When Herod had sought for him, and didn’t find him, he examined the guards, then commanded that they should be put to death. He went down from Judea to Caesarea, and stayed there. Now Herod was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. They came with one accord to him, and, having made Blastus, the king’s personal aide, their friend, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king’s country for food. On an appointed day, Herod dressed himself in royal clothing, sat on the throne, and gave a speech to them. The people shouted, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didn’t give God the glory. Then he was eaten by worms and died.
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Now as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers about what had become of Peter. When Herod had sought for him, and didn’t find him, he examined the guards, then commanded that they should be put to death. He went down from Judea to Caesarea, and stayed there. Now Herod was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. They came with one accord to him, and, having made Blastus, the king’s personal aide, their friend, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king’s country for food. On an appointed day, Herod dressed himself in royal clothing, sat on the throne, and gave a speech to them. The people shouted, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!” Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didn’t give God the glory. Then he was eaten by worms and died.
Parallel Translations
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When Herod had sought for him, and didn’t find him, he examined the guards, then commanded that they should be put to death. He went down from Judea to Caesarea, and stayed there.
Now Herod was very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. They came with one accord to him, and, having made Blastus, the king’s personal aide, their friend, they asked for peace, because their country depended on the king’s country for food.
On an appointed day, Herod dressed himself in royal clothing, sat on the throne, and gave a speech to them.
The people shouted, “The voice of a god, and not of a man!”
Immediately an angel of the Lord struck him, because he didn’t give God the glory. Then he was eaten by worms and died.
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When Herode had called for him and founde him not he examined the kepers and commaunded to departe. And he descended from Iewry to Cesarea and ther abode.
Herode was displeased with them of Tyre and Sydon. And they came all at once and made intercession vnto Blastus the kynges chamberlen and desyred peace because their countrey was norysshed by the kynges londe.
And upon a daye appoynted Herode arayed him in royall apparell and set him in his seate and made an oraycon vnto them.
And the people gave a shoute sayinge: it is the voyce of a God and not of a man.
And immediatly the angell of the Lorde smote him because he gave not God the honoure and he was eatyn of wormes and gave vp the goost.
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And when Herod had sought for him, and found him not, he examined the keepers, and commanded them to be led to be punished. And he went downe from Iudea to Cesarea, and there abode.
Then Herod was angrie with them of Tyrus and Sidon, but they came all with one accord vnto him, and perswaded Blastus the Kings Chamberlaine, and they desired peace, because their countrey was nourished by the Kings land.
And vpon a day appointed, Herod arayed himselfe in royall apparell, and sate on the iudgement seate, and made an oration vnto them.
And the people gaue a shoute, saying, The voyce of God, and not of man.
But immediatly the Angel of the Lord smote him, because he gaue not glorie vnto God, so that he was eaten of wormes, and gaue vp the ghost.
Cross-references (70)
- Psalms 115:1 (v23) Not to us, Yahweh, not to us, but to your name give glory, for your loving kindness, and for your truth’s sake.
- Acts 10:25-26 (v23) When Peter entered, Cornelius met him, fell down at his feet, and worshiped him. But Peter raised him up, saying, “Stand up! I myself am…
- 2 Thessalonians 2:4 (v23) he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, setting…
- Acts 14:14-15 (v23) But when the apostles, Barnabas and Paul, heard of it, they tore their clothes, and sprang into the multitude, crying out, “Men, why are…
- Acts 14:10-13 (v22) said with a loud voice, “Stand upright on your feet!” He leaped up and walked. When the multitude saw what Paul had done, they lifted up…
Show all 70 cross-references
- 1 Samuel 25:38 (v23) About ten days later, Yahweh struck Nabal, so that he died.
- Ezra 3:7 (v20) They also gave money to the masons, and to the carpenters. They also gave food, drink, and oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, to bring…
- Daniel 4:30-37 (v23) The king spoke and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built for the royal dwelling place, by the might of my power and for the…
- Daniel 5:18-24 (v23) “You, king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar your father the kingdom, and greatness, and glory, and majesty. Because of the greatness…
- Exodus 12:29 (v23) At midnight, Yahweh struck all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of…
- 2 Samuel 24:16-17 (v23) When the angel stretched out his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh relented of the disaster, and said to the angel who destroyed…
- Isaiah 37:23 (v23) Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of…
- Isaiah 51:8 (v23) For the moth will eat them up like a garment, and the worm will eat them like wool; but my righteousness will be forever, and my salvation…
- Isaiah 66:24 (v23) “They will go out, and look at the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me; for their worm will not die, nor will their…
- Ezekiel 27:17 (v20) “ ‘ “Judah and the land of Israel were your traders. They traded wheat of Minnith, confections, honey, oil, and balm for your merchandise.
- Ezekiel 28:2 (v23) “Son of man, tell the prince of Tyre, ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, ‘I am a god, I sit in the…
- Matthew 11:21-22 (v20) “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would…
- Acts 16:27 (v19) The jailer, being roused out of sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the…
- Jude 1:16 (v22) These are murmurers and complainers, walking after their lusts—and their mouth speaks proud things—showing respect of persons to gain…
- Revelation 13:4 (v22) They worshiped the dragon, because he gave his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is…
- Exodus 9:17 (v23) because you still exalt yourself against my people, that you won’t let them go.
- Exodus 10:3 (v23) Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and said to him, “This is what Yahweh, the God of the Hebrews, says: ‘How long will you refuse to…
- Exodus 12:12 (v23) For I will go through the land of Egypt in that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and animal. I will…
- Exodus 12:23 (v23) For Yahweh will pass through to strike the Egyptians; and when he sees the blood on the lintel, and on the two door posts, Yahweh will pass…
- 2 Kings 19:35 (v23) That night, Yahweh’s angel went out, and struck one hundred eighty-five thousand in the camp of the Assyrians. When men arose early in the…
- 1 Chronicles 21:14-18 (v23) So Yahweh sent a pestilence on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell. God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it. As he was…
- 2 Chronicles 21:18-19 (v23) After all this Yahweh struck him in his bowels with an incurable disease. In process of time, at the end of two years, his bowels fell out…
- 2 Chronicles 32:21 (v23) Yahweh sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty men of valor, and the leaders and captains, in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he…
- Job 7:5 (v23) My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin closes up, and breaks out afresh.
- Job 19:26 (v23) After my skin is destroyed, then I will see God in my flesh,
- Psalms 12:2 (v22) Everyone lies to his neighbor. They speak with flattering lips, and with a double heart.
- Psalms 37:32-33 (v19) The wicked watch the righteous, and seek to kill him. Yahweh will not leave him in his hand, nor condemn him when he is judged.
- Isaiah 14:11 (v23) Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, with the sound of your stringed instruments. Maggots are spread out under you, and worms cover you.
- Ezekiel 28:9 (v23) Will you yet say before him who kills you, ‘I am God’? But you are man, and not God, in the hand of him who wounds you.
- Daniel 6:7 (v22) All the presidents of the kingdom, the deputies and the local governors, the counselors and the governors, have consulted together to…
- Mark 9:43-48 (v23) If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having your two hands to go…
- Luke 12:47-48 (v23) That servant, who knew his lord’s will, and didn’t prepare, nor do what he wanted, will be beaten with many stripes, but he who didn’t…
- Luke 14:31-32 (v20) Or what king, as he goes to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to…
- Luke 16:8 (v20) “His lord commended the dishonest manager because he had done wisely, for the children of this world are, in their own generation, wiser…
- John 12:10-11 (v19) But the chief priests conspired to put Lazarus to death also, because on account of him many of the Jews went away and believed in Jesus.
- Genesis 10:15 (v20) Canaan became the father of Sidon (his firstborn), Heth,
- Genesis 10:19 (v20) The border of the Canaanites was from Sidon—as you go toward Gerar—to Gaza—as you go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim—to Lasha.
- Joshua 19:29 (v20) The border turned to Ramah, to the fortified city of Tyre; and the border turned to Hosah. It ended at the sea by the region of Achzib;
- 1 Samuel 23:14 (v19) David stayed in the wilderness in the strongholds, and remained in the hill country in the wilderness of Ziph. Saul sought him every day,…
- 1 Kings 5:9-11 (v20) My servants will bring them down from Lebanon to the sea. I will make them into rafts to go by sea to the place that you specify to me, and…
- 1 Kings 20:43 (v19) The king of Israel went to his house sullen and angry, and came to Samaria.
- 2 Chronicles 2:10 (v20) Behold, I will give to your servants, the cutters who cut timber, twenty thousand cors of beaten wheat, twenty thousand baths of barley,…
- 2 Chronicles 2:15 (v20) “Now therefore the wheat, the barley, the oil, and the wine, which my lord has spoken of, let him send to his servants;
- Esther 6:12 (v19) Mordecai came back to the king’s gate, but Haman hurried to his house, mourning and having his head covered.
- Proverbs 17:14 (v20) The beginning of strife is like breaching a dam, therefore stop contention before quarreling breaks out.
- Proverbs 25:8 (v20) Don’t be hasty in bringing charges to court. What will you do in the end when your neighbor shames you?
- Ecclesiastes 10:4 (v20) If the spirit of the ruler rises up against you, don’t leave your place; for gentleness lays great offenses to rest.
- Isaiah 23:1-4 (v20) The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tarshish! For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in. From the land of Kittim…
- Isaiah 27:4-5 (v20) Wrath is not in me, but if I should find briers and thorns, I would do battle! I would march on them and I would burn them together. Or…
- Daniel 2:11-13 (v19) It is a rare thing that the king requires, and there is no other who can show it before the king, except the gods, whose dwelling is not…
- Hosea 2:8-9 (v20) For she didn’t know that I gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil, and multiplied to her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.…
- Amos 4:6-9 (v20) “I also have given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in every town; yet you haven’t returned to me,” says…
- Haggai 1:8-11 (v20) Go up to the mountain, bring wood, and build the house. I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified,” says Yahweh. “You looked for…
- Haggai 2:16-17 (v20) Through all that time, when one came to a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten. When one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty,…
- Matthew 2:13 (v19) Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise and take the young child and his…
- Acts 8:40 (v19) But Philip was found at Azotus. Passing through, he preached the Good News to all the cities, until he came to Caesarea.
