The Torah Atlas

person · P0448

Agrippa I אגריפס הראשון

Grandson of Herod and Mariamne the Hasmonean, raised in Rome, and the last king over the whole land: Caligula gave him Philip's tetrarchy with a crown (37 CE) and Claudius added Yehudah and Shomron (41). The Mishnah preserves his finest hour — reading the Torah standing at Hakhel and weeping at 'you may not set a foreigner over you,' answered: 'You are our brother.' He died suddenly at Caesarea in 44 CE.

I. Who

Hebrew
אגריפס הראשון
Also known as
Herod Agrippa I, King Agrippa
Era
second-temple
Children
Agrippa II

II. When

Traditional
c. 3750–3804 AM (melech 3797–3804; over the whole realm from 3801)
Academic
c. 11 BCE – 44 CE; king from 37 CE, over Judea 41–44 CE
Lifespan (traditional)
≈54 years
Precision
approximate

III. Where

Places
Jerusalem

V. How do we know

ClaimEvidenceConfidenceSources
At the Hakhel reading, "King Agrippa received the Torah standing and read standing, and the sages praised him; and when he reached 'you may not set over yourself a foreign man who is not your brother,' his eyes flowed with tears — and they said to him: Fear not, Agrippa. You are our brother, you are our brother."
The Mishnah's Agrippa is most commonly identified as Agrippa I; some hold it is Agrippa II. The Tosefta records a dissenting note on the flattery.
rabbinic ★★★★★
Josephus: imprisoned by Tiberius, crowned by his friend Caligula with Philip's tetrarchy (37 CE) and enlarged by Claudius with Judea and Samaria (41), he ruled the whole of his grandfather's kingdom, favored the Pharisees, and began Jerusalem's third wall; at games in Caesarea he accepted the crowd's acclamation of him as a god and died within days (44 CE). external ★★★★☆
AM placement (melech 3797–3804) is schematic: conventional Josephus- based dates mapped onto the atlas timeline at AM ≈ 3760 − BCE / 3760 + CE, consistent with the Second Temple's destruction at 3828 AM. The lifespan band is widened around the attested career. reconstruction ★★☆☆☆