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Acts 12:19-21
New Catholic Bible
Acts 12:19-21
New Catholic Bible
19 After instituting a search for him and being unable to find him, Herod interrogated the guards and ordered their execution. Then he left Judea to reside for a while in Caesarea.
20 Death of Herod Agrippa I.[a] For a long time, Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, who now came to him in a body. After gaining the support of Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, they asked for peace because their country depended on the king’s territory for their food supplies.
21 On the designated day, Herod donned his royal robes and, seated on a throne, delivered a public address to them.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Acts 12:20 This time again, in the manner of the Old Testament, the intervention of the hand of God is emphasized. The account poses the problem of war: it is a scourge in which the economy is tied to the will for power. Here the war against Tyre and Sidon is put off thanks to a compromise. But the political pride of a leader who takes himself for God is dissipated by a mortal sickness, which popular tradition interprets as a punishment.
The episode accords with the chronology of the time. It inserts Acts into universal history. Herod died, after a great feast, eaten by worms, in A.D. 44.
