Bible Study series: Acts 12:20-23. Herod accepted the praise that only God should get.

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At the link to the original post, next, I write more commentary and dig a little deeper into the Greek. I also offer a section Observations for Discipleship at the end. Check it out!

Acts 12

In this post, links are provided in the commentary section for further study.

Let’s begin.

Scripture: Acts 12:20-23

²⁰ Now, he was angry with Tyre and Sidon. They appeared together before him. They had persuaded Blastus, the king’s personal assistant, and sought peace because their region was fed by the king’s realm. ²¹ On the appointed day, Herod put on royal clothes and sat on the throne and delivered an address to them. ²² The people starting shouting out, “The voice of a god and not a man!” ²³ Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not give glory to God. He was eaten by worms and breathed out his life-soul. (Acts 12:20-23)

Comments:

This story is recorded because Agrippa beheaded James and nearly martyred the lead apostle. Yes, v. 23 says that an angel truck him because he did not glorify God, but the second clear message is not to mess with God’s people!

20:

Specialist scholars can’t figure out how those two coastal towns offended Herod.

“They persuaded Blastus”: No one knows who he was because he was a minor official and his name was common. He took care of the intimate part of Agrippa’s household. The leaders of Tyre and Sidon “persuaded” him, probably by slipping money to him, to win an audience with the king.

21:

“throne”: it is the noun bēma (pronounced bay-mah) and it is used 12 times in the NT and literally means “a step or footsteps, space to set one’s foot on; an elevated place ascended by steps; a tribunal, throne” (Mounce, p. 1048). It is an official’s place or seat of judgment. Think of a judge sitting behind his “bench” today. Therefore it is often means “judgment seat.” Paul uses it in Rom. 14:10 for God’s judgment seat, and in 2 Cor. 5:10, for Christ’s judgment seat. It is clear where he got the image from—right here (and other places). In Acts 12:21, it is used of Herod’s throne, where he delivered a speech. Also see Acts 25:6, 10, 17.

“delivered an address”: it comes from one Greek verb dēmēgoreō (pronounced day-may-gor-eh-oh). It is found only here in the NT. It is a compound, made up of dēmē– (people) and the second half is related to the noun agora (marketplace) and evolved (or devolved) to mean public speaking in a gathering. Picture a politician addressing a crowd in the marketplace.

22-23:

Only God gets all the glory. However, see my post: Do I Really Know God? He Is Glorious, which says that in the right circumstances he is willing to share it with his followers.

As noted at v. 3, above, Agrippa saw himself under the law of Moses. When one lives under the Old Sinai Covenant, one must expect to be punished by Old Sinai standards.

Please see my post Why Did Ananias and Sapphira Drop Dead? which also covers Agrippa and how God punished them under the Old Covenant and how this differs from his method today.

Why Did Ananias and Sapphira Drop Dead?

Angels struck people down in the OT: 2 Sam. 12:15 and 2 Kings 19:35. Keener points out that the same verb “strike” is used when an angel struck Peter’s side (v. 7) and Herod’s death (p. 326). I add: God is so careful that one strike can cause someone to wake up, while another strike can cause someone to die.

“Breathed out his soul-life”: my translation comes from one Greek verb, ekpsuchō, which appears in the NT only in Acts 5:5, 10 and here (pronounced ek-psoo-khoh; the “p” in ps- is pronounced). It literally means “out-soul.” It could be translated creatively as “he desouled.” But standard translations are “expired,” “gave up the ghost,” “breathed his last,” or just plain “died.”

“angel”: see v. 7 for more comments.

Agrippa did not shut down the crowd. In contrast, here is how Paul and Barnabas rebuked the crowd for honoring the apostles as gods:

⁸ In Lystra, a certain man sat with disabled feet, lame from birth, who had never walked. ⁹ He heard Paul speaking, who fixed his gaze on him. He saw that he had faith to be healed and ¹⁰ said with a loud voice, “Get up on your feet, upright!” He jumped up and walked. ¹¹ When the crowds saw what Paul did, they raised their voice in the Lycaonian dialect, “The gods becoming like men have come down to us!” ¹² And they began to call Barnabas Zeus and Paul Hermes, since he was the lead speaker. ¹³ The priest of Zeus of the temple outside the town, along with the crowds, brought to the gates bulls and wreaths and were wanting to sacrifice them.

