Verses 1-25
Chapter 12
12:1-11 About this
time Herod the king began to take hostile action to inflict injury on
certain men of the Church. He killed James, John's brother, with the
sword. When he saw that this gave pleasure to the Jews he went to arrest
Peter too. (These were the days of unleavened bread). When he had
seized Peter, he put him under arrest. He handed him over to four squads
of soldiers to guard, for he wished to bring him before the people
after the Passover Feast. So Peter was continuously guarded in prison.
Prayer to God for him was earnestly offered by the Church. On the night
before Herod was going to bring him before the people, Peter was
sleeping between two soldiers, bound by two chains; and guards kept
continuous watch before the door. Now, look you, the Angel of the Lord
stood by and a light shone in the house. He struck Peter's side and
wakened him and said, "Rise quickly." The chains fell from his hands.
The angel said to him, "Gird yourself and put on your sandals." He did
so. He said to him, "Wrap your cloak round about you and follow me." So
he went out and followed him. And he did not know that what was
happening through the angel was real but thought that he was seeing a
vision, They went through the first and the second guard and they came
to the iron door that led into the city and it opened to them of its own
accord. They went out and proceeded along one street; and thereupon the
angel left him. When Peter had recovered his faculties he said, "Now I
know for sure that the Lord sent his angel and delivered me from the
hand of Herod and rescued me from the fate that the people of the Jews
looked forward to for me."
There now broke out upon the Church, and especially upon its
leaders, a new wave of persecution instigated by King Herod. Let us see
briefly the various ramifications of the family of the Herods in their
New Testament connections.
The first of the New Testament Herods (see Herodes Greek #2264) is Herod the Great who reigned from about 41 B.C. to 1 B.C. He is the Herod of Matthew 2:1-23
, who was in power when Jesus was born, who received the Wise Men from
the East and who massacred the children. Herod the Great was married ten
times. Those of his family who cross the pages of the New Testament are
as follows.
(i) Herod Philip the First. He was the first husband of the Herodias (Greek #2266) who was responsible for the death of John the Baptist. He is mentioned, under the name of Philip (Greek #5376), in Matthew 14:3; Mark 6:17; Luke 3:19. He had no official office. He was the father of Salome (see Greek #4539).
(ii) Herod Antipas (see Greek #493). He was the ruler of Galilee and Peraea. He was the second husband of Herodias (see Greek #2266) and consented to the death of John the Baptist. He was also the Herod to whom Pilate sent Jesus for trial (Luke 23:7 ff.).
(iii) Archelaus (Greek #745). He was ruler of Judaea, Samaria and Idumaea. He was a thoroughly bad ruler and was deposed and banished. He is mentioned in Matthew 2:22.
(iv) Herod Philip the Second. He was ruler of Ituraea and
Trachonitis. He was the founder of Caesarea Philippi which was called
after him. In the New Testament he is called Philip and is mentioned in Luke 3:1.
(v) Herod the Great had another son called Aristobulus (see Aristoboulos Greek #711);
his mother was Mariamne, a princess who was descended from the great
Maccabaean heroes. He was murdered by his own father but he had a son
called Herod Agrippa. This is the Herod of our present passage in Acts 12:1-25 .
(vi) To complete the list we may note that Herod Agrippa (Greek #67), was the father of (a) Agrippa the Second, before whom Paul was examined and before whom he made his famous speech (Acts 25:1-27; Acts 26:1-32). (b) Bernice (see Bernike Greek #959), who appeared with him when Paul was under examination. (c) Drusilla (see Drousilla Greek #1409), who was the wife of Felix, the governor before whom Paul was tried (Acts 24:24).
From this family history it may be seen that Herod Agrippa of
this chapter was a direct descendant of the Maccabees through his mother
Mariamne. He had been educated at Rome, but he sedulously cultivated
the good graces of the Jewish people by meticulously keeping the Law and
all Jewish observances. For these reasons he was popular with the
people; and it was no doubt in order to achieve further popularity with
the orthodox Jews that he decided to attack the Christian Church and its
leaders. Even his conduct in the arrest of Peter shows his desire to
conciliate the Jews. The Passover Feast was on 14th Nisan; for that day
and the seven following no leaven must be used and the week was called
the days of unleavened bread. During that time no trial or execution
could be carried out and that is why Herod purposed to defer Peter's
execution until the week was finished. The great tragedy of this
particular wave of persecution was that it was not due to any man's
principles, however misguided; it was due simply to Herod's bid to gain
popular favour with the people.
