Bible Study Explain Acts 12:23

[Riverwolf]

Acts 12:23 (New International Version)

23 Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died

 

[joseph]

Herod was sitting on his throne and allowed the people to honor him as a god. The previous verse (22) reveals the praise that Herod accepted, "The people kept crying out, "The voice of a god and not of a man!" (NASB). God saw this impious act and swiftly punished him.

Josephus also lends his view in Ch 6 of of Book XVII, Anitquities of the Jews:
"But now Herod's distemper greatly increased upon him after a severe manner, and this by God's judgment upon him for his sins; for a fire glowed in him slowly, which did not so much appear to the touch outwardly, as it augmented his pains inwardly; for it brought upon him a vehement appetite to eating, which he could not avoid to supply with one sort of food or other. His entrails were also ex-ulcerated, and the chief violence of his pain lay on his colon; an aqueous and transparent liquor also had settled itself about his feet, and a like matter afflicted him at the bottom of his belly. Nay, further, his privy-member was putrefied, and produced worms; and when he sat upright, he had a difficulty of breathing, which was very loathsome, on account of the stench of his breath, and the quickness of its returns; he had also convulsions in all parts of his body, which increased his strength to an insufferable degree. It was said by those who pretended to divine, and who were endued with wisdom to foretell such things, that God inflicted this punishment on the king on account of his great impiety..." (http://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/ant-17.htm).

Antiochus receives a similar punishment when he threatens to destroy the Temple and Jerusalem in 2 Maccabees 9:5-12,
"

5But the all-seeing Lord, the God of Israel, struck him an incurable and unseen blow. As soon as he ceased speaking he was seized with a pain in his bowels for which there was no relief and with sharp internal tortures --6and that very justly, for he had tortured the bowels of others with many and strange inflictions.7Yet he did not in any way stop his insolence, but was even more filled with arrogance, breathing fire in his rage against the Jews, and giving orders to hasten the journey. And so it came about that he fell out of his chariot as it was rushing along, and the fall was so hard as to torture every limb of his body.8Thus he who had just been thinking that he could command the waves of the sea, in his superhuman arrogance, and imagining that he could weigh the high mountains in a balance, was brought down to earth and carried in a litter, making the power of God manifest to all.9And so the ungodly man's body swarmed with worms, and while he was still living in anguish and pain, his flesh rotted away, and because of his stench the whole army felt revulsion at his decay.10Because of his intolerable stench no one was able to carry the man who a little while before had thought that he could touch the stars of heaven.11Then it was that, broken in spirit, he began to lose much of his arrogance and to come to his senses under the scourge of God, for he was tortured with pain every moment.12And when he could not endure his own stench, he uttered these words: "It is right to be subject to God, and no mortal should think that he is equal to God." (RSV-CE)​

 

[reba]

Herod knew better He sat himself up as a God/King and that is not a good thing to do. The Caesars set themselves up as god/kings but did not have the scripture knowledge Herod did.

Joseph you said it much better....

 

[Jake]

we should give all the glory to God. For us now, the only way we can do good, is because of Christ in us doing the work through us, so God still gets all the glory.

 

[joseph]

Thanks, Reba.

 

[joseph]

we should give all the glory to God. For us now, the only way we can do good, is because of Christ in us doing the work through us, so God still gets all the glory.

That is right on, my Christian brother.

"Through Him, with Him, in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour is yours Almighty Father, forever and ever. Amen."

 

[Riverwolf]

Thanks for all the responses. I should have explained my question better.

Acts 12:23 (New International Version)

23 Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died

Joseph - I plan to read more into what you have shared. That would seem to indicate that the infliction lasted for some time and that the worms were maggots and ate upon his dead flesh. I can understand that. However that is not what the Bible verse says. If I am to read more into the Bible verse than is written, where does this practice stop? And who is to decide verse by verse what to take literally word by word? And what verse to decide is an analogy?

 

[joseph]

Thanks for all the responses. I should have explained my question better.

Acts 12:23 (New International Version)

23 Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died

Joseph - I plan to read more into what you have shared. That would seem to indicate that the infliction lasted for some time and that the worms were maggots and ate upon his dead flesh. I can understand that. However that is not what the Bible verse says. If I am to read more into the Bible verse than is written, where does this practice stop? And who is to decide verse by verse what to take literally word by word? And what verse to decide is an analogy?