¹⁴ But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of this, they tore their clothes and ran into the crowds and shouted out: ¹⁵ “Men! Why are you doing this? We too are men with the same natures as you! We proclaim the good news to you to turn away from these empty things to the living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them! (Acts 14:8-15)

Jewish historian Josephus (lived A.D. 37 to post-100) writes of this same deadly incident in Herod Agrippa’s life:

[Agrippa] exhibited shows in honor of Caesar, knowing that this was celebrated as a festival for his welfare. There came together for this occasion a large number of provincial officials and others of distinguished position. On the second day of the shows, Agrippa put on a robe made of silver throughout, of quite wonderful weaving, and entered the theatre at break of day. Then the silver shone and glittered wonderfully as the sun’s first rays fell on it, and its resplendence inspired a sort of fear and trembling in those who gazed at it. Immediately his flatterers called out from various directions, in language which boded him no good, for they invoked him as a god: ‘Be gracious to us!’ they cried. ‘Hitherto we have reverenced you as a human being, but henceforth we confess you to be of more than mortal nature.’ He did not rebuke them, nor did he repudiate their impious flattery. But soon afterward he looked up and saw an owl sitting on a rope above his head and recognized it at once as a messenger of evil as on a former occasion it had been sent as a messenger of good; and a pang of grief pierced his heart. At the same time he was seized with a severe pain in his bowels, which quickly increased in intensity … He was hastily carried into the palace and … when he had suffered continuously for five days from the pain in his belly, he died in the fifty-fourth year of his life and the seventh year of his kingship (Antiquities, 19:343-50, qtd. in Bruce, 1988, comment on vv. 21-23)

Bruce teaches us that the first time Herod saw an owl he was in prison and a German fellow-prisoner told him the bird was a positive sign—he would soon be released. But if he saw it again, he would have only five days to live.

In any case, this account agrees with Luke’s account, but of course Luke’s version is much shorter. And no, it is not likely that Josephus borrowed from Luke, and Josephus wrote too late for Luke to borrow from Josephus. Luke got his story about Agrippa from another source. He traveled with Paul and his team to Caesarea (21:8). It must have been a famous and well-circulated story, since it was so remarkable for a king to die like this.

Keener produces this table:

Josephus, Ant. 19:343-50	Acts 12:21-23
Agrippa was in Caesarea	Agrippa was in Caesarea
Games in theater in honor of Caesar; no mention of embassy	The embassy from Tyre and Sidon meet, and a theatre is likely the main place, because the populace of Caesarea is present
No mention of Agrippa’s speech before he is struck, but Josephus inserts one afterwards (19:347)	Agrippa is speaking when he is praised
Flatterers acclaim Agrippa as divine	Flatterers acclaim Agrippa as divine
Agrippa just struck afterwards	Agrippa is struck (by an angel) just afterwards
Because he did not deny the acclamation	Because he did not give glory to God
He suffered stomach pains for five days	He was eaten by worms
He died	He died
HT: Keener, p. 324

Josephus’s version is longer, but there is nothing wrong with Luke’s shorter version, posing no problem for his historical reliability. Just the opposite. Josephus and Luke are remarkably close. The original story must have been remembered, since it was so unusual. So both historians mutually confirm that they recorded the main points accurately.

Growapp for Acts 12:20-23

1. Due to your being in the New Covenant, God won’t strike you down instantly, but we have to be careful. Do you give glory to God when he does something noteworthy through you?

RELATED

The Historical Reliability of the Book of Acts

Book of Acts and Paul’s Epistles: Match Made in Heaven?

SOURCES

For the bibliography, please click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:

Acts 12