ACTS 12 COMME�TARYEDITED BY GLE�� PEASE

Peter’s Miraculous Escape From Prison

1 It was about this time that King Herod arrested

some who belonged to the church, intending to

persecute them.

�OTE, "Here is the first serious persecution of the infant church. The innocent had

to suffer severely for the first time. The Jews were worried about the growth of the

church and felt threatened. They welcomed any government help to suppress this

radical group. When Herod went for the leaders they were delighted. Just because

a ruler is doing what is popular and pleases the people is no proof that he is good

ruler. The question should be, is what he does pleasing to God and of real benefit to

the people? Murder made him popular with those who hated the church. Do evil

once and be violent and the next time it is easier, and soon you can do it with

pleasure.

BAR�ES, "Now about that time - That is, during the time that the famine existed, or the time when Barnabas and Saul went up to Jerusalem. This was probably about the fifth or sixth year of the reign of Claudius, not far from 47 ad.

Herod the king - This was Herod Agrippa. The Syriac so renders it expressly, and the chronology requires us so to understand it. He was a grandson of Herod the Great, and one of the sons of Aristobulus, whom Herod put to death (Josephus, Antiq., 18, 5). Herod the Great left three sons, between whom his kingdom was divided - Archelaus, Philip, and Antipas. See the notes on Mat_2:19. To Philip was left Iturea and Trachonitis. See Luk_3:1. To Antipas, Galilee and Perea; and to Archclaus, Judea, Idumea, and Samaria. Archclaus, being accused of cruelty, was banished by Augustus to Vienna in Gaul, and Judea was reduced to a province, and united with Syria. When Philip died, this region was granted by the Emperor Caligula to Herod Agrippa. Herod Antipas was driven as an exile also into Gaul, and then into Spain, and Herod Agrippa received also his tetrarchy. In the reign of Claudius also, the dominions of Herod Agrippa were still further enlarged. When Caligula was slain, he was at Rome, and having ingratiated himself into the favor of Claudius, he conferred on him also Judea and Samaria, so that his dominions were equal in extent to those of his grandfather, Herod the Great. See Josephus, Antiq., book 19, chapter 5, section 1.

Stretched forth his hands - A figurative expression, denoting that “he laid his hands on them, or that he endeavored violently to oppress the church.”

To vex - To injure, to do evil to - κακ�σαί kakōsai.

Certain - Some of the church. Who they were the writer immediately specifies.

CLARKE, "Herod the king - This was Herod Agrippa, the son of Aristobulus, and grandson of Herod the Great; he was nephew to Herod Antipas, who beheaded John they Baptist, and brother to Herodias. He was made king by the Emperor Caligula, and was put in possession of all the territories formerly held by his uncle Philip and by Lysanias; viz. Iturea, Trachonitis, Abilene, with Gaulonitis, Batanaea, and Penias. To these the Emperor Claudius afterwards added Judea and Samaria; which were nearly all the dominions possessed by his grandfather, Herod the Great. See Luk_3:1; see also an account of the Herod family, in the note on Mat_2:1 (note).

To vex certain of the Church - That is, to destroy its chief ornaments and supports.

GILL, "Now about that time,.... That the famine was in Judea, and Saul and Barnabas were sent thither with what the church at Antioch had collected.

Herod the king; not Herod the great that slew the infants at Bethlehem, nor Herod Antipas that beheaded John, but Herod Agrippa; and so the Syriac version adds here, "who is surnamed Agrippa"; he was a grandson of Herod the great, and the son of Aristobulus: this prince

stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church; Beza's ancient copy adds, "in Judea": it seems to be the church at Jerusalem; perhaps some of the principal members of them; and so the Ethiopic version renders it, the rulers of the house of God. It is scarcely credible that he should lay hands on any of them himself in person; but it is very likely he encouraged his soldiers, or his servants, to abuse them, reproach them, strike and buffet them, as they met with them in the streets; or when at worship, might disturb them, and break them up.

HE�RY, "Ever since the conversion of Paul, we have heard no more of the agency of the priests in persecuting the saints at Jerusalem; perhaps that wonderful change wrought upon him, and the disappointment it gave to their design upon the Christians at Damascus, had somewhat mollified them, and brought them under the check of Gamaliel's advice - to let those men alone, and see what would be the issue; but here the storm arises from another point. The civil power, not now, as usual (for aught that appears) stirred up by the ecclesiastics, acts by itself in the persecution. But Herod, though originally of an Edomite family, yet seems to have been a proselyte to the Jewish religion; for Josephus says he was zealous for the Mosaic rites, a bigot for the ceremonies. He was not only (as Herod Antipas was) tetrarch of Galilee, but had also the government of Judea committed to him by Claudius the emperor, and resided most at Jerusalem, where he was at this time. Three things we are here told he did -

I. He stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church, Act_12:1. His stretching forth his hands to it intimates that his hands had been tied up by the restraints which perhaps his own conscience held him under in this matter; but now he broke through them, and stretched forth his hands deliberately, and of malice prepense. Herod laid hands upon some of the church to afflict them, so some read it; he employed his officers to seize them, and take them into custody, in order to their being prosecuted. See how he

advances gradually. 1. He began with some of the members of the church, certain of them that were of less note and figure; played first at small game, but afterwards flew at the apostles themselves. His spite was at the church, and, with regard to those he gave trouble to, it was not upon any other account, but because they belonged to the church, and so belonged to Christ. 2. He began with vexing them only, or afflicting them, imprisoning them, fining them, spoiling their houses and goods, and other ways molesting them; but afterwards he proceeded to greater instances of cruelty. Christ's suffering servants are thus trained up by less troubles for greater, that tribulation may work patience, and patience experience.

JAMISO�, "Act_12:1-19. Persecution of the church by Herod Agrippa I -Martyrdom of James and miraculous deliverance of Peter.

Herod the king— grandson of Herod the Great, and son of Aristobulus. He at this time ruled over all his father’s dominions. Paley has remarked the accuracy of the historian here. For thirty years before this there was no king at Jerusalem exercising supreme authority over Judea, nor was there ever afterwards, save during the three last years of Herod’s life, within which the transactions occurred.

HAWKER, "Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. (2) And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. (3) And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.)

If the Reader at the opening of this Chapter, will consult the Poor Man’s Commentary on Mat_2:19; he will there observe, that this Herod was the fourth of that name, whose awful histories are shortly mentioned in the word of God. Not with a view to record their names, but their infamy. And, but for the carrying on the history of the Church, would not have been known even by name, in the present hour, but to a very few, if any. Their memorial is perished with them, Psa_9:6. He was deputy king, under Claudius Caesar, Emperor of Rome. This James, whom Herod killed, was one of the sons of Zebedee, concerning whom the Lord Jesus foretold, of his being baptized with his baptism, Mat_20:22. The Lord hath given in a single line the infamy of Herod’s character. He had killed James; and because he saw it pleased the Jews, he would have killed Peter also. So that this thirsting for blood, was not even pretended to be on the least ground of justice, but to please blood-thirsty men, like himself. How very pointed are the words of the Holy Ghost, concerning the sure destruction of such characters. Whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not! 2Pe_2:3.

CALVI�, "1.Here followeth new persecution raised by Herod. We see that the

Church had some short truce, that it might, as it were, by a short breathing, recover

some courage against the time to come, and that it might then fight afresh. So at this

day there is no cause why the faithful, having borne the brunts of one or two

conflicts, should promise themselves rest, (748) or should desire such a calling (749)

as old overworn soldiers use to have. Let this suffice them if the Lord grant them

some time wherein they may recover their strength. This Herod was Agrippa the

greater, [elder,] the son of Aristobulus, whom his father slew. Josephus doth no

where call him Herod, it may be, because he had a brother who was king of Chalcis,

whose name was Herod. This man was incensed to afflict the Church not so much

for any love he had to religion, as that by this means he might flatter the common

people which did otherwise not greatly favor him; or rather, he was moved hereunto

with tyrannical cruelty, because he was afraid of innovation, which tyrants do

always fear, lest it trouble the quiet estate of their dominion. Yet it is likely that he

did shed innocent blood, that, according to the common craft of kings, he might

gratify a furious people; because St. Luke will shortly after declare that Peter the

apostle was put into prison that he might be a pleasant spectacle.

He killed James. Undoubtedly the cruelty of this mad man was restrained and

bridled by the secret power of God. For assuredly he would never have been content

with one or two murders, and so have abstained from persecuting the rest, but he

would rather have piled up martyrs upon heaps, unless God had set his hand

against him, and defended his flock. So when we see that the enemies of godliness,

being full of fury, do not commit horrible slaughters, that they may mix and imbrue

all things with blood, let us know that we need not thank their moderation and

clemency for this; but because, when the Lord doth spare his sheep, he doth not

suffer them to do so much hurt as they would. This Herod was not so courteous, that

he would stick to win peace or the people’s favor with the punishment of an

hundred men or more.

Wherefore, we must think with ourselves that he was tied by one that had the rule

over him, that he might not more vehemently oppress the Church. He slew James,

as, when any sedition is raised, the heads and captains go first to the pot, (750) that

the common riff-raft may by their punishment be terrified. �evertheless, the Lord

suffered him whom he had furnished with constancy to be put to death, that by

death he might get the victory as a strong and invincible champion. So that the

attempts of tyrants notwithstanding, God maketh choice of sweet-smelling sacrifices

to establish the faith of his gospel. Luke calleth this games which was slain the

brother of John, that he may distinguish him from the son of Alpheus. For whereas

some make him a third cousin of Christ’s, who was only some one of the disciples, I

do not like of that, because I am by strong reasons persuaded to think that there

were no more. Let him that will, repair to the second to the Galatians. Therefore, I

think that the apostle and the son of Alpheus were all one, whom the Jews threw

down headlong from the top of the temple, whose death was so highly Commended

for his singular praise of holiness.

ROBERTSO�, "Herod Agrippa I was an Idumean through his grandfather Herod

the Great and a grandson of Mariamne the Maccabean princess. He was a favourite

of Caligula the Roman Emperor and was anxious to placate his Jewish subjects

while retaining the favour of the Romans. So he built theatres and held games for

the Romans and Greeks and slew the Christians to please the Jews. Josephus (Ant.

XIX. 7, 3) calls him a pleasant vain man scrupulously observing Jewish rites. Here

we have for the first time political power (after Pilate) used against the disciples.

COFFMA�, "A comparison of the last verses of Acts 11 and this chapter (Acts 12)

suggests that Barnabas and Paul made that trip to Jerusalem with relief for the

victims of the famine at about the time of the events given in Acts 12, this being in 44

A.D., a date determined by the death of Herod Agrippa I. That monarch had

succeeded in putting together the whole domain of his grandfather Herod the Great,

and had also been given the title of king by Claudius. He was a staunch friend of the

Jews and was no doubt influenced by them to make the move to destroy

Christianity.

He martyred James, seized and imprisoned Peter, planning to execute him publicly

after the Passover festivities. �owhere in the �ew Testament does the intervention

of Almighty God on behalf of his church appear any more timely and dramatic than

in this chapter. With their friend on the throne, the Jewish hierarchy decided to

exterminate Christianity; and there was no reason why they could not have

succeeded, except for the intervention of the Father in heaven.

When the earthly fortunes of the Christians seemed the most precarious, however,

providential events took place with sudden finality, lifting the threat completely. At

the precise instant when one apostle was already dead, another imprisoned and

condemned, and the entire Twelve proscribed by an all-powerful ruler acting as a

Jewish deputy in the whole procedure, out of a desire to please his subjects, at that

very moment God sent an angel to release Peter and shortly thereafter struck

Agrippa dead. The same event doomed secular Israel.

The Encyclopedia Britannica has this regarding Herod's death:

His sudden death in 44 A.D. ... at Caesarea during games in honor of Claudius was a

disaster for Jewry, because with all his faults of sycophancy and ostentation he had

successfully kept the balance between Rome and the Jews and shown that the two

could co-exist to the advantage of both.[1]

It is ironic that the Jews who had, in the elevation of Herod Agrippa I, achieved for

themselves tolerance and accommodation, should at the same time have refused so

adamantly to extend the same to Christians; and that God's thwarting of their

campaign against the body of Christ, by the summary execution of Herod, also by

that same event removed the one man who could have preserved their own

toleration by Rome. The final result of what took place when God sent an angel to

destroy Herod Agrippa was realized some 20 years later when Titus and Vespasian

destroyed Jerusalem. The finger of God is clearly seen in this chapter.

E�D�OTE:

[1] Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 11, p. 512.

�ow about that time Herod the king put forth his hands to afflict certain of the

church. (Acts 12:1)

About that time ... means about the time of Saul and Barnabas' journey to

Jerusalem with relief for the victims of the famine.

Stretched forth his hands to afflict ... This vigorous and fatal movement of the

supreme authority in the land against the young church was exceedingly serious.

The motivation was clearly that of pleasing the Jews (Acts 12:3); and, if Herod

Agrippa had proceeded indefinitely with that policy, there could never have been

any end of it except the total destruction of Christianity.

For a discussion of the ten Herod's mentioned in the �ew Testament, see my

Commentary on Mark, under Mark 6:17

COKE, "Acts 12:1. Herod the King— The Syriac version reads, Herod the king,

surnamed Agrippa: Josephus styles him Agrippa; which probably was his Roman,

as Herod was his Syrian name. He was the grandson of Herod the Great, by his son

Aristobulus; nephew to Herod Antipas, who beheaded John the Baptist; brother to

Herodias, whom that incestuous tetrarch married; and father to that Agrippa,

before whom St. Paul made his defence, ch. Acts 25:13. Caius Caligula, with whom

he had an early friendship, when he became emperor, released this Agrippa from

the confinement under which Tiberius had on that very account kept him, and

crowned him king of the tetrarchy of his uncle Philip; to which he afterwards added

the territories of Antipas, whom he banished to Lyons in Gaul: in this authority

Claudius confirmed him, and made him king of Judea, adding to his former

dominions those of Lysanias. This person desired to ingratiate himself with the Jews

by every method; and finding that the Christians were under the popular odium, he

stretched forth his hands to harass and molest them; he did not reflect upon the

injustice of persecuting the Christians, though he and his countrymen had taken it

so ill that the heathens, and particularly Caligula, had persecuted the Jews; as if it

had been persecution only to molest the Jews for their religion, but had lost its

nature, and ceased to be persecution, when practised by the Jews upon the

Christians. See on ch. Acts 9:31

BE�SO�, "Acts 12:1-2. �ow about that time — When Saul and Barnabas were

preparing to set out to Jerusalem, to carry thither what had been collected by the

Christians at Antioch; Herod stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church

— So wisely did God mix rest and persecution, in due time and measure succeeding

each other. This was Herod Agrippa, as the Syriac version expressly names him, the

former being his Syrian, and the latter his Roman name. He was the grandson of

Herod the Great, nephew to Herod Antipas, who beheaded John the Baptist,

brother to Herodias, and father to that Agrippa before whom St. Paul afterward

made his defence. Caligula made him king of the tetrarchy of his uncle Philip, to

which he afterward added the territories of Antipas. Claudius made him also king

of Judea, and added thereto the dominions of Lysanias. And he killed James the

brother of John — Thus was the prediction of our Lord fulfilled, that James should

drink of his cup, (Matthew 20:23,) and thus one of the brothers went to God the

first, the other the last of the apostles. It is a just observation of a judicious writer,

that “this early execution of one of the apostles, after our Lord’s death, would

illustrate the courage of the rest in still going on with their ministry, as it would

evidently show, that even all their miraculous powers did not secure them from

dying by the sword of their enemies.”

CO�STABLE, ""About that time" probably harks back to the famine visit of

Barnabas and Saul mentioned in Acts 11:30. If this took place in A.D. 46, and Herod

died in A.D. 44, then the event Luke related in chapter 12 antedated the famine visit,

and probably all of Acts 11:27-30, by about two years.

". . . Luke seems to have wanted to close his portrayals of the Christian mission

within the Jewish world (Acts 2:42 to Acts 12:24) with two vignettes having to do

with God's continued activity on behalf of the Jerusalem church." [�ote:

Longenecker, p. 407.]

"Herod the king" was Herod Agrippa I whom the Roman emperor Gaius appointed

king over Palestine in A.D. 37. He ruled Judea for three years, A.D. 41-44 [�ote:

Josephus, Antiquities of . . ., 19:8:2; idem, The Wars . . ., 2:11:6; Bruce,

"Chronological Questions ...," pp. 276-78.] (cf. Acts 12:23), and moved his

headquarters to Jerusalem. Herod Agrippa I had Jewish blood in his veins and

consistently sought to maintain favor with and the support of the Jews over whom

he ruled, which he did effectively. [�ote: See Longenecker, pp. 407-8, for a brief

biography of Herod Agrippa I.] As the Christian Jews became increasingly offensive

to their racial brethren (cf. Acts 11:18), Herod took advantage of an opportunity to

please his subjects by mistreating some believers and by executing the Apostle

James, the brother of John (cf. Matthew 20:23). This is the only apostle's death that

the �ew Testament recorded. James was the second Christian martyr whom Luke

identified (cf. Acts 7:54-60). Persecution of the Christians now swung from religious

to include political motivation.

It is noteworthy that the Christians evidently did not seek to perpetuate the

apostalate by selecting a replacement for James as they had for Judas (ch. 1). They

probably believed that God would reestablish The Twelve in the resurrestion. [�ote:

Bock, Acts, p. 422.]

The supernatural deliverance of Peter 12:1-19

"Peter's rescue from prison is an unusually vivid episode in Acts even when simply

taken as a story about Peter. Because it is not connected with events in the chapters

immediately before and after it, however, it may seem rather isolated and

unimportant for Acts as a whole. Yet it becomes more than a vivid account of an

isolated miracle when we probe below the surface, for this story is an echo of other

stories in Luke-Acts and in Jewish Scripture. An event that is unique, and vividly

presented as such, takes on the importance of the typical when it reminds us of other

similar events. It recalls the power of God to rescue those chosen for God's mission,

a power repeatedly demonstrated in the past." [�ote: Ibid., 2:151.]

Verses 1-24

4. The persecution of the Jerusalem church 12:1-24

The saints in Jerusalem not only suffered as a result of the famine, they also

suffered because Jewish and Roman governmental opposition against them

intensified as time passed. Luke recorded the events in this section to illustrate

God's supernatural protection and blessing of the church, even though the

Christians suffered increased persecution, and Israel's continued rejection of her

Messiah. Looked at another way, this section confirms Israel's rejection of her

Messiah. This is why the church advanced more dramatically in Gentile territory, as

the rest of Acts shows. Contrasts mark Acts 12:1-23 : James dies, God delivers

Peter, and Herod dies.

ELLICOTT, "(1) Herod the king.—The previous life of this prince had been full of

strange vicissitudes. The son of Aristobulus and Bernice, grandson of Herod the

Great, brother of the Herodias who appears in the Gospel history, named after the

statesman who was the chief minister of Augustus, he had been sent, after his father

had fallen a victim (B.C. 6) to his grandfather’s suspicions, to Rome, partly,

perhaps, as a hostage, partly to be out of the way of Palestine intrigues. There he

had grown up on terms of intimacy with the prince afterwards known as Caligula.

