Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 12:21

"And upon a set day Herod arrayed himself in royal apparel, and sat on the throne, and made an oration unto them." — Acts 12:21 (ASV)

And upon a set day . . .—Josephus (Antiquities 19.8.2) gives an account of the incident that follows, substantially agreeing with that recorded here. The scene was the theatre at Cæsarea, which had been built by Herod the Great. Agrippa was celebrating games in honour of the Emperor Claudius, who had succeeded Caligula in A.D. 41, possibly in honour of his return from Britain in A.D. 44.

He was arrayed in a robe of silver tissue, like that which Caligula had been accustomed to wear at banquets and games in Rome. This robe glittered with a dazzling brightness under the rays of the morning sun. His courtiers, taking up the Roman fashion of showing honour to kings and emperors, hailed him as a god and, as such, implored him to be propitious to them.

The king did not repress the flattery, which struck all Jewish bystanders as a fearful blasphemy. He accepted for himself the divine honours which he had dissuaded Caligula from claiming.

He looked up and saw an owl perched on a rope behind him. He recognised in it an omen of evil, fulfilling a prediction which had been made to him by a fellow prisoner during his confinement at Rome (Josephus, Antiquities 18.8). Sharp pain fell on him, and in five days he died.

Comparing St. Luke’s narrative with this, it seems probable that the delegates from Tyre and Sidon were among those who raised the cry, “Be propitious to us!” and that their friend Blastus, knowing the weak point in Herod’s character, had instructed them that this was the way to obtain his favour. We feel, as we read the narrative, the contrast between St. Peter’s refusal even of Cornelius’s attitude of homage, and Agrippa’s acceptance of the profane apotheosis of the multitude.