Event · AD 44 · Jerusalem · Caesarea

Persecution under Herod Agrippa I, AD 44

Persecution under Herod Agrippa I — James beheaded, Peter imprisoned

**The first apostolic martyrdom, and the archive’s first firm date after Pentecost.** Acts 12 opens with Herod Agrippa I stretching out his hand “to vex certain of the church”, and killing **James the brother of John with the sword** — a beheading, the Roman penalty, and the only apostle whose death the New Testament narrates. Luke reports it in half a verse and moves on, which is itself worth noticing: the death of one of the three who had been on the mountain of Transfiguration gets less space than the escape that follows.

**Peter was taken next, and the arrest is described in unusual operational detail** — four quaternions of soldiers, sixteen men in watches of four, chains on both arms, and the intention to bring him out after the Passover. The escape is equally particular: the angel, the chains falling, the two gates, the iron gate that opened of its own accord, and Peter left standing alone in the street thinking he had seen a vision.

**Then the scene the archive prizes.** He goes to the house of **Mary the mother of John Mark**, where many were gathered praying, and the girl **Rhoda** answers the gate, recognises his voice, and is told she is mad. Luke keeps the name of a servant girl who was right when the prayer meeting was wrong — and the archive holds her as a figure on the strength of that verse.

## Agrippa’s death, in two independent accounts

This is the strongest evidential feature of the event, and the pages set the two side by side rather than merging them.

**Acts 12:20–23** has him at Caesarea in royal apparel, hailed by the people as a god, struck down because he gave not God the glory, and eaten of worms.

**Josephus, *Antiquities* XIX**, has the same king, the same city, the same acclamation as a god — and adds an owl seen above his head, a pain in the belly, and five days of agony before death. **Neither writer depends on the other.** Josephus was a Jewish priest with no reason to vindicate Luke, and Luke wrote before Josephus. Two hostile-to-each-other traditions agreeing on a king’s blasphemous acclamation and sudden death at Caesarea is the kind of convergence the archive exists to record.

**Where they differ is recorded too.** Josephus supplies the owl and the five days; Luke supplies the worms and does not mention the owl. The archive does not blend them into one narrative.

The sources for this event

Every source the record rests on, with what it says and what it cannot carry.

Acts 12:1–5

c. AD 44
Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. … And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.

Acts 12:13–16

c. AD 44
And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. And when she knew Peter’s voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate. And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, It is his angel. But Peter continued knocking: and when they had opened the door, and saw him, they were astonished.

Acts 12:21–23

c. AD 44
And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.

Josephus, Antiquities XIX

c. AD 94

Antiquities XIX.viii.2

[Josephus places Agrippa at Caesarea in a garment of silver, hailed by his flatterers as a god and not a man; he sees an owl above his head, is seized with a pain in his belly, and dies after five days. **The convergence with Acts 12:20–23 is independent** — Josephus is a Jewish priest with no interest in vindicating Luke, and Luke wrote first. Both give the same king, the same city, the same blasphemous acclamation and the same sudden death. **The differences are kept rather than harmonised:** the owl and the five days are Josephus’s, the worms are Luke’s, and neither reports the other’s detail.]

Josephus, *Antiquities of the Jews* — held in this library. English: William Whiston (1737), public domain.

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