On the marriage of Herod Antipas with his sister, he was made the ruler of Tiberias,

but soon quarrelled with the Tetrarch and went to Rome, and falling under the

displeasure of Tiberius, as having rashly given utterance to a wish for the succession

of Caligula, was imprisoned by him and remained in confinement till the death of

that emperor. When Caligula came to the throne, he loaded his friend with honours,

gave him the tetrarchies first of Philip, and then that of Lysanias (Luke 3:1), and

conferred on him the title of King. Antipas, prompted by Herodias, came to Rome to

claim a like honour for himself, but fell under the emperor’s displeasure, and was

banished to Lugdunum in Gaul, whither his wife accompanied him. His tetrarchy

also was conferred on Agrippa. Coins are extant, minted at Cæsarea, and bearing

inscriptions in which he is styled the Great King, with the epithets sometimes of

Philo-Cæsar, sometimes of Philo-Claudios. At the time when Caligula’s insanity

took the form of a resolve to place his statue in the Temple at Jerusalem, Agrippa

rendered an essential service to his people, by using all his influence to deter the

emperor from carrying his purpose into execution, and, backed as he was by

Petronius, the Governor of Syria, was at last successful. On the death of Caligula,

Claudius, whose claims to the empire he had supported, confirmed him in his

kingdom. When he came to Judæa, he presented himself to the people in the

character of a devout worshipper, and gained their favour by attaching himself to

the companies of �azarites (as we find St. Paul doing in Acts 21:26) when they came

to the Temple to offer sacrifices on the completion of their vows (Jos. Ant. xix. 7, §

3). It would seem that he found a strong popular excitement against the believers in

Christ, caused probably by the new step which had recently been taken in the

admission of the Gentiles, and fomented by the Sadducean priesthood, and it seemed

to him politic to gain the favour of both priests and people, by making himself the

instrument of their jealousy.

EBC 1-25, "THE DEFEAT OF PRIDE.

THE chapter at which we have now arrived is very important from a chronological point of view, as it brings the sacred narrative into contact with the affairs of the external world concerning which we have independent knowledge. The history of the Christian Church and of the outside world for the first time clearly intersect, and we thus gain a fixed point of time to which we can refer. This chronological character of the twelfth chapter of the Acts arises from its introduction of Herod and the narrative of the second notable persecution which the Church at Jerusalem had to endure. The appearance of a Herod on the scene and the tragedy in which he was the actor demand a certain amount

of historical explanation, for, as we have already noted in the case of St. Stephen five or six years previously, Roman procurators and Jewish priests and the Sanhedrin then possessed or at least used the power of the sword in Jerusalem, while a word had not been heard of a Herod exercising capital jurisdiction in Judaea for more than forty years. Who was this Herod? Whence came he? How does he emerge so suddenly upon the stage? As great confusion exists in the minds of many Bible students about the ramifications of the Herodian family and the various offices and governments they held, we must make a brief digression in order to show who and whence this Herod was concerning whom we are told, -"Now about that time Herod the king put forth his hands to afflict certain of the Church."

This Herod Agrippa was a grandson of Herod the Great, and displayed in the solitary notice of him which Holy Scripture has handed down many of the characteristics, cruel, bloodthirsty, and yet magnificent, which that celebrated sovereign manifested throughout his life. The story of Herod Agrippa his grandson was a real romance. He made trial of every station in life. He had been at times a captive, at times a conqueror. He had at various periods experience, of a prison house and of a throne. He had felt the depths of poverty, and had not known where to borrow money sufficient to pay his way to Rome. He had tasted of the sweetness of affluence, and had enjoyed the pleasures of magnificent living. He had been a subject and a ruler, a dependent on a tyrant, and the trusted friend and councillor of emperors. His story is worth telling. He was born about ten years before the Christian era, and was the son of Aristobulus, one of the sons of Herod the Great. After the death of Herod, his grandfather, the Herodian family were scattered all over the world. Some obtained official positions; others were obliged to shift for themselves, depending on the fragments of the fortune which the great king had left them. Agrippa lived at Rome till about the year 30 A.D., associating with Drusus, the son of the Emperor Tiberius, by whom he was led into the wildest extravagance. He was banished from Rome about that year, and was obliged to retire to Palestine, contenting himself with the small official post of Ædile of Tiberias in Galilee, given him by his uncle Herod Antipas, which he held about the time when our Lord was teaching in that neighbourhood. During the next six years the fortunes of Agrippa were of the most chequered kind. He soon quarrelled with Antipas, and is next found a fugitive at the court of Antioch with the Prefect of the East. He there borrowed from a moneylender the sum of £800 at 12.5 per cent. interest, to enable him to go to Rome and push his interests at the imperial court. He was arrested, however, for a large debt due to the Treasury just when he was embarking, and consigned to prison, whence the very next day he managed to escape, and fled to Alexandria. There he again raised another timely loan, and thus at last succeeded in getting to Rome. Agrippa attached himself to Caligula, the heir of the empire, and after various chances was appointed by him King of Trachonitis, a dominion which Caligula and subsequently Claudius enlarged by degrees, till in the year 41 he was invested with the kingdom of the whole of Palestine, including Galilee, Samaria, and Judaea, of which Agrippa proceeded to take formal possession about twelve months before the events recorded in the twelfth chapter of Acts.

Herod’s career had been marked by various changes, but in one respect he had been consistent. He was ever a thorough Jew, and a vigorous and useful friend to his fellow-countrymen. We have already noticed that his influence had been used with Caligula to induce the Emperor to forego his mad project of erecting his statue in the Holy of Holies at Jerusalem. Herod had, however, one great drawback in the eyes of the priestly faction at Jerusalem. All the descendants of Herod the Great were tainted by their Edomite blood, which they inherited through him. Their kind offices and support were accepted indeed, but only grudgingly. Herod felt this, and it was quite natural therefore for the

newly appointed king to strive to gain all the popularity he could with the dominant party at Jerusalem by persecuting the new sect which was giving them so much trouble. No incident could possibly have been more natural, more consistent with the facts of history, as well as with the known dispositions and tendencies of human nature than that recorded in these words-"Now about that time Herod the king put forth his hands to afflict certain of the Church. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword." Herod’s act was a very politic one from a worldly point of view. It was a hard dose enough for the Jewish people to swallow, to find a king imposed upon them by an idolatrous Gentile power; but it was some alleviation of their lot that the king was a Jew, and a Jew so devoted to the service of the ruling hierarchy that he was willing to use his secular power to crush the troublesome Nazarene sect whose doctrine threatened for ever to destroy all hopes of a temporal restoration for Israel. Such being the historical setting of the picture presented to us, let us apply ourselves to the spiritual application and lessons of this incident in apostolic history. We have here a martyrdom, a deliverance, and a Divine judgment, which will all repay careful study.

I. A martyrdom is here brought under our notice, and that the first martyrdom among the apostles. Stephen’s was the first Christian martyrdom, but that of James was the first apostolic martyrdom. When Herod, following his grandfather’s footsteps, would afflict the Church, "he killed James the brother of John with the sword." We must carefully distinguish between two martyrs of the same name who have both found a place in the commemorations of Christian hope and love. May-day is the feast devoted to the memory of St. Philip and St. James, July 25th is the anniversary consecrated to the memorial of St. James the Apostle, whose death is recorded in the passage now under consideration. The latter was the brother of John and son of Zebedee; the former was the brother or cousin, according to the flesh, of our Lord. St. James the Apostle perished early in the Church’s history. St. James the Just flourished for more than thirty years after the Resurrection. He lived indeed to a comparatively advanced period of the Church’s history, as is manifest from a study of the Epistle which he wrote to the Jewish Christians of the Dispersion. He there rebukes shortcomings and faults, respect for the rich and contempt of the poor, oppression and outrage and irreverence, which could never have found place in that first burst of love and devotion to God which the age of our Herodian martyr witnessed, but must have been the outcome of long years of worldly prosperity and ease. James the Just, the stern censor of Christian morals and customs, whose language indeed in its severity has at times caused one-sided and narrow Christians much trouble, must often have looked back with regret and longing to the purer days of charity and devotion when James the brother of John perished by the sword of Herod.

Again, we notice about this martyred apostle that, though there is very little told us concerning his life and actions, he must have been a very remarkable man. He was clearly remarkable for his Christian privileges. He was one of the apostles specially favoured by our Lord. He was admitted by Him into the closest spiritual converse. Thus we find that, with Peter and John, James the Apostle was one of the three selected by our Lord to behold the first manifestation of His power over the realms of the dead when He restored the daughter of Jairus to life; with the same two, Peter and John, he was privileged to behold our Saviour receive the first foretaste of His heavenly glory upon the Mount of Transfiguration; and with them too he was permitted to behold his great Master drink the first draught of the cup of agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. James the Apostle had thus the first necessary qualification for an eminent worker in the Lord’s vineyard. He had been admitted into Christ’s most intimate friendship, he knew much of his Lord’s will and mind. And the privileges thus conferred upon St. James had not been

misused or neglected. He did not hide his talent in the dust of idleness, nor wrap it round with the mantle of sloth. He utilised his advantages. He became a foremost, if not indeed the foremost worker for his loved Lord in the Church of Jerusalem, as is intimated by the opening words of this passage, which tells us that when Herod wished to harass and vex the Church he selected James the brother of John as his victim; and we may be sure that with the keen instinct of a persecutor, Herod selected not the least prominent and useful, but the most devoted and energetic champion of Christ to satisfy his cruel purpose. And yet, though James was thus privileged and thus faithful and thus honoured by God, his active career is shrouded thick round with clouds and darkness. We know nothing of the good works and brave deeds and powerful sermons he devoted to his Master’s cause. We are told simply of the death by which he glorified God. All else is hidden with God till that day when the secret thoughts and deeds of every man shall be revealed. This incident in early apostolic Church history is a very typical one, and teaches many a lesson very necessary for these times and for all times. If an apostle so privileged and so faithful was content to do work, and then to pass away without a single line of memorial, a single word to keep his name or his labours fresh among men, how much more may we, petty, faithless, trifling as we are, be contented to do our duty, and to pass away without any public recognition! And yet how we all do crave after such recognition! How intensely we long for human praise and approval! How useless we esteem our labours unless they are followed by it! How inclined we are to make the fallible judgment of man the standard by which we measure our actions, instead of having the mind’s eye ever steadily fixed, as James the brother of John had, on His approval alone who now seeing our secret trials, struggles, efforts, will one day reward His faithful followers openly!

This is one great lesson which this typical passage by its silence as well as by its speech clearly teaches the Church of every age.

Again, this martyrdom of St. James proclaims yet another lesson. God hereby warns the Church against the idolatry of human agents, against vain trust in human support. Let us consider the circumstances of the Church at that time. The Church had just passed through a season of violent persecution, and had lost one of its bravest and foremost soldiers in the person of Stephen, the martyred deacon. And now there was impending over the Church what is often more trying far than a time, short, and sharp, of violence and blood, -a period of temporal distress and suffering, trying the principles and testing the endurance of the weaker brethren in a thousand petty trifles. It was a time when the courage, the wisdom, the experience of the tried and trusted leaders would be specially required, to guide the Church amid the many new problems which day by day were cropping up. And yet it was just then, at such a crisis, that the Lord permits the bloody sword of Herod to be stretched forth and removes one of the very chiefest champions of the Christian host just when his presence seemed most necessary. It must have appeared a dark and trying dispensation to the Church of that day; but though attended doubtless with some present drawbacks and apparent disadvantages, it was well and wisely done to warn the Church of every age against mere human dependence, mere temporal refuges; teaching by a typical example that it is not by human might or earthly wisdom, not by the eloquence of man or the devices of earth that Christ’s Church and the people must be saved; that it is by His own right hand, and by His own holy arm alone our God will get Himself the victory.

Yet again we may learn from this incident another lesson rich-laden with comfort and instruction. This martyrdom of St. James throws us back upon a circumstance which occurred during our Lord’s last journey to Jerusalem before His crucifixion, and interprets it for us. Let us recall it. Our Lord was going up to Jerusalem, and His

disciples were following Him with wondering awe. The shadow of the Cross, projecting itself forward, made itself unconsciously felt throughout the little company, and men were astonished, though they knew not why. They simply felt as men do on a close sultry summer’s day when a thunderstorm is overhead, that something awful was impending. They had, however, a vague feeling that the kingdom of God would shortly appear, and so the mother of Zebedee’s children, with all that boldness which affection lends to feminine minds, drew near and strove to secure a boon before all others for her own children. She prayed that to her two sons might be granted the posts of honour in the temporal kingdom she thought of as now drawing so very near. The Lord replied to her request in very deep and far-reaching language, the meaning of which she then understood not, but learned afterwards through the discipline of pain and sorrow and death: "Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?" And then, when James and John had professed their ability, he predicts their future fate: "My cup indeed ye shall drink." The mother and the sons alike spoke bold words, and offered a sincere but an ignorant prayer. Little indeed did the mother dream as she presented her petition-"Command that these my two sons may sit, one on Thy right hand, and one on Thy left hand in Thy kingdom"-how that prayer would be answered, and yet answered it was. To the one son, James, was granted the one post of honour. He was made to sit on the Master’s right hand, for he was the first of the apostles called to enter into Paradise through a baptism of blood. While to the other son, St. John, was granted the other post of honour, for he was left the longest upon earth to guide, direct, and sustain the Church by his inspired wisdom, large experience, and apostolic authority. The contrast between the prayer offered up to Christ in ignorance and shortsightedness, and the manner in which the same prayer was answered in richest abundance, suggests to us the comforting reflection that no prayer offered up in sincerity and truth is ever really left unanswered. We may indeed never see how the prayer is answered. The mother of St. James may little have dreamt, as she beheld her son’s lifeless body brought home to her, that this trying dispensation was a real answer to her ambitious petition. But we can now see that it was so, and can thus learn a lesson of genuine confidence, of holy boldness, of strong faith in the power of sincere and loving communion with God. Let us only take care to cultivate the same spirit of genuine humility and profound submission which possessed the soul of those primitive Christians, enabling them to say, no matter how their petitions were answered, whether in joy or sorrow, in smiles or tears, in riches or poverty, "Not my will, but Thine, O Lord, be done."

II. We have again in this twelfth chapter the record of a Divine deliverance. Herod, seeing that the Jewish authorities were pleased because they had now a sympathetic ruler who understood their religious troubles and was resolved to help in quelling them, determined to proceed farther in the work of repression. He arrested another prominent leader, St. Peter, and cast him into prison. The details are given to us of Herod’s action and Peter’s arrest. Peter was now making his first acquaintance with Roman methods of punishment. He had been indeed previously arrested and imprisoned, but his arrest had been carried out by the Jewish authorities, and he had been consigned to the care of the Temple police, and had occupied the Temple prison. But Herod, though a strict Jew in religion, had been thoroughly Romanised in matters of rule and government, and therefore he treated St. Peter after the Roman fashion: "When he had taken him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quarternions of soldiers to guard him; intending after the Passover to bring him forth to the people." He was delivered to sixteen men, who divided the night into four watches, four men watching at a time, after the Roman method of discipline. And then, in contrast to all this preparation, we are

told how the Church betook herself to her sure refuge and strong tower of defence: "Peter therefore was kept in prison; but prayer was made earnestly of the Church unto God for him." These early Christians had not had their faith limited or weakened by discussions whether petitions for temporal blessings were a proper subject of prayer, or whether spiritual blessings did not alone supply true matter for supplication before the Divine throne. They were in the first fervour of Christian love, and they did not theorise, define, or debate about prayer and its efficacy. They only knew that their Master had told them to pray, and had promised to answer sincere prayer, as He alone knew how; and so they gathered themselves in instant, ceaseless prayer at the foot of the throne of grace. I say "ceaseless" prayer because it seems that the Jerusalem Church, feeling its danger, organised a continuous service of prayer. "Prayer was made earnestly of the Church unto God for him" is the statement of the fifth verse, and then when St. Peter was released "he came to the house of Mary, where many were gathered together and were praying," though the night must have been far advanced. The crisis was a terrible one; the foremost champion, St. James, had been taken, and now another great leader was threatened, and therefore the Church flung herself at the feet of the Master seeking deliverance, and was not disappointed, as the Church has never since been disappointed when she has cast herself in lowliness and profound submission before the same holy sanctuary. The narrative then proceeds to give us the particulars of St. Peter’s deliverance, as St. Peter himself seems to have told it to St. Luke, for we have details given us which could only have come either directly or indirectly from the person most immediately concerned. But of these we shall treat in a little. The story now introduces the supernatural, and for the believer this is quite in keeping with the facts of the case. A great crisis in the history of the Jerusalem Church has arrived. The mother Church of all Christendom, the fountain and source of original Christianity, is threatened with extinction. The life of the greatest existing leader of that Church is at stake, and that before his work is done. The very existence of the Christian revelation seems imperilled, and God sends forth an angel, a heavenly messenger, to rescue His endangered servant, and to prove to unbelieving Jew, to the haughty Herod, and to the frightened but praying disciples alike the care which He ever exercises over His Church and people. Here, however, a question may be raised. How was it that an angel, a supernatural messenger, was despatched to the special rescue of St. Peter? Why was not the same assistance vouchsafed to St. James, who had just been put to death? Why was not the same assistance vouchsafed to St. Peter himself when he was martyred at Rome, or to St. Paul when he lay in the dungeon in the same city of Rome or at Caesarea? Simply, we reply, because God’s hour was not yet come and the Apostle’s work was not yet done. St. James’s work was done, and therefore the Lord did not immediately interfere, or rather He summoned His servant to His assigned post of honour by the ministry of Herod. The wrath of man became the instrument whereby the praises of God were chanted and the soul of the righteous conveyed to its appointed place. The Lord did not interfere when St. Paul was cast into the prison house at Caesarea, or St. Peter incarcerated in the Roman dungeon, because they had then a great work to do in showing how His servants can suffer as well as work. But now St. Peter had many a long year of active labour before him and much work to do as the Apostle of the Circumcision in preventing that schism with which the diverse parties and opposing ideas of Jew and Gentile threatened the infant Church, in smoothing over and reconciling the manifold oppositions, jealousies, difficulties, misunderstandings, which ever attend such a season of transition and transformation as now was fast dawning upon the Divine society. The arrest of St. Peter and his threatened death was a great crisis in the history of the primitive Church. St. Peter’s life was very precious to the existence of that Church, it was very precious for the welfare of mankind at large, and so it was a fitting time for God to raise up a banner

against triumphant pride and worldly force by the hand of a supernatural messenger.

The steps by which St. Peter was delivered are all of them full of edification and comfort. Let us mark them. "When Herod was about to bring him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and guards before the door kept the prison." It was on that fateful night the same as when the angels descended on the Resurrection morning; the guards were in their rightful place and discharging their accustomed duties, but when God intervenes then human precautions are all useless. The words of the narrative are striking in their quiet dignity. There is no working up of details. There is no pandering to mere human curiosity. Everything is in keeping with the sustained force, sublimity, elevation which we ever behold in the Divine action. Peter was. sleeping between two soldiers; one chained to each arm, so that he could not move without awaking them. He was sleeping profoundly and calmly, because he felt himself in the hands of an Almighty Father who will order everything for the best. The interior rest amid the greatest trials which an assured confidence like that enjoyed by St. Peter can confer is something marvellous, and has not been confined to apostolic times. Our Lord’s servants have in every age proved the same wondrous power. I know of course that criminals are often said to enjoy a. profound sleep the night before their execution. But then habitual criminals and hardened murderers have their spiritual natures so completely overmastered and dominated by their lower material powers that they realise nothing beyond. the present. They are little better than the beasts which perish, and think as little of the future as they do. But persons with highly strung nervous powers, who realise the awful change impending over them, cannot be as they, specially if they have no such sure hope as that which sustained St. Peter. He slept calmly here as Paul and Silas rejoiced in the Philippian prison house, as the Master Himself slept calmly in the stern of the wave-rocked boat on the Galilean lake, because he knew himself to be reposing in the arms of Everlasting Love, and this knowledge bestowed upon him a sweet and calm repose at the moment of supreme danger of which the fevered children of time know nothing.