- Acts 12:4 (v19) When he had arrested him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of four soldiers each to guard him, intending to bring him…
- Acts 12:6 (v19) The same night when Herod was about to bring him out, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains. Guards in front of…
- Acts 21:8 (v19) On the next day, we who were Paul’s companions departed, and came to Caesarea. We entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, who was…
- Proverbs 20:18 (v20) Plans are established by advice; by wise guidance you wage war!
- Jeremiah 36:26 (v19) The king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to arrest Baruch the scribe…
- Matthew 2:16 (v19) Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked by the wise men, was exceedingly angry, and sent out, and killed all the male children who were…
- Matthew 28:11-15 (v19) Now while they were going, behold, some of the guards came into the city, and told the chief priests all the things that had happened. When…
- Acts 25:13 (v19) Now when some days had passed, King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea, and greeted Festus.
- Acts 27:42 (v19) The soldiers’ counsel was to kill the prisoners, so that none of them would swim out and escape.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (25 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv20, 21, 23 20. A worthy history, which doth not only show,…
20. A worthy history, which doth not only show, as it were in a glass, what end is prepared for the enemies of the Church, but also how greatly God hateth pride. The Scripture saith that “God resisteth the proud,” (1 Peter 5:5.) God himself did show a lively image thereof in the person of Herod. And assuredly men cannot extol themselves higher than becometh them, but they shall make war with God, who, to the end he may surpass all, commandeth all flesh to keep silence. And if God did so sharply punish pride in a king whom prosperity did puff up, what shall become of those of the common sort who are ridiculously puffed up without cause? Furthermore, we must note the course of the history, that all things go well with Herod after that he had miserably vexed the Church; he enforced the nations round about him, being tamed with hunger, to come to crave pardon upon their knees, as if God had rewarded him well for his wicked fury. This was no small trial for the godly, who might have thought thus with themselves that God cared not for them, and they were afraid lest with Herod’s power his tyranny and cruelty should increase. But the Lord had another purpose, for he set the oppressor of his Church on high that he might have the greater fall. Therefore, that shadowish felicity, wherein he delighted too much, was unto him a certain falling against the day of slaughter. In like sort, when at this day we see the bloody enemies of the Church carried up upon the wings of fortune into heaven, there is no cause why we should be discouraged; but let us rather call to mind that saying of Solomon,
“Pride goeth before calamity; and the heart is lifted up before a fall,” (Proverbs 16:18.)
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Herod was displeased. Luke useth the compound participle, θυμομαχον which signifieth privy grudging or hatred. Therefore Herod did not make open war against those cities; but such was his displeasure, that he essayed to subdue them by policy, as it were by undermining them by little and little. It is a rare matter, saith Demosthenes, for free cities to agree with monarchs. Moreover, Herod was naturally cruel, bold, of insatiable covetousness; and it is not to be doubted but that Tyre and Sidon were, as it were, certain bars or rails to stay his fury, as they were wealthy cities, and unaccustomed to bear the yoke. Also, the remembrance of their old glory might have encouraged them; forasmuch as pride cometh commonly of wealth, it is no marvel if these two cities were proud, the one whereof Isaiah calleth queen of the seas, whose merchants, he said, were kings, and her chapmen dukes, (Isaiah 23:8.) Also, he saith elsewhere that Sidon was become proud by reason of her wealth. And although they had sundry times been brought almost to utter ruin, yet the commodiousness of their situation did shortly restore them to their wonted state. Hereby it came to pass that they could more hardly digest Agrippa, of late a base fellow, a man of no estimation, and one who had been let out of prison; especially seeing that he had behaved himself so cruelly toward his own subjects, and was troublesome and injurious to his neighbors.
Forasmuch as their country was nourished. It had not been good for him to have assailed the men of Tyre and Sidon with open war, therefore he giveth commandment that there should no corn nor victual be carried out of his realm. By this means did he, without any army, besiege them by little and little. For the borders of both cities were strait, and their ground barren, whereas there was a great people to be fed. Therefore, after that they were tamed with hunger, they humbly crave peace, and that not free, for assuredly they had some laws given them; and it is to be thought that this Blastus mentioned by Luke was not with bare words persuaded, but with rewards [gifts] won to entreat the peace. I know not why Erasmus did think it good to translate this place otherwise than the words import.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv20, 22, 23 A miserable and shameful example of the end of…
A miserable and shameful example of the end of the enemies of the Church.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv19–23 19 And when Herod had sought for him, and…
19 And when Herod had sought for him, and found him not, he examined the keepers, and commanded that they should be put to death. And he went down from Judaea to Caesarea, and there abode.
Ver. 19. That they should be put to death] This was just in God, but unjust in Herod. He is safest that hath least to do with tyrants.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv19–23 He examined the keepers; that is, judicially; proceeding against…
He examined the keepers; that is, judicially; proceeding against them for the escape of St. Peter.
Commanded that they should be put to death; they were sentenced to be led away, and it is most probably thought, unto the place of execution. The instruments in persecution God many times meets with in this world, and sometimes by the persecutors themselves.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv20–21 Observe, Herod, upon St. Peter’s escape out of his…
Observe, Herod, upon St. Peter’s escape out of his hands, leaves Jerusalem, and goes to dwell at Cesarea, where, being highly displeased with the rich citizens of Tyre and Sidon, he designs to make war upon them. But they being sensible tht their cities lying upon the sea coasts, and having little land belonging to them, they must be beholden to Judea and Galilee, which were under Herod’s jurisdiction, for a great part of their provisions; therefore they prudently compound the matter with him, knowing that to fight with him who fed them, was the ready way to be famished. And opening the breast of Blastus the king’s chamberlain, with a golden key, through the passage they made their access to pacify the king. Interest leads us to pay homage to them, whom our dependency is upon: Yet though men depend upon God for all, for life, and for the comforts and supports of life, which they do enjoy, (our country being nourished by the King of heaven’s country) yet how few by prayer do own their dependence upon him, or by praise and thanksgiving do acknowledge the hand that supplies them?
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v20 In these verses we have,
In these verses we have,
I. The death of Herod. God reckoned with him, not only for his putting James to death, but for his design and endeavour to put Peter to death; for sinners will be called to an account, not only for the wickedness of their deeds, but for the wickedness of their endeavours (Psa 28:4), for the mischief they have done and the mischief they would have done. It was but a little while that Herod lived after this. Some sinners God makes quick work with. Observe,
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1. How the measure of his iniquity was filled up: it was pride that did it; it is this that commonly goes more immediately before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. Nebuchadnezzar had been a very bloody man, and a great persecutor; but the word that was in the king's mouth when the judgments of God fell upon him was a proud word: Is not this great Babylon that I have built? Dan 4:30, Dan 4:31. It is the glory of God to look on every one that is proud, and bring him low, Job 40:12. The instance of it here is very remarkable, and shows how God resists the proud.
(1.) The men of Tyre and Sidon had, it seems, offended Herod. Those cities were now under the Roman yoke, and they had been guilty of some misdemeanours which Herod highly resented, and was resolved they should feel his resentment. Some very small matter would serve such a proud imperious man as Herod was for a provocation, where he was disposed to pick a quarrel. He was highly displeased with this people, and they must be made to know that his wrath was as the roaring of a lion, as messengers of death.
(2.) The offenders truckled, being convinced, if not that they had done amiss, yet that it was in vain to contend with such a potent adversary, who, right or wrong, would be too hard for them; they submitted and were willing upon any terms to make peace with him. Observe, [1.] The reason why they were desirous to have the matter accommodated: Because their country was nourished by the king's country. Tyre and Sidon were trading cities, and had little land belonging to them, but were always supplied with corn from the land of Canaan; Judah and Israel traded in their market, with wheat, and honey, and oil, Eze 27:17. Now if Herod should make a law to prohibit the exportation of corn to Tyre and Sidon (which they knew not but a man so revengeful as he might soon do, not caring how many were famished by it), their country would be undone; so that it was their interest to keep in with him. And is it not then our wisdom to make our peace with God, and humble ourselves before him, who have a much more constant and necessary dependence upon him than one country can have upon another? for in him we live, and move, and have our being. [2.] The method they took to prevent a rupture: They made Blastus the king's chamberlain their friend, probably with bribes and good presents; that is usually the way for men to make courtiers their friends. And it is the hard fate of princes that they must have not only their affairs, but their affections too, governed by such mercenary tools; yet such men as Herod, that will not be governed by reason, had better be so governed than by pride and passion. Blastus had Herod's ear, and has the art of mollifying his resentments; and a time is fixed for the ambassadors of Tyre and Sidon to come and make a public submission, to beg his majesty's pardon, throw themselves upon his clemency, and promise never again to offend in the like manner; and that which will thus feed his pride shall serve to cool his passion.
(3.) Herod appeared in all the pomp and grandeur he had: He was arrayed in his royal apparel (Act 12:21), and sat upon his throne. Josephus gives an account of this splendid appearance which Herod made upon this occasion - Antiq. 19.344. He says that Herod at this time wore a robe of cloth of silver, so richly woven, and framed with such art, that when the sun shone it reflected the light with such a lustre as dazzled the eyes of the spectators, and struck an awe upon them. Foolish people value men by their outward appearance; and no better are those who value themselves by the esteem of such, who court it, and recommend themselves to it as Herod did, who thought to make up the want of a royal heart with his royal apparel; and sat upon his throne, as if that gave him a privilege to trample upon all about him as his footstool.
(4.) He made a speech to the men of Tyre and Sidon, a fine oration, in which, probably, after he had aggravated their fault, and commended their submission, he concluded with an assurance that he would pass by their offence and receive them into his favour again - proud enough that he had it in his power whom he would to keep alive, as well as whom he would to slay; and probably he kept them in suspense as to what their doom should be, till he made this oration to them, that the act of grace might come to them with the more pleasing surprise.
