Part One: The many parts of Augustus and Herod
by
Damien F. Mackey
King Antiochus ‘Epiphanes’, of the Seleucid and Infancy era,
is the same as the emperor Augustus. He is also the emperor Hadrian, again ruling during a Jewish revolt. His signet, second man, is Philip (and the combination Herod Philip is attested), and is Marcus Agrippa,
and is Herodes “Atticus” (surname of the wife of Marcus Agrippa).
King Herod ‘the Great’
Starting with King Herod traditionally known as ‘the Great’, the infanticide monster of Matthew 2:16-18, he - and the whole Nativity/Infancy era - needs to be re-set in a revised Seleucid period, when King Antiochus ‘Epiphanes’ was persecuting the Yahwistic (and Maccabean) Jews.
That this was the era to which King Herod rightly belonged is apparent from the following statement by Ray Vander Laan, about King Herod seeking to Hellenise his subjects: ““Herod brought the "games" into the Jewish culture as part of his attempt to Hellenize his kingdom”.
I commented on this most extraordinary situation in my article:
Herod and Games at Caesarea - Agrippa and Games at Caesarea
(4) Herod and Games at Caesarea - Agrippa and Games at Caesarea | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
Doesn’t this statement read a little bit strangely, to say the least?
King Herod ‘the Great’, supposedly a half-Idumean and (perhaps) half-Jew, a presumed client of Imperial Rome, introducing into Jewish culture a pagan Hellenistic phenomenon in order to make Greek (“to hellenize”) a Jewish kingdom subject to the Romans. ….
With the Matthew 2 and Luke 2 narratives now re-set to the Maccabean era, and with:
Religious war raging in Judah during the Infancy of Jesus
(5) Religious war raging in Judah during the Infancy of Jesus | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
then the emperor Augustus must be newly identified with Antiochus ‘Epiphanes’.
Rome is never actually mentioned in the Lucan narrative:
Rome surprisingly minimal in [the] Bible
(2) Rome surprisingly minimal in Bible | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
Philip, second to King Antiochus, whom the latter appoints to rule over Jerusalem, must then be King Herod himself:
Herod, the emperor’s signet right-hand man
https://www.academia.edu/113954468/Herod_the_emperors_signet_right_hand_man
This is where we need to start connecting up names.
A Herod Philip, thought to have been the son of ‘the Great’, will later rule over Iturea and Trachonitis (Luke 3:1).
But I have also included an Agrippa connection in the above article, by identifying King Herod (= the “Philip” serving King Antiochus ‘Epiphanes’) with the favourite, and second, of the emperor Augustus, Marcus Agrippa.
Another famous Herod (Herodes), “Atticus”, will serve the emperor Hadrian in Judah.
“Atticus” just happens to be a name of the wife of Marcus Agrippa, and Hadrian – who, in Jewish legend can sometimes substitute for Antiochus ‘Epiphanes’ – has been called “a mirror-image” of the same Antiochus ‘Epiphanes’, and he is, too:
[Hadrian] a reincarnation of Augustus
(5) Hadrian a reincarnation of Augustus | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
So, we just keeping going around in ever-decreasing circles.
Let us pause here to take a much-needed breath and to recapitulate.
King Antiochus ‘Epiphanes’, of the Seleucid and Infancy era, is the same as the emperor Augustus. He is also the emperor Hadrian, again ruling during a Jewish revolt. His signet, second man, is Philip (and the combination Herod Philip is attested), and is Marcus Agrippa, and is Herodes “Atticus” (surname of the wife of Marcus Agrippa).
Further, compare the face of Marcus Agrippa with that of Herod Agrippa:
Oh, but, so far I have not included this Herod Agrippa in the mix. But I shall need to. In my article on the Games in Caesarea, above, I had hinted that King Herod and Agrippa so-called I were one and the same king, celebrating a Games for the emperor in Caesarea. Also in that article there was found an uncanny connection between Herod and Marcus Agrippa:
Apropos of this connection, Herod as Marcus Agrippa, there is an intriguing article by Robert L. Hohlfelder, “Beyond Coincidence? Marcus Agrippa and King Herod's Harbor” (JNES, 59(4), 2000): The Roman harbour at Caesarea “commissioned by Herod the Great in 22 BCE and sponsored by Augustus' military commander Marcus Agrippa …”.
Now I am presuming that Agrippa I and II must also have been one and the same, particularly given that II had the other name of - wait for it - Marcus Julius Agrippa.
And, so, the merry-go-round continues.
I think that the Herod and (Marcus) Agrippa combination pertains just to King Herod.