And now all the circumstances of the celestial visit are found to be most suitable and becoming. The angel stood by Peter. A light shined in the cell, because light is the very element in which these heavenly beings spend their existence. The chains which bind St. Peter fell off without any effort human or angelic, just as in a few moments the great gate of the prison opened of its own accord, because all these things, bonds and bolts and bars, derive all their coercive power from the will of God, and when that will changes or is withdrawn they cease to be operative, or become the instruments of the very opposite purpose, assisting and not hindering His servants. Then the angel’s actions and directions are characteristic in their dignified vigour. He told the awakened sleeper to act promptly: "He smote him on the side, and awoke him, saying, Rise up quickly." But there is no undue haste. As on the Resurrection morning the napkin that was upon Christ’s head was found not lying with the rest of the grave-cloths, but rolled up in a place by itself, so too on this occasion the angel shows minute care for Peter’s personal appearance. There must be nothing undignified, careless, untidy even, about the dress of the rescued apostle: "Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals." St. Peter had naturally laid aside his external garments, had unloosed his inner robes, and taken off his sandals when preparing for sleep. Nothing, however, escapes the heavenly messenger, and so he says, "Cast thy garment about thee, and follow Me," referring to the loose upper robe or overcoat which the Jews wore over their underclothes; and then the angel led him forth, teaching the Church the perpetual lesson that external dignity of appearance is evermore becoming to God’s people, when not even an angel considered these things beneath his notice amid all the excitement of a midnight rescue, nor did the inspired writer omit to

record such apparently petty details. Nothing about St. Peter was too trivial for the angel’s notice and direction, as again nothing in life is too trivial for the sanctifying and elevating care of our holy religion. Dress, food, education, marriage, amusements, all of life’s work and of life’s interests, are the subject matter whereon the principles inculcated by Jesus Christ and taught by the ministry of His Church are to find their due scope and exercise.

Peter’s deliverance was now complete. The angel conducted him through one street to assure him that he was really free and secure him from bewilderment, and then departed. The Apostle thereupon sought out the well-known centre of Christian worship, "the house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark," where stood the upper chamber, honoured as no other chamber had ever been. There he made known his escape, and then retired to some secret place where Herod could not find him, remaining there concealed till Herod was dead and direct Roman law and authority were once more in operation at Jerusalem. There are two or three details in this narrative that are deserving of special notice, as showing that St. Luke received the story most probably from St. Peter himself. These touches are expressions of St. Peter’s inner thoughts, which could have been known only to St. Peter, and must have been derived from him. Thus we are told about his state of mind when the angel appeared: "He wist not that it was true which was done by the angel, but thought he saw a vision." Again, after his deliverance, we are told of the thoughts which passed through his mind, the words which rose to his lips when he found himself once again a free man: "When Peter was come to himself he said, Now I know of a truth that the Lord hath sent forth His angel, and delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews." While, again, how true to life and to the female nature is the incident of the damsel Rhoda! She came across the courtyard to hearken and see who was knocking at the outer gate at that late hour: "When. she knew Peter’s voice, she opened not the gate for joy, but ran in and told that Peter stood before the gate." We behold the impulsiveness of the maid. She quite forgot the Apostle’s knocking at the gate in her eager desire to convey the news to his friends. And, again, how true to nature their scepticism! They were gathered praying for Peter’s release, but so little did they expect an answer to their prayers that, when the answer does come, and in the precise way that they were asking for it, and longing for it, they are astonished, and tell the maid-servant who bore the tidings, "Thou art mad." We pray as the primitive Church did, and that constantly; but is it not with us as with them? We pray indeed, but we do not expect our prayers to be answered, and therefore we do not profit by them as we might.

Such were the circumstances of St. Peter’s deliverance, which was a critical one for the Church. It struck a blow at Herod’s new policy of persecution unto death; it may have induced him to depart from Jerusalem and descend to Caesarea, where he met his end, leaving the Church at Jerusalem in peace; and the deliverance must have thrown a certain marvellous halo round St. Peter when he appeared again at Jerusalem, enabling him to occupy a more prominent position without any fear for his life.

III. We have also recorded in this chapter a notable defeat of pride, ostentation, and earthly power. The circumstances are well known. Herod, vexed perhaps by his disappointment in the matter of Peter, went down to Caesarea, which his grandfather had magnificently adorned. But he had other reasons too. He had a quarrel with the men of Tyre and Sidon, and he would take effective measures against them. Tyre and Sidon were great seaports and commercial towns, but their country did not produce food sufficient for the maintenance of its inhabitants, just as England, the emporium of the world’s commerce, is obliged to depend for its food supplies upon other and distant lands. The men of Tyre and Sidon were not, however, unacquainted with the ways of

Eastern courts. They bribed the king’s chamberlain, and Herod was appeased. There was another motive which led Herod to Caesarea. It was connected with his Roman experience and with his courtier-life. The Emperor Claudius Caesar was his friend and patron. To him Herod owed his restoration to the rich dominions of his grandfather. That emperor had gone in the previous year, A.D. 43, to conquer Britain. He spent six months in our northern regions in Gaul and Britain, and. then, when smitten by the cold blasts of midwinter, he fled to the south again, as so many of our own people do now. He arrived in Rome in the January of the year 44, and immediately ordered public games to be celebrated in honour of his safe return, assuming as a special name the title Britannicus. These public shows were imitated everywhere throughout the empire as soon as the news of the Roman celebrations arrived. The tidings would take two or three months to arrive at Palestine, and the Passover may have passed before Herod heard of his patron’s doings. Jewish scruples would not allow him to celebrate games after the Roman fashion at Jerusalem, and for this purpose therefore he descended to the Romanised city of Caesarea, where all the appliances necessary for that purpose were kept in readiness. There is thus a link which binds together the history of our own nation and this interesting incident in early Christian history. The games were duly celebrated, but they were destined to be Herod’s last act. On an appointed day he sat in the theatre of Caesarea to receive the ambassadors from Tyre and Sidon. He presented himself early in the morning to the sight of the multitude, clad in a robe of silver which flashed in the light, reflecting back the rays of the early sun and dazzling the mixed multitude-supple, crafty Syrians, paganised Samaritans, self-seeking and worldly-wise Phoenicians. He made a speech in response to the address of the envoys, and then the flattering shout arose, "The voice of a god, and not of a man." Whereupon the messenger of God smote Herod with that terrible form of disease which accompanies unbounded self-indulgence and luxury, and the proud tyrant learned what a plaything of time, what a mere creature of a day is a king as much as a beggar, as shown by the narrative preserved by Josephus of this event. He tells us that, when seized by the mortal disease, Herod looked upon his friends, and said, "I, whom you call a god, am commanded presently to depart this life; while Providence thus reproves the lying words you just now said to me; and I, who was by you called immortal, am immediately to be hurried away by death." What a striking picture of life’s changes and chances, and of the poetic retributions we at times behold in the course of God’s Providence! One short chapter of the Acts shows us Herod triumphant side by side with Herod laid low, Herod smiting apostles with the sword side by side with Herod himself smitten to death by the Divine sword. A month’s time may have covered all the incidents narrated in this chapter. But short as the period was, it must have been rich in support and consolation to the apostles Saul and Barnabas, who were doubtless deeply interested spectators of the rapidly shifting scene, telling them clearly of the heavenly watch exercised over the Church. They had come up from Antioch, bringing alms to render aid to their afflicted brethren in Christ. The famine, as we have just now seen from the anxiety of the men of Tyre and Sidon to be on friendly terms with Herod, was rapidly making itself felt throughout Palestine and the adjacent lands, and So the deputies of the Antiochene Church hurried up to Jerusalem with the much-needed gifts. It may indeed be said, how could St. Paul hope to escape at such a time? Would it not have been madness for him to risk his safety in a city where he had once been so well known? But, then, we must remember that it was at the Passover season Saul and Barnabas went from Antioch to Jerusalem. Vast crowds then entered the Holy City, and a solitary Jew or two from Antioch might easily escape notice among the myriads which then assembled from all quarters. St. Paul enjoyed too a wonderful measure of the Spirit’s guidance, and that Spirit told him that he had yet much work to do for God. The Apostle had wondrous prudence joined with wondrous courage, and we

may be sure that he took wisest precautions to escape the sword of Herod which would have so eagerly drunk his blood. He remained in Jerusalem all the time of the Passover. His clear vision of the spiritual world must then have been most precious and most sustaining. All the apostles were doubtless scattered; James was dead, and Peter doomed to death. The temporal troubles, famine and poverty, which called Saul and Barnabas to Jerusalem, brought with them corresponding spiritual blessings, as we still so often find, and the brave words of the chosen vessel, the Vas Electionis, aided by the sweet gifts of the Son of Consolation, may have been very precious and very helpful to those devout souls in the Jerusalem Church who gathered themselves for continuous prayer in the house of Mary the mother of John, teaching them the true character, the profound views, the genuine religion of one whose earlier life had been so very different and whose later views may have been somewhat suspected. Saul and Barnabas arrived in Jerusalem at a terrible crisis, they saw the crisis safely passed, and then they returned to an atmosphere freer and broader than that of Jerusalem, and there in the exercise of a devoted ministry awaited the further manifestation of the Divine purposes.

BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, "Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the Church.

Herod the king

The previous life of this prince had been full of strange vicissitudes. The son of Aristobulus and Bernice, grandson of Herod the Great, brother of the Herodias who appears in the gospel history, named after the statesman who was the chief minister of Augustus, he had been sent, after his father had fallen a victim (B.C. 6) to his grandfather’s suspicions, to Rome, partly perhaps as a hostage, partly to be out of the way of Palestine intrigues. There he had grown up on terms of intimacy with the prince afterwards known as Caligula. On the marriage of Herod Antipas with his sister, he was made the ruler of Tiberias, but soon quarrelled with the tetrarch, and went to Rome, and, falling under the displeasure of Tiberius, as having rashly given utterance to a wish for the succession of Caligula, was imprisoned by him, and remained in confinement till the death of that emperor. When Caligula came to the throne he loaded his friend with honours, gave him the tetrarchies first of Philip, and then that of Lysanias (Luk_3:1), and conferred on him the title of king. Antipas, prompted by Herodias, came to Rome to claim a like honour for himself, but fell under the emperor’s displeasure, and was banished to Lugdunum in Gaul, whither his wife accompanied him. His tetrarchy also was conferred on Agrippa. Coins are extant, minted at Caesarea, and bearing inscriptions in which he is styled the Great King, with the epithets sometimes of Philo-Caesar, sometimes of Philo-Claudios. At the time when Caligula’s insanity took the form of a resolve to place his statue in the temple at Jerusalem, Agrippa rendered an essential service to his people, by using all his influence to deter the emperor from carrying his purpose into execution, and, backed as he was by Petronius, the Governor of Syria, was at last successful. On the death of Caligula, Claudius, whose claims to the empire he had supported, confirmed him in his kingdom. When he came to Judaea, he presented himself to the people in the character of a devout worshipper, and gained their favour by attaching himself to the companies of Nazarites (as we find St. Paul doing in Act_21:26) when they came to the temple to offer sacrifices on the completion of their vows. It would seem that he found a strong popular excitement against the believers in Christ, caused probably by the new step which had recently been taken in the admission of the Gentiles, and fomented by the Sadducean priesthood, and it seemed to him politic to gain the favour of both priests and people, by making himself the instrument of their

jealousy. (Dean Plumptre.)

James, Herod, and Peter

How strangely our prayers are sometimes answered! James and John had prayed that they might sit, the one on the right and the other on the left of the Lord when He came to His kingdom. And now the cup and the baptism came to James in the form of a terrible and disgraceful martyrdom. May I covet the best gift, not the most conspicuous position. May I keep in remembrance that they at the front fall first. But may I not shrink from the front if it be the will of the Lord to assign me that position. “Peter was kept in prison.” Kept in prison! All work suspended, and apparently all usefulness at an end. Peter, the most active of them. What does the Lord mean? This question comes up so often in Christian experience. To suffer James to be killed and Peter to be imprisoned would not be our way of propagating the Church. Now, I pray that I may never be scared for the cause of Christ. For my personal comfort let me learn from Peter’s case that the Lord may not always keep me out of the hands of the enemy, but He will keep those hands from destroying me. I may see the two soldiers to whom I am chained, blot not the ones that in secret are pouring out prayers for me. Oh, the unknown helpers! The unseen forces of the universe are stronger than the visible agencies. (C. F. Deems, LL. D.)

The martyrdom of James

One might have expected more than a clause to be spared to tell the death of a chief man, and the first martyr amongst the apostles. I think the lessons of the fact, and of the slight way in which the writer of this book refers to it, may perhaps be most pointedly brought out if we take four contrasts—James and Stephen, James and Peter, James and John, James and James. Now, if we take these four I think we shall learn something.

I. First, then, James and Stephen. Look at the different scale on which the incidents of the deaths of these two are told; the martyrdom of the one is beaten out over chapters, the martyrdom of the other is crammed into a corner of a sentence. And yet, of the two men, the one who is the less noticed filled the larger place officially, and the other was only a simple deacon and preacher of the Word. The fact that Stephen was the first Christian to follow his Lord in martyrdom is not sufficient to account for the extraordinary difference. The Bible cares so little about the people whom it names because its true theme is the works of God, and not of man; and the reason why the “Acts of the Apostles” kills off one of the first three apostles in this fashion is simply that, as the writer tells us, his theme is “all that Jesus” continued “to do and to teach” after He was taken up. Since it is Christ who is the true actor, it matters uncommonly little what becomes of James or of the other ten. What is the reason why so disproportionate a space of the gospel is concerned with the last two days of our Lord’s life on earth? What is the reason why years are leaped over in silence and moments are spread out in detail, but that the death of a man is only a death, but the death of the Christ is the life of the world? James sleeps none the less sweetly in his grave, or, rather, wakes none the less triumphantly in heaven because his life and death are both so scantily narrated. If we “self-infold the large results” of faithful service, we need not trouble ourselves about its record on earth. But another lesson which may be learned from this cursory notice of the apostle’s martyrdom is—how small a thing death really is! Looked at from beside the Lord of life and death, which is the point of view of the author of this narrative, “great death” dwindles to a very little thing. We need to revise our notions if we would

understand how trivial it really is. From a mountain top the country below seems level plain, and what looked like an impassable precipice has dwindled to be indistinguishable. The triviality of death, to those who look upon it from the heights of eternity, is well represented by these brief words which tell of the first breach thereby in the circle of the apostles.

II. There is another contrast, James and Peter. Now this chapter tells of two things: one, the death of one of that pair of friends; the other, the miracle that was wrought for the deliverance of the other from death. Why should James be slain, and Peter miraculously delivered? A question easily asked; a question not to be answered by us. We may say that the one was more useful for the development of the Church than the other. But we have all seen lives that, to our poor vision, seemed to be all but indispensable, ruthlessly swept away, and lives that seemed to be, and were, perfectly profitless, prolonged to extreme old age. We may say that maturity of character, development of Christian graces, made the man ready for glory. But we have all seen men struck down when anything but ready. Only we may be sure of this, that James was as dear to Christ as Peter was, and that there was no greater love shown in sending the angel that delivered the one from the “expectation of Herod” and the people of the Jews, than was shown in sending the angel that stood behind the headsman and directed the stroke of the fatal sword on the neck of the other. James escaped from Herod when Herod slew him, and could not make him unfaithful to his Master, and his deliverance was not less complete than the deliverance of his friend. But let us remember, too, that if thus, to two equally beloved, there be dealt out these two different fates, it must be because that evil, which, as I said, is not so big as it looks, is not so bitter as it tastes either; and there is no real evil, for the loving heart, in the stroke that breaks its bands and knits it to Jesus Christ. The contrast of James and Peter may teach us the equal love that presides over the life of the living and the death of the dying.

III. Another contrast is that of James and John. The close union and subsequent separation by this martyrdom of that pair of brothers is striking and pathetic. By death they were separated so far: the one the first of all the apostles to “become a prey to Satan’s rage,” the other “lingering out his fellows all,” and “dying in bloodless age,” living to be a hundred years old and more, and looking back through all the long parting to the brother who had joined with him in the wish that even Messiah’s kingdom should not part them, and yet had been parted so soon and parted so long. Ah! may we not learn the lesson that we should recognise the mercy and wisdom of the ministry of death the separator, and should tread with patience the lonely road, do calmly the day’s work, and tarry till He comes, though those that stood beside us be gone.

IV. Lastly, James and James. In his hot youth, when he deserved the name of a son of thunder—so energetic, boisterous I suppose, destructive perhaps, he was—he and his brother, and their foolish mother, whose name is kindly not told us, go to Christ and say, “Grant that we may sit, the one on Thy right hand and the other on Thy left, in Thy kingdom.” That was what he wished and hoped for, and what he got was years of service, and a taste of persecution, and finally the swish of the headsman’s sword. Yes! And so our dreams get disappointed, and their disappointment is often the road to their fulfilment, for Jesus Christ was answering the prayer, “Grant that we may sit on Thy right hand in Thy kingdom,” when He called him to Himself, by the brief and bloody passage of martyrdom. So let us leave for ourselves, and for all dear ones, that question of living or dying to Him. Only let us be sure that whether our lives be long like John’s, or short like James’s, “living or dying we are the Lord’s.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Herod vexes the Church

1. The scene changes. After intimating that the door was open among the Greeks, the historian shows us that it was shut among the Jews. By His apostles as well as in His own Person Christ came to His own, and His own received Him not.

2. The king who appears here was mild in his natural temper, but fond of popularity. The persecution was not of his own motion, but to please the Jews, as was the case with Pilate.

3. Keeping Judas out of view—this is the first breach in the apostolic circle. The Church had learned to walk by faith, and even the fall of an apostle will not crush them now. In the case of James, the Lord shows that He will not always interfere to protect His servants, and in the case of Peter that He will sometimes, lest the spirit should fail before Him. This first apostolic martyrdom marks a law of the kingdom, and illustrates the Master’s word, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Not an inch of territory will Christ maintain for Himself by the sword.

4. Observing that no Divine power was put forth, either to protect James or to avenge him, and finding that one murder procured him favour, Herod determined to perpetrate another. Peter was imprisoned, but the remainder of the king’s wrath it pleased God in this instance to restrain. “Peter was kept in prison, but prayer was made,” etc.

a remarkable antithesis. Man proposes, but God disposes; and the prayer of faith reaches the Disposer’s hand. James was suddenly seized and taken off, but there was time to pray for Peter. God opened the door of opportunity through Herod’s desire to keep all quiet till after the passover; the Church eagerly entered that door.

