Acts 12:23

Acts 12:23. He was eaten of worm. Josephus speaks of violent and torturing pains. The writer of the ‘Acts,' whom we believe to have been identical with Luke, the beloved physician, gives a more accurate description of the mysterious and terrible disease which closed the brilliant career of the ‘last king of Israel.' It has been suggested that this fearful malady is especially reserved by God for princes who have cruelly misused their power over their subjects. The instances we possess of victims to this disease are few in number: Antiochus Epiphanes, who bitterly persecuted the Jews; Pheretima, Queen of Cyrene, celebrated for her cruelty; C. L. Herminianus, Roman governor of Cappadocia, who cruelly persecuted the Christians (see Tertul. ad Scapulam); and the Emperor Galerius, the last persecutor of the Church (Eusebius). To this list Niebuhr adds the name of Philip II.

The following table shows the descendants of King Herod Agrippa I:

After the death of Herod Agrippa I., Jerusalem was never ruled again by a native prince; a Roman procurator in Jerusalem, Cuspius Fadus, was appointed by the Government of Rome. A portion of the kingdom of his father was given to the young prince, who, under the name of Herod Agrippa 11., received from Claudius, who was personally attached to the boy, the kingly title. But this sovereign, of whom in the ‘Acts we shall hear more, never seems to have adopted, as did his father, the feelings of the Jewish patriot party.