Editing Herod Agrippa (section)

==Posterity==
[[File:The Herods of the Bible.svg|thumb|Schematic family tree showing the ''Herods'' of the Bible]]
Half a century after Agrippa I's sudden death, Josephus evokes the sovereign in these terms: "Agrippa's character was gentle and his benevolence was equal for all. He was full of humanity for people of foreign races and also showed them his liberality, but he was also helpful for his compatriots and showed them even more sympathy".<ref>[[Josephus]], ''[[Antiquities of the Jews]]'', livre XIX, (330).</ref> Josephus gives Agrippa a positive legacy and relates that he was known in his time as "Agrippa the Great".<ref>[[Josephus]], ''[[Antiquities of the Jews|Antiquitates Judaicae]]'' xvii. 2. §&nbsp;2</ref> In the rabbinical sources, Agrippa is presented as a pious man, and his reign is described positively.<ref name="Goodman 2009, p.105">{{harvsp|Goodman|2009|p=105}}.</ref> Conversely, the pagan inhabitants of Caesarea and Sebaste organized rejoicings at his death.<ref name="Hadas-Lebel 2009, p.89" />

A significant number of critics follow the Christian tradition to identify Agrippa I with "Herod the king" who, in the Acts of the Apostles, persecutes the community of Jesus' disciples in Jerusalem, then who has [[James the Great]] killed "with the sword" while the apostle [[Saint Peter|Peter]], later arrested, owes his salvation only to the help of "an angel" who comes by night to help him escape from his prison.<ref name="Mimouni 2012, p.411">{{harvsp|Mimouni|2012|p=411}}.</ref> However, the Acts of the Apostles, composed in the 80s and 90s from several sources, "have been the subject of devastating criticism for several decades, to the point of being denied by some, in whole or in part, any historical value"<ref name="Blanchetière_103">{{harvsp|Blanchetière|2001|p=103}}.</ref> due to the "editorial activity" of its three successive authors.<ref name="Blanchetière_251">{{harvsp|Blanchetière|2001|p=251}}.</ref> Thus, the entire Petrine document (hypothetical document) to which these episodes would have belonged seems to have been placed at the beginning of Acts by its first writer, following this account by the "Gesture of Paul" and it is the next writer—perhaps [[Luke the Evangelist]]—which would have been inserted between the two "Gestures" of Peter and Paul, the account of the death of Agrippa<ref name="2Apôtres_p24">{{harvsp|Boismard|Lamouille|1990|p=24}}.</ref> which gives the impression that all that precedes is dated before 44 and all that follows is later, adding a coming of Paul to Jerusalem which does not appear anywhere in Paul's accounts in [[Pauline epistles|his epistles]]. It is therefore possible that "Herod the king" does not designate Agrippa I, but his son Agrippa II. Indeed, in addition to these editorial elements, the chronological inconsistencies of the Acts have been well known for more than a century, in particular the speech of [[Gamaliel]], delivered seven chapters before the account of the death of Agrippa I to defend the apostles during a previous arrest, speaks of the death of [[Theudas]] intervened under the procurator Cuspius Fadus (44–46) and in the Gesture of Peter, the murder of James the Great, then the arrest and escape of Peter are later of five chapters to this speech<ref>Louis H. Feldman, ''Jewish Life and Thought among Greeks and Romans: Primary Readings'', A&C Black, 1996, {{p.|335}}.</ref><ref>Talbert, Charles H., ''Reading Luke-Acts in Its Mediterranean Milieu'', Brill, {{p.|200}}.</ref>  and precedes the account of the death of Agrippa I. This account of the death of Agrippa I, probably inserted by the second redactor of the Acts of the Apostles<ref name="2Apôtres_p24" /> diverges from that of Josephus<ref name="Mimouni 2012, p.409" /> but otherwise agrees with him on the divine origin of his mortal illness, occasioned by his impious refusal to reject the deification of which he is the object by the people, perhaps testifying to the use of a common Jewish source.<ref name="Schwartz 1990, p. 147">{{harvsp|Schwartz|1990|p=147}}.</ref>