5. Peter meanwhile was sleeping, and his sleep brought as much glory to God as his wakefulness, although he had sung psalms till the rafters rang again. He slept in Gethsemane through weakness of the flesh: he sleeps here through the strength of his faith. How sweet to lie down every night ready, if the Lord will, to awake in heaven! (W. Arnot, D. D.)

Herod and Peter

I. Herod’s persecution.

1. “Now about that time”—we know that troubles never come alone. A time of famine was prophesied (Act_11:28). Famine might kill slowly; Herod would find a quicker way! How well it would have been when Herod “stretched forth his hand” to have kept it there! Such would be our way. God’s thought has a wider compass, and He needs more time for the exemplification of His purpose.

2. “He killed James the brother of John with the sword.” This was not a Jewish method of killing people. But what is crime if it cannot be inventive? What if a king cannot take a short cut to the consummation of his purpose? Beheading is quicker than stoning! The wicked cannot wait. They need no further condemnation. Justice can wait. “Though hand join in hand the wicked cannot go unpunished.”

3. Having performed this trick of cruelty, Herod proceeded further. That is the natural history of wickedness! It gathers momentum as it goes. You cannot stop with

one murder. You acquire the bad skill, and your fingers become nimble in the use of cruel weapons. Murder does not look so ghastly when you have done it once. How many people have you murdered? Murder is heartbreaking; life-blighting; hope-destroying! “He proceeded further.” The one glass needs another to keep it company. Crimes do not like solitude; and so one crime leads to another. If you calf do one sin, the whole life is lost. We are not thieves because of a thousand thefts; we are not liars because of a thousand lies; we find our criminality in the opening sin. Therefore, what I say unto one, I say unto all, “Watch”!

4. “Because he saw it pleased the Jews.” There are those who like to see you play the fool and the criminal, but what will they do for you in the critical hour? All the while Herod thought he was king; in reality he was a slave. Sometimes the judge has been the prisoner. Sometimes the conqueror has been the loser. Herod lived upon the popular pleasure. Therein he tarnished his crown, and sold his kingdom, and lost his soul!

II. Peter’s deliverance. In verse 5 there is a pitched battle. Read it: “Peter therefore was kept in prison:” there is one side of the fight; after the colon—“but prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God for him.” Now for the shock of arms! Who wins? Prayer always wins. You can only be of a contrary opinion when you take in too little field. There is no action of any importance that is bounded by a single day. Such prayer as this is irrepressible. The prayers you could keep down if you liked will never be answered. This prayer was answered by a miracle, in which observe—

1. Last extremities (verse 6). Have we not been in that very same darkness, when we were to be injured, or impoverished, not seven years from date, but the next day? Have we not taken up the pieces of the one loaf and said, “This is all”? So far, then, you have no difficulty about the miracle.

2. Appearances dead against us. Thus—two soldiers, two chains, and the keepers keeping the door before the prison! These were compliments to Peter! The devil cannot avoid paying us compliments all the time he is trying to destroy us. Why all this arrangement about a man like Peter? Why all these temptations addressed to a man like one of us? It is a reluctant but significant tribute to the character whose destruction is contemplated. Have not appearances been dead against us? No letters, no friends, no answer to the last appeal, no more energy, no more hope, the last staff snapped in two. So far the miracle is true.

3. Unexpected deliverers. Have we no experience here? Is it not always the unexpected man who delivers and cheers us? “But a certain Samaritan came where he was,” that is the whole history of human deliverance in one graphic sentence. “Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity.” “It is always darkest before the dawn.” All our life properly read is a chain of unexpectedness. Deliverance shall arise from an unthought of quarter!

4. Spiritual transport (verse 11). Have we not sometimes taken down our harp from the willows and struck it to some new tone of joy and gladness and hope? Peter did not understand this miracle at first. He thought he saw a vision. “And when Peter was come to himself he said”—that is the point we must wait for. We are not “ourselves” just now. Our eyes are dazed by cross lights, and we cannot see things in their right proportion, distance, and colour. Do not let us imagine that we are now speaking final words or giving final judgments. Innumerable visions float before my wondering eyes. The righteous are trodden down; the bad man has a plentiful table. The little child is torn from its mother’s arms. What is it? When we are come to

ourselves we shall know and praise the Lord, whose angels have been our ministering servants! (J. Parker, D. D.)

Herod and Peter

I. The value of small accuracies in the expressions of the inspired history. Paley places the first verse among his evidences of Christianity, because Herod is called “the king.” For he declares that there was never a period, for more than thirty years previously, nor was there ever subsequently at Jerusalem one who wielded such authority as entitled him to the name of monarch. No one except this Herod, and he only during the last three years of his life, could have been properly called “the king.”

II. How little the New Testament makes of the martyrdom of even the best of men. Only two words in the Greek describe James’s execution: “killed—sword.” The Bible does not dwell upon the deaths of Christians so much as upon their lives. Whitefield used to remark, “You will have no dying testimony from me, you must take my living witness for my blessed Lord.”

III. That there is a limit set to the wickedness of the wickedest of opposers (verse 3). Herod was a time server and a trimmer. His political motto is found in “It pleased the Jews.” He thought he had made a hit when he slew John’s brother. But even in that crime he only helped to fulfil a prophecy of Christ (Mar_10:39). So Herod “proceeded further”; but all he was suffered to do was “to take Peter.” There he had to pause before a higher power. The all-wise God permits sin to move on for a while, but He may be trusted to interpose when the time for restraining wrath arrives (Psa_76:10).

IV. That prayer is the welcome instrument of communication between separated friends (verse 5). A friend when I was abroad sent me a letter with a triangle in it. At the top of it he wrote “the mercy seat”; and drew for the base a rough wavy mark, which he meant for the ocean; then he wrote his initials at one angle and mine at the other. He felt that I knew that the shortest path to those we love is around via heaven, where our faithful High Priest is to receive our petitions.

V. That true religious trust is always tranquil and undismayed (verse 6). Peter must have understood that he was now in the power of a wild bad man. He could not expect to fare any better than did James. But evidently he was not in the least troubled. This old fisherman meant to have as easy a night of it as was possible with the poor accommodations. He took off his outer garments and sandals before he lay down, as was his habit anywhere. And now think of it: while Herod in the palace was uneasy, and the soldiers wide awake, and the outsiders getting ready for “no small stir” (vers18), and the disciples holding an agitated prayer meeting, and an angel on the errand of relief, so that it seems to us as if the whole exterior world was disturbed, Peter went quietly into a sweet good sleep as usual. We have no record of his experiences, but we conjecture he said over the old psalm (Psa_34:7).

VI. An affecting illustration of the unhurried exercise of God’s patient power (verse 8). The angel had nothing to fear there in the prison, and he knew Peter could take all of time and care he needed without danger. It was not necessary that he should dress in the dark; the messenger from heaven lit up the room for him, and calmed him with tranquil words of direction; and the apostle put on his shoes and his loose garment before he started. The chains had already been removed so cautiously that they made no clanking. There was no hurry nor confusion; when God takes care of a man, He takes good care. How calm God is in the heavens where He reigns; and how little He respected the

ingenuities of Herod (Psa_2:4). We have no wonder that Peter afterwards quoted Isaiah’s words with a fresh turn of interpretation after such an experience (1Pe_2:6). The only thing Herod could do the next morning was to kill his own soldiers; Peter was cut of his reach. Why are we so troubled? How calm is the service of such a Saviour as ours (Isa_40:22).

VII. If people are surprised by answers to prayer, it is because they do not “consider.” Peter’s conclusion (verse 11) is in edifying contrast with the petulant rebuke which Rhoda received from the Christians (verse 15). He had “considered the thing” (verse 12). That must be the reason why he was not “astonished” as they were (verse 16). Rhoda was not “mad,” only “glad.” A clearer mind was never known than Peter had, only he had now and then to “come to himself,” and get his bearings. The one grand conclusion is found well phrased in the remark of Christian in “Pilgrim’s Progress.” After some days of useless suffering, he suddenly exclaimed, “Why, I have all along had in my bosom a key called Promise, which is able to open any door in Doubting Castle!” What is the reason anyone now is afraid of the power of Giant Despair? (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)

A short-lived triumph

We have here a royal persecution in its beginning, progress, and end. We see it in its success, failure, and punishment. We have before us a whole career, in its pride and its humiliation, its triumph and its discomfiture, its short-lived arrogance and its frightful dismay. That is the aspect of the chapter towards them that are without. Its aspect towards the Church within shows what danger, anxiety, and death itself is to the Christian; enough to bring out great graces and to exercise faith and patience, but not enough to make a single true heart doubt where safety, strength, victory lie. Let us look—

I. On the dark side of this picture. There is a king stretching forth his hands to vex certain of the Church.

1. His first act of aggression was directed against an apostle. “He killed James the brother of John with the sword.” Such is the short record of the first and only apostolical martyrdom of which we have any record in Scripture. Far more was told of the martyrdom of the deacon Stephen. Such is the character of the Scriptures. One thing is dwelt upon and another briefly told. Simplicity, naturalness, undesignedness, absence of rhetorical trick and stage effect, this we notice throughout, and we think we can see it to be of God. Thus one of the chosen witnesses passed away early from his work to his reward. It was scarcely fifteen years, I suppose, since he had first heard that word which had changed him from a fisherman into a fisher of men. He had been one of the favoured few in various striking occurrences of the Saviour’s life and ministry. He had been one of two brothers, who, in days of ignorant zeal, had proposed to call fire from heaven upon a Samaritan village, and who, again, in days of a no less ignorant ambition, had asked to sit on His right hand and on His left hand in their Master’s glory. Boanerges, sons of thunder, He had named them, in days when the impetuosity of nature had not yet been checked by the influence of grace. But now this was past; past too the mighty transformation of Pentecost, and the devoted years of the ministry which that day had opened. To him, first of the brothers, is that prophecy fulfilled, “Ye shall drink indeed of My cup,” etc. And see how lightly the inspired record passes over that great transition. Not one word of the circumstances. No death bed scene, no dying testimony, save indeed that best of testimonies which the death itself afforded. He had given his life in one sense; now he gave it in another. Nothing is made of it. He

did his duty; and to him, as a matter of course, belonged the recompence of the reward.

2. The fate of the next destined victim is widely different. He too seems to be marked out for martyrdom. The appetite for blood is ever whetted by its indulgence. It was a crowded time in Jerusalem: strangers from all parts of the world flocked together to the festival; and the spectacle of an apostle’s execution was to be their pastime in the intervals of religious duty. Such is religion when it is once possessed and saturated with bigotry, fanaticism, and party zeal! All seemed to promise well and surely for the persecutor and his people. Peter then was kept in the prison: by night and by day he is the one care of sixteen armed men. Surely nothing can elude such vigilance? So might man well judge. There is one, there is but one, impediment, which brings us to—

II. The bright side of the picture.

1. “But there was fervent prayer going on by the Church unto God concerning him.” Is there not great meaning in that little word “but”? The Church below was calling in a help, not of man, to counteract man’s design. Little would Herod or his friends account of that; but He who neither slumbers nor sleeps has Israel in His keeping, and let no man presume to say, apart from Him, what one day or one night may bring forth!

2. The last night is come, but not gone. Peter sleeps, while the Church prays: it is their time for action, it is his for repose. “In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength”; “Cast all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.” What if his martyrdom is to follow close upon that of James, and they who were so lately partners in a fisher’s calling, and have since been associated in a noble ministry, are to be speedily reunited in a blessedness not of this world—“lovely and pleasant in their lives, and even in their deaths not divided”?

3. “And, behold an angel of the Lord stood near,” etc., etc. God does nothing in vain: He begins where man must end, and ends where man can begin. Deliverance achieved, reflection follows. “He comes to himself,” and to the right conclusion.

4. And whither shall he now betake himself? He knows the deep anxiety with which the Church of which he is a pillar must have regarded his imprisonment; so he bends his steps first to one of the homes of the Church. His knock brings to the door a maiden of the household; not at once to open—for they were hard and evil times, and peril might lurk in the admittance of a stranger—but to hearken to the voice which should tell its errand and report upon it to those within. The voice which calls to her is one well known. She had heard it often, we doubt not, leading the devotions of that pious home: she knew it at once for Peter’s, and for very joy ran in before she opened. Her tidings were incredible. “They said, It is his angel”; one of those ministering spirits who have in their charge the heirs of salvation, and who, in the character of the angels of Christ’s “little ones, do always behold the face of His Father who is in heaven.” But no; there is no mistake here, and no apparition; the angel’s office is ended, and Peter himself, in flesh and blood, is seen, when they open, to stand before the gate. Silencing with a motion of the hand their eager and wondering exclamations, he tells his own story and bids them, while he departs elsewhere for security, to carry the report of his miraculous deliverance to James, the Lord’s brother, and to the brethren at the headquarters of the Church.

III. The narrative would be incomplete without a record of the end of the persecutor and

his instruments.

1. Just as when the faithful three were thrown into the furnace, “the flame of the fire slew those men” who acted as his executioners; even so the activity of Peter was fatal to the soldiers to whose charge he had been consigned. Disappointed rage must have its victim. If it cannot be an apostle, it must be an apostle’s keeper. But the retribution ends not there.

2. Herod himself goes down from Jerusalem to Caesarea. There was at this time a feud between him and the people of Tyre and Sidon. They were ill able to part with his friendship, and came to him therefore imploring reconciliation. This was the crowning point of Herod’s triumphs. With an ambition glutted with success, and a vanity inflated by flattery, he appeared gorgeously arrayed. Flattery ran on into impiety, and they all with one accord shouted, “It is the voice of a God and not of a man.” This cry was the signal of the Divine punishment. “Immediately an angel of the Lord smote him,” etc.

Conclusion:

1. The chapter before us is an epitome of all history. In it the world and the Church are arrayed on opposite sides, the hosts of God and of Satan being marshalled for the encounter. On the one side there is kingly power, on the other poverty and insignificance; but the one calculates without the Divine arm on which the other depends. For a time the one succeeds, in the end the other wins. Herod is eaten with worms, but the Word of God grows and multiplies.

2. The practical lesson is to learn the power and practise the grace of that effectual fervent prayer which availeth much. (Dean Vaughan.)

And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.—

James’ noble end, or “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints”

I. Before man—a melancholy death.

1. Bloody and cruel: the noble head of the apostle falls under the sword of the executioner.

2. Premature and sudden: he quits this earthly scene before effecting anything important in his apostolic calling.

3. Without glory and quiet: he departs uncelebrated by the world, unpraised even by the Word of God.

II. Before God—a noble end and a beautiful death.

1. He had fulfilled his vocation here below: not how long, but how we live, is the chief matter.

2. He dies in the service of His Lord and preaches as powerfully by his death, as his fellow disciples do by their word.

3. He hastens towards his heavenly destination, whilst he as the first among, the brethren receives the martyr’s crown, and is honoured by sitting where he desired at Christ’s right hand. (K. Gerok.)

The bleeding James and the rescued Peter

or, God leads His people—

I. By many paths.

1. James’ short hour and Peter’s long day of work.

2. James’ sad end and Peter’s glorious deliverance.

II. To one end.

1. Both promote the kingdom of God—James by his death and Peter by his life.

2. Both carry off the crown of life—James after a short contest, Peter after a long service. (K. Gerok.)

The martyrdom of St. James

As the apostle was led forth to the place of execution the person who had accused him was so touched with the courage and constancy which he displayed, that he repented of what he had done, came and fell down at his feet and earnestly begged pardon of what he had said against him. St. James tenderly raised him up, kissed him and said to him, “Peace be to thee, my son, and She pardon of all thy faults.” At this, his former accuser publicly professed himself a Christian, and so both were beheaded at the same time. (Clement of Alexandria.)

Early death

1. This is one of those incidents in sacred story which had we lived in the apostolic age would have moved our wonder if it did not shake our faith. The Church is yet in its infancy, and already a chief pillar is moved, leaving the edifice deprived of what was certainly one of its best supports and fairest ornaments—one, in fact, of its twelve precious foundations. What token was there here of Divine love watching over a Divine institution? How shall such a dispensation be reconciled with what we believe of the power, and wisdom, and mercy, and justice, and love, and truth, and faithfulness of God?

2. On the Festival of St. James, we never can do amiss if we refresh our memories by recalling the events of the apostle’s life. And this is soon done. Originally a disciple of the stern Baptist, and therefore a man of no common earnestness, James was brought to Christ by the report of his brother John—and therefore was the fourth to become a member of the apostolic band. Subsequently, we are shown his former call to apostleship. On him, with his brother, our Lord bestowed the title “son of thunder”; and (no unapt illustration of the name!) the two proposed to call down fire from heaven on the inhospitable Samaritans. But subsequently there is nothing characteristic recorded of St. James, with the single exception of his ambitious desire for a chief place in the kingdom of Messiah. He was indeed highly distinguished on other occasions—as when he was made a witness of the raising of Jairus’ daughter, and yet more of our Lord’s transfiguration. Again, he was with our Lord during His agony, and lastly, he was one of the four who heard His prophecy on the Mount of Olives. But of the characteristic events of his life none are recorded—save his call; the

token of a fiery spirit alluded to; his ambitious aspiration; and his death.

3. When we say something similar of other members of the apostolic body and rehearse the meagre chronicle of the recorded lives of the other apostles, we all secretly feel that their unrecorded history must have made full amends, by its fulness and variety, for the scantiness of the gospel record. Thomas in India; Matthew in Ethiopia; Andrew in Scythia; Philip, Bartholomew, and the other James—the life must have been most varied, and doubtless was most eventful. But in the case of James we know that this was not the ease. His history brings home to us the familiar phenomenon of a precious life early shortened—a burning spirit suddenly quenched—a large and a brave heart, which was willing to do and to dare all in his Master’s service, early laid to rest; the goodly promise of his youth and early manhood all unfulfilled—the work which he longed to do left unaccomplished—a legacy of tears left to friends and kindred; a subject of wonder and perplexity to all.

4. I do not pretend to have anything of importance to say on this difficult problem.

(1) The uses of bereavement to the survivors have been often insisted upon. No doubt it is a salutary medicine—just as salutary as it is inexpressibly bitter and repugnant to the natural taste. In this way we speak of the death of children especially; but the wonder is greater when men of grand promise are taken away in their prime, especially at any great crisis of affairs. We are more perplexed at the sight of a John Baptist imprisoned at the end of a year’s ministry, a James beheaded before his ministry on a great scale had begun. Add that the first was slain at the instigation of a dancing girl, and the other at the caprice of a cruel tyrant—and the wonder is complete. “Where is the Lord God of Elijah?” Will not the wrath of heaven fall on the head of the guilty? Rather—Why was not this prevented, and the life prolonged to the full term of years allotted to man?

(2) But do we not, in all our reasonings on this and similar subjects, confine our regards much too exclusively to this world?—think of time and its concerns, too much; the things of eternity and of God, too little? Since, however, this life is inappreciably short in comparison of the life to come—and the concerns of this world inconceivably petty if contrasted with the concerns of the next; we should, in our meditations on the subject now before us, never fail to give a considerable place to the possible share which the concerns of the other life may have in determining the affairs of this. What shall we say, then, of the deaths of the young and the promising—nay, of those whose promise has begun to ripen into performance—so reasonably as this; that it would certainly appear that they were wanted elsewhere? that their appointed work in another world could no longer be kept waiting for them? that they had done quite enough here below to warrant their removal; and that therefore, and only therefore, they were removed?

