Who was Agabus in the Bible?

A prophet who came from Jerusalem to Antioch, and foretold a famine "throughout all the world: which came to pass in the days of Claudius Caesar." Acts 11:28. He also foretold that Paul would be bound at Jerusalem and delivered to the Gentiles; which also came to pass. Acts 21:10. In the former passage it is said that Agabus "signified by the Spirit" that there should be great dearth; and in the latter he said, "Thus saith the Holy Ghost," plainly showing that the prophetic spirit in man was under the immediate guidance of the Holy Spirit, who now dwells in the Christian, to explain to him what was given to the prophets.

At this juncture another person appeared on the scene, of whom we shall hear again later on (Acts 21:10). He was a prophet, named Agabus - a prophet in the common acceptation of the term, i.e. one who foretells future events. At what precise moment he visited Antioch is not stated. The historian leaves it undetermined. "In these days," he writes, leading us to conclude that whilst Saul and Barnabas were happily engaged in teaching, Agabus and others appeared in the city. His service at this time was twofold. He foretold the famine which was to be severely felt by the Christians in Judæa. He also by that prediction furnished the opportunity for the saints at Antioch to show their sympathy for, and real oneness with, their brethren in Judæa. And this we learn they were not slow to do; for the movement among them was general, and, as far as we, can see, spontaneous. The approaching famine foretold, relief was organised, and each one according to his ability determined to send it to the brethren who dwelt in Judæa, which we read they did, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.

For long we have heard nothing of Agabus. He now reappears. First introduced to us at Antioch (11:28), when he visited that city from Jerusalem, we here meet with him again going from Judæa to Cæsarea. Like James, he seems to have lived in the land, and in the province of Judæa. Now, visiting Cæsarea, he meets afresh with Paul, and taking the Apostle's girdle, he bound his own feet and hands with it, and announced his approaching imprisonment. We say, approaching; for though Agabus fixed no date, it was but a few days afterwards, we believe, that Paul found himself a prisoner. "Thus saith the Holy Ghost," we read, "So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles" (21:11). More and more definite, then, became the prophetic announcements regarding Paul. When at Corinth he had asked the prayers of the Roman saints, that he might be delivered from them that did not believe in Judæa (Rom.15:31). Addressing the Ephesian elders, he had told them how in every city the Holy Ghost witnessed that bonds and afflictions awaited him. He was aware, then, that these warnings were really from God. Is it not the more remarkable that he did not heed what he heard at Tyre? Warned there not to go to Jerusalem, he learned at Cæsarea that he would be delivered by the Jews into the hands of the Romans. Still he desisted not. Neither the command of the Spirit at Tyre, nor the entreaties of the saints at Cæsarea, backed by those of Luke and others, prevailed to dissuade him. He would go on, ready to die at Jerusalem, if need be. Expostulation and entreaty proving useless, all desisted, saying, "The will of the Lord be done!" There is a time to speak, and a time to keep silence (Ecc.3:7). The time to speak more on that point was passed. The time to be silent they recognised had come.

But there were also prophets in New Testament times who, like those of former days, foretold things. Such was Agabus. Two predictions of his are mentioned (Acts 11:28 and Acts 21:11). This kind of prophetic ministry, like the other, has served its purpose and has ceased to function.

And the Holy Spirit through these disciples warned the Apostle at once that he should not go to Jerusalem. This, indeed, was very solemn. If these disciples had spoken of themselves, if it said that they were in anxiety over Paul's journey to that city, one might say that they were simply speaking as men; but the record makes it clear that the Holy Spirit spoke through them. Could then the Apostle Paul have been under the guidance of that same Spirit in going to Jerusalem ? As stated before, the great love for his brethren, his kinsmen, burned in his heart, and so great was his desire to be in Jerusalem that he ignored the voice of the Spirit.

In Caesarea they were the guests of Philip the evangelist. Here Agabus, who had given a prediction of a great dearth years ago (11:28) comes once more upon the scene. When he had come he took Paul's girdle and with it bound his own hands and feet, and then he said: "Thus saith the Holy Spirit, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle, and shall deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles." Here then another warning was given. It was the last and by far the strongest. Did Agabus really speak by the Spirit? The literal fulfillment of his predictive action furnishes the answer. The whole company, both his fellow travelers and the believers in Caesarea, began to beseech him not to go up to Jerusalem.

