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The Ancient World Behind the Text: Ideas
The customs, offices and ideas a first reader knew without being told, what each meant then, and the nearest thing you already know.
Agrippa I and the later Herods
Herod the Great's grandson Agrippa I was made king of all Judea by Claudius and ruled from AD 41 to 44, courting his Jewish subjects. His son Agrippa II later ruled smaller territories and heard Paul's defense.
The playboy prince who partied with the emperor's nephew ended up a king, and he made sure his people saw him at prayer. Agrippa I was Herod the Great's grandson. He spent years in Rome, became a friend of the future emperor Caligula, and was made king. Under Claudius he ruled all the lands his grandfather had held, from AD 41 until his sudden death in 44. Part Hasmonean on his grandmother's side, he was accepted as Jewish, and he worked hard to please his Jewish subjects. Acts calls him King Herod.
Agrippa I was the grandson of Herod the Great and of the Hasmonean princess Mariamne. He was the brother of Herodias, who once had to lend him money. In Rome he became close to Gaius Caligula, and he became the first king of Judea since his grandfather. Wright and Bird say he helped Claudius become emperor after Caligula's murder and was rewarded with the territory his grandfather had ruled. The CSB Study Bible dates his rule in Palestine from AD 37 to 44. Because of his Hasmonean grandmother he was counted Jewish as well as Idumean. He was popular, favored the Pharisees and was often in the temple. Josephus says "he loved to live continually at Jerusalem, and was exactly careful in the observance of the laws of his country," offering sacrifice every day. He worked to prove his Jewish identity to his people, and his reign began a nationalist revival that ran on to the revolt of AD 66. As king he held the power of life and death that the Sanhedrin lacked. Wright calls him the Jews' own man and trusted by Rome. Josephus tells of his death at Caesarea. At shows in honor of Caesar, wearing "a garment made wholly of silver," he let flatterers call him a god. He was seized with pains in the belly and died five days later, aged fifty-four. His son Agrippa II was only seventeen, so Judea went back to direct Roman rule (Wright and Bird). Agrippa II later ruled small, mostly Gentile territories, appointed high priests and stayed loyal to Rome. His sister Drusilla left the king of Emesa to marry the governor Felix. His sister Bernice, who lived with him, later became the mistress of Titus.
An analogy: a well-connected heir installed by a foreign power to govern his grandfather's old kingdom. He keeps both audiences happy, the capital that appointed him and the crowds at home, until the day a public show goes wrong.
The King Herod of Acts 12:1 is Agrippa I, who killed James to please his Jewish subjects and died after accepting divine honors, so the chapter sets a king who takes worship against apostles who refuse it. His son Agrippa II, with his sister Bernice, hears Paul in Acts 25:13.
Not a governor who only had to keep order. An installed heir can rule on the foreign power's backing alone. Agrippa also had to prove himself a Jew to his people, sacrificing daily at the temple. Nor is he the Herod of the nativity or of John the Baptist; those were his grandfather and his uncle Antipas.
When his rule began. The CSB Study Bible says he ruled in Palestine from AD 37 to 44; the cultural backgrounds notes count him king of Judea from AD 41 to 44. Wright and Bird reconcile the two: Caligula gave him the northern territories first, and Claudius added Judea in 41. On the occasion of his death, Josephus speaks of a festival for Caesar's safety, Keener suggests the emperor's birthday or a festival in March AD 44, and Wright and Bird place it at Passover in AD 44. Bernice is also judged differently: the CSB Study Bible speaks of her checkered sexual and marital history, while the cultural backgrounds notes say she appears favorably in Josephus and that the rumor of incest with her brother was almost certainly slander.
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- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Acts 12:1, 12:3, 12:22 and 12:23
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Acts 12:1, 12:2, 12:3, 12:21 and 12:22-24
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 5, The History of the Jews between the Persian and Roman Empires
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 19.7.3, 19.8.2 and 20.7.2, trans. William Whiston
- N. T. Wright, Acts for Everyone, Part One, comments on Acts 12:1-5 and 12:20-25
- CSB Study Bible, note on Acts 12:1
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Acts 25:13
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Acts 24:23-24 and 25:13-14
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Acts 24:24
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Acts 25:13
- CSB Study Bible, note on Acts 25:13
