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The consequences of the king's undertaking against the apostles were
no, long deferred, but the avenging minister of divine justice
overtook him immediately after his plots against them, as the Book of
Acts records. For when he had journeyed to C'sarea, on a notable
feast-day, clothed in a splendid and royal garment, he delivered an
address to the people from a lofty throne in front of the tribunal.
And when all the multitude applauded the speech, as if it were the
voice of a god and not of a man, the Scripture relates that an angel
of the Lord smote him, and being eaten of worms he gave up the ghost.
We must admire the account of Josephus for its agreement with the
divine Scriptures in regard to this wonderful event; for he clearly
bears witness to the truth in the nineteenth book of his Antiquities,
where he relates the wonder in the following words:
"He had completed the third year of his reign over all Judea when he
came to C'sarea, which was formerly called Strato's Tower. There
he held games in honor of C'sar, learning that this was a festival
observed in behalf of C'sar's safety. At this festival was
collected a great multitude of the highest and most honorable men in the
province.
And on the second day of the games he proceeded to the theater at break
of day, wearing a garment entirely of silver and of wonderful texture.
And there the silver, illuminated by the reflection of the sun's
earliest rays, shone marvelously, gleaming so brightly as to produce a
sort of fear and terror in those who gazed upon him.
And immediately his flatterers, some from one place, others from
another, raised up their voices in a way that was not for his good,
calling him a god, and saying, 'Be thou merciful; if up to this
time we have feared thee as a man, henceforth we confess that thou art
superior to the nature of mortals.'
The king did not rebuke them, nor did he reject their impious
flattery. But after a little, looking up, he saw an angel sitting
above his head. And this he quickly perceived would be the cause of
evil as it had once been the cause of good fortune, and he was smitten
with a heart-piercing pain.
And straightway distress, beginning with the greatest violence,
seized his bowels. And looking upon his friends he said, 'I, your
god, am now commanded to depart this life; and fate thus I on the
spot disproves the lying words you have just uttered concerning me. He
who has been called immortal by you is now led away to die; but our
destiny must be accepted as God has determined it. For we have passed
our life by no means ingloriously, but in that splendor which is
pronounced happiness.'
And when he had said this he labored with an increase of pain. He was
accordingly carried in haste to the palace, while the report spread
among all that the king would undoubtedly soon die. But the
multitude, with their wives and children, sitting on sackcloth after
the custom of their fathers, implored God in behalf of the king, and
every place was filled with lamentation and tears. And the king as he
lay in a lofty chamber, and saw them below lying prostrate on the
ground, could not refrain from weeping himself.
And after suffering continually for five days with pain in the bowels,
he departed this life, in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and in
the seventh year of his reign. Four years he ruled under the Emperor
Caius, three of them over the tetrarchy of Philip, to which was
added in the fourth year that of Herod, and three years during the
reign of the Emperor Claudius."
I marvel greatly that Josephus, in these things as well as in
others, so fully agrees with the divine Scriptures. But if there
should seem to any one to be a disagreement in respect to the name of
the king, the time at least and the events show that the same person is
meant, whether the change of name has been caused by the error of a
copyist, or is due to the fact that he, like so many, bore two
names.
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