(5.) The people applauded him, the people that had a dependence upon him, and had benefit by his favour, they gave a shout; and this was what they shouted, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man, Act 12:22. God is great and good, and they thought such was Herod's greatness in his apparel and throne, and such his goodness in forgiving them, that he was worthy to be called no less than a god; and perhaps his speech was delivered with such an air of majesty, and a mixture of clemency with it, as affected the auditors thus. Or, it may be, it was not from any real impression made upon their minds, or any high or good thoughts they had indeed conceived of him; but, how meanly soever they thought of him, they were resolved thus to curry favour with him, and strengthen the new-made peace between him and them. Thus great men are made an easy prey to flatterers if they lend an ear to them, and encourage them. Grotius here observes that, though magistrates are called gods (Psa 82:1), yet kings or monarchs, that is, single persons, are not, lest countenance should thereby be given to the Gentiles, who gave divine honours to their kings alive and dead, as here; but they are a college of senators, or a bench of judges, that are called gods - In collegio toto senatorum non idem erat periculi; itaque eos, non autem reges, invenimus dictos elohim. Those that live by sense vilify God, as if he were altogether such a one as themselves, and deify men, as if they were gods; having their persons in admiration, because of advantage. This is not only a great affront to God, giving that glory to others which is due to him alone, but a great injury to those who are thus flattered, as it makes them forget themselves, and so puffs them up with pride that they are in the utmost danger possible of falling into the condemnation of the devil.
(6.) These undue praises he took to himself, pleased himself with them, and prided himself in them; and this was his sin. We do not find that he had given any private orders to his confidants to begin such a shout, or to put those words into the mouths of the people, nor that he returned them thanks for the compliment and undertook to answer their opinion of him. But his fault was that he said nothing, did not rebuke their flattery, nor disown the title they had given him, nor give God the glory (Act 12:23); but he took it to himself, was very willing it should terminate in himself, and that he should be thought a god and have divine honours paid him. Si populus vult decipi, decipiatur - if the people will be deceived, let them. And it was worse in him who was a Jew, and professed to believe in one God only, than it was in the heathen emperors, who had gods many and lords many.
2. How his iniquity was punished: Immediately (Act 12:23) the angel of the Lord smote him (by the order of Christ, for to him all judgment is committed), because he gave not God the glory (for God is jealous for his own honour, and will be glorified upon those whom he is not glorified by); and he was eaten of worms above ground, and gave up the ghost. Now he was reckoned with for vexing the church of Christ, killing James, imprisoning Peter, and all the other mischiefs he had done. Observe in the destruction of Herod,
(1.) It was no less than an angel that was the agent - the angel of the Lord, that angel that was ordered and commissioned to do it, or that angel that used to be employed in works of this nature, the destroying angel: or the angel, that is, that angel that delivered Peter in the former part of the chapter - that angel smote Herod. For those ministering spirits are the ministers either of divine justice or of divine mercy, as God is pleased to employ them. The angel smote him with a sore disease just at that instant when he was strutting at the applauses of the people, and adoring his own shadow. Thus the king of Tyre said in his pride, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God; and set his heart as the heart of God; but he shall be a man, and no God, a weak mortal man, in the hand of him that slayeth him (Eze 28:2-9), so Herod here. Potent princes must know, not only that God is omnipotent, but that angels also are greater in power and might than they. The angel smote him, because he gave not the glory to God; angels are jealous for God's honour, and as soon as ever they have commission are ready to smite those that usurp his prerogatives, and rob God of his honour.
(2.) It was no more than a worm that was the instrument of Herod's destruction: He was eaten of worms, genomenos skōlēkobrōtos - he became worm-eaten, so it must be read; rotten he was, and he became like a piece of rotten wood. The body in the grave is destroyed by worms, but Herod's body putrefied while he was yet alive, and bred the worms which began to feed upon it betimes; so Antiochum, that great persecutor, died. See here, [1.] What vile bodies those are which we carry about with us; they carry about with them the seeds of their own dissolution, by which they will soon be destroyed whenever God does but speak the word. Surprising discoveries have of late been made by microscopes of the multitude of worms that there are in human bodies, and how much they contribute to the diseases of them, which is a good reason why we should not be proud of our bodies, or of any of their accomplishments, and why we should not pamper our bodies, for this is but feeding the worms, and feeding them for the worms. [2.] See what weak and contemptible creatures God can make the instruments of his justice, when he pleases. Pharaoh is plagued with lice and flies, Ephraim consumed as with a moth, and Herod eaten with worms. [3.] See how God delights not only to bring down proud men, but to bring them down in such a way as is most mortifying, and pours most contempt upon them. Herod is not only destroyed, but destroyed by worms, that the pride of his glory may be effectually stained. This story of the death of Herod is particularly related by Josephus, a Jew, Antiq. 19.343-350: "That Herod came down to Cesarea, to celebrate a festival in honour of Caesar; that the second day of the festival he went in the morning to the theatre, clothed with that splendid robe mentioned before; that his flatterers saluted him as a god, begged that he would be propitious to them; that hitherto they had reverenced him as a man, but now they would confess to be in him something more excellent than a mortal nature. That he did not refuse nor correct this impious flattery (so the historian expresses it); But, presently after, looking up, he saw an owl perched over his head, and was at the same instant seized with a most violent pain in his bowels, and gripes in his belly, which were exquisite from the very first; that he turned his eyes upon his friends, and said to this purpose: 'Now I, whom you called a god, and therefore immortal, must be proved a man, and mortal.' That his torture continued without intermission, or the least abatement, and then he died in the fifty-fourth year of his age, when he had been king seven years."
II. The progress of the gospel after this. 1. The word of God grew and multiplied, as seed sown, which comes up with a great increase, thirty, sixty, a hundred fold; wherever the gospel was preached, multitudes embraced it, and were added to the church by it, Act 12:24. After the death of James, the word of God grew; for the church, the more it was afflicted, the more it multiplied, like Israel in Egypt. The courage and comfort of the martyrs, and God's owning them, did more to invite people to Christianity, than their sufferings did to deter them from it. After the death of Herod the word of God gained ground. When such a persecutor was taken off by a dreadful judgment, many were thereby convinced that the cause of Christianity was doubtless the cause of Christ, and therefore embraced it. 2. Barnabas and Saul returned to Antioch as soon as they had despatched the business they were sent upon: When they had fulfilled their ministry, had paid in their money to the proper persons, and taken care about the due distribution of it to those for whom it was collected, they returned from Jerusalem. Though they had a great many friends there, yet at present their work lay at Antioch; and where our business is there we should be, and no longer from it than is requisite. When a minister is called abroad upon any service, when he has fulfilled that ministry, he ought to remember that he has work to do at home, which wants him there and calls him thither. Barnabas and Saul, when they went to Antioch, took with them John, whose surname was Mark, at whose mother's house they had that meeting for prayer which we read of Act 12:12. She was sister to Barnabas. It is probable that Barnabas lodged there, and perhaps Paul with him, while they were at Jerusalem, and it was that that occasioned the meeting there at that time (for wherever Paul was he would have some good work doing), and their intimacy in that family while they were at Jerusalem occasioned their taking a son of that family with them when they returned, to be trained up under them, and employed by them, in the service of the gospel. Educating young men for the ministry, and entering them into it, is a very good work for elder ministers to take care of, and of good service to the rising generation.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv19–23 And when Herod had sought for him and found…
And when Herod had sought for him and found him not,.... Neither in the prison, nor in any part of the city:
he examined the keepers; of the prison, and those that were upon the watch, whether they had not been accessary to his escape:
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and commanded that they should be put to death: or brought forth, not before a judge to be tried and judged, because they had been examined by Herod already; but either that they should be carried and laid in bonds, or be led forth to suffer punishment; and so our version directs, and which is confirmed by the Syriac; and the Greeks say (n), that is a kind of punishment:
and he went down from Judea to Caesarea; not Peter, but Herod:
and there abode; of this journey of Agrippa's to Caesarea, Josephus makes mention (o); this place was distant from Jerusalem six hundred furlongs, or seventy five miles (p).
(n) Harpocratian. Lex. p. 32. (o) Antiqu. l. 19. c. 2. sect. 2. (p) De Bello Jud. l. 1. c. 3. sect. 5.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv19, 20, 21, 23 Herod commanded them to be put to death -…
Herod commanded them to be put to death - And thus the wicked suffered in the room of the righteous. And going down from Judea - With shame, for not having brought forth Peter, according to his promise.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv19, 20, 21, 23 Verse 19. Commanded that they should be put to…
Verse 19. Commanded that they should be put to death.] He believed, or pretended to believe, that the escape of Peter was owing to the negligence of the keepers: jailers, watchmen, &c., ordinarily suffered the same kind of punishment which should have been inflicted on the prisoner whose escape they were supposed to have favoured.
He went down from Judea to Caesarea] How soon he went down, and how long he stayed there, we know not.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv20–21 Act 12:20. Herod, &c. — The historian now proceeds…
Act 12:20. Herod, &c. — The historian now proceeds to mention some circumstances that were introductory to the miserable end of Herod; was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon — On account of some supposed affront which he had received from them, and which provoked him so far that, having vowed a severe revenge, he was preparing with all speed to make war upon them. But they came with one accord to him — Being a trading people, and apprehensive of the consequences of the king’s displeasure, they unanimously adopted the resolution of sending proper representatives to Cesarea, to appear before him; and having made Blastus their friend, desired peace — They sued for, and obtained, reconciliation with Herod. And thus the Christians of those parts were, by the providence of God, delivered from scarcity: because their country was nourished — Was provided with corn; by the king’s country — Thus Hiram also, king of Tyre, desired of Solomon food, or corn, for his household, 1Ki 5:9.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv19–23 He examined the keepers - The soldiers who were…
He examined the keepers - The soldiers who were entrusted with his custody. Probably only those who had the special care of him at that watch of the night. The word “examine” here means “to inquire diligently, to make investigation.” He subjected them to a rigid scrutiny to ascertain the manner of his escape; for it is evident that Herod did not mean to admit the possibility of a miraculous interposition.
Should be put to death - For having failed to keep Peter. This punishment they had a right to expect for having suffered his escape.
