh of his reign. He reigned four years under Gaius Caesar, ruling Philip’s tetrarchy for three years and receiving Herod’s as well in the fourth, and three more years under Claudius Caesar.”

I marvel at how Josephus, in this as in other things, agrees with the truth of the divine Scriptures. If anyone thinks there is a disagreement over the king’s name, the time and the events show that he is the same man. Either the name was changed by a copyist’s slip, or he had two names, as many people do. [e]