Who was Herod Agrippa I?

At this moment "Herod the king stretched forth his hands, to vex certain of the church." This Herod was the grandson of Herod the Great, who commanded the massacre at Bethlehem, and the father of that King Agrippa before whom Paul was brought. He is usually known in history as Herod Agrippa I. His ruling passion was to stand well with everybody, no matter at what cost. This personal vanity he combined with punctilious attention to the rites of the Jews' religion, so he stood well with his subjects. To yet further ingratiate himself with them, the new persecution of the Christians was undoubtedly commenced.

Grandson of Herod the Great. His early years were passed as a spendthrift and a wanderer, but at length being at Rome he contrived to win the favour of Caligula who on coming to the throne in A.D. 37, declared Agrippa to be the successor of' Philip the Tetrarch, who had died three years previously. By preferring charges against Antipas, who had married his sister Herodias, Agrippa, got this prince deposed and banished, and in A.D. 39 he succeeded him in the territories of Galilee and Peraea. He was still a guest of Caligula at Rome when that tyrant was cut off in A.D. 41, and having used his influence in the election of Caligula's successor Claudius, this emperor not only confirmed the previous grants, but added those of Judaea, Samaria, and Abilene, so that his possessions were nearly identical with those of his grandfather Herod the Great. He was in these possessions when we read of him in the New Testament as 'Herod the king,' Acts 12. He killed James the brother of John with the sword, and because he saw it pleased the Jews he seized Peter also. This happened about A.D. 43, and within a year the king, allowing himself to be called a god, was smitten by the Almighty and died a miserable death. The account given by Josephus as to Agrippa's administrative qualities, his exertions for the Jews whilst at Rome, and his desires to strengthen and embellish Jerusalem, may be true; but his seizing the apostles to please the Jews stamps him as one unfitted to rule, while his overweening pride in the last scene of his life made him the just object of the wrath of Him who will not give His glory to another.

Son of Agrippa I. Being only 17 years old at his father's death, the emperor Claudius sent him to rule over the principality of Chalcis in the slopes of Lebanon until he should come of a age. He had been brought up at the court of Rome, and was attached to the Romans. At the age of 21 Claudius gave him the tetrarchies of Trachonitis, Abilene, and other parts of the North East of Palestine. Nero afterwards gave him various cities. He is introduced in Acts 25:26, as king Agrippa, before whom Paul made his defence. Paul said of him that he was expert in all customs and questions which were among the Jews. The things concerning Christ's death had not been done in a corner, and the king knew of them. Paul knew also that he believed the prophets. Agrippa said, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." Paul, like a true evangelist, desired that Agrippa and all that heard him should be altogether such as he was, save his bonds. Agrippa had a long reign, and used his influence when the Jews were in rebellion against the Romans, to induce them to submit. While appealing to them at Gamala he was wounded by a stone cast from a sling. He survived the destruction of Jerusalem and died A.D. 100.

Grandson of Herod the Great, and son of Aristobulus and Berenice. He was appointed by the emperor Caligula to the government of Ituraea and Abilene, with the title of king. Eventually he had the government of Judaea and Samaria given to him by Claudius. He was an observer of the law of Moses, and added to the extent of Jerusalem by a wall on the north of the city. It was he who put to death James the son of Zebedee to please the Jews, and imprisoned Peter, who was miraculously delivered. His miserable end is recorded in Acts 12.

HEROD AGRIPPA I. was the son of Aristobulus and Bernice, and a grandson of Herod the Great. He it was who killed James the brother of John with the sword, and sought to bring Peter to the same fate, had not the angel of the Lord intervened, delivering him from prison, and restoring him to the company of the Lord’s people, as narrated in Acts 12. Of this Josephus says nothing.

But it is startling to note that in the very chapter where we get the martyrdom of James, and the imprisonment of Peter, narrated, we get the sad end of Herod described.

Herod Agrippa

A change had recently taken place in the government of Judæa and Samaria. After the death of Herod the Great, who ruled over the whole land, his son Archelaus was appointed by the Emperor Augustus ruler over Judæa, Idumæa and Samaria, with the title of Ethnarch. To Herod Antipas, his brother, were assigned Galilee and Peræa with the title of Tetrarch. And to Philip, the other brother, was given the tetrarchy of Trachonitis, Auranitis, Batanæa, and part of what was called the house of Zenon, or Zenodorus. Herod Antipas fixed his capital at Tiberias. Philip had for his, Cæsarea Philippi. [47] Archelaus, after ruling about ten years, was deprived of his province for his severities, and a Roman governor under the Syrian Prefect administered its affairs. Herod Antipas was banished in AD 39. Philip died in his government AD 34. Under Claudius a fresh change took place; for Herod Agrippa, the son of Aristobulus, and grandson therefore of Herod the Great, who had previously received from the Emperor Caligula the tetrarchies of his two uncles, Antipas and Philip, received in addition, as soon as Claudius was settled on the Imperial throne, part of the territory formerly assigned to Archelaus - viz., the provinces of Judæa and Samaria, with the title of king. Thus for a brief space a king again reigned in Judæa in the person of Herod Agrippa, who lived chiefly at Jerusalem. A strict observer of the law, but receiving his kingdom from the Emperor, he doubtless sought to win favour with the Jews by laying hands on Apostles to put them to death. It was evidently a political, and, as the king thought, a politic, move on his part.

