Acts 12:23Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Yet even this ignorance was useful, because what happened to Herod was attributed to his killing of the apostle and his putting the soldiers to death. Observe: when he killed the apostle, he did nothing of this kind. And when he killed those men, he said nothing. But now they received great relief, and many good things came from his punishment. If he underwent such punishment when he heard the words, "This is the voice of a god, and not of a man," though he himself said no such thing, then much more would Christ have suffered if He were not God. For He constantly said, "The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority" (Jn 14:10), and again, "My servants would fight" (Jn 18:36), and things like these. But that man ended his life shamefully and miserably, and he is no more.

He sat in an elevated place amid a great multitude and began negotiations with the deputies of Tyre and Sidon. As he spoke, the flatterers cried out, "This is the voice of a god, and not of a man." Instead of silencing the shameless flatterers, who were giving a man glory proper to God alone, Herod listened to this blasphemous speech with pleasure. But the Angel of God suddenly struck the madly proud man. By the invisible action of this Angel, Herod was stricken with such a disease that he was eaten by worms while still alive and died, in the year 44 after the Nativity of Christ.

He ought not to have accepted any part of what was said as applying to himself. Compare Chrysostom and Theophylact. "Being eaten by worms, he died." This means that he did not die immediately when he was struck by the Angel. Rather, for some time he suffered in grievous illness, being consumed by worms. Josephus, Antt. 19, 8. 2; compare 18, 6. 7, tells the death of Herod Agrippa I in considerable detail. In substance, his account fully agrees with the narrative of the writer of Acts. He merely passes over certain details, and supplements others with particulars that are partly probable and partly unreliable. By comparing their accounts, one obtains a fairly full description of the circumstances of this king's death. According to both accounts, Herod died in Caesarea. He first felt the onset of his mortal illness suddenly, in the midst of a public assembly that verbally rendered him divine honors. According to Josephus, Herod was celebrating some festival with public spectacles in honor of Caesar Claudius, ὑπὲρ τῆς σωτηρίας τοῦ καίσαρος. On the second day of the festival, the king appeared in the theater in the morning, clothed in a splendid garment made entirely of silver. Probably at this time the public audience was appointed for the envoys of Tyre and Sidon, about which the writer of Acts speaks. He is silent about the festivities in honor of Caesar, while Josephus does not mention this embassy. When the sun's rays fell upon the king's splendid garment and it shone dazzlingly, a cry arose from the flatterers, rendering divine honor to the king. Thus it is in Josephus, and essentially the same in the words of the writer of Acts. After this, according to Josephus, the king suddenly saw an owl above his head, sitting on one of the ropes. He was struck with terror, because while he was in Rome an augur had foretold that a second sight of an owl would indicate his near death. At that very moment he felt a terrible attack of illness. He was carried into the royal chambers and died on the fifth day afterward. This story about the owl clearly has the odor of pagan superstition. From the standpoint of true religion, the writer of Acts explains the cause of Herod's sudden illness as his being struck by an Angel. This, without doubt, is the truth. Then the writer of Acts defines the king's illness more concretely: he was eaten by worms. Josephus accurately notes the duration of the king's illness: he died on the fifth day. In substance, the two accounts are the same. Yet the writer of Acts gives, without doubt, the more faithful explanation of the king's illness.

This divine punishment overtook Herod "if not for Peter, then for his arrogant speech," says Saint John Chrysostom. "But they will say: if those men cried out, what was his fault? His fault was that he accepted such a cry and considered himself worthy of such flattery. This especially serves for the instruction of the most senseless flatterers. And observe: both they and he were worthy of punishment. Yet he is punished, because now is not the time of judgment. God punishes the one who is more guilty, so that the others may profit from it." Josephus speaks of the days of Herod Agrippa's death in much the same way. He says that a painful attack came upon him at a certain feast, and that he died on the fiftieth day afterward.