(3) Shall we not, too, further open our hearts to the comfortable thought that the race, however brief, may yet have been fully run? that the spirit may have been perfected, although in an increditably short space of time? that the allotted work may have been accomplished, although the bud of life has scarcely yet expanded into a blossom? and that wondering angels may have already carried away the subject of so many tears to the enjoyment of an imperishable crown? (Dean Burgon.)

The quiet disciples of the Lord, how they yet bear testimony for Him

1. Though not by shining gifts, yet by the meek and quiet spirit which is precious in the sight of God.

2. Though not by mighty deeds, yet by patient suffering and holy dying.

3. Though not in the annals of the world’s history, yet in the brotherly circles of the children of God. (K. Gerok.)

Times of trial testing times

Then is tested—

I. The sincerity of faith in suffering and death (verses 1-3).

II. Brotherly love in watching and prayer (verse 5).

III. Spiritual peace in rest and waiting (verse 6).

IV. The power of God in rescuing and helping (verses 7-11). (Florey.)

The weapons of the Church in the contest against its enemies

1. Inflexible courage in witnessing.

2. Quiet patience in suffering.

3. Unwearied perseverance in prayer. (Leonhard and Spiegel.)

Lessons for the Church

The Church—

1. May expect to be attacked by its enemies so long as it has any.

2. Often has had to sustain the loss of leaders who seemed to be almost indispensable.

3. Has had to learn that God will not always interfere to save his servants from death—that one’s death may be of more service than his life.

4. Often has had to suffer from those who attacked it simply to curry favour with others.

5. Has been taught that many a seeming calamity has turned out to be a blessing signally manifesting the glory of God.

6. Has found that prayer is its best weapon in fighting with persecution.

7. Has found through prayer that God could overcome the enemies whom it was too weak to encounter. (S. S. Times.)

STEDMA�, WHE� PRISO� DOORS OPE�

I invite you to resume our studies together in the book of Acts. We will look at the twelfth

chapter -- a very exciting passage. I am sure that you had not been a Christian for very

long before you discovered that the enemy with whom we wrestle has a very

disconcerting way of striking when everything seems to be going well. Just when you

think the path has smoothed out and that you are having a great time in the Lord, with

nothing but blessing ahead -- then everything seems to fall apart at once. That is

confirmation of what the Bible tells us is the truth: We are not wrestling against flesh and

blood, but we are engaged in a life-or-death struggle against principalities and powers and

wicked spirits in high places, who are able to unleash a vicious, lashing attack against us

-- just when we think things are going well.

That is what happens in this chapter. In Chapter 11, you will recall, blessing was pouring

out as God's Spirit was moving in the city of Antioch to enlarge the Christian enterprise

and to thrust the gospel out to the Gentiles. We saw how that city, the third largest in the

Roman empire, was being shaken by the presence of these Christians in its midst. Now

we come back to Jerusalem and discover that the enemy strikes back with vicious,

slashing power against the church there. We may be twenty centuries away from this first

century, but we are not twenty centuries away from the book of Acts. This is a very

contemporary book because it is the account of the work of the timeless Spirit of God. He

is the same in every age, working today just as he did here in the book of Acts. Up to this

chapter we have been seeing the body of Christ at work. Now we shall examine three

events which Luke, the writer of this book, puts together, yet which seem somewhat

unrelated at first. But no choice of events in the Word of God is ever without

significance, and these are very significant for us. We will go through this chapter rather

rapidly, comment briefly on the events, and then think about the questions they raise in

our minds. We will try to see why Luke, guided by the Holy Spirit, has chosen these for

our instruction. The three events are the murder of James the Apostle, the deliverance of

Peter from prison by the intervention of an angel, and the death of Herod the king. We

have, first, the murder of James:

About that time Herod the king laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church. He killed James the brother of John with the sword; and when he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. {Acts 12:1-3 RSV}

That means that it was during the Passover season, the same period of the year when

Jesus himself was taken and crucified. But this is the year A. D. 44. We can date it very

precisely because the date of Herod's death, also recorded here, is well known in ancient

history. Therefore these events occurred about twelve years after the crucifixion and

resurrection of Jesus, and the coming of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. The church

has been growing and expanding during these twelve years, spreading out to Judea and

Samaria, and then beginning to reach the Gentiles, as we saw in the last chapter. But now

the enemy strikes hard, and moves Herod the king to take James the brother of John, and

to behead him with the sword. (This Herod is not the one before whom Jesus appeared.

This is his brother, known as Herod Agrippa, the father of the Herod before whom Paul

will later appear.)

This obviously indicates that James was an important leader in the church, although his

name has not been mentioned previously in the book of Acts. His brother was John. You

know James and John. How often their names appear together in the Gospel accounts!

These were the brothers whom Jesus very affectionately called "sons of thunder" {Mark

3:17} because of their swashbuckling dispositions. They were loudmouths, and were

probably the youngest members of the apostolic band -- in their late teens when Jesus

called them. They were firebrands. They wanted to call fire down upon the villages that

would not listen to them. They were filled with zeal, and it is interesting to watch how the

Lord worked with these two young men. John he particularly loved and drew close to

himself, but both were strong in his affections.

It was these two boys who came to Jesus with their mother and asked to be granted

positions at the right and the left hand of the throne of glory when Jesus came into his

kingdom. Do you remember what he said to them? He asked them a question: "Are you

able to drink the cup that I am to drink?" {Matt 20:22, Mark 10:38}. By that he meant his

violent death on the cross. And, with typical teenage enthusiasm and ardor they said,

"Yes, we're able." Jesus told them, "You shall indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right

hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared

by my Father," {Mark 10:39}. In those words, "You shall indeed drink my cup," he

indicated that these men would die violent deaths.

James was the first of the apostles so to die and John was the last. So the deaths of these

brothers form a parenthesis within which all the apostles lived and labored and eventually

died. James' head was chopped off with the sword. We are not told how John died. The

tradition is that he was put into a cauldron of boiling oil. But whatever, it was doubtless a

violent death he endured because that is what the Lord Jesus predicted. Now, the church

is evidently not too disturbed when James is taken captive. There is no mention of their

holding a prayer meeting. Undoubtedly they think that God will release him from prison,

as he had on a previous occasion. In Acts 5 we are told that all the apostles were

imprisoned, but an angel came at night to open the doors and let them out.

Understandably then, the church is not very perturbed. But imagine the stunning,

shattering effect upon them when James is beheaded, actually executed, and the sad news

comes to the waiting church that the first of the apostles has laid down his life as a

martyr. It is very sobering and the church is stunned. So, when Peter is taken, there is

great concern. It is a different story then:

2 He had James, the brother of John, put to death

with the sword.

BAR�ES, "And he killed ... - He caused to be put to death with a sword, either by beheading, or piercing him through. The Roman procurators were entrusted with authority over life, though in the time of Pilate the Jews had not this authority.

James, the brother of John - This was the son of Zebedee, Mat_4:21. He is commonly called James the Greater, in contradistinction from James, the son of Alpheus, who is called James the Less, Mat_10:3. In this manner were the predictions of

our Saviour respecting him fulfilled, Mat_20:23, “Ye shall indeed drink of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with.”

CLARKE, "He killed James the brother of John with the sword - This was James the greater, son of Zebedee, and must be distinguished from James the less, son of Alpheus. This latter was put to death by Ananias the high priest, during the reign of Nero. This James with his brother John were those who requested to sit on the right and left hand of our Lord, see Mat_20:23; and our Lord’s prediction was now fulfilled in one of them, who by his martyrdom drank of our Lord’s cup, and was baptized with his baptism. By the death of James, the number of the apostles was reduced to eleven; and we do not find that ever it was filled up. The apostles never had any successors: God has continued their doctrine, but not their order.

By killing with the sword we are to understand beheading. Among the Jews there were four kinds of deaths:

1. Stoning;

2. burning;

3. killing with the sword, or beheading; and,

4. strangling.

The third was a Roman as well as a Jewish mode of punishment. Killing with the sword was the punishment which, according to the Talmud, was inflicted on those who drew away the people to any strange worship, Sanhedr. fol. iii. James was probably accused of this, and hence the punishment mentioned in the text.

GILL, "And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. This was James, the son of Zebedee, whom our Lord told, that he should be baptized with the baptism he was baptized with, Mat_20:22 meaning the baptism of martyrdom; and he was the first martyr among the apostles: the death he was put to was one of the four capital punishments among the Jews, and was reckoned by them the most disgraceful of them all, and was inflicted upon deceivers of the people; and such an one James was thought to be (e).

HE�RY, "II. He killed James the brother of John with the sword, Act_12:2. We are here to consider, 1. Who the martyr was: it was James the brother of John; so called to distinguish him from the other James the brother of Joses. This was called Jacobus major - James the greater; that, minor - the less. This who was here crowned with martyrdom was one of the first three of Christ's disciples, one of those that were the witnesses of his transfiguration and agony, whereby he was prepared for martyrdom; he was one of those whom Christ called Boanerges - Sons of thunder; and perhaps by his powerful awakening preaching he had provoked Herod, or those about him, as John Baptist did the other Herod, and that was the occasion of his coming into this trouble. He was one of those sons of Zebedee whom Christ told that they should drink of the cup that he was to drink of, and be baptized with the baptism that he was to be baptized with,Mat_20:23. And now those words of Christ were made good in him; but it was in order to his sitting at Christ's right hand; for if we suffer with him, we shall reign with

him. He was one of the twelve who were commissioned to disciple all nations; and to take him off now, before he had removed from Jerusalem, was like Cain's killing Abel when the world was to be peopled, and one man was then more than many at another time. To kill an apostle now was killing he knew not how many. But why would God permit it? If the blood of his saints, much more the blood of apostles, is precious in his eyes, and therefore, we may be sure, is not shed but upon a valuable consideration. Perhaps God intended hereby to awaken the rest of the apostles to disperse themselves among the nations, and not to nestle any longer at Jerusalem. Or it was to show that though the apostles were appointed to plant the gospel in the world, yet if they were taken off God could do his work without them, and would do it. The apostle died a martyr, to show the rest of them what they must expect, that they might prepare accordingly. The tradition that they have in the Romish church, that this James had been before this in Spain, and had planted the gospel there, is altogether groundless; nor is there any certainty of it, or good authority for it. 2. What kind of death he suffered: He was slain with the sword, that is, his head was cut off with a sword, which was looked upon by the Romans to be a more disgraceful way of being beheaded than with an axe; so Lorinus. Beheading was not ordinarily used among the Jews; but, when kings gave verbal orders for private and sudden executions, this manner of death was used, as most expeditious; and it is probable that this Herod killed James, as the other Herod killed John Baptist, privately in the prison. It is strange that we have not a more full and particular account of the martyrdom of this great apostle, as we had of Stephen. But even this short mention of the thing is sufficient to let us know that the first preachers of the gospel were so well assured of the truth of it that they sealed it with their blood, and thereby have encouraged us, if at any time we are called to it, to resist unto blood too.The Old Testament martyrs were slain with the sword (Heb_11:37), and Christ came not to send peace, but a sword (Mat_10:34), in preparation for which we must arm ourselves with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and then we need not fear what the sword of men can do unto us.

JAMISO�, "killed James ... with the sword— beheaded him; a most ignominious mode of punishment, according to the Jews. Blessed martyr! Thou hast indeed “drunk of thy Lord’s cup, and hast been baptized with his baptism.” (See on Mar_10:38-40.) A grievous loss this would be to the Church; for though nothing is known of him beyond what we read in the Gospels, the place which he had as one of the three whom the Lord admitted to His closest intimacy would lead the Church to look up to him with a reverence and affection which even their enemies would come to hear of. They could spring only upon one more prized victim; and flushed with their first success, they prevail upon Herod to seize him also.

COFFMA�, "Only seven words in the Greek, translated by eleven in English,

recount the martyrdom of the first apostle; and such restraint by the sacred

historian shows how different are the words of inspiration from those of ordinary

writers. It should be noted that the �ew Testament records no appointment of a

successor to James. Why? He is still an apostle, still "reigning over the twelve tribes

of (spiritual) Israel" as Jesus promised (Matthew 19:28). Death never removed an

apostle. It was not death but transgression that removed Judas (Acts 1:25).

As Wesley said, "So one of the brothers went to God the first, the other the last, of

the apostles."[2] This has been viewed by some as a kind of mystical fulfillment of

the desire of James and John to sit "one on the right hand, the other on the left" of

the Lord in his kingdom.

Days of unleavened bread ... This refers to the great annual Passover feast of the

Jews; and, as it was at Passover that our Lord suffered, Peter must have associated

his own imprisonment and impending death with the events of our Lord's Passion.

E�D�OTE:

[2] John Wesley, �ew Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker

Book House), in loco.

COKE, "Acts 12:2. And he killed James— Thus was our Lord's prediction, relating

to them, fulfilled, Matthew 20:23. I know not how far we areto depend upon the

tradition which we find cited by Eusebius, from a book of Clemens Alexandrinus,

now lost, in which he reported, "That the person who had accused James, observing

the courage with which he bore his testimony to Christianity, was converted, and

suffered martyrdom with him;" but it seems very beautifully observed by Clarius,

who had a great deal of the true spirit of criticism, that this early execution of one of

the apostles, after our Lord's death, would illustrate the courage of the rest in going

on with their ministry; as it would evidently shew, that even all their miraculous

powers did not secure them from dying by the sword of their enemies. Hereby the

number of apostles was reduced to eleven; but no other apostle was substituted in

the stead of James, nor had the apostles any successors in their apostolic office,

authority, and dignity

ELLICOTT, "2) He killed James the brother of John with the sword.—Had the

Apostle been tried by the Sanhedrin on a charge of blasphemy and heresy, the

sentence would have been death by stoning. Decapitation showed, as in the case of

John the Baptist, that the sentence was pronounced by a civil ruler, adopting

Roman modes of punishment, and striking terror by them in proportion as they

were hateful to the Jews. The death of James reminds us of his Lord’s prediction

that he, too, should drink of His cup, and be baptised with His baptism (Matthew

20:23). The fulfilment of that prophecy was found for one brother in his being the

proto-martyr of the apostolic company, as it was found for the other in his being the

last survivor of it. What led to his being selected as the first victim we can only

conjecture; but the prominent position which he occupies in the Gospels, in

company with Peter and John, probably continued, and the natural vehemence

indicated in the name of Son of Thunder may have marked him out as among the

foremost teachers of the Church. The brevity of St. Luke’s record presents a

marked contrast to the fulness of later martyrologies. A tradition preserved by

Eusebius (Hist. ii. 9) as coming from Clement of Alexandria, records that his

accuser was converted by beholding his faith and patience, confessed his new faith,

and was led to execution in company with the Apostle, who bestowed on him the

parting benediction of “Peace be with thee.”

MACLARE�, "THE MARTYRDOM OF JAMES

One might have expected more than a clause to be spared to tell the death of a chief man and the first martyr amongst the Apostles. James, as we know, was one of the group of the Apostles who were in especially close connection with Jesus Christ. He is associated in the Gospels with Peter and his brother John, and is always named before John, as if he were the more important of the two, by reason of age or of other circumstances unknown to us. But yet we know next to nothing about him. In the Acts of the Apostles he is a mere lay figure; his name is only mentioned in the catalogue at the beginning, and here again in the brief notice of his death. The reticent and merely incidental character of the notice of his martyrdom is sufficiently remarkable. I think the lessons of the fact, and of the, I was going to say, slight way in which the writer of this book refers to it, may perhaps be most pointedly brought out if we take four contrasts-James and Stephen, James and Peter, James and John, James and James. Now, if we take these four I think we shall learn something.

I. First, then, James and Stephen.

Look at the different scale on which the incidents of the deaths of these two are told: the martyrdom of the one is beaten out over chapters, the martyrdom of the other is crammed into a corner of a sentence. And yet, of the two men, the one who is the less noticed filled the larger place officially, and the other was only a simple deacon and preacher of the Word. The fact that Stephen was the first Christian to follow his Lord in martyrdom is not sufficient to account for the extraordinary difference. The difference is to be sought for in another direction altogether. The Bible cares so little about the people whom it names because its true theme is the works of God, and not of man; and the reason why the ‘Acts of the Apostles’ kills off one of the chief Apostles in this fashion is simply that, as the writer tells us, his theme is ‘all that Jesus’ continued ‘to do and to teach after He was taken up.’ Since it is Christ who is the true actor, it matters uncommonly little what becomes of James or of the other ten. This book is not the ‘Acts of the Apostles,’ but it is the Acts of Jesus Christ.

I might suggest, too, in like manner, that there is another contrast which I have not included in my four, between the scale on which the death of Jesus Christ is told by Luke, and that on which this death is narrated. What is the reason why so disproportionate a space of the Gospel is concerned with the last two days of our Lord’s life on earth? What is the reason why years are leaped over in silence and moments are spread out in detail, but that the death of a man is only a death, but the death of the Christ is the life of the world? It is little needful that we should have poetical, emotional, picturesque descriptions of martyrdoms and the like in a book which is altogether devoted to tracking the footsteps of Christ in history; and which regards men as nothing more than the successive instruments of His purpose, and the depositories of His grace.

Another lesson which we may draw from the reticence in the case of the Apostle, and the expansiveness in the case of the protomartyr, is that of a wise indifference to the utterly insignificant accident of posthumous memory or oblivion of us and our deeds and sufferings. James sleeps none the less sweetly in his grave, or, rather, wakes none the less triumphantly in heaven, because his life and death are both so scantily narrated. If we ‘self-infold the large results’ of faithful service, we need not trouble ourselves about its record on earth.

But another lesson which may be learned from this cursory notice of the Apostle’s martyrdom is-how small a thing death really is! Looked at from beside the Lord of life and death, which is the point of view of the author of this narrative, ‘great death’

dwindles to a very little thing. We need to revise our notions if we would understand how trivial it really is. To us it frowns like a black cliff blocking the upper end of our valley, but there is a path round its base, and though the throat of the pass be narrow, it has room for us to get through and up to the sunny uplands beyond. From a mountain top the country below seems level plain, and what looked like an impassable precipice has dwindled to be indistinguishable. The triviality of death, to those who look upon it from the heights of eternity, is well represented by these brief words which tell of the first breach thereby in the circle of the Apostles.

II. There is another contrast, James and Peter.

Now this chapter tells of two things: the death of one of that pair of friends; the miracle that was wrought for the deliverance of the other from death. Why could not the parts have been exchanged, or why could not the miraculous hand that was stretched out to save the one fisherman of Bethsaida have been put forth to save the other? Why should James be slain, and Peter miraculously delivered? A question easily asked; a question not to be answered by us. We may say that the one was more useful for the development of the Church than the other. But we have all seen lives that, to our poor vision, seemed to be all but indispensable, ruthlessly swept away, and lives that seemed to be, and were, perfectly profitless, prolonged to extreme old age. We may say that maturity of character, development of Christian graces, made the man ready for glory. But we have all seen some struck down when anything but ready; and others left for the blessing of mankind many, many a day after they were far fitter for heaven than thousands that, we hope, have gone there.

