Acts 12:23

An angel of the Lord smote him An interesting parallel is furnished by the story of Alp Arslan, a Turkish prince of the eleventh century. "The Turkish prince bequeathed a dying admonition to the pride of kings. 'In my youth,' said Alp Arslan, ' I was advised by a sage to humble myself before God; to distrust my own strength; and never to despise the most contemptible foe. I have neglected these lessons, and my neglect has been deservedly punished. Yesterday, as from an eminence, I beheld the numbers, the discipline, and the spirit of my armies; the earth seemed to tremble under my feet, and I said in my heart, surely thou art the king of the world, the greatest and most invincible of warriors. These armies are no longer mine; and, in the confidence of my personal strength, I now fall by the hand of an assassin'" (Gibbon, "Decline and Fall"). Eaten of worms (σκωληκόβρωτος) Only here in New Testament. Of Pheretima, queen of Cyrene, distinguished for her cruelties, Herodotus says: "Nor did Pheretima herself end her days happily. For on her return to Egypt from Libya, directly after taking vengeance on the people of Barca, she was overtaken by a most horrid death. Her body swarmed with worms, which ate her flesh while she was still alive" (iv., 205). The term, as applied to disease in the human body, does not occur in any of the medical writers extant. Theophrastus, however, uses it of a disease in plants. The word σκώληξ is used by medical writers of intestinal worms.

Compare the account of the death of Antiochus Epiphanes, the great persecutor of the Jews. "So that the worms rose up out of the body of this wicked man, and whiles he lived in sorrow and pain, his flesh fell away, and the filthiness of his smell was noisome to all his army" (2 Maccabees 9:9). Sylla, the Roman dictator, is also said to have suffered from a similar disease. Gave up the ghost See on Acts 5:5.

An angel had delivered Peter, and here an angel destroys Herod: all that heavenly host fullfil God’s will for the deliverance of his church, and the destruction of his enemies. He gave not God the glory; priding himself in the acclamation the people had made, and not attributing his eloquence and glory to God, as the giver of them; or rather, not repressing or punishing their blasphemy; whereas Peter durst not accept of undue honour from Cornelius, Acts 10:26 , nor the angel from St. John, Revelation 19:10 22:9 . He was eaten of worms; either breeding in his bowels, or in his flesh, after a more unusual manner; as it is recorded of Herod the Great, that he was eaten up of lice. No creature so little or contemptible, but it can execute God’s judgments on whom he please.

Acts 12:23 . Παραχρῆμα , immediately ) The disparagement (insult) to the Divine honour is most speedily counteracted (prevented): comp. ch. Acts 14:14 ; also Revelation 19:10 .— ἄγγελος Κυρίου , the angel of the Lord ) a good angel. As to this important circumstance Josephus has nothing, though he enters into many matters of less consequence. To such a decree do Divine and human histories differ. The angel of the Lord led forth Peter: the angel of the Lord struck Herod. That both acts were done by angels, mortals saw not: it was only known to the saints.— οὐκ ἔδωκς , he gave not ) He is not blamed for his having been praised; but because he accepted the praise. This sacrilege earned a more speedy punishment than the murder of James and his other crimes. [When the stroke was inflicted, Herod confessed (according to the statement of Josephus), that he had contracted guilt thereby.—V. g.]— σκωληκόβρωτος , eaten of worms ) What a change to him! Worms, to a man in the case of death, most natural, and least natural, according as they either follow or precede death. The deaths of persecutors have been striking. The Gospel overcomes and survives them: Acts 12:24 .

{11} And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he {e} gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost. (11) God resists the proud. (e) Josephus records that this king did not repress the flatterer's tongues, and therefore at his death he complained and cried out about their empty praise.

23 . And immediately the (an) angel of the Lord smote him … and he was eaten of worms ] Cp. the fate of Antiochus Epiphanes ( 2Ma 9:9 ), and Herod the Great’s death (Josephus, Ant . xvii. 6. 5). The passage in which Josephus describes these events is so important in its bearing on the N. Test. narrative that it deserves to be read in its entirety. He writes ( Antiq . xix. 8. 2), “Now when Agrippa had reigned three years over all Judæa, he came to the city Cæsarea, which was formerly called Strato’s Tower, and there he exhibited shows in honour of Cæsar, upon his being informed that there was a certain festival celebrated to make vows for his safety . At which festival a great multitude was gotten together of the principal persons and such as were of dignity throughout his province. On the second day of which shows he put on a garment made wholly of silver and of a contexture truly wonderful, and came into the theatre early in the morning, at which time the silver of his garment being illuminated by the fresh reflexion of the sun’s rays upon it, shone out after a surprising manner, and was so resplendent as to spread a dread and shuddering over those that looked intently upon it, and presently his flatterers cried out, one from one place and another from another (though not for his good) that he was a god.

And they added ‘ Be thou merciful to us , for although we have hitherto reverenced thee only as a man yet shall we henceforth own thee as superior to mortal nature .’ Upon this the King did neither rebuke them nor reject their impious flattery . But as he presently afterwards looked up he saw an owl sitting upon a certain rope over his head, and immediately understood that this bird was the messenger of ill tidings, as it had once been the messenger of good tidings to him; and fell into the deepest sorrow. A violent pain also arose in his belly, having begun with great severity. He therefore looked upon his friends and said, ‘I whom you call a god, am commanded presently to depart this life , while Providence thus reproves the lying words you just now said to me; and I who was called by you immortal am immediately to be hurried away by death . But I am bound to accept what Providence allots as it pleases God , for we have by no means lived ill, but in a splendid and happy manner.’ When he had said this his pain became violent .

Acts 12:23 . Ἐπάταξεν αὐτὸν ἄγγελος κυρίον ] an angel of the Lord smote him . The paroxysm of disease suddenly setting in as a punishment of God, is in accordance with O. T. precedents (comp. 2 Samuel 24:17 ; 2 Kings 19:35 ; Isaiah 37:36 ), apprehended as the effect of a stroke (invisibly) befalling him from an angel. The fate of Nebuchadnezzar ( Daniel 4:26-30 ) does not accord with this view (in opposition to Baumgarten). Josephus, l.c. , relates that soon after that display of flattery, the king saw an owl sitting on a rope above his head, and he regarded this (according to a prophecy formerly received in Rome from a German) as a herald of death, whereupon severe abdominal pains immediately followed, under which he expired after five days (at the age of fifty-four years). That Luke has not adopted this fable,—instead of which Eichhorn puts merely a sudden shivering ,—is a consequence of his Christian view, which gives instead from its own sphere and tradition the ἐπάταξεν … Θεῷ as an exhibition of the divine Nemesis; therefore Eusebius ( H. E. ii. 10) ought not to have harmonized the accounts, and made out of the owl an angel of death. Bengel: “Adeo differt historia divina et humana.” See, besides, Heinichen, Exc. II. ad Euseb. III. p. 356 ff. ἀνθ ̓ ὧν ] as a requital for the fact, that .