Chapter V

_MARTYRDOM OF ST JAMES――DEATH OF HEROD._
A.D. 44.

ABOUT the time when these delegates from the church at Antioch arrived on their errand of Christian love at Jerusalem, a severe calamity befell the Church there. On the accession of Claudius, A.D. 41, Herod Agrippa, who had taken an active part in securing his succession[840], was rewarded by the addition of Judæa and Samaria to the tetrarchies of Philip and Antipas which he had already received, and ruled as king over a territory as widely extended as that governed by his grandfather[841].

Arriving at Jerusalem, A.D. 42, he dedicated in the Temple, as a memorial of the Divine protection, the golden chain with which he had been presented by Caligula, and which was of equal weight with the iron one he had worn when imprisoned by Tiberius[842], and endeavoured to ingratiate himself with his subjects by the strictest profession of Judaism. He offered sacrifice every day; paid the expenses of certain Nazarites on completing their vows[843]; abstained from every legal impurity; remitted the house-tax of the inhabitants of Jerusalem[844]; encircled the new suburb of Bezetha with a wall; and prepared to strengthen the entire fortifications of the city[845].

Thus determined to ingratiate himself with the Jews, and doubtless at the suggestions of their chiefs, he resolved to take measures for the suppression of Christianity. Accordingly, in A.D. 44, he seized the Apostle James, the brother of St John, and without any apparent process of Jewish law[846] summarily slew him with the sword (Acts xii. 2), thus early admitting him to his Master’s baptism[847] (Mtt. xx. 23). Perceiving that this atrocity rendered him exceedingly popular with his subjects[848], he arrested Peter also at the feast of the Passover, and committed him to the custody of four quaternions of soldiers[849] (Acts xii. 4), intending at the close of the festival to bring him forth before the people and gratify them with his death.

Great was the sorrow of the Church at the prospect of the Apostle’s execution, and unceasing and not ineffectual prayer was made to God in his behalf. For on the night before the day fixed for the spectacle of his martyrdom, while the Apostle was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and the sentinels without were carefully guarding the doors, a light suddenly shone into his cell, and an angel touched him on the side, and bade him rise up quickly. Thereupon he arose, and his chains fell from off his hands. _Gird thyself_, resumed the angel, _and bind on thy sandals_. The Apostle did so, and casting his garment about him, and scarcely believing the reality of what was going on, followed his celestial guide through the first and second ward, and thence through the iron gate, which opened of its own accord, into the street of the city (Acts xii. 5–10).

Then the angel departed, and the Apostle realising for the first time the fact of his deliverance, repaired to the house of Mary[850], a sister of Barnabas, where many were gathered together praying. As soon as he had knocked at the door, a damsel named Rhoda came forth to open it, but recognising his voice was so transported with joy that she ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the door. Those within, however, declared that she was mad, that she had seen his angel or ghost, and refused to believe her words. Meanwhile the Apostle stood without knocking, and at length the door was opened, and the disciples were assured that it was he and no other. They would have expressed their joy with loud thanksgivings, but holding up his hand he beckoned to them to be silent, and then having recounted all that had befallen him, bade them carry the joyful news to James _the Lord’s brother_ and the rest of the disciples (Acts xii. 11–17). With these words he betook himself to some secure hiding-place.

The morning dawned, and the soldiers rising from their slumbers were overwhelmed with astonishment at finding their prisoner gone, and while with no small stir they were endeavouring to make out what had become of him, Herod sent for them, and when he could not ascertain any tidings respecting their prisoner, ordered them to be put to death, and then left Jerusalem for Cæsarea (Acts xii. 19).

Before the autumn, however, a terrible end had overtaken the tyrant. Tidings reached Judæa of the triumphant return of Claudius from his expedition to Britain[851], and shows similar to those at Rome were commenced at Cæsarea, which was crowded with people from all quarters. On the second day[852] of the festival the king, clothed in magnificent robes, entered the glorious theatre[853] which his grandfather had built, and sitting down on his throne (Acts xii. 21) proceeded to give an audience to certain ambassadors from the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon. For some reason the people of these Phœnician cities had given him offence, and through the intercession of Blastus, the royal chamberlain, they now sought a reconciliation and a renewal of friendly relations, which was a matter of no small importance, since Phœnicia, as in ancient times[854], depended on Palestine for its supplies of corn and oil (Acts xii. 20). It was early morning[855]. The sun’s rays fell upon the apparel of the king glistering with silver tissue, and the excited multitude sitting in a great semicircle, tier above tier, on the stone seats of the theatre, were dazzled with the brightness which flashed forth from the monarch’s robes. Presently he spoke, and they shouted, _It is the voice of a god and not of a man_. The king made no attempt to repress their adulation, and in the midst of this idolatrous ostentation an angel of God smote him, and he was carried out of the theatre, smitten with a terrible internal disorder, and eaten of worms[856] (Acts xii. 23). After lingering five days in excruciating agony he died in the fifty-fourth year of his age, having reigned seven years, four over part of his dominions, and three over the whole of Palestine[857], and leaving behind him one son, Agrippa, and three daughters, Drusilla, Berenice, and Mariamne[858].

PART III.

THE CHURCH OF THE GENTILES.

Illustration: A MAP TO ILLUSTRATE THE APOSTOLIC HISTORY.

London and New York: Macmillan & Co.
_Stanford’s Geographˡ Estabᵗ. London_