So all these little explanations do not go down to the bottom of the matter, and we are obliged just to leave the whole question in the loving Hands that hold the keys of life and death for us all. Only we may be sure of this, that James was as dear to Christ as Peter was, and that there was no greater love shown in sending the angel that delivered the one out of the ‘hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews,’ than was shown in sending the angel that stood behind the headsman and directed the stroke of the fatal sword on the neck of the other.

The one was as dear to the Christ as the other-ay, and the one was as surely, and more blessedly, delivered ‘from the mouth of the lion’ as the other was, though the one seemed to be dragged from his teeth, and the other seemed to be crushed by his powerful jaws. James escaped from Herod when Herod slew him but could not make him unfaithful to his Master, and his deliverance was not less complete than the deliverance of his friend.

But let us remember, also, that if thus, to two equally beloved, there were dealt out these two different fates, it must be because that evil, which, as I said, is not so great as it looks, is also not so bitter as it tastes, and there is no real evil, for the loving heart, in the stroke that breaks its bands and knits it to Jesus Christ. If we are Christians, the deepest desire of our souls is fuller communion with our Lord. We realise that, in some stunted and scanty measure, by life; but oh! is it not strange that we should shrink from that change which will enable us to realise it fully and eternally? The contrast of James and Peter may teach us the equal love that presides over the life of the living and the death of the dying.

III. Another contrast is that of James and John.

The close union, and subsequent separation by this martyrdom, of that pair of brothers is striking and pathetic. They seem to have together pursued their humble trade of fishermen in the little fishing village of Bethsaida, apparently as working partners with their father Zebedee. They were not divided by discipleship, as was the sad fate of many

a brother delivered by a brother to death. If we may attach any weight to the suggestion that the expression in John’s narrative, ‘He first findeth his own brother, Simon,’ implies that ‘the other disciple’ did the same by his brother, James was brought to Jesus by John, and new tenderness and strength thereby given to their affection. They were closely associated in their Apostleship, and were together the companions of Jesus in the chief incidents of His life. They were afterwards united in the leadership of the Church. By death they were separated very far: the one the first of all the Apostles to ‘become a prey to Satan’s rage,’ the other ‘lingering out his fellows all,’ and ‘dying in bloodless age,’ living to be a hundred years old or more, and looking back through all the long parting to the brother who had joined with him in the wish that even Messiah’s Kingdom should not part them, and yet had been parted so soon and parted so long.

Ah! may we not learn the lesson that we should recognise the mercy and wisdom of the ministry of Death the separator, and should tread with patience the lonely road, do calmly the day’s work, and tarry till He comes, though those that stood beside us be gone? We may look forward with the assurance that ‘God keeps a niche in heaven to hide our idols’; and ‘albeit He breaks them to our face,’ yet shall we find them again, like Memnon’s statue, vocal in the rising sunshine of the heavens.

The brothers, so closely knit, so soon parted, so long separated, were at last reunited. Even to us here, with the chronology of earth still ours, the few years between the early martyrdom of James and the death of the centenarian John seem but a span. The lapse of the centuries that have rolled away since then makes the difference of the dates of the two deaths seem very small, even to us. What a mere nothing it will have looked to them, joined together once more before God!

IV. Lastly, James and James. In his hot youth, when he deserved the name of a son of thunder-so energetic, boisterous, I suppose, destructive perhaps, he was-he and his brother, and their foolish mother, whose name is kindly not told us, go to Christ and say, ‘Grant that we may sit, the one on Thy right hand and the other on Thy left, in Thy kingdom.’ That was what he wished and hoped for, and what he got was years of service, and a taste of persecution, and finally the swish of the headsman’s sword.

And so our dreams get disappointed, and their disappointment is often the road to their fulfilment, for Jesus Christ was answering James’ prayer, ‘Grant that we may sit on Thy right hand in Thy kingdom,’ when He called him to Himself, by the brief and bloody passage of martyrdom. James said, when he did not know what he meant, and the vow was noble though it was ignorant, ‘we can drink of the cup that Thou drinkest.’ And all honour to him! he stuck to his vow; and when the cup was proffered to him he manfully, and like a Christian, took it and drank it to the dregs; and, I suppose, went silently to his grave. But the change between his ardent anticipations and his calm resignation, and between his foolish dream and the stern reality, may well teach us that, whether our wishes he fulfilled or disappointed, they all need to be purified, and that the disappointment of them on earth is often God’s way of fulfilling them for us in higher fashion than we dreamed or asked.

So, brethren, let us leave for ourselves, and for all dear ones, that question of living or dying, to His decision. Only let us be sure that whether our lives be long like John’s, or short like James’, ‘living or dying we are the Lord’s.’ And then, whatever be the length of life or the manner of death, both will bring us the fulfilment of our highest wishes, and will lead us to His side at whose right hand all those shall sit who have loved Him here, and, though long parted, shall be reunited in common enjoyment of the pleasures for evermore which bloom unfading there. ‘And so shall we ever be with the Lord.’

3 When he saw that this met with approval among

the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This

happened during the Festival of Unleavened

Bread.

�OTES, James had to be doing a great work for his death to be so pleasing to the

Jews. He must have been winning many Jews to Christ. Dec. 27 was the day the

early Christians said James died by beheading. Cruelty succeeds because somebody

is always pleased by it. It is wrong for Christians to be pleased by the persecution of

anyone, for this will lead to injustice.

You wonder where John was at this point. He may have been struggling with guilt

feelings. His brother is dead and Peter is in prison. Two of the three inner circle

and he the youngest was spared. Why him? God had plans for John and he had to

live to be old to see the great revelation and record it for all history.

BAR�ES, "And because he saw that it pleased the Jews - This was the principle on which he acted. It was not from a sense of right; it was not to do justice, and to protect the innocent; it was not to discharge the appropriate duties of a magistrate and a king, but it was to promote his own popularity. It is probable that Agrippa would have acted in this way in any circumstances. He was ambitious, vain, and fawning; he sought, as his great principle, popularity, and he was willing to sacrifice, like many others, truth and justice to obtain this end. But there was also a particular reason for this in his case. He held his appointment under the Roman emperor. This foreign rule was always unpopular among the Jews. In order, therefore, to secure a peaceful reign, and to prevent insurrection and tumult, it was necessary for him to court their favor; to indulge their wishes, and to fall in with their prejudices. Alas, how many monarchs and rulers there have been who were governed by no better principle, and whose sole aim has been to secure popularity, even at the expense of law, truth, and justice. That this was the character of Herod is attested by Josephus (Antiq., 19, chapter 8, section 3): “This king (Herod Agrippa) was by nature very beneficent, and liberal in his gifts, and very ambitious to please the people with such large donations; and he made himself very illustrious by the many expensive presents he made them. He took delight in giving, and rejoiced in living with good reputation.”

To take Peter also - Peter was one of the most conspicuous men in the church. He had made himself particularly obnoxious by his severe and pungent discourses, and by his success in winning people to Christ. It was natural, therefore, that he should be the next object of attack.

The days of unleavened bread - The Passover, or the seven days immediately succeeding the Passover, during which the Jews were required to eat bread without leaven, Exo_12:15-18. It was some time during this period that Herod chose to apprehend Peter. Why this time was selected is not known. As it was, however, a season of religious solemnity, and as Herod was desirous of showing his attachment to the religious rites of the nation (Josephus, Antiq., Exo_19:7, Exo_19:3), it is probable that he chose this period to show to them more impressively his purpose to oppose all false religions, and to maintain the existing establishments of the nation.

CLARKE, "He proceeded - to take Peter also - He supposed that these two were pillars on which the infant cause rested; and that, if these were removed, the building must necessarily come down.

The days of unleavened bread - About the latter end of March or beginning of April; but whether in the third or fourth year of the Emperor Claudius, or earlier or later, cannot be determined.

GILL, "And because he saw it pleased the Jews,.... That is, as Beza's ancient copy adds, "his stretching out his hands upon the faithful"; this pleased the Jews, a bloodthirsty generation of men, who had killed the prophets, and the Lord Jesus, and who were now greedy after the death of the apostles: it may easily be seen from what principle and spirit Herod acted; it was not out of regard to the Jewish religion, rites, and ceremonies, but to ingratiate himself into the affections of the people:

he proceeded further to take Peter also; a principal apostle, and who was well known, and against whom the Jews had doubtless a particular antipathy, and would have been glad to have been rid of him; this Herod was, sensible of, and therefore to please them, ordered him to be taken up:

then were the days of unleavened bread; or the feast of the passover.

HE�RY, "III. He imprisoned Peter, of whom he had heard most, as making the greatest figure among the apostles and whom therefore he would be proud of the honour of taking off. Observe here, 1. When he had beheaded James, he proceeded further, he added, to take Peter also. Note, Blood to the blood-thirsty does but make them more so, and the way of persecution, as of other sins, is downhill; when men are in it, they cannot easily stop themselves; when they are in they find they must on. Male facta male factis tegere ne perpluant - One evil deed is covered with another, so that there is no passage through them. Those that take one bold step in a sinful way give Satan advantage against them to tempt them to take another, and provoke God to leave them to themselves, to go from bad to worse. It is therefore our wisdom to take heed of the beginnings of sin. 2. He did this because he saw it pleased the Jews. Observe, The Jews made themselves guilty of the blood of James by showing themselves well pleased with it afterwards, though they had not excited Herod to it. There are accessaries ex post facto - after the fact; and those will be reckoned with as persecutors who take pleasure in others' persecuting, who delight to see good men ill used, and cry, Aha, so would we have it, or at least secretly approve of it. For bloody persecutors, when they perceive themselves applauded for that which every one ought to cry shame upon them for, are encouraged to go on, and have

their hands strengthened and their hearts hardened, and the checks of their own consciences smothered; nay, it is as strong a temptation to them to do the like as it was here to Herod, because he saw it pleased the Jews. Though he had no reason to fear displeasing them if he did not, as Pilate condemned Christ, yet he hoped to please them by doing it, and so to make an interest among them, and make amends for displeasing them in something else. Note, Those make themselves an easy prey to Satan who make it their business to please men.

JAMISO�, "because he saw it pleased the Jews— Popularity was the ruling passion of this Herod, not naturally so cruel as some of the family [Josephus, Antiquities, 19.7.3].

to take Peter also— whose loss, at this stage of the Church, would have been, so far as we can see, irreparable.

Then were the days of unleavened bread— seven in number, during which, after killing and eating the Passover, no leaven was allowed in Jewish houses (Exo_12:15, Exo_12:19).

CALVI�, "3.Seeing that it pleased the Jews. It appeareth more plainly by this that

Herod was not moved either with any zeal that he had to Moses’ law or with any

hatred of the gospel, thus to persecute the Church; but that he might provide for his

own private affairs, for he proceedeth in his cruelty that he may win the people’s

favor; therefore we must know that there be diverse causes for which the Church is

assaulted on every side. Oftentimes perverse zeal driveth the wicked headlong to

fight for their superstitions, and that they may sacrifice an offering to their idols by

shedding innocent blood; but the more part is moved with private commodities only,

so in times past, at such time as �ero knew, after the burning of the city, that he was

loathed and hated of the people, he sought by this subtle means to get into favor

again, or, at least, he went about to stay their slanders and complaints, by putting

certain thousands of the godly to death.

In like sort, that Herod may win the people’s favor, who did love him but a little, he

putteth the Christians to death. as a price wherewith he might redeem their favor;

and such is our estate at this day, for though all men run by troops upon the

members of Christ, (751) yet few are pooked (752) forward with superstition; but

some sell themselves to antichrist, like profitable bond-slaves; other some bear with,

and commend the outrageous outcries of monks and the common people. But we, in

the mean season, being abjects, must be glad to bear their mocks; yet there is one

comfort which doth excellently keep us on foot, in that we know that our blood is

precious in the sight of Almighty God, which the world cloth shamefully abuse; yea,

the more shamefully and reproachfully the wicked do handle us, so much the less

shall God’s goodness forsake us.

COKE, "Acts 12:3. And, because he saw it pleased the people— This prince, as

Josephus tells us, was a great zealot for the Mosaic law; dwelt much at Jerusalem,

and was as fond of all opportunities to oblige the Jews, as his grandfather Herod

had been of pleasing strangers—a character very agreeable to what St. Luke here

says of him. St. Peter was apprehended about the beginning of April, and most

probably in the third year of Claudius Caesar.

BE�SO�, "Acts 12:3-4. And because he saw it pleased the Jews — Whose favour he

laboured by all possible means to conciliate; he proceeded to take Peter also —

Renowned as he was for such a variety of miracles wrought by him at Jerusalem.

According to Josephus, (Antiq., Acts 19:7,) this Herod “was a great zealot for the

Mosaic law, dwelt much at Jerusalem, and gladly embraced all opportunities of

obliging the Jews, as his grandfather Herod did of pleasing strangers;” a character

well suiting what Luke here says of him. Then were the days of unleavened bread —

When the Jews came together to Jerusalem from all parts, to celebrate the passover.

And he put him in prison — And, for the greater security of so noted a person, he

delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers — That is, to sixteen, each party

consisting of four, who were to watch him day and night by turns, four at a time;

two of them being chained to him, and two of them watching before the door of the

prison; intending after Easter — Or, rather, after the passover, as µετα το πασχα

signifies, and ought, doubtless, to have been translated; (the name Easter not being

in use till many centuries after this book was written;) to bring him forth to the

people — To be made a spectacle to them, as his Master, Jesus, had been on the first

day of unleavened bread; for confining him was not all that Herod designed. His

intention was, after the paschal lamb was eaten, and the seven days’ festival quite

finished, to gratify the people by putting him to death, and that publicly. For,

notwithstanding their zeal about rituals, they would submit to be concerned in the

vilest immoralities, and most horrid cruelties, exercised on the servants of God.

CO�STABLE, "The Feast of Unleavened Bread was a seven-day celebration that

began on the day after Passover each spring. This was one of the three yearly feasts

in Jerusalem that the Mosaic Law required all Jewish males to attend. As on the day

of Pentecost (ch. 2), the city would have been swarming with patriotic Jews when

Herod made his grandstand political move of arresting Peter. These Jews knew

Peter as the leading apostle among the Christians and as a Jew who fraternized with

Gentiles (ch. 10). This was the third arrest of Peter that Luke recorded (cf. Acts 4:3;

Acts 5:18). �ote that this persecution of the Christians did not arise from anything

they had done but simply because Herod wanted to gain popularity with the Jews.

ELLICOTT, "(3) Because he saw it pleased the Jews.—This was throughout the

ruling policy of the Herodian house. The persecution did not spring from any

fanatic zeal against the new faith, but simply from motives of political expediency. A

somewhat touching incident is recorded, illustrating the king’s sensitiveness to

popular praise or blame. It was at the Feast of Tabernacles, and the Law was read,

and he heard the words of Deuteronomy 17:15 : “Thou shalt not set a stranger over

thee,” and he burst into tears at the thought of his own Idumæan descent. The

people saw him weeping, and cried out: “Trouble not thyself, Agrippa; thou also art

our brother,” and the king’s heart was comforted (Jost, Gesch. des Judenthums, I.,

p. 420).

Then were the days of unleavened bread.—The crowds of Hellenistic and other

Jews who were gathered to keep the feast at Jerusalem naturally made this a

favourable opportunity for courting the favour of the people. A tradition recorded

by St. Jerome states that St. James was beheaded on the 15th of �isan, i.e., on the

same day as that of the Crucifixion. Peter was arrested probably at the same time;

but the trial and execution were deferred till the seven days of the feast were over.

4 After arresting him, he put him in prison,

handing him over to be guarded by four squads of

four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him

out for public trial after the Passover.

BAR�ES, "And when he had apprehended him -When he had taken or arrested him.

He put him in prison - During the solemnities of this religious festival, it would have been deemed improper to have engaged in the trial of a supposed criminal. The minds of the people were expected to be devoted solely to the services of religion; and hence, Herod chose to retain him in custody until the Passover had ended.

To four quaternions of soldiers - A “quaternion” was a company of “four”; consequently the whole number employed here was sixteen. The Romans divided the night into four watches so that the guards could be relieved; those who were on guard occupying three hours, and being then relieved. Of the four who were on guard, two were with Peter in the prison Act_12:6, and two kept watch before the door of the prison. The utmost precaution was taken that he should not escape; and Herod thus gave the most ample assurance to the Jews of his intention to secure Peter, and to bring him to trial.

Intending after Easter - There never was a more absurd or unhappy translation

than this. The original is simply after the Passover (µετ���τ��πάσχα meta�to�pascha. The

word “Easter” now denotes the festival observed by many Christian churches in honor of the resurrection of the Saviour. But the original has no reference to that, nor is there the slightest evidence that any such festival was observed at the time when this book was written. The translation is not only unhappy, as it does not convey at all the meaning of the original, but because it may contribute to foster an opinion that such a festival was observed in the time of the apostles. The word “Easter” is of Saxon origin, and is supposed to be derived from “Eostre,” the goddess of Love, or the Venus of the North, in honor of whom a festival was celebrated by our pagan ancestors in the month of April (Webster). Since this festival coincided with the Passover of the Jews, and with the feast observed by Christians in honor of the resurrection of Christ, the name came to be used to denote the latter. In the old Anglo-Saxon service-books the term “Easter” is used frequently to translate the word “Passover.” In the translation by Wycliffe, the word “paske,” that is, “Passover,” is used. But Tyndale and Coverdale used the word “Easter,”

and hence, it has very improperly crept into our King James Version.

To bring him forth to the people - That is, evidently, to put him publicly to death to gratify them. The providence of God in regard to Peter is thus remarkable. Instead of his being put suddenly to death, as was James, he was reserved for future trial; and thus an opportunity was given for the prayers of the church, and for his consequent release.

CLARKE, "Four quaternions of soldiers - That is, sixteen, or four companies of four men each, who had the care of the prison, each company taking in turn one of the four watches of the night.

Intending after Easter to bring him forth -Μετα�το�πασχα, After the passover.

Perhaps there never was a more unhappy, not to say absurd, translation than that in our text. But, before I come to explain the word, it is necessary to observe that our term called Easter is not exactly the same with the Jewish passover. This festival is always held on the fourteenth day of the first vernal full moon; but the Easter of the Christians, never till the next Sabbath after said full moon; and, to avoid all conformity with the Jews in this matter, if the fourteenth day of the first vernal full moon happen on a Sabbath, then the festival of Easter is deferred till the Sabbath following. The first vernal moon is that whose fourteenth day is either on the day of the vernal equinox, or the next fourteenth day after it. The vernal equinox, according to a decree of the council of Nice, is fixed to the 21st day of March; and therefore the first vernal moon is that whose fourteenth day falls upon the 21st of March, or the first fourteenth day after. Hence it appears that the next Sabbath after the fourteenth day of the vernal moon, which is called the Paschal term, is always Easter day. And, therefore, the earliest Paschal term being the 21st of March, the 22d of March is the earliest Easter possible; and the 18th of April being the latest Paschal term, the seventh day after, that is the 25th of April, is the latest Easter possible.