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And he went down ... - How soon after the escape of Peter he went down to Caesarea, or how long he abode there, is not known. Caesarea was rising into magnificence, and the Roman governors made it often their abode. See the notes on Act 8:40. Compare Act 25:1, Act 25:4. This journey of Herod is related by Josephus (Antiq., book 19, chapter 8, section 2). He says that it was after he had reigned over all Judea for three years.
And there abode - That is, until his death, which occurred shortly after. We do not learn that he made any further inquiry after Peter, or that he attempted any further persecutions of the Christians. The men on guard were undoubtedly put to death; and thus Herod used all his power to create the impression that Peter had escaped by their negligence; and this would undoubtedly be believed by the Jews. See Mat 28:15. He might himself, perhaps, have been convinced, however, that the escape was by miracle, and afraid to attempt any further persecutions; or the affairs of his government might have called off his attention to other things; and thus, as in the case of the. “persecution that arose about Stephen,” the political changes and dangers might divert the attention from putting Christians to death. See the notes on Act 9:31. Thus, by the providence of God, this persecution, that had been commenced, not by popular tumult, but by royal authority and power, and that was aimed at the very pillars of the church, ceased. The prayers of the church prevailed; and the monarch was overcome, disappointed, bummed, and, by divine judgment, soon put to death.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv19, 20, 23 Should be led[3] away to punishment or death, according…
Should be led[3] away to punishment or death, according to the sense both of the Latin and Greek text. (Witham)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Jussit eos duci, Greek: apachthenai.
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George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv19–22 examined the keepers--who, either like the keepers of our…
examined the keepers--who, either like the keepers of our Lord's sepulchre, had "shaken and become as dead men" (Mat 28:4), or had slept on their watch and been divinely kept from awaking.
commanded that they should be put to death--Impotent vengeance!
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv19–23 19. To Cesarea—Very possibly after having put his soldiers…
19. To Cesarea—Very possibly after having put his soldiers to death he may have suspected some supernatural fact about it, and have withdrawn in perplexity if not guilty terror. At any rate he retires defeated in regard to the purposes with which the present chapter opens. Josephus says that he went to Cesarea at this time to attend a great celebration of public games in honour of the Emperor Claudius.
Cesarea—See notes on Act_8:40.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv19, 20, 21, 23 19. commanded that they should be put to death]…
19. commanded that they should be put to death] The Greek is literally, “commanded that they should be led forth,” implying however that such a proceeding was the prelude to their execution. It is the verb so often rendered “lead away” in the accounts which the Gospels give of the trial and crucifixion of Jesus.
And he went down from Judea to Cesarea, and there abode] By Caligula there had been conferred on Herod Agrippa the tetrarchies of Herod, Philip and Lysanias mentioned Luk_3:1. He afterwards received the tetrarchy of Antipas, and was honoured with the title of king. He therefore, and not a Roman governor, was in power at Cæsarea at this date, for Josephus tells us (Antiq. xx. 8. 2) that he had received from Claudius Judæa and Samaria, in addition to the districts over which he had ruled under Caligula.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv19, 20, 21, 23 (19) Commanded that they should be put to death.—Literally,…
(19) Commanded that they should be put to death.—Literally, that they should be led away—i.e., to execution. The phrase was half-technical, half-euphemistic. Capital punishment was, according to Roman usage, the almost inevitable penalty for allowing a prisoner to escape. So at Philippi, the gaoler, when he thought the prisoners had escaped, was on the point of anticipating the sentence by suicide (Act_16:28). See Note on Act_27:42.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv19–23 Guards for keepers, A.V.; tarried there for there abode,…
Guards for keepers, A.V.; tarried there for there abode, A.V.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v19 And … Herod … went down from Judea to…
Act_12:19-25
And … Herod … went down from Judea to Caesarea.
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The death of Herod
This journey of Herod is described by Josephus. It would seem that he left Judaea in disgust and spleen because Peter had escaped from his hands. We are next informed that Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon, etc. Judaea being an agricultural and a pastoral country, and Tyre and Sidon being mercantile countries, the latter were dependent on the inland trade for their support, and therefore it would have been almost ruin to them if Herod had carried his thoughts into execution; for the expression highly displeased means that he contemplated war. They, therefore, came to him in the most submissive manner, and bribed Blastus to use his influence. Herod having acceded to their request, and being a vainglorious man, determined to receive the ambassadors of Tyre and Sidon with a display of royal splendour. He also made an eloquent oration, probably reminding them of his own great condescension in receiving their ambassadors and granting them peace; and then the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him. And when the tyrant was dead, it is added, in striking and beautiful contrast, But the Word of God grew and multiplied. Note--
I. The miserable end of Herod. Observe--
1. The extreme emptiness of earthly splendour. How wonderful it is, that with such a lesson as this continually recorded in the page of history, and in our own experience, we should still need to be reminded of it; for it seldom happens that any grand ceremonial takes place without there being some circumstance connected with it to stamp vanity upon it. But it is not merely in the dazzling circumstances of courts and kings that the worldliness of mans heart is shown; it is ingrained in us all. We are by nature lovers of this present world; and even when they are not actually removed, God often embitters to us our idols, and although we clearly see our own folly in idolising them, yet we cannot tear the idols away. We are all hastening towards the grave; and, painful as it must be, it would be very wholesome if we could look upon each others countenances, and feel an abiding sense that dissolution must soon come. Parents and children, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, dear as they are to each other, must soon part. Oh! that we could meditate then upon this; and when we see a great king thus awfully cut down--when there seems but a step between the gorgeous apparel and the filthy worm--let us pause, learn how short our time is, and pray that we may not set our hearts upon the fleeting shadows of the world, but may seek to lay up treasure where rust and moth doth not corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. How blessed, to think that there is a garment which shall never be exchanged for the worm, that there is a crown which shall never fall from our heads, that there is an abode where sorrow cannot come! Who would believe it, to see men frantically pursuing things that are not worth the having?
2. An awful instance of Gods wrath against the persecutors of His Church and people. This man had killed James, etc. What a change is here. A little while, and Peter is safe, and the proud and mighty Herod is the prey of worms. So let all Thine enemies perish, O Lord; and so must they perish, if they die in their sins. There are few sins which are followed up with more signal punishment than the persecution of Gods saints. We see this in the fate of those who persecuted Israel, and it would be easy to show, from the history of modern Europe, that there has not been a power, papal or heathen, which has persecuted the Church of God, but the Lord has rendered an awful retribution into their bosoms. He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of His eye. There is no organ so delicate as the apple of the eye. The smallest puncture there will give pain over the whole body. How strikingly is this illustrated in the case of Saul. Why persecutest thou Me? And our Saviour says that it would be better for a man who persecutes the saints of God that a millstone had been hung around his neck, and he had been cast into the depths of the sea. And let us remember that it is the spirit of the persecutor which God looks at. You may say that men are not now sent to prison and to bonds for serving Christ. But ungodly men show the same disposition as ever to persecute. They point with the finger of scorn; they apply names of contempt, and endeavour to injure reputation. This is nothing else but the spirit which lifted the hand of Herod, and all that were like him, to persecute the saints of God. Happy are they who are persecuted for righteousness sake, but woe be unto them that persecute them.
3. Gods jealousy of His own glory and condemnation of human pride. The sin for which he was eaten of worms was only a negative sin. When the people said, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man, Herod did nothing, said nothing; but it is added, Immediately the angel of the Lord smote him. And why? Because he gave not God the glory. Oh, what a little sin does this appear! How singular that this man should have been suffered to go through a long career of cruelty, oppression, and profligacy, ending with the murder of Gods saints, and that the blow should be withheld until he had committed this apparently little sin--namely, not to reproach the people for their idolatry! Now this is well worthy of our serious consideration, because it is just by such things as these that we are led to the secret root of sin, and led to detect its hidden springs. It is of no use just to cut off the tops of the weeds in our gardens; we must pluck them up by the roots, or they will grow again. So it is with sin. The case of Herod is not a singular one. It is very remarkable, that we read of many instances in the Old Testament in which persons known to be of the most profligate and wicked character, and nations and people of the most debauched habits, have had the judgments of God poured out upon them, not for what are ordinarily considered great crimes, but for the crime of pride and exaltation against God (Isa_10:5, etc.; 47:10; Dan_4:1-37.). It is perhaps said, But this is an uncommon sin. Certainly in its full development it is; for all are not kings, nor can they array themselves in royal apparel; but as to the sin itself, it is universal. Oh! how many are there amongst us who spend their lives in arraying themselves in apparel! The love of personal admiration is one of the most universal sins of our fallen nature. From the queen upon her throne down to the meanest of her subjects, the love of dress and personal display is an indigenous sin in the hearts of all of us, according to our various stations in life. But, you observe, it was not for his apparel that the people admired Herod, but for his oration. Here is the pride of oratory, the pride of intellect. There are many who utterly despise the former, who feed eagerly upon the latter; and the more intellectual our sin, the more subtle it is, and perhaps the more venomous and deadly. There is no pride more detestable in the sight of God than intellectual or spiritual pride. And here again you see the love of flattery, the love of the admiration of our fellow creatures. There is scarcely any human being insensible to this. If there be any avenue by which you can infuse folly into a wise mans heart, it is by flattering him. Oh! how mean and little do we seem when these bosom sins of ours are stripped open! How many a splendid action, how many an apparently virtuous one, how many a seemingly self-denying one, becomes a detestable and abominable sin, when the secret self-love and self-admiration that guided it is exposed! God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God.