Thus, if one of the sons of Zebedee was to be preserved the last of the twelve, the other fell a victim to the sword of Herod Agrippa, the first martyr among the apostles. The king was in no way a violent arbitrary monarch, like his grandfather, Herod the Great; but as he sought to ingratiate himself with the Romans, so did this grandson of his with the Jews. And those who seemed to be pillars in the church afforded the readiest means and objects to gratify Jewish spite. But God's thoughts are not as man's, and, though the Lord had already shown by what death Peter should glorify God, the time was not yet come: 'When thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not.' Herod meant not merely to imprison Peter but to bring him before the people, perhaps for sentence, for execution certainly as a public example. But the Passover intervened; and Herod was too scrupulous a devotee to slight the days of unleavened bread.

It was about A.D. 44, that Herod sought to ingratiate himself with his Jewish subjects, by persecuting the unoffending Christians. Not that there was any love between Herod and the Jews, for they hated each other heartily; but here they united, as both hating the heavenly testimony. Herod killed James with the sword and cast Peter into prison. It was his wicked intention to keep him there till after the passover, and then, when a great many Jews from all parts would be in Jerusalem, to make a public spectacle of his execution. But God preserved and delivered His servant in answer to the prayers of the saints. They have weapons of warfare which the governments of this world know nothing of. God allowed James to seal his testimony with his blood; but Peter He preserved for further testimony on the earth. Thus our God rules over all. He is the Governor among the nations, whatever the pride and will of man may be. Power belongeth unto Him. Feeble indeed is the power of every enemy when He interferes. Herod, being baffled and confounded by the manifestations of a power which he could not understand, condemns the keepers of the prison to death, and leaves Jerusalem. But he little thought that his own death was to precede that of his prisoners.

At Caesarea, the Gentile seat of his authority, he ordered a splendid festival in honour of the Emperor Claudius. Multitudes, we are informed, of the highest rank flocked from all quarters. On the second morning of the festivities the king appeared in a silver robe of great splendour, which glittered with the rays of the sun, so as to dazzle the eyes of the whole assembly, and excite general admiration. When making an oration to the people from his throne, some of his flatterers raised a shout, "It is the voice of a god!" In place of repressing this impious adulation, which spread through the theatre, Herod accepted it. But a sense of God's judgment at that very moment pierced the heart of the king. In tones of deep melancholy he said, "Your god will soon suffer the common lot of mortality." In the forcible language of scripture, it is said, "And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost." He was then seized with violent internal pains, and carried from the theatre to his palace. There he lingered five days, and died in the greatest agony, and in the most humiliating and loathsome state of body.

While the Church is thus being enlarged, unhappy Israel becomes only more hostile to the followers of Him whom they have crucified, and a new king (Herod Agrippa I.) rises up to give their enmity effect. Though we may be little able to interpret the details, yet the circumstances undoubtedly suggest an anticipation of the last days, when the lawless king will exalt himself against God, assuming for himself divine honors. We have here, also, in effect, the slain and the spared remnant represented in the opposite lot of James and Peter: the one given up, as it might seem, so strangely, his service but begun, to a violent death, while for the other an angel must be sent from heaven, to rescue him in a wonderful manner "from all the expectation of the people of the Jews," about to glut their evil desire with the death of another apostle of Jesus. Yet James was one of the three specially in the Lord's confidence, along with John and Peter. His life is to us a blank, and his day went down at noon! How little can we see of the divine ways! and, if we judge a course merely by its results, how surely shall we misjudge! In the events to which we seem to be looking forward here, those that are martyred under the beast have their part in the first resurrection (Rev. 20:4-6); while the spared remnant has but its portion on earth: and thus will eternity reverse our present apprehension of how many things!

Hitherto all attempts to stop the movement in Jerusalem have proceeded from the ecclesiastical authorities. But since the persecution which arose about Stephen subsided, the Sanhedrin seems to have let the matter alone. Now the civil power wielded by Agrippa entered the lists, and began to conduct a crusade against the followers of the Lord Jesus. Would it be successful where the others had failed? At first it seemed to triumph; for James the brother of John was executed, and no sign from heaven attested its abhorrence of the deed. The company of the Apostles Herod Agrippa had now diminished by one. The Christians could not by human means successfully enter into conflict with the king. The sword of the executioner had taken the life of James. Was the charm which seemed for so long to have surrounded the Apostles now broken?

Could Peter be got rid of in a similar way? What a triumph would that afford Agrippa! What pleasure would it give the Jews! Peter, therefore, was apprehended, and apparently without difficulty, and kept in custody till the Paschal feast should be over. And, very probably, Agrippa, aware of the marvellous deliverance of the Apostles when the whole company had been incarcerated, pending their appearance before the ecclesiastical authorities, sought to guard against any surprise of that kind by consigning his prisoner to the custody of four quaternions of soldiers, charged to have always two soldiers present, to whom Peter was to be chained. Movement, therefore, without the cognisance of his guards was impossible. Escape seemed hopeless. No popular stir in his favour could be looked for. No indignation meetings could be held. The weak, powerless Christians, what could they do? So Agrippa may have thought. But there was another question to be solved: What would God do?

The Spirit now takes us back to Jerusalem. He was willing to forget neither it nor the testimony of God found there. The Spirit here records an event which sets forth the care that God, in His providence, had of His own (and especially, by means of the angels, for Peter), working in them by His Spirit. He permits that James, the brother of John, should succumb to the malice of Herod, the enemy of the gospel. That this was pleasing to the Jews gave the king a further pretext for continuing in the path of his opposition. Little mattered the death of a few Christians, if their death gave him popularity with the Jews. He therefore seized Peter and put him in prison, purposing after the feast of the passover to give him up to the people.