The term Easter, inserted here by our translators, they borrowed from the ancient Anglo-Saxon service-books, or from the version of the Gospels, which always translates

the το�πασχα of the Greek by this term; e.g. Mat_26:2 : Ye know that after two days is the

feast of the passover. Wite ye that aefter twam dagum beoth Eastro. Mat_16:19 : And they made ready the passover. And hig gegearwodon hym Easter thenunga (i.e. the paschal supper.) Prefixed to Mat_28:1, are these words: This part to be read on Easter even. And, before Mat_28:8, these words: Mar_14:12 : And the first day of unleavened bread when they killed the passover. And tham forman daegeazimorum, tha hi Eastron offrodon. Other examples occur in this version. Wiclif used the word paske, i.e. passover; but Tindal, Coverdale, Becke, and Cardmarden, following the old Saxon mode of translation, insert Easter: the Geneva Bible very properly renders it the passover. The

Saxon Earten, Eartne, Eartno, Eartna, and Eartnon are different modes of spelling the

name of the goddess Easter, whose festival was celebrated by our pagan forefathers on the month of April; hence that month, in the Saxon calendar, is called Easter month. Every view we can take of this subject shows the gross impropriety of retaining a name every way exceptionable, and palpably absurd.

GILL, "When he had apprehended him,.... When his officers he sent to take him had brought him:

he put him in prison; in the common prison, very likely where he had been once before, Act_5:18

and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; each quaternion consisted of four soldiers, so that they were in all sixteen; and so the Syriac version renders it, "and delivered him to sixteen soldiers": how the Ethiopic version should make "seventeen" of them is pretty strange: these perhaps might take their turns to watch him by four at a time, two to whom he was chained, and two others to keep the doors; or all the sixteen together, being posted in one place or another for greater security: and it may be, that the reason of all this caution, and strong guard, might be, because it was remembered that he, and the rest of the apostles, when committed to the same prison some years ago, were delivered out of it:

intending after Easter, or the passover,

to bring him forth to the people; to insult and abuse him, and to put him to what death they should desire.

HE�RY, " Notice is taken of the time when Herod laid hold on Peter: Then were the days of unleavened bread. It was at the feast of the passover, when their celebrating the memorial of their typical deliverance should have led them to the acceptance of their spiritual deliverance; instead of this, they, under pretence of zeal for the law, were most violently fighting against it, and, in the days of unleavened bread, were most soured and embittered with the old leaven of malice and wickedness. At the passover, when the Jews came from all parts to Jerusalem to keep the feast, they irritated one another against the Christians and Christianity, and were then more violent than at other times. 4. Here is an account of Peter's imprisonment (Act_12:4): When he had laid hands on him, and, it is likely, examined him, he put him in prison, into the inner prison; some say, into the same prison into which he and the other apostles were cast some years before, and were rescued out of it by an angel, Act_5:18. He was delivered to four quaternions of soldiers, that is, to sixteen, who were to be a guard upon him, four at a time, that he should not make his escape, nor be rescued by his friends. Thus they thought they had him fast. 5. Herod's design was, after Easter, to bring him forth unto the people. (1.) He would make a spectacle of him. Probably he had put James to death privately, which the people had complained of, not because it was an unjust thing to put a man to death without giving him a public hearing, but because it deprived them of the satisfaction of seeing him executed; and therefore Herod, now he knows their minds, will gratify them with the sight of Peter in bonds, of Peter upon the block, that they may feed their eyes with such a pleasing spectacle. And very ambitious surely he was to please

the people who was willing thus to please them! (2.) He would do this after Easter, meta�

to�pascha - after the passover, certainly so it ought to be read, for it is the same word that

is always so rendered; and to insinuate the introducing of a gospel-feast, instead of the passover, when we have nothing in the New Testament of such a thing, is to mingle Judaism with our Christianity. Herod would not condemn him till the passover was over, some think, for fear lest he should have such an interest among the people that they should demand the release of him, according to the custom of the feast: or, after the hurry of the feast was over, and the town was empty, he would entertain them with Peter's public trial and execution. Thus was the plot laid, and both Herod and the people long to have the feast over, that they may gratify themselves with this barbarous

entertainment.

JAMISO�, "delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers— that is, to four parties of four each, corresponding to the four Roman watches; two watching in prison and two at the gates, and each party being on duty for the space of one watch.

intending after Easter— rather, “after the Passover”; that is, after the whole festival was over. (The word in our King James Version is an ecclesiastical term of later date, and ought not to have been employed here).

to bring him forth to the people— for execution; for during “the days of unleavened bread,” or the currency of any religious festival, the Jews had a prejudice against trying or putting anyone to death.

HAWKER 4-5, "And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. (5) Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.

The days of unleavened bread mean the feast of the Passover; and as a great number of Jews were of course come up at Jerusalem on this occasion, Herod thought this a fine opportunity to gratify that people with the spectacle of the murder of Peter; and therefore he intended, as soon as their religious ceremonies were over, the Apostle should be brought forth. And thus this time-serving king was filling up the measure of his iniquity, Gen_15:16.

I pray the Reader to be very particular in observing, what is said of the unceasing prayer of the Church, for the preservation of Peter, The words in the margin of the Bible are: instant and earnest prayer was made without ceasing. An holy importunity with the Lord, such as would take no denial. Such as Jacob himself the father of all the praying seed of Israel used, when it is said, that he wept and made supplication unto him, Hos_12:4. Weeping, and then praying; and then at it again: wrestling again, with tears and prayers; and as one that was determined never to give over, until he obtained as at length he did obtain the object he desired. See the whole history, Gen_32:24 etc. And it is worthy remark, the light in which the Lord regards such holy pleaders. He calls them Recorders; for so the word Mazkir means: Isa_62:6-7. I beg the Reader to turn to the passage. He will find in the margin of his Bible, that to the Lord’s watchmen, whom he hath commanded never to hold their peace, day nor night, the Lord saith; Ye that are the Lord’s remembrancers, keep not silence; and give him no silence, until he hath established, and made Jerusalem a praise in the earth. And then follows the Lord’s Oath. - I entreat the Reader to ponder this sweet Scripture well. And I entreat him to seek instruction from the Lord the Spirit, to a right apprehension of it. And when he hath thus done, I would ask him the question, (I do not decide,) whether there is not in the whole God the Father’s oath and promise: Heb_6:17-18. God the Son’s finished salvation and intercession: (for both are implied in all real prayer): 1Jn_2:1-2, and God the Spirit’s grace and supplication, as a spirit of both, poured out to lead the praying seed of Jacob to prayer, and help them in it; all included in this sweet portion, Zec_12:10; Rom_8:26.

We that live in the present cold, prayerless generation, (and as it is to be feared, too often satisfy ourselves with heartless forms,) by reason of such prison frames as we pray in, can hardly figure to ourselves an idea of the holy importunity of those holy men of old. But were the Lord to bring on the Church, as in those days, an awful persecution like this of Herod, the faithful in Christ, would soon learn, in what soul-feeling prayer

consisted.

CALVI�, "4.Adding four quaternions of soldiers. Luke doth, in this place, declare

by circumstances that Peter was, as it were, shut up in his grave, so that it might

seem that he was quite past hope; for as they divided the day and night into four

parts by three hours, so Herod divided the watches, that four soldiers might always

keep watch, and that one quaternion might succeed another every third hour. He

showeth the cause why he was not forthwith put to death, because it had been an

heinous offense to put him to death in the Easter holidays; therefore, Herod doth

not delay the time as doubtful what to do, but doth only wait for opportunity; yea,

he maketh choice of a time, when as his gift may be more plausible, because there

came a great multitude together from all parts unto the holy day. (753)

COFFMA�, "Quarternions ... This was the name of a group of four soldiers, and

four quaternions would be sixteen men appointed to guard Peter.

After the Passover ... This refers not to Passover day, but to the whole celebration of

Passover which lasted eight days.

Intending to bring him forth ... Herod planned a public execution of Peter, an event

which the Jewish hierarchy and the Jerusalem rabble would have celebrated with

the utmost enthusiasm. Things looked very bleak for the Christian faith at that

moment.

COKE, "Acts 12:4. To four quaternions of soldiers— That is, to sixteen, consisting

of four in each party, who were to watch him by turns, four at a time; two of them

being chained to him, and two of them watching before the door of the prison: one

end of one chain was fastened to St. Peter's right hand, and the other end to the left

arm of one of the soldiers; the other chain was in like manner fastened to St. Peter's

left arm, and to the soldier's right arm: see Acts 12:6. Very likely the Jews

remembered how all the apostles had escaped when they had formerly put them in

prison; and perhaps they suspected the fidelity of the guards. It was therefore most

probably at their request, that such a number of soldiers were appointed to guard

the apostle. But the confining him was not all; for Herod intended after the Paschal

Lamb was eaten, and the seven days festival quite finished, to bring him out to the

people, and gratify them by putting him to death, and that publicly. During the

festival the Jews used to spend their time in such mirth and festivity, that prisoners

were commonly released, rather than executed. But notwithstanding all their zeal

about rituals, they could submit to be concerned in the vilest immoralities. See chap.

Acts 28:16. Instead of after Easter, the Greek would more properly be rendered

after the passover.

CO�STABLE, "Four squads of soldiers-four soldiers made up each squad-guarded

Peter in six-hour shifts so he would not escape as he had done previously (Acts 5:19-

24). Evidently two of the soldiers on each shift chained themselves to Peter and the

other two guarded his cell door (Acts 12:6; Acts 12:10). "Passover" was the popular

term for the continuous eight-day combined Passover and Unleavened Bread

festival.

ELLICOTT, "(4) Delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers.—Agrippa

apparently followed the lessons of Roman practice which he had learnt by his own

experience. The four quaternions relieved each other at set times, and the prisoner

was chained to two of the soldiers of each company, while the others were stationed

as sentinels at the door of the dungeon. (Comp. St. Paul’s chains in Acts 28:20;

Ephesians 6:20.)

Intending after Easter.—Better, after the Passover, as elsewhere. In this solitary

instance the translators have introduced, with a singular infelicity, the term which

was definitely appropriate only to the Christian festival which took the place of the

Passover.

5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was

earnestly praying to God for him.

BAR�ES, "But prayer was made - The church was apprised of his imprisonment and danger, and had no resource but to apply to God by prayer. In scenes of danger there is no other refuge; and the result shows that even in most discouraging circumstances God can hear prayer. Nothing scarcely could appear more hopeless than the idea of rescuing Peter out of the hands of Herod, and out of the prison, and out of the custody of sixteen men, by prayer. But the prayer of faith Was prevalent with God.

Without ceasing - Intense, steady, ardent prayer. The word used here κτενής

ektenēs is found in only one other place in the New Testament, 1Pe_4:8, “Have fervent

charity among yourselves.” The word has rather the idea that their prayer was earnest and fervent than that it was constant.

Of the church - By the church.

CLARKE, "Prayer was made without ceasing - The Greek word εκτενης

signifies both fervor and earnestness, as well as perseverance. These prayers of the Church produced that miraculous interference mentioned below, and without which Peter could not have thus escaped from the hands of this ruthless king.

GILL, "Peter therefore was kept in prison,.... Till the feast of the passover was at an end:

but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him; this was not done by them as a body together, but either by them in several bands at different places, or by some of the principal of the church at some one certain place, and where they might frequently change companies, and keep on a continual incessant prayer for days together; and whereas it is very likely it might be at the beginning of the passover, when Peter was taken up, and it was now at the close of it, when he was delivered, the church might be engaged by companies alternately, a whole week together, in prayer, on this occasion.

HE�RY, "We have here an account of Peter's deliverance out of prison, by which the design of Herod against him was defeated, and his life preserved for further service, and a stop given to this bloody torrent. Now,

I. One thing that magnified his deliverance was that it was a signal answer to prayer (Act_12:5): Peter was kept in prison with a great deal of care, so that it was altogether impossible, either by force or by stealth, to get him out. But prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him, for prayers and tears are the church's arms; therewith she fights, not only against her enemies, but for her friends: and to these means they have recourse. 1. The delay of Peter's trial gave them time for prayer. It is probable that James was hurried off so suddenly and so privately that they had not time to pray for him, God so ordering it that they should not have space to pray, when he designed they should not have the thing they prayed for. James must be offered upon the sacrifice and service of their faith, and therefore prayer for him is restrained and prevented; but Peter must be continued to them, and therefore prayer for him is stirred up, and time is given them for it, by Herod's putting off the prosecution. Howbeit, he meant not so, neither did his heart think so. 2. They were very particular in their prayers for him, that it would please God, some way or other, to defeat Herod's purpose, and to snatch the lamb out of the jaws of the lion. The death of James alarmed them to a greater fervency in their prayer for Peter; for, if they be broken thus with breach upon breach, they fear that the enemy will make a full end. Stephen is not, and James is not, and will they take Peter also? All these things are against them; this will be sorrow upon sorrow, Phi_2:27. Note, Though the death and sufferings of Christ's ministers may be made greatly to serve the interests of Christ's kingdom, yet it is the duty and concern of the church earnestly to pray for their life, liberty, and tranquillity; and sometimes Providence orders it that they are brought into imminent danger, to stir up prayer for

them. 3. Prayer was made without ceasing; it was, proseuchē�ektenēs - fervent prayer. It

is the word that is used concerning Christ's praying in his agony more earnestly; it is the fervent prayer of the righteous man, that is effectual, and availeth much. Some think it denotes the constancy and continuance of their prayers; so we take it: They prayed without ceasing. It was an extended prayer; they prayed for his release in their public assemblies (private ones, perhaps, for fear of the Jews); then they went home, and prayed for it in their families; then retired into their closets, and prayed for it there; so they prayed without ceasing: or first one knot of them, and then another, and then a third, kept a day of prayer, or rather a night of prayer, for him, Act_12:12. Note, Times of public distress and danger should be praying times with the church; we must pray always, but then especially.

CALVI�, "5.But prayers were made. Luke teacheth here that the faithful did not,

in the mean season, foreslow [neglect] their duty, Peter stood in the forward (754)

alone; but all the rest fought with their prayers together with him, and they aided

him so much as they were able. Hereby we do also gather, that they were not

discouraged, for by prayer they testify that they persist so much as they are able in

defense of the cause, for which Peter is in danger of life. This place teacheth, first,

how we ought to be affected when we see our brethren persecuted by the wicked for

the testimony of the gospel, for if we be slothful, and if we be not inwardly touched

with their dangers, we do not only defy and them of the due duty of love, but also

treacherously forsake the confession of our faith; and, assuredly, if the cause be

common, yea, if they fight for our safety and salvation, we do not only forsake them,

but even Christ and ourselves; and the present necessity requireth, that they be far

more fervent in prayer than commonly they are, whosoever will be counted

Christians. We see some of our brethren (being brought to extreme poverty) live in

exile, others we see imprisoned, many cast into stinking dungeons, many consumed

with fire, yea, we see new torments oftentimes invented, whereby being long

tormented they may feel death. Unless these provocations sharpen our desire to

pray, we be more than blockish; therefore, so soon as any persecution ariseth, let us

by and by get ourselves to prayer.

Also, it is a likely thing that the Church took greater thought for Peter’s life,

because they should have suffered great loss if he had gone. (755) �either doth Luke

say barely thatprayer was made; but he addeth also, that it was earnest and

continual, whereby he giveth us to understand that the faithful prayed not coldly or

over fields; (756) but so long as Peter was in the conflict, the faithful did what they

could to help him, and that without wearisomeness. We must always understand the

name of God, which is here expressed, whensoever mention is made of prayer in the

Scripture, for this is one of the chiefest and first principles of faith, that we ought to

direct our prayers unto God alone, as he challengeth to himself this peculiar

worship, “Call upon me in the day of tribulation,” (Psalms 50:15.)

COFFMA�, "Prayer ... for him ... Webster and Wilkinson's Greek Testament

declares that "The Greek intimates that it was incessantly kept up, always going

on."[3] Thus it was a kind of perpetual prayer meeting that the church organized on

behalf of Peter. If it is wondered why this was not done for James, answer probably

lies in the suddenness with which he was executed almost as soon as he was

apprehended, giving no time for such an effort as this on behalf of Peter.

With regard to all the snide remarks commentators have made about the church's

praying for Peter's release and their total surprise when it occurred, two things are

pertinent: (1) It is not declared that they prayed for Peter's release. It could be that

they were praying that Peter's faith would not fail, as it had so conspicuously failed

when he denied the Lord. (2) If they were praying for his release, this being not at

all unlikely, then the surprise would have been at the dramatic suddenness and

manner of it.

E�D�OTE:

[3] Ibid.

COKE, "Acts 12:10. When they were past the first and the second ward,— The first

and second watch, where the guards were placed to secure the prison. Heylin

renders it very agreeably to the Greek, the first and second guard. It was usual

among the Easterns to plate over their gates with thick iron. Pitts tells us, that

Algiers has five gates; and some of these have two, some three other gates within

them; and some of them are plated all over with thick iron: and Bishop Pocock tells

us the same of some gates not far from Antioch. The angel having conducted St.

Peter into the street left him; for when things are within men's own power, it is folly

and presumption to expect extraordinary assistance.

BE�SO�, "Acts 12:5-6. Peter therefore — Till the day of his execution came; was

kept in prison — Under the continual guard of the fore-mentioned soldiers. But

prayer without ceasing — (The original expression, προσευχη εκτενης, signifies,

earnest and importunate, as well as continual prayer;) was made of the church for

him — That is, for his deliverance, yet when their prayer was answered, they could

scarce believe it, Acts 12:15. But why had they not prayed for James’s deliverance

also? Doubtless because he was put to death as soon as apprehended. And when

Herod would have brought him forth — For execution; the same night — That is,

the night before he had designed to do it; Peter was sleeping — Easy and void of

fear; between two soldiers, bound with two chains — It is well known that this way

of securing prisoners of consequence was practised among the Romans, as Grotius

has shown in his note on Acts 28:16. One end of one chain was fastened to Peter’s

right hand, and the other end to the left arm of one of the soldiers; the other chain

was, in like manner, fastened to Peter’s left arm, and to the soldier’s right arm; so

that, humanly speaking, it was impossible he should have risen without immediately

awaking them. And the keepers before the door — The other two guards, then on

duty, stood sentry before the prison doors, that there might be no attempt of any

kind made to rescue him. So that he was sufficiently secured, to all human

appearance. It is likely the Jews remembered how all the apostles had escaped,

when they had formerly put them in prison; and, perhaps, they suspected the

fidelity of the guards. It was, therefore, most probably at their request that such a

number of soldiers were appointed to guard Peter. But though the persecutors thus

showed themselves skilful in taking measures to destroy, they soon found, by

experience, that no device can avail against any whom God is determined to

preserve.

CO�STABLE, "His captors probably imprisoned Peter in the Roman fortress of

Antonia. It stood against the north wall of the temple enclosure and on the western

end of this wall. [�ote: See the diagram of Herod's Temple Area near my comments

on 3:12-15 above.] Prisons are no match for prayers, however, as everyone was to

learn. The Christians prayed fervently about Peter's fate believing that God could

effect his release again. [�ote: See Hiebert, pp. 30-32, for some helpful and

motivating comments on their praying.]

"The church used its only available weapon-prayer." [�ote: Kent, p. 102.]

ELLICOTT, "(5) Prayer was made without ceasing.—The adjective is rendered by

“fervent” in 1 Peter 4:8, and implies, as in the marginal reading, intensity as well as

continuity. The words imply that the members of the Church continued, in spite of

the persecution, to meet as usual, probably, as in Acts 12:12, in the house of Mary,

the mother of Mark.

