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Chapter X.—Agrippa, who was also called Herod, having persecuted the Apostles, immediately experienced the Divine Vengeance.; original source section: Chapter 10
6 complete historical source paragraphs and 9 editorial footnotes. Author and edition credits are shown for each record; original wording is retained.
English translation and editorial credits: Rev. Arthur Cushman McGiffert (Ph.D.).
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44 a.d. Agrippa began to reign over the whole kingdom in 41 a.d. See above, chap. 4, note 3.
Editorial footnote · Book II, Chapter X.—Agrippa, who was also called Herod, having persecuted the Apostles, immediately experienced the Divine Vengeance.; original source section: Chapter 10, editorial note cite_note-4 · Original source
3. “He had completed the third year of his reign over all Judea when he came to Cæsarea, which was formerly called Strato’s Tower. There he held games in honor of Cæsar, learning that this was a festival observed in behalf of Cæsar’s safety. At this festival was collected a great multitude of the highest and most honorable men in the province.
Cæsarea lay upon the Mediterranean Sea, northwest of Jerusalem. In the time of Strabo there was simply a small town at this point, called “Strato’s Tower”; but about 10 b.c. Herod the Great built the city of Cæsarea, which soon became the principal Roman city of Palestine, and was noted for its magnificence. It became, later, the seat of an important Christian school, and played quite a part in Church history. Eusebius himself was Bishop of Cæsarea. It was a city of importance, even in the time of the crusades, but is now a scene of utter desolation.
Editorial footnote · Book II, Chapter X.—Agrippa, who was also called Herod, having persecuted the Apostles, immediately experienced the Divine Vengeance.; original source section: Chapter 10, editorial note cite_note-5 · Original source
3. “He had completed the third year of his reign over all Judea when he came to Cæsarea, which was formerly called Strato’s Tower. There he held games in honor of Cæsar, learning that this was a festival observed in behalf of Cæsar’s safety. At this festival was collected a great multitude of the highest and most honorable men in the province.
The occasion of this festival is uncertain. Some have considered it the festival in honor of the birth of Claudius; others, a festival in honor of the return of Claudius from Britain. But neither of these suggestions is likely. It is more probable that the festival mentioned was the Quinquennalia, instituted by Herod the Great in honor of Augustus in 12 b.c. (see Josephus, Ant. XV. 8. 1; B. J. I. 21. 8), and celebrated regularly every five years. See Wieseler’s Chronologie des ap. Zeitalters, p. 131 sqq., where this question is carefully discussed in connection with the date of Agrippa’s death which is fixed by Wieseler as Aug. 6, 44 a.d.
Editorial footnote · Book II, Chapter X.—Agrippa, who was also called Herod, having persecuted the Apostles, immediately experienced the Divine Vengeance.; original source section: Chapter 10, editorial note cite_note-6 · Original source
3. “He had completed the third year of his reign over all Judea when he came to Cæsarea, which was formerly called Strato’s Tower. There he held games in honor of Cæsar, learning that this was a festival observed in behalf of Cæsar’s safety. At this festival was collected a great multitude of the highest and most honorable men in the province.
Josephus (Ant. XVIII. 6. 7) records that while Agrippa was in chains—having been condemned to imprisonment by Tiberius—an owl made its appearance and perched upon a tree near him. A fellow-prisoner interpreted the event as a good omen, prophesying that Agrippa would soon be released from his bonds and become king, but that the same bird would appear to him again five days before his death. Tiberius died in the following year, and the events prophesied came to pass. The story was apparently implicitly believed by Josephus, who relates it in good faith.
Editorial footnote · Book II, Chapter X.—Agrippa, who was also called Herod, having persecuted the Apostles, immediately experienced the Divine Vengeance.; original source section: Chapter 10, editorial note cite_note-8 · Original source
6. The king did not rebuke them, nor did he reject their impious flattery. But after a little, looking up, he saw an angel sitting above his head. And this he quickly perceived would be the cause of evil as it had once been the cause of good fortune, and he was smitten with a heart-piercing pain.
The text of Josephus, as well as the majority of the mss. of Eusebius, followed by Valesius, Stroth, Burton, and Schwegler, read ἐπὶ τῆς μακαριζομένης λαμπρότητος, which I have adopted in preference to the reading of Heinichen, who follows a few good mss. in substituting μακαρί& 231·τητος for λαμπρότητος
Editorial footnote · Book II, Chapter X.—Agrippa, who was also called Herod, having persecuted the Apostles, immediately experienced the Divine Vengeance.; original source section: Chapter 10, editorial note cite_note-9 · Original source
7. And straightway distress, beginning with the greatest violence, seized his bowels. And looking upon his friends he said, ‘I, your god, am now commanded to depart this life; and fate thus on the spot disproves the lying words you have just uttered concerning me. He who has been called immortal by you is now led away to die; but our destiny must be accepted as God has determined it. For we have passed our life by no means ingloriously, but in that splendor which is pronounced happiness.’
This shows the success with which Agrippa had courted the favor of the Jews. A far different feeling was shown at his death from that exhibited at the death of his grandfather, Herod the Great.
Editorial footnote · Book II, Chapter X.—Agrippa, who was also called Herod, having persecuted the Apostles, immediately experienced the Divine Vengeance.; original source section: Chapter 10, editorial note cite_note-10 · Original source
8. And when he had said this he labored with an increase of pain. He was accordingly carried in haste to the palace, while the report spread among all that the king would undoubtedly soon die. But the multitude, with their wives and children, sitting on sackcloth after the custom of their fathers, implored God in behalf of the king, and every place was filled with lamentation and tears. And the king as he lay in a lofty chamber, and saw them below lying prostrate on the ground, could not refrain from weeping himself.
