Who was Herod? (Acts 12:1)
"About that time King Herod Agrippa began to persecute some believers in the church" (Acts 12:1).
Acts 12:1 - 5
ESV - 1 About that time Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church. 2 He killed James the brother of John with the sword.
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Asked December 19 2020
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Jack Gutknecht
Supporter
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Tim Maas
Supporter
There were mulitple kings named Herod in the New Testament. The king referenced in the verse cited in the question (Herod Agrippa, also known as Agrippa I) lived from 11 BC to AD 44, and was king of Judea from AD 41 to AD 44. He was a grandson of Herod the Great (the king who had sought to have Jesus killed as an infant, as recounted in Matthew 2:16-18); the nephew of Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee (who had ordered the death of John the Baptist (Matthew 14:3-12; Mark 6:17-29); and before whom Jesus was brought at the time of His trial by the order of Pontius Pilate (Luke 23:1-12)); and the father of Herod Agrippa II, who was the last king of the Herodian dynasty, and before whom Paul appeared, as described in Acts 25-26. As referenced in the passage cited in the question, Herod Agrippa I was responsible for the martyrdom of the apostle James the Greater, and also imprisoned Peter with the intent of killing him, but Peter was miraculously freed from prison (as recounted in Acts 12:6-19). Shortly after that, as indicated in Acts 12:20-24, Herod Agrippa I was struck down by God for usurping God's glory while delivering a speech, when his fawning listeners said that he was speaking with the voice of a god and not of a man.
Jack Gutknecht
Supporter
Herod, as Tim said, was the grandson of Herod the Great, and the son of Aristobulus and Bernice. He became Herod Agrippa I. Caligula gave him the governments of the tetrarchs Philip and Lysanias with other marks of royal favor. Strutting as a little popular idol, he was stricken with a foul infection and passed on in incredible misery (Acts 12:23). A footnote to his identity says that Herod the king was the nephew of Herod Antipas and a grandson of Herod the Great. He was called Herod Agrippa I, and as the grandson of Herod the Great [Pervert--my opinion--"Herod the Great Pervert"] who ruled at the birth of Jesus. Agrippa, in any event on a superficial level, was a fanatical practicer of Jewish customs and a strict loyalist.
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