Riverwolf, I think that what Josephus wrote and what the Bible states jive together. In the rest of the Ch 6 (Antiquity of the Jews), Herod is stricken with a disease for a while and it is attributed to a punishment from his God.
In Acts it stated "23 Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died". It does not state Herod died quickly. The Book of Maccabees also relates a similar punishment. So it seems to be tool that God uses when others disregard his sole right to greatness and honor.

 

[Webers_Home]

.
Worms must be a favorite with the Bible's God as apparently everyone who ends up in perdition will be infected with them.

†. Mrk 9:47-48 . . And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

The Lord didn't reveal anything new in that passage. The Old Testament predicted a fate of worms something like 700 years before he was born.

†. Isa 66:22-24 . . All humanity will come to worship me from week to week and from month to month. And as they go out, they will see the dead bodies of those who have rebelled against me. For the worms that devour them will never die, and the fire that burns them will never go out. All who pass by will view them with utter horror.

Note : Josephus reported that worms infected Herod's privy-member; which suggests to me that they probably found their way into the bladder and the prostate too. Poor guy; he must have been in agony a good deal of the time leading up to his death.

C.L.I.F.F.
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[handy]

Thanks for all the responses. I should have explained my question better.

Acts 12:23 (New International Version)

23 Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died

Joseph - I plan to read more into what you have shared. That would seem to indicate that the infliction lasted for some time and that the worms were maggots and ate upon his dead flesh. I can understand that. However that is not what the Bible verse says. If I am to read more into the Bible verse than is written, where does this practice stop? And who is to decide verse by verse what to take literally word by word? And what verse to decide is an analogy?

I understand your concern about "reading into the Bible verse than is written" and where to stop the practice.

But, I don't think that, in this case, much needed to be read into the verse. Immediately, upon Herod's act of arrogance, he was struck. The maggots might have taken awhile to actually kill him, but he was a dead man from the moment he accepted worship and the angel struck him for it.

I was watching "The Atomic Cafe" (great documentary on the Cold War, watch it if you can) and in it, there was a segment on soldiers that took part in a nuclear ground war experiment.

I wish I was making this up, unfortunately though the test was real and it went like this: They had soldiers, wearing normal combat gear, no masks or anything, dig trenches and wait in them while they set off a nuclear bomb. As soon as the flash was over, the soldiers were to jump out of the trenches and run into the cloud. Yeah, you read that right.

When the test was over, they interviewed one of the soldiers. He had a patch attached to his pocket which measured how much radiation his body received. The interviewer pointed out the patch and asked him about it, and the soldier answered, "Yes sir, this patch shows that I have received a fatal dose of radiation."

And, he was correct. He had. The man was a dead man from the moment he was hit with the flash of radiation. He was able to walk and talk for awhile, but he was a dead man. It wouldn't have been all that long after the interview when the seemingly healthy young man (he couldn't have been more than 25) started to feel the effects of radiation poisoning.

The same could be said for Herod. As soon as the angel struck him, he was a dead man. Took a while for the maggots to do their work, but he was judged.

Perhaps this is a lesson in God's grace. Perhaps, even after being struck with God's judgment, there was still yet time for Herod to have repented. Perhaps, if he had repented and asked forgiveness for accepting worship, the angel would have touched him again and he could have been healed. Didn't happen though.

Now, we can speculate about what Herod's supposed fate could have been had he repented, but if we start to say, "Well, he would have been..." or "God would have done...", then we start getting into reading into the Scriptures. Since the Scriptures do not share what Herod's fate "would have been" if he had repented, then we can't go there, except in a purely speculative sense.

 

[Jake]

Thanks for all the responses. I should have explained my question better.

Acts 12:23 (New International Version)

23 Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died

Joseph - I plan to read more into what you have shared. That would seem to indicate that the infliction lasted for some time and that the worms were maggots and ate upon his dead flesh. I can understand that. However that is not what the Bible verse says. If I am to read more into the Bible verse than is written, where does this practice stop? And who is to decide verse by verse what to take literally word by word? And what verse to decide is an analogy?

hi riverwolf,
when i looked this verse up, some translations said he got sick and worms at him up and he died. i don't know if that helps.
peace.

 

[NewLife Church]

The scripture implies that judgement came immediately, but his death may have happened over time. Could it be that he had some type of parasitic worm that was the cause of his death?