II. The progress of the gospel, notwithstanding all these events (verse 24). Remarkable juxtaposition of facts! Here is the persecutor eaten of worms, and gives up the ghost. Poor, feeble, wretched man! he can do nothing against God and His truth; and while he is dying, the Word of the Lord multiplies. This is a sort of recurring chorus in the whole history of the Acts. Thus it was after the deliverance of Peter and John, after the doom of Ananias and Sapphira, after the death of Stephen, and the conversion of Saul. What an idea does this give us of the omnipotence with which the Word is clothed, and of the mighty purposes of God concerning it! He hath said, So shall My Word be, that goeth forth out of My mouth, etc. And so it has been throughout the whole of the history of Christs Church militant here upon earth. Infinitely diversified is the story; there is no history so romantic as that. The Church, founded upon a Rock, never can be shaken; the gates of hell cannot prevail against it; men and devils may unite, but they shall be eaten of worms and give up the ghost; while the Word of God shall grow and multiply. Let us repose our minds on these glorious considerations. It is the consolation of every well-regulated Christian mind that all the things which we see around us, however untoward, work together for the purpose of God. The Lord will show who is right and who is wrong; the work of every man will be submitted to the fire, and we shall then see which was the gold, and which the wood, hay, and stubble. Meanwhile His people have a confidence that they are serving a Master who cannot be defeated, and obey Him who has all things in His hands, and who said to another persecutor, Thou couldest have no power at all against Me, except it were given thee from above. (Dean Close.)
The death of Herod
I. He would not glorify God. To exceed a just proportion, even in that which is good, is sometimes blameful; too much justice; too much love. But to give God the glory is a duty unto which we are bound with an infinite devotion. Wherefore if God gave children by seventies, He asked but the first born. Every hour of our time is His benevolence; yet the law is only to keep the Sabbath day. The earth is the Lords, and yet His portion is but the tenth; but of His glory, it is His own entirely; He will not part with it. Themistocles, demanding tribute of the men of Andria, told them that he had brought two powerful advocates to plead his cause--Persuasion if they pleased, Violence if they refused. These two apparitors go before the glory of the Most High. Doth it like you to bless His name? So God is glorified by the devotion of His creature. Doth it like you to exalt yourself? Then He will be honoured in your confusion. He that swells to the greatest in this world shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. When the heathen traduced the Christians that they debased their emperor and made him less than the God of heaven, Know you not, says Tertullian, that this is the eminency of your emperor to be less than God? The heathen said that everything which grew too tall was thunder blasted, and that great fortunes, when they came to excess, did end in shameful ruin. As Virgil says of his bees, that one hive will fight cruelly against another; but cast a little dust into the air, and the fray is parted. So when the pride of man swells with vain opinion, methinks the casting of a little dust should pluck down our stomach, the base mould of which our flesh is made. Says St. Austin, Set aside this corrupt leaven of ostentation, and all men are but men, as naked in their pomp as when they were born, or when they shall be buried. It was pride that dethroned the bad angels, and it is that which makes man stubborn against the law and refractory against faith, blow there are four ways whereby this daring vice of pride doth diminish from that which should be given to Gods glory.
1. It is a sin no less ungrateful than presumptuous to enjoy wit, and art, and memory, and the blessings of the best portion, and to forget God. Everything that renowns us, feeds us, preserves us, is but a crumb that falls from our Masters table.
2. Violence is done to Gods glory when conscience will acknowledge that God doth give all; but arrogancy will infer that man deserves all. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the free gift of God the Father, the unction of the Holy Spirit, are turned quite aside, like a river from his own true channel, when it falls into such a soil that thinks it deserves it. When good works sue to be called merits, they are like the ambitious men of the world, that spend their whole revenue to buy some gaudy title of honour; and when they have it, they want substance to maintain it.
3. The third transgression is a lofty stomach, that will seem to be no less than to have no equals. The proud man is deciphered by the single horn of the unicorn, who would be solitary in all Gods graces, and without a companion; whereas the congregation of the militant church is compared to a field of wheat, where all the ears of the field are of an equal growth, and if any stalk over-top the rest it is lank and without fructification. They that are not contented to be equal with the common condition of men, shall never be equal with the angels; and he that despiseth the gifts of God in his fellow servants, is not the man that gives God the glory.
4. There is one feather more in the tail of pride, and full as long as the rest: when they arrogate to themselves that which indeed they have not. Christ hath said we cannot add one cubit to our stature; no, nor make one hair of our head black or white. Why do ye practise it, then, O ye gaudy beauties! to bring that about which Christ told you was impossible? I have seen books of meditations whose subject was to let all men know that they are vain, and sinful, and ignorant, and yet they were dedicated to some great man most virtuous and most religious. Presume not to take false titles upon you, as Herod encroached upon the name of God Himself.
But as to the pride of Herod, it is a monster that riseth up into two heads--
1. A tongue full of vain and insolent speech.
2. An ear obnoxious to the flattery of the people. Of both in their order, and for your edification. It was Epaminondass praise that he seldom met with a man that knew more than himself or spake less; and so the least doers inch out their poor works with much talk. As the artificial prospective to the eye, so is the tongue unto the ear an hollow instrument to make everything seem bigger and fairer than it is. The beasts, the birds, the serpents may be sooner tamed, says St. James, than the tongue of man. Worse than these creatures is the tongue of man; fiercer than the beasts, more flitting than the birds, more poisonous than the serpents. It is a member of the body that can taste everything but itself, and knows how all things relish but its own pride and bitterness. And as we are taught from hence to set a watch before our lips, so let us learn from Herods example to circumcise our ears, to renounce the flatteries of evil men. The French proverb says that the boiling pot doth discover the little pea which is in the bottom of it, and the applause of a little vainglory doth discover the disposition of the mind of man more than any other passion. Says Seneca, Glory is the fire that kindles virtue when it provokes virtue to good achievements; but when glory begets nothing but the desire of glory, it is but childish popularity. All flattery is the corruption of true glory; but to flatter any man in his vices is a sacrilege against virtue. It is a note of a reprobate that he speaketh good of the covetous, whom God abhorreth. To flatter vice is to promote Satans kingdom; to flatter princes is to destroy their kingdoms; to flatter princes, as the Sidonians did Herod, is to pluck down Gods kingdom. The Athenians, who were but Gentiles at the wisest, could not endure such injury to be offered to the God whom they knew not, but put Timagoras, their ambassador, to death, because he adored the king of Persi like a god.
II. God was glorified in him.
1. He, the king. The obedience of the law was violated; but the castigation of the law cannot be avoided. Machiavel, among his irreligious principles, says that all the credit of great enterprises depends upon success; for if Caesar had miscarried in his civil wars, his infamy had been more odious than Catalines. Mighty sinners run into mighty destructions; and such conspicuous offenders as Herod was, leave themselves as a beacon. Where is his eloquence now? Where is his costly garment? Where is the outcry of the Sidonians that canonised his tongue for the voice of a god? Take heed lest you forfeit your own possession of the earth for denying God the possession of heaven. The Sidonians gave Herod so much of heaven, that they lost him all the earth but a grave. St. Chrysostom asks why the people giving the first offence, yet Herod is punished, and the principal malefactors acquitted.
(1) Josephus gives the reason: he should have reproved and abhorred their flatteries. He should have rent his spangled garment, as St. Paul did at Lystra. Woe will be to thousands that suffer so many unsavoury words to fly about their ears and not reprove them.
(2) God will take a more exact account of great mens actions than of the vulgar multitude, because their lives are conspicuous and should be exemplary; and if their life is infectious unto many, so their doom will be dreadful unto many.
(3) The people were not altogether free from chastisement. Look now upon him that was your idol, ye Sidonians! Imagine with what astonishment the whole assembly was dissolved, if their consciences were not as full of worms as Herods body!
(4) Clemency and justice, when they meet together, attend how they may punish few and save many. If Herod suffer the malediction, one man feels the smart, and the whole assembly may repent and be saved.
(5) Let the rabble go home in peace for this time; they were not all white for harvest upon that day, but behold the end. Where is Caesarea now? Or who almost knows the Sidonians? They have learnt to know by dear experience that thunder and judgment is the voice of God, and not an eloquent oration.
2. He was smitten by an angel of the Lord. Strange wickednesses procure strange kinds of death. If the earth will not avenge them, the angel of the Lord will come down and fight. Do the trees of paradise deserve to have a cherubim set before them with a flaming sword? And shall not all the host of heaven stand about the majesty of the Most High, and see the honour of His name preserved?
3. Immediately he was smitten. In such splendour of attire, in such celebrity of attendants, before the face of strangers, among those who in their hearts were no better than his enemies; never did he come out of that chair of the scorner, from that throne wherein he was canonised, till he was stripped of all dignity. It is the most dreadful thing upon earth to be suddenly apprehended by judgment. But let the Christian pray every morning as if he should see the sun rise no more; every evening as if he should see the sun set no more; be ready to meet the bridegroom at midnight, and yet despise not that supplication, From sudden death, good Lord deliver us.
4. Lest he should glory that he was smitten by no less than an angel, behold the meanest of all creatures, the worms, are made his executioners! He that humbled himself to be a worm and no man, he is exalted above men to the right hand of God. He that would have been Deus non homo, a God and not a man, is dejected below a man, and made a worm. This disease is more observed in histories to be the arrow of the Lord against sinners of high presumption than any other. Thus Sylla died; thus Antiochus Epiphanes; thus Herod the Great; thus Arnulphus, that spoiled the churches of the Christians; thus Phericides, that gloried he never offered sacrifice, and yet lived as prosperously. (Bp. Hacket.)
Herods death
I. Wherefore has it found a place in the Acts? Not as if it had been a punishment for the murder of James, but also because political events are not matters of indifference to Christianity.
II. What are we to learn from it? That the commonweal can prosper, not by flattery and yielding to the lusts and passions of men, but only when we are free from both, looking to the eternal and unchangeable will of God. (Schleirmacher.)
Herod smitten by the angel--an old picture of human society
Here we have--
I. National interdependence. The Phoenicians wanted what the Palestinians had, and vice versa. This is a glorious fact in Gods government of man. Throughout the earth one zone produces what other zones want, and the peculiar products of each contribute towards the consummation of mans well-being. This interdependence serves--
1. To stimulate human activities. It presses ever on the sense of need and love of gain, and thus keeps mans faculties ever on the stretch contriving and constructing methods to work the soil to the greatest advantage, and to increase facilities of transit. He makes seas his high road, electricity his messenger, winds and fire the carriers of his commodities.
2. To check all monopolies. There are narrow souls who would keep all their land produces to themselves. Ignorant alike of the laws of the universe, the genius of the world, and their own insignificance, they vainly talk of national independence. Nature laughs them to scorn. Creature independence is a solecism.