(3) The Spirit of God gives a little glimpse, in closing this portion, of the recognition on the part of the assembly at Antioch of their relationship and obligation to those from whom they had received spiritual blessings so great. Indeed it is from a prophet from Jerusalem that they have warning of the approach of the famine which occasions this ministry, and which seems especially to have affected the province of Judea. It is the first time that Christian prophets are mentioned in the New Testament; although they seem not to have been few in number, and are placed second only to the apostles themselves in the enumeration of gifts bestowed by Christ upon the Church. Prophecy also, as we shall find elsewhere; is in a special way characteristic of Christianity. Unsuccessional, springing out of close intercourse and communion with God, the disclosure of His mind so as to bring souls into His Presence, — it should be and is, in closest relation with the rent veil of the Sanctuary and the ability to draw near to God which mark the present period. Prediction was never more than a comparatively small and variable part of it; although this is what we find in the prophesying of Agabus upon the only two occasions in which he appears in the history. Indeed he is a prophet of sorrow at both times, although of that which God overrules for good; but then, of what sorrow may not this be said?

Prophets, like apostles, were entrusted with the mystery, and laid the foundation of the Church. Some, like Agabus, foretold future events, but this was not their chief characteristic. The most striking feature was the address to the conscience. "If all prophesy," says the apostle, "and there come in one that believes not, of one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all, and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest" (1 Cor. 14:24-25). In an age when the Scriptures were not completed, moreover, special revelations, probably on other matters, but certainly connected with the "mystery," were made to the prophets; for it is said — "Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge; if anything be revealed to another that sits by, let the first hold his peace" (vv. 29, 30). Some of the prophetic gift in reaching the conscience may still survive, but when God's Word was completed, all that He meant prophetically to reveal was already brought out, and the foundation part of the prophetic gift necessarily disappeared.

Of different gifts we have already spoken. Here the historian draws a distinction, we presume, between a prophet and a teacher, as he mentions both, perhaps regarding Barnabas, Simeon, and Lucius more in the light of prophets, and Manaen and Saul more as teachers. Both gifts are greatly to be valued. A prophet of course is one who has the mind of God, and can communicate it, whether foretelling the future or not. So Abraham is the first person called in the Old Testament a prophet, though he never, that we read of, predicted any event (Gen.20:7). In the New Testament two prophetic ministries are mentioned and distinguished (1 Cor.14). In the one we have a vessel of revelation, of which Agabus is an illustration. In the other we have a minister, who brings to bear on the heart and conscience of the hearer the mind of God. Such an one ministers the truth of God, but without revealing anything new. The effect of this latter kind of ministry 1 Corinthians teaches us. As regards unbelievers, or unlearned people, strangers to the assembly, "If all prophesy," one such coming in "is convinced of all, he is judged of all; the secrets of his heart are made manifest; and so, falling down on his face, he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth." (1 Cor.14:24,25). The result of such a prophetic ministry in saints is to be, "that all may learn, and all may be comforted [or, encouraged]" (31). But should there be a prophet present, to whom some fresh revelation was communicated, if another was ministering he was to be at once silent, that the vessel of revelation might give forth that which lie had received (30); for God the Holy Ghost never reveals anything out of season.

At this time a prophet, Agabus by name, stood up, and prophesied by the Spirit that there should be a great dearth throughout all the world, which came to pass in the reign of Claudius Caesar. The Jewish historian, Josephus, tells us this terrible famine occurred in the fourth year of his reign, and records that the price of food became enormous, and numbers perished of hunger and disease.

The Grecians, that is, the Christian Jews, in those parts made a collection to send relief to their brethren in Judea, and sent it to the elders by the hands of Barnabas and Saul.

We are not told whether these maidens predicted anything about Paul but we do hear that Agabus the prophet added to the warnings already given him by others. Not only so, but he came and took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet, and said, 'Thus saith the Holy Spirit, The man to whom this girdle belongs shall the Jews thus bind in Jerusalem, and deliver him up into the hands of the Gentiles.' This was quite in the symbolic manner of the ancient prophets; and it filled those who beheld and listened with sorrow for the honoured apostle. 'And when we heard these things, both we and those of the place besought him not to go up to Jerusalem; then Paul answered, Why do ye weep and break my heart? For I am ready, not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, The will of the Lord be done' (vers. 12-14).

It is clear that the apostle did not understand that the Lord meant him to turn from Jerusalem. He only heard reiterated by Agabus, as he had been so often warned by others, what he must suffer there. Indeed from his conversion it was intimated how many things he must suffer for the Lord's name's sake. Paul clearly must have concluded that the Holy Ghost spoke, not to dissuade him from his perilous path, but rather to prepare him in it — certainly for prison, and perhaps death. The brotherly kindness of others would have screened him from all that was awaiting him in Jerusalem, but love goes beyond brotherly kindness. So it was working in the servant, as it had with all perfection in the Master.