12:12-19 When Peter
had grasped what had happened, he went to the house of Mary, the mother
of John, who was surnamed Mark. There a large number had assembled
together and were praying. When Peter had knocked at the door of the
entrance a maidservant called Rhoda came to answer the door. She
recognized Peter's voice and, in her joy, she did not open the door but
ran and told them that Peter stood before the entrance. They said to
her, "You are mad." She strenuously insisted that it was so; but they
kept saying, "It is his angel." But Peter waited there knocking. When
they opened the door and saw him they were amazed. With a gesture of his
hand he bade them be silent and he told them the whole story of how the
Lord had brought him out of prison. He said, "Tell these tidings to
James and to the brethren." So he went away to another place. When day
came there was no small disturbance among the soldiers about what had
happened to Peter. When Herod had sought for him and did not find him,
he examined the guards and ordered them to be led away to execution. And
he went down from Judaea to Caesarea and stayed there.
The greatest precautions had been taken to see that Peter did
not escape. He was guarded by four quaternions of soldiers. A quaternion
was a squad of four. There were four such squads because the day and
the night were divided into four watches each of three hours duration;
and each squad was on duty for three hours at a time. Normally a
prisoner was chained by his right hand to his guard's left hand; but
Peter was chained by both hands to a guard on each side of him, while
the two remaining soldiers of the quaternion kept watch at the door.
Precautions could go no further. When Peter escaped the soldiers were
led away to execution because it was the law that, if a criminal
escaped, his guard should suffer the penalty the prisoner would have
suffered.
In this story we do not necessarily see a miracle. It may well
be the story of a thrilling rescue; but, however it happened, the hand
of God was most definitely in it.
When Peter escaped he took his way straight to the house of
Mary, the mother of John Mark. From that we learn that this was the
headquarters of the Christian Church. It has indeed been suggested that
it was in this very house that the Last Supper was eaten and that it
continued to be the meeting place of the disciples in Jerusalem. Note
what the Christians were doing. They were praying. When they were up
against it, they turned to God.
In this passage we come on the first mention of the man who was
the real leader of the Christian Church in Jerusalem. Peter instructs
them to go and tell the news to James. This is the brother of our Lord.
There is a certain mystery about him. In the East it would have been the
natural thing for the next brother to take on the work of an elder
brother who had been killed; but from the gospels we learn that Jesus'
brothers did not believe in him (John 7:5) and that they actually thought him mad (Mark 3:21). During his lifetime James was not a supporter of Jesus. But the Risen Christ made a special appearance to James (1 Corinthians 15:7).
The apocryphal Gospel according to the Hebrews tells that after the
death of Jesus, James made a vow that he would neither eat nor drink
until he saw Jesus again; and that Jesus did appear to him. It may well
be that what the life of Jesus could not do his death did, and that when
James saw his brother die he discovered who he really was and dedicated
all his life to serve him. The change in James may well be another
great example of the power of the Cross to change the lives of men.
12:20-25 Herod was
furious with the people of Tyre and Sidon. But they came to him with a
common purpose. They gained the ear of Blastus the king's chamberlain
and sued for peace because their country was dependent for its
sustenance on the king's territory. Upon an agreed day Herod put on his
royal robes and seated himself on a throne and made a speech to them.
The people cried out, "It is the voice of a God and not of a man."
Immediately the angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give the
glory to God. And he was eaten with worms and died.
The word of God
increased and was multiplied. And Barnabas and Saul returned from
Jerusalem, when they had completed their errand of mercy. and they took
with them John who was surnamed Mark.
There was at this time some quarrel between Herod and the
people of Tyre and Sidon, for whom the quarrel was a serious matter.
Their lands lay to the north of Palestine and in two ways Herod could
make things very difficult for them. If he deflected the trade of
Palestine from their ports their revenues would be seriously impaired.
Worse, Tyre and Sidon were dependent for their food supplies on
Palestine and if these supplies were cut off their case would be serious
indeed. So then these people succeeded in gaining the ear of Blastus,
the king's chamberlain, and in due course a public session was arranged.
Josephus, the Jewish historian, describes how, on the second day of the
festival, he entered the theatre clad in a robe of silver cloth. The
sun glinted on the silver and the people cried out that this was a god
come to them. At once a sudden and terrible illness fell upon him from
which he never recovered.
Acts 12:24-25 take us back to Acts 11:27-30.
Paul and Barnabas had fulfilled their errand of mercy to the Church at
Jerusalem and so returned to Antioch, taking with them John Mark.
-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)