3. To promote international concord.
(1) A free commerce throughout the world is one of the best means by which men may become mutually acquainted. Buyers and sellers mutually show themselves in their transactions.
(2) It advances interest in man. It is to the interest of traders to be on terms of amity and free intercourse. The commercial interests of the world are against war.
(3) But the higher concord, the brotherhood of soul, commerce can only effect this as it becomes thoroughly inspired and ruled by those principles which were embodied in Him who came to break down all partition walls.
II. Class wickedness.
1. Unbounded arrogance on the part of the ruler.
(1) The set day some think was in honour of Claudius return from Britain, which he had reduced to a Roman province. Anyhow, the occasion was a grand one. Caesarea was crowded with pleasure seekers. The king enters that theatre which had been erected by his grandfather. The stone seats, rising in a great semicircle, tier above tier, were covered by an excited multitude.
(2) The king magnificently arrayed makes an oration. What he said we know not; but we may be sure it was very grand, like modern orations--as gorgeous as his costume, as arrogant as his pretensions. Probably it dealt with the message he received through Blastus. Herod is a type of his class. The haughtiness of rulers is proverbial. Many treat their fellow men as if they themselves were a race of gods.
(2) Base servility on the part of the ruled. Who can credit the shrewd Phoenician traders, the cultured Greeks, and the religious Jews with sincerity here? It was simply that base flattery which has been the sin and curse of the people in all ages. It is not uncommon, even in these days of enlightenment, to see men crushed by the injustice of rulers shouting hosannas in their ears. There is no greater obstruction to free government, wholesome law and national advancement, than the servile spirit of millions to those above them. No government can help the man who respects not the high prerogatives of his own humanity.
III. Retributive justice. Angels have often done such work before (Exo_12:21; 2Ki_19:35; 2Sa_24:16; 2Ch_32:21). The justice of this mans fate is clear. Surely he who had killed James, imprisoned Peter, and massacred his own guards, and now accepted Divine homage, deserved the end which befell him. Such instances of retributive justice had occurred with Pharaoh, Belshazzar, etc., but they are confessedly rare as compared with the number of notorious offenders. Yet they are sufficient to show that there is a moral government in the world, and to prophesy the coming of a time when retribution shall be fairly dealt out to all.
IV. Remedial forces.
1. The Word of God. This grew and multiplied. The seed was growing everywhere, and the fruit was the antidote to the worlds evils, the provision for the cravings of the human soul. Herod had done his best to crush it, but it went on, and as it advanced it elevated and blessed.
2. The agency of the good. Here are Barnabas, and Saul, and Mark, all working to help on the true and the right. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
This worlds honour
Death strips us of this worlds glory as a boot jack draws off your boots. Another wears my boots when I am dead, and another wears my glory. It is of little value. (Martin Boos.)
Fleeting honour
It was a custom in Rome, that when the emperor went out upon some grand day in all his imperial pomp, there was an officer appointed to burn flax before him, crying out, Sic transit gloria mundi; which was done to put him in mind that all his honour and grandeur should soon vanish away like the smoke from the burning flax.
The law of reprisal
When we consider the almost invincible power which the crustaceans derive from their armour, their muscular vigour, their ferocity, and their numbers, we ask how is it that they have not depopulated the shores where they meet none but victims, no enemies capable of contending with them upon equal terms? For formidable as they are to all the tribes of molluscs and zoophytes, what have they to fear--except in a few countries certain littoral or amphibious mammals which, for the most part, only attack them as a last resort, preferring prey more easily devoured, and assisting them in their work of extermination rather than fighting them? Their tyranny then seems at first sight absolute and without counterbalance. Such, however, is not the ease. The crustaceans undergo at certain epochs a fatal crisis, which delivering them up defenceless to external shocks and the blows of their enemies, places an easy vengeance within the reach of the oppressed. These epochs are their sloughing times, when, willy nilly, with great difficulty, and at the cost of the most painful and sometimes the deadliest efforts, they are forced to shed their armour of proof, to expose their living flesh barely covered with a thin soft pellicle, and to bury themselves piteously under the sand until the calcareous secretion shall be reformed and solidified anew. This is their season of fear and fright. Their hiding places are easily discoverable, and once unearthed the disarmed brigands are lost beyond redemption. Myriads perish in this manner, devoured by other animals, crushed among the stones, or dashed in pieces against the rocks by the movement of the waves. Thus Nature enforces her law of reprisal. The power of all tyrants and oppressors has its fixed limits. The quarrelsome crustacean and the despotic king are alike subject to the hour of retaliation. (Scientific Illustrations.)
Danger of flattery
Whitefield, when flattered, said, Take care of fire: I carry powder about me.
Flattery answered
When the French ambassador visited Lord Bacon in his last illness, and found him in bed, with the blinds drawn, he addressed this compliment to him: You are like the angels, of whom we read and hear much, but have not the pleasure of seeing them. The reply was the sentiment of a philosopher, and not unworthy of a Christian: If the complaisance of others compares me to an angel, my infirmities tell me I am a man.
Flattery rebuked
A flattering priest told Constantine the Great that his virtues deserved the empire of the world here, and to reign with the Son of God hereafter. The emperor cried, Fie, fie! for shame! let me hear no more such unseemly speeches; but, rather, suppliantly pray to my Almighty Maker, that, in this life and the life to come, I may be reckoned worthy to be His servant.
Royal piety
One of the first acts performed by George III after his accession to the throne, was to issue an order prohibiting any of the clergy who should be called to preach before him, from paying him any compliment in their discourses. His Majesty was led to this from the fulsome adoration which Dr. Thos. Wilson, prebendary of Westminster, thought proper to deliver in the Chapel Royal, and for which, instead of thanks, he received from his royal auditor a pointed reprimand, his Majesty observing that he came to chapel to hear the praises of God and not his own. (Clerical Anecdotes.)
The certainty of retribution
As you stood some stormy day upon a sea cliff, and marked the giant billow rise from the deep to rush on with foaming crest, and throw itself thundering on the trembling shore, did you ever fancy that you could stay its course, and hurl it back to the depths of ocean? Did you ever stand beneath the leaden, lowering cloud, and mark the lightnings leap, as it shot and flashed, dazzling athwart the gloom, and think that you could grasp the bolt and change its path? Still more foolish and vain his thought, who fancies that he can arrest or turn aside the purpose of God, saying, What is the Almighty that we should serve Him? Let us break His bands asunder, and cast away His cords from us! Break His bands asunder!--How He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh! (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
Gods ministers of retribution
An angel was the agent of judgment here, but worms were the ministers of vengeance. But God can dispense with superior ministers altogether. No need that He should grasp ten thousand thunders, or come riding on the wings of the wind. A grasshopper, a wire worm, a taint of air, the sporule of a microscopic mass, the bacillus of an invisible animalculae--ah! these loathly nothings are potent enough in the hand of God to abase into dust the majesty of man. Julian would fain have trampled Christianity into the dust; a devious arrow, and Julian was struck down before the face of his enemies. Napoleon insolently remarked that God he usually found on the side of the strongest battalions; softer than feathers, melting at a breath, fell on the plains of Russia the white flakes of snow, and Napoleon was a fugitive, and his grand army lay wrapped in its ghastly winding sheet. (Archdeacon Farrar.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv20–23 20. Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre…
20. Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon. The reason of this displeasure is not known. These cities were on the sea-coast, but Herod's dominions occupied the country behind them. Having made Blastus, the king's chamberlain, their friend. Probably by a bribe. The chamberlain guarded his bed-chamber and would be a trusted friend and adviser.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v20 Act_12:20. For And Herod read And, or but, he—i.e.,…
CRITICAL REMARKS
Act_12:20. For And Herod read And, or but, he—i.e., Herod. Highly displeased.—θυμομαχῶν, in a hostile state of mind, in modern phrase, “contemplating hostilities” (Plumptre), though it is doubtful whether open war against Phœnicia would have been permitted by Rome. Perhaps prohibitory tariffs with shutting of ports and markets were what Agrippa had in view. Tyre and Sidon.—The first mention of these Phœnician cities in the Acts. For their antiquity and splendour see Isa_23:7-8; Ezekiel 27, 28. Blastus.—Judging from his name may have been a Roman, and from the epithet, ὁ ἐπὶ τοῦ κοιτῶνος, præfectus cubiculi, cubicularis, was a chamberlain like Candace’s minister (Act_8:27), though not like him a eunuch.
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Act_12:21. The set day.—According to Josephus was August 1st, and the second day of the public games celebrated by Agrippa in honour of Claudius (Jos., Ant., XIX. viii. 2). The royal apparel.—Was wholly of silver and of a contexture truly wonderful. The throne, or judgment seat, had been prepared for him in the theatre.
Act_12:23. For the read an angel of the Lord. Smote him … eaten of worms … gave up the ghost.—According to Josephus (Ant., XIX. viii. 2), the disease, which was acute disorder of the bowels, smote the king with sudden and violent pain. Forthwith he was carried out of the theatre a dying man; and in five days—i.e., on August 6th, he was dead. Compare the deaths of Joram (2Ch_21:19), Antiochus Epiphanes (2Ma_9:5-10), and of Herod the Great (Jos., Ant., XVII. vi. 5). As to the nature of this disease by which Agrippa was cut off see “Homiletical Analysis.” The suggestion that Herod was poisoned by Blastus, the king’s valet, whom the Phœnicians had gained over for this purpose (Renan), is scarcely worthy of consideration, having no plausible support either from Josephus or Luke.
Act_12:24. But the word of God grew and multiplied.—An antithesis to the horrible end of the persecuting king. (Compare Act_5:12 ff., Act_6:7; Act_9:31.)
Act_12:25. And Barnabas and Saul returned.—Not to, as some authorities read, but from Jerusalem.—Shortly after Herod’s death. How long they remained in the metropolis is not stated, but it is not likely to have been long. Alford thinks their arrival should be placed after Herod’s death, as “of all the persons whose execution would be pleasing to the Jews Saul would hold the foremost place.” Took with them John, whose surname was Mark.—See Act_12:12, whence the inference has been drawn that Barnabas and Saul, while in the city, belonged to the congregation that assembled in John’s mother’s house.
HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Act_12:20-25
The Death of Herod; or, the Church’s Persecutor punished
I. The occasion of, and circumstances connected with, Herod’s death (Act_12:20-22).—
1. The place where it occurred—Cœsarea (see on Act_8:40). If Luke suggests that Herod’s motive for leaving Jerusalem and taking up his quarters in that “city of sumptuous palaces” (Conybeare and Howson, The Life and Epistles of Paul, 2:306) was the disgust felt in consequence of failing in his project to remove Peter, Josephus (Ant., XIX. vii. 3, viii. 2) so far confirms this as to state that while Agrippa “loved to live at Jerusalem,” he suddenly, after reigning three years over all Judæa, “came to the city of Cæsarea” with the obvious intention of residing there for a season.
2. The time when it happened. Manifestly within a month or two after Peter’s deliverance, though the precise date is not specified. The interval between Herod’s murder of James, shortly before the Passover of A.D. 44, and God’s judgment on Herod, in August A.D. 44, was sufficiently short to show that in the monarch’s overthrow the martyr’s death was divinely avenged.
3. The occasion on which it took place. According to Luke that was the reception of an embassy from the cities of Tyre and Sidon, with which at the time Herod was displeased. The ground of this displeasure, though not stated, may be assumed to have been the commercial rivalry existing between those ancient ports and the newly founded harbour of Cæsarea. In consequence of this the Phœnicians, it may be supposed, had been subjected to prohibitory measures which prevented them from obtaining supplies of corn out of Palestine, and accordingly were aroused to embrace the opportunity afforded them by Agrippa’s presence in Cæsarea to approach him with overtures for peace, which were laid before him by a friend of theirs at court—viz., Blastus, the king’s chamberlain. According to the story in the Acts Herod died, or at least received his death stroke, on the day when the Phœnician ambassadors were admitted to his presence, and while he himself, arrayed in royal apparel and seated upon his throne, was making to them a bombastical harangue. Josephus agrees with Luke in mentioning that Herod’s mortal malady seized him in a crowded assembly; and though the Jewish historian does not mention Herod’s quarrel with the Phœnicians or the presence of their ambassadors in the meeting, but ascribes the vast gatherings to a festival which at the time was being held in the city “to make vows for his safety,” possibly in honour of his return from Britain which took place that year, A.D. 44, nevertheless he (Josephus) says nothing to contradict Luke’s account, while he concurs with the sacred writer in affirming that the special flattery offered to Agrippa was that of calling him a god. According to Luke the people shouted—“The voice of a god and not of a man!” According to Josephus, “his flatterers cried out, one from one place and another from another, though not for his good, that he was a god,” adding, “Be thou merciful to us, for although we have hitherto reverenced thee only as a man, yet shall we henceforth own thee as superior to mortal nature.” Both forms of utterance may have been used, though Josephus’s appears like a paraphrase of Luke’s. The result, however, will remain unaffected, even if Luke should be held as having abbreviated the exclamations of the people.
II. The cause and the reason of Herod’s death (Act_12:23).
1. The cause was twofold.
(1) The natural, material, instrumental, and visible cause was a violent distemper of the bowels, which the sacred writer describes more particularly by saying “He was eaten of worms.” According to Josephus “a severe pain arose in his belly, and began in a most violent manner.” “The two accounts considered together,” writes Sir Risdon Bennett (The Diseases of the Bible, p. 101), “leave scarcely any room for doubt that the cause of death was perforation of the bowels by intestinal worms, inducing ulceration and acute peritonitis,” instances of which, he adds, are well known to medical science. “Without doubt,” says Leyrer, “one must think of abscesses and worm ulcers (ulcera verminosa), out of which, when they break up, maggots creep forth” (quoted by Keil, Biblische Archœologie, p. 564). To the same effect speaks Kamphausen in Riehm’s Handwörterbuch, art. Krankheiten):—“It is well known that masses of round worms can break through a place in the bowels which has been rendered thin by suppuration, or even through stoppage of the bowels lead to a horrible death; nor is it less certain that through ulcer holes worms can empty themselves out.”
(2) The supernatural, immaterial, direct, and invisible cause was the hand of God to which Luke points by writing, “An angel of the Lord smote him.” If Josephus does not introduce an angel into his report, it would almost seem as if by his story of the ill-omened bird, the owl, which Herod saw in the theatre (see Ant., XIX. viii. 2), he intended to suggest the direct interposition of Heaven in bringing about Agrippa’s death; and, indeed, according to Josephus, Agrippa himself regarded it in this light, and exclaimed when he saw the bird, “I, whom you call a god, am commanded presently to depart this life; while Providence thus reproves the lying words you just now said to me; and I, who was called immortal, am immediately to be carried, away by death.”
2. The reason. “Because he gave not God the glory,” writes Luke; which Josephus confirms by saying, “Upon this the king did neither rebuke them nor reject their impious flattery.” He, a Jew, to whom it was a foremost article in religion that Jehovah alone was God, and that to set up a creature alongside of Him was blasphemy and worthy of death (Mat_26:66), had allowed himself to suck in and drink down the adulation of puny mortals, and had actually began to consider himself a superior being, if not a veritable God; and so Jehovah, who is a jealous God (Exo_20:5), smote him till he died.
III. The effect and consequence of Herod’s death.—
1. The people rejoiced. “When it was known that Agrippa was departed this life, the inhabitants of Cæsarea and Sebaste forgot the kindnesses he had bestowed upon them, and acted the part of his bitterest enemies.… They also laid themselves down in public places and celebrated general feastings, with garlands on their heads, and with ointments and libations to Charon, and drinking to one another for joy that the king was dead” (Jos., Ant., XIX. ix. 1). What a commentary—and not selected from the Bible—on the vanity of popular applause, and the insincerity of popular adulation!
2. The word of God grew and multiplied. Grew in weight and influence upon the hearts of those who listened to it; grew in the extent and circumference over which it travelled; grew in its power of overcoming difficulties and in making friends. Multiplied itself by multiplying the number of believers, by drawing towards the young Church crowds of men and women who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and cast in their lot with His cause.
Learn.—
1. The certainty that God will avenge the blood of His martyrs (Deu_32:43; Luk_18:7).
2. The vanity of attempting to war with God (Isa_27:4; compare Iliad, v. 407, “By no means is he long lived who fights with the immortals”).
3. The wickedness of doing anything to rob God of His glory (Isa_42:8; Isa_48:11).
4. The ultimate triumph of the gospel over all obstacles (Isa_11:9; Mar_13:10).
HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Act_12:20-23. The Sin and Punishment of Herod.
I. How the measure of his iniquity was filled up.—It was pride that did it.
1. He picked a quarrel with his neighbours, the men of Tyre and Sidon.
2. He displayed before them his royal grandeur.
3. He accepted from them their senseless flattery.
4. He glorified himself above them as a god.
II. How the wickedness of his conduct was punished.—He who had killed James and would have slain Peter was himself destroyed.
1. The agent in his destruction was no less than an angel. The angel of the Lord who smote Peter on the side for life now smote the guilty Herod in the heart for death.
2. The instrument of Herod’s destruction was no more than a worm. The body in the grave is destroyed by worms, but Herod’s body putrefied while he was yet alive, and bred the worms which began to feed on it betimes. See
(1) what weak and contemptible creatures God can make the instruments of His justice when He pleases; and
(2) how God delights to bring down proud men in such a way as is most mortifying, and pours most contempt upon them.—After M. Henry.
Herod’s Death.
I. A proud man humbled.
II. A wicked man punished.
III. A powerful man weakened.
Act_12:1-23. God alone King. Proved:—
I. In the early death of James.
II. In the miraculous deliverance of Peter.
III. In the horrible end of Herod.—Gerok.
Act_12:2-23. The Deaths of James and of Herod.
I. (The apostle died) by the violence of man, (the king) by the visitation of God.
II. (The apostle), mature in grace; (the king), ripe in sin.
III. (The apostle,) lamented by his brethren; (the king) execrated by his subjects.
IV. (The apostle,) to ascend to glory; (the king) to go to his own place.
Act_12:24. The Progress of the Gospel in Apostolic Times.
I. The opposition it encountered.—From—
1. Jewish prejudices.
2. Heathen superstitions.
3. Human learning.
4. Satanic influence.
II. The success it achieved.—
1. It was widely published.
2. Its influence was extensive.
3. Its converts were multiplied.
III. The causes which enabled it to overcome opposition and attain success.—
1. The power of the Spirit.
2. The zeal of its preachers.
3. The holy lives of its disciples.
4. The unity of the Church. 5. The persecutions it suffered.
Act_12:24. The Progress of the Kingdom of God.
I. It has its origin in a seed.—“The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed” (Mat_13:31-32). That seed is the truth of the gospel, which is:
1. Divine. Being the word of God (Luk_8:11; 1Pe_1:23; 1Jn_3:9).
2. Vital. Otherwise it would not spring up (Mar_4:27) and operate (Heb_4:12).
3. Small. Only a word, a gospel, a message of glad tidings, not a philosophy or a science, or elaborated system of truth.
II. It advances by growth.—Like the seed which extracts nutriment from the soil, the kingdom of God absorbs into itself that which makes it expand by attracting through the power of the gospel souls from the outside world.
III. It lives by reproduction.—As the seed multiplies according to its kind, so do believers who constitute the Church, as it were, reproduce themselves in other believers who are added to the congregation of the faithful.
Act_12:25. The Home Coming of the Messengers.
I. After a mission well executed.
II. With a fresh recruit to their ranks.
III. In readiness for further service.
The History of John Mark.
I. His family connections.—
1. The son of a pious mother. Mary was a disciple. In this respect Mark resembled Timothy (Act_16:1.). While grace does not run in the blood, there is an antecedent presumption that the piety of parents will reappear in their offspring. Mothers especially have an innate tendency to transmit their characters to their sons. How much pious mothers have in this way benefited both the Church and the world may be inferred from the annals of both, but will never be known till the day reveals.
