Herod Agrippa I was the son of Aristobulus and Bernice, and a grandson of Herod the Great. He it was, who killed James, the brother of John with the sword, and sought to bring Peter to the same fate, had not the angel of the Lord intervened, delivering him from prison, and restoring him to the company of the Lord's people, as narrated in Acts 12. Of this Josephus says nothing.
But it is startling to note that in the very Chapter where we get the martyrdom of James, and the imprisonment of Peter, narrated, we get the sad end of Herod described.
It came on this wise. On a certain day Herod sat on his throne arrayed in royal apparel, and made an oration to the people. They gave a shout, saying it was the voice of a god, and not of a man that they heard. Herod accepted this blasphemous adulation, and immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory. He died a loathsome death, being eaten of worms. Thus simply does Scripture give us the story.
Josephus gives a more elaborate tale. King Herod went to Caesarea to be present at some festival, where were gathered the principal persons, and such as were of dignity throughout his province. We read on the second day that, "Herod put on a garment made wholly of silver, and of a contexture truly wonderful, and came into the theater early in the morning; at which time the silver of his garment being illuminated by the fresh reflection of the sun's rays upon it, shone out after a surprising. manner, and was so resplendent as to spread a horror over those that looked intently upon him; and presently his flatterers cried out, one from one place, and another from another (though not for his good), that he was a god: and they added, ' Be thou merciful to us, for although we have hitherto reverenced thee only as a man, yet shall we henceforth own thee as superior to mortal nature."—Antiquities B. 19, C. 8.
Josephus goes on to relate how Herod did not rebuke this blasphemy, nor reject their impious flattery, and that immediately a severe pain seized the King in a most violent manner, which continuing with great force for five days, ended in his death. As he died he called upon his friends to see how the one they called a god was about to die, saying, "I, whom you call a god, am commanded presently to depart this life; whilst Providence thus reproves the lying words you just now said to me; and I, who by you are called immortal, am immediately to be hurried away by death."—Antiquities B. 19, C. 8.
How often we see the bitter reaping of evil sowing in this ancient history.
Herod Agrippa II
Herod Agrippa II was the son of Herod Agrippa I., and a great-grandson of Herod the Great. We mention him out of chronological order in order to place the four Herods before the attention of our readers, one after the other, thus enabling them to be distinguished the one from the other. In the Acts of the Apostles he is spoken of as King Agrippa. Josephus gives his history, but in no place do the Scriptures and Josephus touch the same incident, unless it be the case of Bernice, mentioned as sitting beside King Agrippa on the famous occasion when the Apostle Paul stood before him on trial. They are apparently presented in Acts 25 as husband and wife, the wife sitting beside her husband when the Apostle Paul addressed the court. As a matter of fact Bernice was his sister. The relationship between the two was a matter of grave suspicion. It is in these little touches that the comparison between the Scriptures and Josephus is so striking and convincing.
King Agrippa sided with the Romans, and was present at the siege of Jerusalem under Titus. He finally retired to Rome with Bernice, where he died in A.D. 100.