When he said this, his pain was become violent. Accordingly he was carried into the palace; and… when he had been quite worn out by the pain in his belly for five days, he departed this life, being in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and in the seventh year of his reign…[4]. Acts mentions it; Josephus does not. Why did Josephus omit such a gory and horrifying feature of the story? As soon as he stopped speaking he was seized with a pain in his bowels, for which there was no relief, and with sharp internal tortures— and that very justly, for he had tortured the bowels of others with many and strange inflictions.
Yet he did not in any way stop his insolence, but was even more filled with arrogance, breathing fire in his rage against the Jews, and giving orders to drive even faster. And so it came about that he fell out of his chariot as it was rushing along, and the fall was so hard as to torture every limb of his body. Thus he who only a little while before had thought in his superhuman arrogance that he could command the waves of the sea, and had imagined that he could weigh the high mountains in a balance, was brought down to earth and carried in a litter, making the power of God manifest to all.
His entrails were also exulcerated, and the chief violence of his pain lay on his colon; an aqueous and transparent liquor also settled itself about his feet, and a like matter afflicted him at the bottom of his belly. God strikes Herod dead. Herod then went down from Judea to Caesarea, and spent time there. Their country depended on the king's country for food, so they came to him with a united front to make peace —they'd been able to win over Blastus, the king's personal aide.
He was eaten by worms and died. In that way, God could be leading a person to repentance, showing them their present danger and the better way to go. However, once the person becomes aware of their need of repentance, it is up to them to actually choose to repent. God does not force the will. God is good in that, if we are in grave spiritual danger, He will try to get our attention and offer us the opportunity to repent.
Josephus records that he died several days later and there are even some clues that he may have repented although the Bible does not record it.
The account by Josephus includes these words from Herod:. Man takes vengeance, in its most extreme form, by doing away with his enemies by killing them. The pain in his belly was part of His reaction and likely contributed to his death several days later. It seems that is was more like a call from the God of infinite love to warn one that He loved to make a much needed change in course. There is nothing in the passage itself which says directly that God or His angel smote Herod with the intent and result of killing him.
When reading scripture, especially any that seem to put God in a bad light, we need to carefully examine the assumptions we might be making. Hg December 22, pm. Ray Foucher December 23, am. Thank you Hg for your comment. First of all, the histories of Josephus are regarded by scholars as not always accurate. The account may not have been entirely historical, because Herod the Great was almost universally hated by the Jews and Josephus might have been reporting a spiteful legend or creating his own spiteful legend.
Against Apion II. The author of Luke-Acts is anonymous, but is known as Luke in keeping with second-century attribution. The Acts of the Apostles was once considered an entirely reliable history of early Christianity, but this has now changed. This is the view of many biblical scholars, such that it is no longer possible to accept unreservedly the historicity of every account in Acts.
By an improbable coincidence, both Kings Herod supposedly suffered worms eating their flesh: Herod the Great is depicted this way by Josephus; Herod Agrippa is depicted this way by the Christian historian, but not by the Jewish historian. Coupled with the perceived unreliability of Acts and the evidence that the author of Acts is likely to have relied on the works of Josephus, this leads to a conclusion that Herod Agrippa probably did not suffer from flesh-eating worms.
Interesting extrapolation of a conclusion, from probabalistic extensions of the unproven. Given the fact that it is somewhat de rigueur to doubt the biblical narratives and has been, largely since Darwin , the multiplied confirmations of their factuality, where those narratives can and have been determined accurate, tend to make the 'poo-pooing' of this historical record seem contrived, not derived - certainly less credible than the record, itself.
Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. In Acts did King Herod die with worms coming out of his flesh? Ask Question. Asked 6 years, 1 month ago. Active 3 years, 1 month ago.
Viewed 36k times. Acts says Herod Agrippa was struck down by an angel and eaten of worms: Acts : And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them.
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