Blastus
Blastus, Herod's chamberlain, was persuaded by the people of Tyre and Sidon to help them gain the king's favor.
Biography
Blastus was the personal chamberlain (Greek: ho epi tou koitonos, "the one over the bedchamber") of Herod Agrippa I, the client king of Judea appointed by Rome. He appears in Acts 12:20 in connection with a diplomatic crisis between Herod and the coastal cities of Tyre and Sidon, whose populations depended on Judea for food. The Tyrians and Sidonians, seeking to restore favor with Herod after some unnamed offense, persuaded Blastus, almost certainly through bribery given his intimate access to the king, to arrange an audience. This meeting led to the famous scene in Acts 12:21-23, where Herod delivered a speech to the assembled crowd, accepted divine acclamation, and was immediately struck down by an angel of the Lord. Blastus's role as intermediary thus unwittingly set the stage for Herod's dramatic end.
Significance
Blastus serves as an unwitting catalyst in one of Acts' most theologically charged episodes. By arranging the audience between Herod and the delegations from Tyre and Sidon, he facilitated the occasion on which Herod accepted worship due only to God, and was immediately judged for it (Acts 12:22-23). Luke's account sharply contrasts Herod's fate with the forward march of the gospel: "But the word of God increased and multiplied" (Acts 12:24). Blastus thus occupies a position in the narrative that underscores a central Lukan theme: human pretension to divine glory is always temporary, while God's redemptive purposes are unstoppable. Even the machinations of palace politics serve, in the end, to advance the mission of the risen Christ.
Verse Appearances (1)
Acts
References
- Orr, J. (ed.) (1915) The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. Chicago: Howard-Severance Company. [Public Domain]
- Tyndale House, Cambridge (n.d.) Translators Individualised Proper Names with all References (TIPNR). STEPBible. Available at: https://www.stepbible.org. [CC BY 4.0]
- Church of England (1769) The Holy Bible, Authorized (King James) Version. [Public Domain]