Then there is one “King Herod” in Acts 12, generally thought to have been Herod Agrippa I, but never actually called Agrippa. (See Part Two)
Then there is one “King Agrippa” in Acts 25-26, generally thought to have been Herod Agrippa II, but never actually called Herod. (See Part Three)
Part Two: Herod Antipas, the king who would be a god
With Agrippa I and II taken out of a late context, and connected with Herod ‘the Great’ (Part One), then the “King Herod” of Acts 12 can only be (so I think) Herod Antipas, also known as “Herod the Tetrarch” (cf. Matthew 14:1).
The Great Persecutor
He was the confused king who gave permission for the beheading of John the Baptist.
By so doing, Herod Antipas was symbolically (though unwittingly) removing the head of the Old Testament, and thereby enabling for the manifestation of Jesus Christ in the New Testament.
Herod, whom Jesus had earlier called ‘that fox’ (some insist, ‘vixen’) (Luke 13:32), and who had warned his disciples to ‘Beware of … the leaven of Herod’ (Mark 8:15), would, with his soldiers, mock the captive Jesus (Luke 23:11).
Not much later, after the martyrdom of Stephen, he had the Apostle James beheaded.
Acts 12:1-2: “It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword”.
Uncannily like Henry VIII, Herod Antipas first beheaded a John (Fisher) and then, afterwards, a ‘James the Greater’ (Thomas More).
Am I missing something? Henry VIII certainly is:
Henry VIII’s palaces missing
(3) Henry VIII's palaces missing | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
Goaded on by a rising popularity, Herod Antipas then had the Apostle Peter arrested (Acts 12:3-11):
When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.
So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.
The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. ‘Quick, get up!’ he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.
Then the angel said to him, ‘Put on your clothes and sandals’. And Peter did so. ‘Wrap your cloak around you and follow me’, the angel told him. Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision.
They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, ‘Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen’.
It does not pay for kings to aspire to divinity and to persecute the children of God.
Judith (the prophetess Huldah) told of what the fate of such would be (Judith 16:17):
‘Woe to the nations that rise up against my people!
The Lord Almighty will take vengeance on them in the day of judgment;
he will send fire and worms into their flesh;
they shall weep in pain forever’.
‘The Lord Almighty … will send fire and worms into their flesh …’.
This is what happened to King Antiochus known as ‘Epiphanes’, or ‘God Manifest’. Though some preferred for him the epithet, ‘Epimenes’, ‘The Madman’.
We read the account of the terrible death of The Madman in e.g. 2 Maccabees 9:4-12:
Overcome with anger, he planned to make the Jews suffer for the injury done by those who had put him to flight. Therefore he ordered his charioteer to drive without stopping until he finished the journey. Yet the condemnation of Heaven rode with him, because he said in his arrogance, ‘I will make Jerusalem the common graveyard of Jews as soon as I arrive there’.
So the all-seeing Lord, the God of Israel, struck him down with an incurable and invisible blow; for scarcely had he uttered those words when he was seized with excruciating pains in his bowels and sharp internal torment, a fit punishment for him who had tortured the bowels of others with many barbarous torments.
Far from giving up his insolence, he was all the more filled with arrogance. Breathing fire in his rage against the Jews, he gave orders to drive even faster. As a result he hurtled from the speeding chariot, and every part of his body was racked by the violent fall.
Thus he who previously, in his superhuman presumption, thought he could command the waves of the sea, and imagined he could weigh the mountaintops in his scales, was now thrown to the ground and had to be carried on a litter, clearly manifesting to all the power of God.
The body of this impious man swarmed with worms, and while he was still alive in hideous torments, his flesh rotted off, so that the entire army was sickened by the stench of his corruption.
Shortly before, he had thought that he could reach the stars of heaven, and now, no one could endure to transport the man because of this intolerable stench.
At last, broken in spirit, he began to give up his excessive arrogance, and to gain some understanding, under the scourge of God, for he was racked with pain unceasingly.
When he could no longer bear his own stench, he said, ‘It is right to be subject to God, and not to think one’s mortal self equal to God’.
And Todd Bolen (July 2010) tells of the extraordinary death of King Herod, whom he identifies (wrongly, I believe) as Herod Agrippa I:
https://bibleinterp.arizona.edu/opeds/agrippa357926
The death of Herod Agrippa I is one of the few events that is reported by both the book of Acts and Josephus. Bible readers recall that Agrippa was struck down by an angel of the Lord while delivering a public address in Caesarea (Acts 12:19-23). The account is brief, but the immediate cause of his illness is clearly given in the text: the crowd hailed Herod as a god and the king passively accepted their praise.
