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Prophecy

Agabus and the great famine under Claudius (Acts 11:28)

The prophet Agabus foretelling Paul’s arrest (Acts 21:10-11), engraving by Jacob Folkema (18th c.). Artist’s impression of Agabus, not of the famine.
Artist’s impression The prophet Agabus foretelling Paul’s arrest (Acts 21:10-11), engraving by Jacob Folkema (18th c.). Artist’s impression of Agabus, not of the famine. — Jacob Folkema, after Houbraken (Rijksmuseum), Wikimedia Commons · CC0

○ Written after the events, according to historians; tradition dates it before

Written c. 43–62 AD according to tradition; c. 80–90 AD according to historians. Event: 41–51 AD.

See the full entry: sources, objections, answers

In short

The announcement. According to the book of Acts, a Christian prophet named Agabus announces, around 43-44, that a great famine will strike “all the world”. The book, written around 62 according to tradition or around 80-90 according to historians, immediately adds that it happened under the emperor Claudius.

What happened. Under Claudius, between 41 and 51, Roman and Jewish historians as well as Egyptian papyri report severe food shortages, including a famine in Judea around 46-48. But no source describes a single famine striking the whole Empire at the same time: these are successive regional shortages.

What is still debated. Agabus's announcement is known only from Acts, which tells it after the fact, so nothing independently confirms that it came before the famine.

What would be striking if the text came first

The text names a specific reign, and secular history confirms that those years were years of shortage, from Rome to Egypt. But the announcement and its fulfillment are told by the same book, written after the events according to historians.

Main objection (in French for now)

Limite principale : prédiction et accomplissement sont rapportés par le même auteur, dans la même phrase (Ac 11:28), une génération après les faits selon la datation critique. Rien hors des Actes n’atteste l’oracle d’Agabus ; ce n’est pas une confirmation indépendante.

The text (World English Bible)

Now in these days, prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. One of them named Agabus stood up and indicated by the Spirit that there should be a great famine all over the world, which also happened in the days of Claudius.

Acts 11:27-28

Sources