He was born in 10 b.c., and began to reign as successor of Philip and Lysanias in 37 a.d. See above, chap. 4, note 3.
Editorial footnote · Book II, Chapter X.—Agrippa, who was also called Herod, having persecuted the Apostles, immediately experienced the Divine Vengeance.; original source section: Chapter 10, editorial note cite_note-11 · Original source
9. And after suffering continually for five days with pain in the bowels, he departed this life, in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and in the seventh year of his reign. Four years he ruled under the Emperor Caius—three of them over the tetrarchy of Philip, to which was added in the fourth year that of Herod—and three years during the reign of the Emperor Claudius.”
Luke always calls the king, Herod, which was the family name, while Josephus calls him by his given name Agrippa. He is known to us under the name of Herod Agrippa I. It seems strange that Eusebius should not have known that he bore the two names, Herod Agrippa, instead of expressing doubt in the matter, as he does. In the heading of the chapter he gives the king both names, without intimating that he entertained any uncertainty in the matter.
Editorial footnote · Book II, Chapter X.—Agrippa, who was also called Herod, having persecuted the Apostles, immediately experienced the Divine Vengeance.; original source section: Chapter 10, editorial note cite_note-13 · Original source
10. I marvel greatly that Josephus, in these things as well as in others, so fully agrees with the divine Scriptures. But if there should seem to any one to be a disagreement in respect to the name of the king, the time at least and the events show that the same person is meant, whether the change of name has been caused by the error of a copyist, or is due to the fact that he, like so many, bore two names.
Josephus, Ant. XIX. 8. 2.
Editorial footnote · Book II, Chapter X.—Agrippa, who was also called Herod, having persecuted the Apostles, immediately experienced the Divine Vengeance.; original source section: Chapter 10, editorial note cite_note-3 · Original source
2. We must admire the account of Josephus for its agreement with the divine Scriptures in regard to this wonderful event; for he clearly bears witness to the truth in the nineteenth book of his Antiquities, where he relates the wonder in the following words:
2. We must admire the account of Josephus for its agreement with the divine Scriptures in regard to this wonderful event; for he clearly bears witness to the truth in the nineteenth book of his Antiquities, where he relates the wonder in the following words:
Complete source paragraph · Book II, Chapter X.—Agrippa, who was also called Herod, having persecuted the Apostles, immediately experienced the Divine Vengeance.; original source section: Chapter 10, source paragraph 3 · Original source
3. “He had completed the third year of his reign over all Judea when he came to Cæsarea, which was formerly called Strato’s Tower. There he held games in honor of Cæsar, learning that this was a festival observed in behalf of Cæsar’s safety. At this festival was collected a great multitude of the highest and most honorable men in the province.
Complete source paragraph · Book II, Chapter X.—Agrippa, who was also called Herod, having persecuted the Apostles, immediately experienced the Divine Vengeance.; original source section: Chapter 10, source paragraph 4 · Original source
7. And straightway distress, beginning with the greatest violence, seized his bowels. And looking upon his friends he said, ‘I, your god, am now commanded to depart this life; and fate thus on the spot disproves the lying words you have just uttered concerning me. He who has been called immortal by you is now led away to die; but our destiny must be accepted as God has determined it. For we have passed our life by no means ingloriously, but in that splendor which is pronounced happiness.’
Complete source paragraph · Book II, Chapter X.—Agrippa, who was also called Herod, having persecuted the Apostles, immediately experienced the Divine Vengeance.; original source section: Chapter 10, source paragraph 8 · Original source
8. And when he had said this he labored with an increase of pain. He was accordingly carried in haste to the palace, while the report spread among all that the king would undoubtedly soon die. But the multitude, with their wives and children, sitting on sackcloth after the custom of their fathers, implored God in behalf of the king, and every place was filled with lamentation and tears. And the king as he lay in a lofty chamber, and saw them below lying prostrate on the ground, could not refrain from weeping himself.
Complete source paragraph · Book II, Chapter X.—Agrippa, who was also called Herod, having persecuted the Apostles, immediately experienced the Divine Vengeance.; original source section: Chapter 10, source paragraph 9 · Original source
9. And after suffering continually for five days with pain in the bowels, he departed this life, in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and in the seventh year of his reign. Four years he ruled under the Emperor Caius—three of them over the tetrarchy of Philip, to which was added in the fourth year that of Herod—and three years during the reign of the Emperor Claudius.”
Complete source paragraph · Book II, Chapter X.—Agrippa, who was also called Herod, having persecuted the Apostles, immediately experienced the Divine Vengeance.; original source section: Chapter 10, source paragraph 10 · Original source
10. I marvel greatly that Josephus, in these things as well as in others, so fully agrees with the divine Scriptures. But if there should seem to any one to be a disagreement in respect to the name of the king, the time at least and the events show that the same person is meant, whether the change of name has been caused by the error of a copyist, or is due to the fact that he, like so many, bore two names.
Complete source paragraph · Book II, Chapter X.—Agrippa, who was also called Herod, having persecuted the Apostles, immediately experienced the Divine Vengeance.; original source section: Chapter 10, source paragraph 11 · Original source