Despite the miraculous elements, most scholars believe that the account in Acts is generally accurate because of a parallel record in Josephus (Ant. 19.8.2 §§343-50). Most scholars believe that the two reports had independent sources, and though they agree in several respects, Josephus’s longer account contains more details, including the incident’s occasion, location, and aftermath. …. Acts records that Herod gave the address in Caesarea, and Josephus places it in the theater of Caesarea. Acts does not say anything about the time of day, but Josephus writes that it occurred early in the morning. Acts connects the episode with the resolution of a quarrel with the people of Tyre and Sidon, but says of the public address itself only that it occurred “on the appointed day.” Josephus relates that Agrippa appeared to the crowd on the second day of a festival intended to honor Caesar. Both sources speak of Herod’s clothing, but whereas Acts says simply that he was “wearing his royal robes,” Josephus describes the garments as made “wholly of silver” and when “illuminated by the fresh reflection of the sun’s rays . . . was so resplendent as to spread a horror over those that looked intently upon him.”
Josephus indicates that the crowd hailed Agrippa as a god because of his radiant clothing, but Luke’s brief account may imply that they did so in response to the sound of Agrippa’s voice. Both agree that Agrippa accepted the crowd’s enthusiastic praise and consequently died shortly thereafter.
Excavations at Caesarea are helpful in reconstructing this event. It is likely that as successor to most of the vast holdings of his grandfather King Herod, Agrippa I took up residence in the promontory palace on the south side of the city. …. About a decade later, Agrippa’s successor, the Roman governor Felix, occupied the same palace (Acts 24:35). Presumably, then, on the morning in which he was struck down, Agrippa left this palace and proceeded to his appointed place in order to address the crowd.
According to Josephus, Agrippa came to the theater (θέατρον) where he so inspired the gathered populace that he was hailed as a god. On this basis, tourists today usually visit the Herodian theater and envision the event occurring in this semi-circular entertainment venue. I believe, however, that Josephus’s designation of the location was inaccurate.
Analysis of his account indicates that the amphitheater, rather than the theater, was the setting for Herod’s public address. ….
The first clue that Josephus gives is the time of day. He says that it occurred at “the beginning of the day” (ἀρχομένης ἡμέρας). Dressed in a garment made “wholly of silver,” Agrippa dazzled the crowd when his robes were “illuminated by the fresh reflection of the sun’s rays upon it.” The theater, however, faces west. If the king was positioned on the stage, the sun would not have reached over the multi-storied seating area before mid-morning. And if he was speaking from the seating area, the sun would not have reflected off his clothes until even later. The amphitheater, by contrast, is wide, and the twelve rows of seating would not have blocked the sun. Agrippa could have been addressing the crowd from the western side of the amphitheater where the sun would be able to reflect off his clothes early in the morning.
The second indication that Agrippa was struck down in the amphitheater is the occasion of his death. Acts says only that it occurred “on the appointed day” (τακτῇ δὲ ἡμέρᾳ), but Josephus describes the event occurring on the second day of a festival in honor of Caesar in which a great multitude was assembled. …. These games included combats and horse races (Josephus, Ant. 16.5.1 §§136-141), and were conducted in the amphitheater, not in the theater which was designed for dramatic performances. The emperor’s birthday was also celebrated with sports, and thus a setting in the amphitheater is most likely for this event as well.’
A third piece of supporting evidence can be adduced from Josephus’s report of an encounter between Pilate and a large crowd about a decade earlier (War 2.9.3 §§172). When the Roman governor sent standards with Caesar’s image into Jerusalem, a large delegation traveled to Caesarea to entreat Pilate to remove these offensive placards. Josephus writes that “on the next day Pilate sat upon his tribunal [βήμα] in the great stadium [μεγάλῳ σταδίῳ].” …. The word for stadium more naturally refers to the amphitheater, particularly with the modifier “great.” …. It is reasonable that the bema was located in the same place in Agrippa’s day, and that he addressed the crowd from the customary place.
Finally, it should be noted that Josephus’s use of terms designating buildings of entertainment is known to be imprecise. In Jerusalem he states at one point that Herod built a theater and an amphitheater (Ant. 15.8.1 §268), and elsewhere he mentions a hippodrome (War 2.3.1 §44; Ant 17.10.2§255). None of these buildings have been located in Jerusalem today, and most scholars conclude that only one, or at most two, existed, and that Josephus referred to a single building by multiple terms. The model at the Israel Museum (formerly located at the Holyland Hotel), for instance, reconstructs only a theater and a hippodrome in the city. ….
In other words, if Josephus could refer to an amphitheater as a hippodrome in Jerusalem, he certainly could have identified an amphitheater as a theater in Caesarea. He appears to have made precisely this mistake in describing sporting events and horse races as occurring in the theater of Jerusalem (Ant. 15.8.1-4 §§269-85). ….
The lines of evidence thus converge to locate the amphitheater of Caesarea as the place where Agrippa addressed the people and contracted his fatal illness. It was here that the Roman governor’s bema was located, and it was here where the crowds gathered to hear Agrippa’s address in advance of the day’s games. Unlike the theater, the design of the amphitheater best suits illumination of Agrippa’s garments by the rays of the early morning sun.
