John Bengel Commentary - Acts 12:21 - 12:21

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

John Bengel Commentary - Acts 12:21 - 12:21


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

Act 12:21. Τακτῇ δὲ ἡμέρᾳ, but on an appointed day) The solemn celebration of games for the safety of Cæsar, as Josephus says, l. 19. Ant. Jud. ch. 8, who describes at large this impiety of Herod and its punishment: “Clad in a garment which was all woven of silver by marvellous workmanship, and which, struck by the rays of the rising sun and emitting a kind of divine splendour, was inspiring the spectators with veneration accompanied with awe: and presently after pernicious (baneful) flatterers raising acclamations, each from a different quarter, were hailing him as a god, begging him that he would be favourably propitious; for that heretofore having revered him as a man, they now perceive and acknowledge that there is in him something more excellent than mortal nature: this impious adulation he did not correct or repel.-There ensued torturing pains in the belly, which were violent from the very first. Having therefore turned his eyes towards his friends, ‘Behold,’ said he, ‘I the god, as you called me, am commanded to leave life, the fatal necessity of death confuting your lie; and I, whom ye hailed as immortal, am hurried away by a mortal stroke.’-Then worn out by the torture, which did not at all abate for five days in continuation, he ended life.”-πρὸς αὐτοὺς, unto them) It is probable that among his hearers were ambassadors of the Tyrians and Sidonians.