2. The cousin of Barnabas (Col_4:10). Not sister’s son, in which case his father may have been the father of Barnabas; but cousin, so that his father and Barnabas’s may have been brothers, if the cousinship did not come through his mother. In any case, it was to Mark’s advantage that he stood so closely related to the Son of Consolation.
II. His excellent character.—
1. Fundamentally good. Like his mother he was a Christian disciple, having probably been converted by Peter, who afterwards affectionately regarded him as his son (1Pe_5:13), though of course the term “son,” as applied by Peter to Mark, may have referred to the service rendered by Mark to Peter. and this Mark may not have been John Mark, but either an actual son of the apostle’s (Bengel), or Mark the evangelist (Eusebius).
2. Constitutionally timid. As much as this may be feasibly inferred from his desertion of Paul and Barnabas at Perga (Act_13:13), on account probably of the hardships and dangers of the way. Grace does not all at once revolutionise a man’s natural temperament. Indeed, many good Christians have to struggle against constitutional infirmities all their lives.
3. Ultimately steadfast. This shines out conspicuously in his subsequent career. None reading of his after labours can doubt that Mark overcame his youthful indecision and became a splendid soldier of the cross. Youthful faults and indiscretions should not be allowed to hinder future usefulness or progress. Neither should they be used by others to disparage later merit.
III. His honourable career.—
1. An attendant of Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey (Act_13:5). Decidedly a good beginning, though it speedily came to a termination, for which he should not now be too severely judged. A colleague of Barnabas, after he and Paul had parted (Act_15:37; Act_15:39). Barnabas must have discerned in him elements of good notwithstanding his former lack of fortitude.
3. A companion of Paul in his imprisonment at Rome (Col_4:10-11; 2Ti_4:11; Phm_1:24); so that even Paul had come to recognise his true nobility of soul and to set a high value on his ministerial and friendly assistance. A lesson that old saints should not be too severe in judging the faults of young Christians.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On vv20, 23 20-23. For reasons not here specified, the king was…
DOOM OF THE TYRANT
20-23. For reasons not here specified, the king was exceedingly mad at the people of Tyre and Sidon, those great mercantile cities on the Mediterranean coasts. He was not allowed to make war on them, because they were all under the Roman Empire. Immediately after the escape of Peter and the execution of the soldiers, fortunately for the saints at Jerusalem lie goes away to Caesarea, where he had a palace and spent a portion of his time. As this city is accessible to Tyre and Sid on by sea, and at no great distance, those people availed themselves of the opportunity to wait on the king in great numbers impleading reconciliation, because they were much dependent on the mercantile patronage of Judea to sustain the financial interests of Tyre and Sidon. They very adroitly manipulate [perhaps by bribery] Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, into their co- operation. While thus progressing with their conciliatory enterprise, the king, somewhat yielding, invested in his royal splendor, delivered an oration to these Tyrians and Sidonians. In their enthusiasm, to flatter his vanity, they loudly applauded him and vociferate: “It is the voice of God, and not man.”
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On v23 Act 12:7, Act 12:23.
Acts
THE ANGEL’S TOUCH
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Act 12:7, Act 12:23.
The same heavenly agent performs the same action on Peter and on Herod. To the one, his touch brings freedom and the dropping off of his chains; to the other it brings gnawing agonies and a horrible death. These twofold effects of one cause open out wide and solemn thoughts, on which it is well to look.
I. The one touch has a twofold effect.
So it is always when God’s angels come, or God Himself lays His hand on men. Every manifestation of the divine power, every revelation of the divine presence, all our lives’ experiences, are charged with the solemn possibility of bringing us one or other of two directly opposite results. They all offer us an alternative, a solemn ‘either -or.’
The Gospel too comes charged with that double possibility, and is the intensest and most fateful example of the dual effect of all God’s messages and dealings. Just as the ark maimed Dagon and decimated the Philistine cities and slew Uzzah, but brought blessing and prosperity to the house of Obed-edom, just as the same pillar was light to Israel all the night long, but cloud and darkness to the Egyptians, so is Christ set ‘for the fall of’ some and ‘for the rising of’ others amidst the ‘many in Israel,’ and His Gospel is either ‘the savour of life unto life or of death unto death,’ but in both cases is in itself ‘unto God,’ one and the same ‘sweet savour in Christ.’
II. These twofold effects are parts of one plan and purpose.
Peter’s liberation and Herod’s death tended in the same direction-to strengthen and conserve the infant Church, and thus to prepare the way for the conquering march of the Gospel. And so it is in all God’s self-revelations and manifested energies, whatever may be their effects. They come from one source and one motive, they are fundamentally the operations of one changeless Agent, and, as they are one in origin and character, so they are one in purpose. We are not to separate them into distinct classes and ascribe them to different elements in the divine nature, setting down this as the work of Love and that as the outcome of Wrath, or regarding the acts of deliverance as due to one part of that great whole and the acts of destruction as due to another part of it. The angel was the same, and his celestial fingers were moved by the same calm, celestial will when he smote Peter into liberty and life, and Herod to death.
God changes His ways, but not His heart. He changes His acts, but not His purposes. Opposite methods conduce to one end, as winter storms and June sunshine equally tend to the yellowed harvest.
III. The character of the effects depends on the men who are touched.
As is the man, so is the effect of the angel’s touch. It could only bring blessing to the one who was the friend of the angel’s Lord, and it could bring only death to the other, who was His enemy. It could do nothing to the Apostle but cause his chains to drop from his wrists, nor anything to the vainglorious king but bring loathsome death.
This, too, is a universal truth. It is we ourselves who settle what God’s words and acts will be to us. The trite proverb, ‘One man’s meat is another man’s poison,’ is true in the highest regions. It is eminently, blessedly or tragically true in our relation to the Gospel, wherein all God’s self-revelation reaches its climax, wherein ‘the arm of the Lord’ is put forth in its most blessed energy, wherein is laid on each of us the touch, tender and more charged with blessing than that of the angel who smote the calmly sleeping Apostle. That Gospel may either be to us the means of freeing us from our chains, and leading us out of our prison-house into sunshine and security, or be the fatal occasion of condemnation and death. Which it shall be depends on ourselves. Which shall I make it for myself?
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv19–23 See notes one verse 18
See notes one verse 18
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v20 The judgment of God upon Herod:
The judgment of God upon Herod:
v. 20. And Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon; but they came with one accord to him, and, having made Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, their friend, desired peace, because their country was nourished by the king’s country.
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v. 21. And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them.
v. 22. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.
v. 23. 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.
v. 24. But the Word of God grew and multiplied.
v. 25. And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem when they had fulfilled their ministry, and took with them John, whose surname was Mark.
Luke here adds a few words in regard to the cause of the death of Herod Agrippa I to round out the narrative. Herod was king of Palestine and of all the provinces south of Syria, but Phoenicia, which belonged to Syria, was a thorn in his side. Whether it was merely a case of commercial warfare or of jealousy on account of some other advantage which the maritime province enjoyed, Herod was engaged in a violent quarrel with them, which might easily have culminated in some sort of bitter clash. But the cities along the coast could not afford to have such a condition obtain, since they received their grain and other foods from Palestine. Therefore they waited on him unanimously, having instructed their delegates to that effect. In addition, they managed to gain the good will of Blastus, the chamberlain, or minister of finance, of Herod, securing his good will in using his good offices for maintaining peace and removing the cause of the feud. It is by no means outside of the pale of the story or beyond reasonable possibility to suppose that bribery was resorted to, and that the king’s good will was gained in this manner. Herod was highly pleased with his success in this matter, and so on a certain set day he received the embassy of the Phoenicians, arrayed in the splendor of all his royal garments and sitting upon his throne, from which he formally addressed the commissioners and the assembled people. And the entire multitude of the people, knowing that flattery will obtain in the case of a tyrant what reasonable arguments should in the case of a sensible person, cried out: The voice of a god and not of a man! Instead of reproving the flatterers with all signs of horror, the tyrant was highly pleased with their shouting. And therefore the punishment of God struck Herod at once. An angel of the Lord, as minister of the divine will, smote him for taking the glory away from God and thus becoming guilty of the basest blasphemy. He was seized with violent pains in the abdomen, caused by the fact that he was eaten by worms, lingered in great agony for five days, and then breathed his last. That was a visible judgment of God upon the persecutor of the Church. And many a tyrant since has felt the heavy hand of the Lord on account of his blasphemy, and has had a terrible end. But the death of Herod removed the pressure upon the congregations everywhere. The Word of God grew. spread, and multiplied. The removal of this obstacle gave a new impetus to the preaching of the Gospel. And Barnabas and Saul, having carried out their commission and fulfilled their service of mercy by transmitting the money that had been entrusted to them for the use of the sufferers, with the sincere good wishes of the congregation at Antioch, returned from Jerusalem, taking along with them John, with the surname Mark. He was their companion on this journey back to Antioch, and incidentally received some training in actual ministerial work, always of value to a young man that intends to enter the service of the Lord as a preacher.
Summary
Herod has James beheaded and Peter imprisoned, the latter being delivered by an angel of the Lord, while the king is stricken by God; whereupon the Church again enters upon a season of prosperity.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv20, 22 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Luke continues with another event in Herod's life.
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Now
This word is used here to mark the next event in the story. (See: Introduction of a New Event)
They went to him together
Here the word "They" is a generalization. It is unlikely that all the people of Tyre and Sidon went to Herod. AT: "Men representing the people of Tyre and Sidon went together to talk with Herod" (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)
They persuaded Blastus
"These men persuaded Blastus"
Blastus
Blastus was an assistant to or an officer of King Herod. (See: How to Translate Names)
they asked for peace
"these men requested peace"
their country received its food from the king's country
They probably purchased this food. AT: "the people of Tyre and Sidon bought all their food from the people that Herod ruled" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
received its food
It is implied that Herod restricted this supply of food because he was angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
On a set day
This was probably the day on which Herod agreed to meet with the representatives. AT: "On the day when Herod agreed to meet them"
royal clothing
expensive clothing that would demonstrate he was the king
sat on a throne
This was where Herod formally addressed people who came to see him.
translationWords
Tyre
Sidon
peace
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.