One other aspect is elucidated by an understanding of the event’s location. Immediately adjacent to the northern end of the amphitheater was the imperial temple, the center of worship of the emperor and the goddess Roma. …. The crowds that hailed Agrippa that day were very familiar with the practice of honoring the emperor as a god. Only a few years earlier, Agrippa’s close friend, Emperor Caligula, demanded that he be revered as a god. One way that Caligula signaled his desire for worship was by the clothing he wore, oftentimes dressing himself in the attire of one of the deities. …. Unfortunately for Agrippa, the God of Israel was less willing to overlook such blasphemy in a king with Jewish heritage ruling in the Promised Land. The king who called himself “the great” recognized that his punishment was just—the intense pain apparently brought moral clarity—for he declared with irony that “I, who was called immortal by you, am now under sentence of death” (Josephus, Ant. 19.8.2 §347). ….
[End of quotes]
‘The Lord Almighty … will send fire and worms into their flesh …’.
One wonders what sort of death greeted King Herod ‘the Great’’, who, if he was Philip as I am saying, was even “more barbarous” - according to 2 Maccabees - than his master, ‘Epiphanes’ (5:22): “In Jerusalem there was Philip of the Phrygians, who had a manner more barbarous than that of the man who appointed him”.
Part Three: King Agrippa, Queen Bernice, and Paul
This King Agrippa, who is later than the two Herods, was apparently a far more benign character than they, with a good understanding of Judaïsm.
We read in Acts 25-26 of his arrival, with his Queen, during the trial of Paul in Caesarea:
Acts 25:13-27:
Festus Consults King Agrippa
A few days later King Agrippa and Bernice arrived at Caesarea to pay their respects to Festus. Since they were spending many days there, Festus discussed Paul’s case with the king. He said: ‘There is a man here whom Felix left as a prisoner. When I went to Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews brought charges against him and asked that he be condemned.
‘I told them that it is not the Roman custom to hand over anyone before they have faced their accusers and have had an opportunity to defend themselves against the charges. When they came here with me, I did not delay the case, but convened the court the next day and ordered the man to be brought in. When his accusers got up to speak, they did not charge him with any of the crimes I had expected. Instead, they had some points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive. I was at a loss how to investigate such matters; so I asked if he would be willing to go to Jerusalem and stand trial there on these charges. But when Paul made his appeal to be held over for the Emperor’s decision, I ordered him held until I could send him to Caesar’.
Then Agrippa said to Festus, ‘I would like to hear this man myself’.
He replied, ‘Tomorrow you will hear him’.
Paul Before Agrippa
Then Agrippa said to Paul, “Do you think that in such a short time
you can persuade me to be a Christian?”
The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and entered the audience room with the high-ranking military officers and the prominent men of the city. At the command of Festus, Paul was brought in. Festus said: ‘King Agrippa, and all who are present with us, you see this man! The whole Jewish community has petitioned me about him in Jerusalem and here in Caesarea, shouting that he ought not to live any longer. I found he had done nothing deserving of death, but because he made his appeal to the Emperor I decided to send him to Rome. But I have nothing definite to write to His Majesty about him. Therefore I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that as a result of this investigation I may have something to write. For I think it is unreasonable to send a prisoner on to Rome without specifying the charges against him’.
Acts 26:1-32:
Then Agrippa said to Paul, ‘You have permission to speak for yourself’.
So Paul motioned with his hand and began his defense: ‘King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today as I make my defense against all the accusations of the Jews, and especially so because you are well acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies. Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently. The Jewish people all know the way I have lived ever since I was a child, from the beginning of my life in my own country, and also in Jerusalem. They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that I conformed to the strictest sect of our religion, living as a Pharisee. And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today. This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. King Agrippa, it is because of this hope that these Jews are accusing me. Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead? I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the Lord’s people in prison, and when they were put to death, I cast my vote against them. Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. I was so obsessed with persecuting them that I even hunted them down in foreign cities. On one of these journeys I was going to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. About noon, King Agrippa, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Hebrew, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
‘Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’’
‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles.
I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
‘So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven. First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds. That is why some Jews seized me in the Temple courts and tried to kill me. But God has helped me to this very day; so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen— that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles’.
At this point Festus interrupted Paul’s defense. ‘You are out of your mind, Paul!’ he shouted. ‘Your great learning is driving you insane’.
‘I am not insane, most excellent Festus’, Paul replied. ‘What I am saying is true and reasonable. The king is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him. I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do’.
Then Agrippa said to Paul, ‘Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?’
Paul replied, ‘Short time or long—I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains’.
The king rose, and with him the governor and Bernice and those sitting with them. After they left the room, they began saying to one another, ‘This man is not doing anything that deserves death or imprisonment’.
Agrippa said to Festus, ‘This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar’.
This King Agrippa is nowhere, as already stated, called Herod.
