Click on photo to enlarge it
There is a word that describes Herod Agrippa I - scoundrel. He was the brother of Herodias (partially responsible for the beheading of John the Baptizer) and the grandson of Herod the Great through Mariamme.
When Herod the Great was closed to death, he lapsed into periods of insanity and killed many of his offspring because he thought they were out to get his kingdom. Agrippa, a young boy at the time, had been sent to Rome, so he escaped the bloodbath. He received his education in Rome, and there became friends of both Drusus (son of the emperor Tiberius) and Caligula.
When Caligula came into power, Agrippa was made king of the former realm of his uncle, Herod Philip. He went to Caligula and whispered accusations against Herod Antipas, which got Antipas exiled to Gaul. Caligula gave him that territory as well. When Caligula was assassinated, Claudius granted him the entire kingdom of Judea.
It was Agrippa I who had James, the son of Zebedee, executed (Acts 12:2), and who imprisoned Peter (Acts 12:3).
Agrippa I died in 44 AD. We have both a secular record and a Scriptural account of the death of Herod Agrippa I. The two accounts go well with each other.
Josephus: “After his seventh year of rule, Agrippa came to Caesarea to celebrate games in honor of Caesar. At daybreak he entered the theater, dressed in a garment of woven silver which gleamed in the rays of the rising sun. His flatterers started addressing him as a god, but then he looked up and saw an owl perched on a rope overhead was struck with intense pain. ‘I, whom you called a god,’ he cried, ‘am now under sentence of death!’ Five days later he died, at age 54.”
Luke writes in Acts 12:21-23: “On the scheduled day Herod dressed himself in royal attire, seated himself on the throne, and gave a speech to the people. Those assembled kept shouting, over and over, ‘This is a god’s voice, not the voice of a mere human!’ Immediately an angel from the Lord struck Herod down, because he didn’t give the honor to God. He was eaten by worms and died.”
Comments
Post a Comment