Macartney, “�ever were there greater odds against prayer. On the one side Herod,

the 16 soldiers, the grim fortress walls of the dungeon, and the power of Rome itself;

on the other side, a handful of men and women in a prayer meeting. How unequal

the combat.” Contrast the two scenes-one with soldiers and weapons and steel bars,

and the other with bare hands, no weapons and on their knees in prayer. It looks

like no contest at all. It looked hopeless, for Herod already killed James and no

doubt had the same fate in store for Peter. Yet they went on through the night in

prayer. Why God allowed James to die and Peter escape is one of the mysteries of

life. �ot all believers have the same experiences of deliverance as Peter did. When it

looks hopeless we reduce what we expect and hope for. They may have prayed that

he does not suffer and has the courage to face his death rather than that he would be

set free.

MACLARE�, "PETER'S DELIVERANCE FROM PRISON

The narrative of Peter’s miraculous deliverance from prison is full of little vivid touches which can only have come from himself. The whole tone of it reminds us of the Gospel according to St. Mark, which is in like manner stamped with peculiar minuteness and abundance of detail. One remembers that at a late period in the life of the Apostle Paul, Mark and Luke were together with him; and no doubt in those days in Rome, Mark, who had been Peter’s special companion and is called by one of the old Christian writers his ‘interpreter,’ was busy in telling Luke the details about Peter which appear in the first part of this Book of the Acts.

The whole story seems to me to be full of instruction as well as of picturesque detail; and I desire to bring out the various lessons which appear to me to lie in it.

I. The first of them is this: the strength of the helpless.

Look at that eloquent ‘but’ in the verse that I have taken as a starting-point: ‘Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made earnestly of the Church unto God for him.’ There is another similarly eloquent ‘but’ at the end of the chapter:

‘Herod . . . was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost, but the Word of God grew and multiplied.’ Here you get, on the one hand, all the pompous and elaborate preparations-’four quaternions of soldiers’- four times four is sixteen-sixteen soldiers, two chains, three gates with guards at each of them, Herod’s grim determination, the people’s malicious expectation of having an execution as a pleasant sensation with which to wind up the Passover Feast. And what had the handful of Christian people? Well, they had prayer; and they had Jesus Christ. That was all, and that is more than enough. How ridiculous all the preparation looks when you let the light of that great ‘but’ in upon it! Prayer, earnest prayer, ‘was made of the Church unto God for him.’ And evidently, from the place in which that fact is stated, it is intended that we should say to ourselves that it

was because prayer was made for him that what came to pass did come to pass. It is not jerked out as an unconnected incident; it is set in a logical sequence. ‘Prayer was made earnestly of the Church unto God for him’ -and so when Herod would have brought him forth, behold, the angel of the Lord came, and the light shined into the prison. It is the same sequence of thought that occurs in that grand theophany in the eighteenth Psalm, ‘My cry entered into His ears; then the earth shook and trembled’; and there came all the magnificence of the thunderstorm and the earthquake and the divine manifestation; and this was the purpose of it all-’He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters.’ The whole energy of the divine nature is set in motion and comes swooping down from highest heaven to the trembling earth. And of that fact the one end is one poor man’s cry, and the other end is his deliverance. The moving spring of the divine manifestation was an individual’s prayer; the aim of it was the individual’s deliverance. A little water is put into a hydraulic ram at the right place, and the outcome is the lifting of tons. So the helpless men who could only pray are stronger than Herod and his quaternions and his chains and his gates. ‘Prayer was made,’ therefore all that happened was brought to pass, and Peter was delivered.

Peter’s companion, James, was killed off, as we read in a verse or two before. Did not the Church pray for him? Surely they did. Why was their prayer not answered, then? God has not any step-children. James was as dear to God as Peter was. One prayer was answered; was the other left unanswered? It was the divine purpose that Peter, being prayed for, should be delivered; and we may reverently say that, if there had not been the many in Mary’s house praying, there would have been no angel in Peter’s cell.

So here are revealed the strength of the weak, the armour of the unarmed, the defence of the defenceless. If the Christian Church in its times of persecution and affliction had kept itself to the one weapon that is allowed it, it would have been more conspicuously victorious. And if we, in our individual lives-where, indeed, we have to do something else besides pray-would remember the lesson of that eloquent ‘but,’ we should be less frequently brought to perplexity and reduced to something bordering on despair. So my first lesson is the strength of the weak.

II. My next is the delay of deliverance.

Peter had been in prison for some time before the Passover, and the praying had been going on all the while, and there was no answer. Day after day ‘of the unleavened bread’ and of the festival was slipping away. The last night had come; ‘and the same night’ the light shone, and the angel appeared. Why did Jesus Christ not hear the cry of these poor suppliants sooner? For their sakes; for Peter’s sake; for our sakes; for His own sake. For the eventual intervention, at the very last moment, and yet at a sufficiently early moment, tested faith. And look how beautifully all bore the test. The Apostle who was to be killed to-morrow is lying quietly sleeping in his cell. Not a very comfortable pillow he had to lay his head upon, with a chain on each arm and a legionary on each side of him. But he slept; and whilst he was asleep Christ was awake, and the brethren were awake. Their faith was tested, and it stood the test, and thereby was strengthened. And Peter’s patience and faith, being tested in like manner and in like manner standing the test, were deepened and confirmed. Depend upon it, he was a better man all his days, because he had been brought close up to Death and looked it in the fleshless eye-sockets, unwinking and unterrified. And I dare say if, long after, he had been asked, ‘Would you not have liked to have escaped those two or three days of suspense, and to have been let go at an earlier moment?’ he would have said, ‘Not for worlds! For I learned in those days that my Lord’s time is the best. I learned patience’-a lesson which Peter especially needed-’and I learned trust.’

Do you remember another incident, singularly parallel in essence, though entirely unlike in circumstances, to this one? The two weeping sisters at Bethany send their messenger across the Jordan, grudging every moment that he takes to travel to the far-off spot where Jesus is. The message sent is only this: ‘He whom Thou lovest is sick.’ What an infinite trust in Christ’s heart that form of the message showed! They would not say ‘Come!’; they would not ask Him to do anything; they did not think that to do so was needful: they were quite sure that what He would do would be right.

And how was the message received? ‘Jesus loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus.’ Well, did that not make Him hurry as fast as He could to the bedside? No; it rooted Him to the spot. ‘He abode, therefore’- because He loved them-’two days still in the same place where He was,’ to give him plenty of time to die, and the sisters plenty of time to test their confidence in Him. Their confidence does not seem to have altogether stood the test. ‘Lord, if Thou hadst been here my brother had not died.’ ‘And why wast Thou nothere?’ is implied. Christ’s time was the best time. It was better to get a dead brother back to their arms and to their house than that they should not have lost him for those dreary four days. So delay tests faith, and makes the deliverance, when it comes, not only the sweeter, but the more conspicuously divine. So, brother, ‘men ought always to pray, and not to faint’-always to trust that ‘the Lord will help them, and that right early.’

III. The next lesson that I would suggest is the leisureliness of the deliverance.

A prisoner escaping might be glad to make a bolt for it, dressed or undressed, anyhow. But when the angel comes into the cell, and the light shines, look how slowly and, as I say, leisurely, he goes about it. ‘Put on thy shoes.’ He had taken them off, with his girdle and his upper garment, that he might lie the less uncomfortably. ‘Put on thy shoes; lace them; make them all right. Never mind about these two legionaries; they will not wake. Gird thyself; tighten thy girdle. Put on thy garment. Do not be afraid. Do not be in a hurry; there is plenty of time. Now, are you ready? Come!’ It would have been quite as easy for the angel to have whisked him out of the cell and put him down at Mary’s door; but that was not to be the way. Peter was led past all the obstacles-’the first ward,’ and the soldiers at it; ‘the second ward,’ and the soldiers at it; ‘and the third gate that leads into the city,’ which was no doubt bolted and barred. There was a leisurely procession through the prison.

Why? Because Omnipotence is never in a hurry, and God, not only in His judgments but in His mercies, very often works slowly, as becomes His majesty. ‘Ye shall not go out with haste; nor go by flight, for the Lord will go before you; and the God of Israel shall be your rereward.’ We are impatient, and hurry our work over; God works slowly; for He works certainly. That is the law of the divine working in all regions; and we have to regulate the pace of our eager expectation so as to fall in with the slow, solemn march of the divine purposes, both in regard to our individual salvation and the providences that affect us individually, and in regard to the world’s deliverance from the world’s evils. ‘An inheritance may be gotten hastily in the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be blessed.’ ‘He that believeth shall not make haste.’

IV. We see here, too, the delivered prisoner left to act for himself as soon as possible.

As long as the angel was with Peter, he was dazed and amazed. He did not know-and small blame to him-whether he was sleeping or waking; but he gets through the gates, and out into the empty street, glimmering in the morning twilight, and the angel disappears, and the slumbering city is lying around him. When he is left to himself, he

comes to himself. He could not have passed the wards without a miracle, but he can find his way to Mary’s house without one. He needed the angel to bring him as far as the gate and down into the street, but he did not need him any longer. So the angel vanished into the morning light, and then he felt himself, and steadied himself, when responsibility came to him. That is the thing to sober a man. So he stood in the middle of the unpeopled street, and ‘he considered the thing,’ and found in his own wits sufficient guidance, so that he did not miss the angel. He said to himself, ‘I will go to Mary’s house.’ Probably he did not know that there were any praying there, but it was near, and it was, no doubt, convenient in other respects that we do not know of. The economy of miraculous power is a remarkable feature in Scriptural miracles. God never does anything for us that we could do for ourselves. Not but that our doing for ourselves is, in a deeper sense, His working on us and in us, but He desires us to take the share that belongs to us in completing the deliverance which must begin by supernatural intervention of a Mightier than the angel, even the Lord of angels.

And so this little picture of the angel leading Peter through the prison, and then leaving him to his own common sense and courage as soon as he came out into the street, is just a practical illustration of the great text, ‘Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you.’

6 The night before Herod was to bring him to

trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers,

bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard

at the entrance.

�OTES, Someone said he may have been the only Christian in the city sleeping that

night. The others were in an all night prayer meeting. Peter was likely the wisest,

for the Lord knows the need and staying up all night only leaves men weak and does

not strengthen them. Here is the man of faith sleeping in a crisis. It is the best

approach to trial. A believer was sentenced to die in the reign of terror in France

and was brought to a cave with others condemned. Givet was his name and he

calmly ate heartily and then went to the corner of the cave and went to sleep. The

next day they were all killed but he was so buried in the straw they did not see him

and for 4 days he was there alone eating the scraps that he found. When they did

discover him he was shown mercy and was set free. Had he not had the peace to

sleep he would have been led out with the others.

BAR�ES, "And when Herod would have brought him forth -When he was about to bring him to be put to death.

The same night - That is, the night preceding. The intention of Herod was to bring him out as soon as the Passover was over; but during the night which immediately preceded the day in which he intended to bring him to punishment, Peter was rescued.

Peter was sleeping - Here is an instance of remarkable composure, and an illustration of the effects of peace of conscience and of confidence in God. It was doubtless known to Peter what the intention of Herod was. James had just been put to death, and Peter had no reason to expect a better fate. And yet in this state he slept as quietly as if there had been no danger, and it was necessary that he should be roused even by an angel to contemplate his condition and to make his escape. There is nothing that will give quiet rest and gentle sleep so certainly as a conscience void of offence; and in the midst of imminent dangers, he who confides in God may rest securely and calmly. Compare Psa_3:5; Psa_4:8.

Between two soldiers - See the notes on Act_12:4. Peter was bound to the two. His left hand was chained to the right hand of one of the soldiers, and his right hand to the left hand of the other. This was a common mode of securing prisoners among the Romans. See abundant authorities for this quoted in Lardner’s Credibility, part 1, chapter 10: section 9, London edition, 1829, vol. i. p. 242, 243, etc.

And the keepers ... - See Act_12:4. Two soldiers were stationed at the door. We may see now that every possible precaution was used to ensure the safe custody of Peter:

(1) He was in prison.

(2) He was under the charge of sixteen men, who could relieve each other when weary, and thus every security was given that he could not escape by inattention on their part.

(3) He was bound fast between two men. And,

(4) He was further guarded by two others, whose business it was to watch the door of the prison. It is to be remembered, also, that it was death for a Roman soldier to be found sleeping at his post. But God can deliver in spite of all the precautions of people; and it is easy for him to overcome the most cunning devices of his enemies.

CLARKE, "Sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains - Two soldiers guarded his person; his right hand being bound to the left hand of one, and his left hand bound to the right hand of the other. This was the Roman method of guarding their prisoners, and appears to be what is intimated in the text.

GILL, "And when Herod would have brought him forth,.... The next morning; so he had determined not to dismiss him, but to expose him to the people, and to put him to such a death they should choose:

the same night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers; fearless of death, being in a good cause, and having nothing to ruffle and disturb his mind; and though he was in a prison, and in such company, God gave him, his beloved, sleep:

bound with two chains; one on one hand, and one on the other, each of which were fastened to the soldiers; that on his right hand was fastened to the left hand of the soldier, that was on that side; and that on his left hand to the right hand of the soldier, on the other side him; such security was made, that he might not get away from them; to which is added,

and the keepers before the door kept the prison; or watched it, that nobody went in, or came out.

HE�RY, "II. Another thing that magnified his deliverance was that when the king's commandment and decree drew near to be put in execution, then his deliverance was wrought, as Est_9:1, Est_9:2. Let us observe when his deliverance came. 1. It was the very night before Herod designed to bring him forth, which made it to be so much the greater consolation to his friends and confusion to his enemies. It is probable some who had an interest in Herod, or those about him, had been improving it to get a discharge for Peter, but in vain; Herod resolves he shall die. And now they despair of prevailing in this way, for tomorrow is the day set for the bringing of him forth; and, it is likely, they will make as quick work with him as with his Master; and now God opened a door of escape for him. Note, God's time to help is when things are brought to the last extremity, when there is none shut up nor left (Deu_32:36), and for this reason it has been said, “The worse the better.” When Isaac is bound upon the altar, and the knife in the hand, and the hand stretched out to slay him, then Jehovah-jireh, the Lord will provide. 2. It was when he was fast bound with two chains, between two soldiers; so that if he offer to stir he wakes them; and, besides this, though the prison-doors, no doubt, were locked and bolted, yet, to make sure work, the keepers before the door kept the prison, that no one might so much as attempt to rescue him. Never could the art of man do more to secure a prisoner. Herod, no doubt, said, as Pilate (Mat_27:65), make it as sure as you can. When men will think to be too hard for God, God will make it appear that he is too hard for them. 3. It was when he was sleeping between the soldiers, fast asleep; (1.) Not terrified with his danger, though it was very imminent, and there was no visible way for his escape. There was but a step between him and death, and yet he could lay himself down in peace, and sleep - sleep in the midst of his enemies - sleep when, it may be, they were awake, having a good cause that he suffered for, and a good conscience that he suffered with, and being assured that God would issue his trial that way that should be most for his glory. Having committed his cause to him that judgeth righteously, his soul dwells at ease; and even in prison, between two soldiers, God gives him sleep, as he doth to his beloved. (2.) Not expecting his deliverance. He did not keep awake, looking to the right hand, or to the left, for relief, but lay asleep, and was perfectly surprised with his deliverance. Thus the church (Psa_126:1): We were like those that dream.

JAMISO�, "And when Herod would have brought him forth— “was going to bring him forth.”

the same night— but a few hours before the intended execution. Thus long were the disciples kept waiting; their prayers apparently unavailing, and their faith, as would seem from the sequel, waxing feeble. Such, however, is the “law” of God’s procedure (Deu_32:36 and see on Joh_21:3).

Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains— Roman prisoners had a chain fastened at one end to the wrist of their fight hand, and at the other to the wrist of a soldier’s left hand, leaving the right arm of the keeper free in case of any attempt to escape. For greater security the prisoner was sometimes, as here, chained to two soldiers, one on each side. (See Act_21:23.) Ye think your prey secure, bloodthirsty priests and thou obsequious tyrant who, to “please the Jews,” hast shut in this most eminent of the servants of Christ within double gates, guarded by double sentinels, while double keepers and double chains seem to defy all rescue! So thought the chief priests, who “made the sepulchre of the Lord sure, sealing the stone and setting

a watch.” But “He that sitteth in heaven shall laugh at you.” Meanwhile, “Peter is sleeping!” In a few hours he expects a stingless death; “neither counts he his life dear unto him, so that he may finish his course with joy and the ministry which he has received of the Lord Jesus.” In this frame of spirit he has dropped asleep, and lies the picture of peace.

HAWKER 6-10, "And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison. (7) And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands. (8) And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. (9) And he went out, and followed him; and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel; but thought he saw a vision. (10) When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him.

I need not attempt a comment where every word is so very plain? And sure I am, the simplicity of the history as here related, would lose its beauty, if I were to alter it by a needless explanation. But, I would observe, that the situation of Peter in this prison, hath been, and perhaps not unaptly considered, (besides its real history,) as a lively representation of the child of God before his conversion, when in the prison of sin and Satan. Like Peter he may be truly said to be sleeping between two soldiers; both law and justice bound with the two chains of sin and death; and the keepers, Satan and his hellish crew, before the door guarding their lawful prisoner. Lawful, it may be truly called; for he hath made our whole nature his lawful captive, by reason of our original and actual transgressions. For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage, 2Pe_2:19. And hence that blessed question of the Lord, Isa_49:24-26.

The Angel of the Lord delivering Peter from the prison is like the Lord the Spirit by regeneration, rousing a sinner from the slumber of death in sin: for before this glorious act is wrought, every child of God is sleeping in sin; yea, dead in trespasses and sins, Eph_2:1. But when the Lord the Spirit gives life to the soul, and he that was dead in sin, is made life in Christ; all chains fall from the poor sinner: for the Son of God having made him free, he shall be free indeed. He is at once delivered from the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son, Joh_8:36; Col_1:13. And such is the mighty change wrought in his heart by grace, that, like Peter, the whole appears too good to be true, and for a while seems to be but a vision. He will indeed, being so enabled by the Lord, gird himself with strength in the Lord; bind on the garments of salvation, and his feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace: he will follow the Lord in the regeneration, through both the wards of providence, and grace; until he cometh to the iron gate of death, which leadeth to the city, and which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God. But here the subject varieth. For forth with the angel departed from Peter. But Jesus never departs from his redeemed; for all his delivered captives enter with him into the holy city, and abide with him forever.

CALVI�, "6.When he was about to bring him forth. It seemeth at the first blush

that the Church prayeth to small purpose, for the day was now appointed wherein

Peter should be put to death, and he is within one night of death, and yet the faithful

cease not to pray, because they know that when the Lord doth purpose to deliver

his, he taketh his time oftentimes in the last and farthest point of necessity, and that

he hath in his hand diverse ways to deliver. Secondly, we may think that they did

not so much pray for Peter’s life, as that the Lord would arm him with invincible

fortitude, for the glory of the gospel, and that God would [not] set the gospel of his

Son open to the reproaches and slanders of the wicked.

That night he slept. All these circumstances do more set forth the wonderful power

of God, for who would not have thought that Peter was already swallowed up of

death? for though he drew breath as yet, yet he had no chinch [chink] to creep out

at, for as much as he was beset with many deaths. Therefore, whereas he escapeth

from amidst deaths, whereas he goeth safely among the hands of his hangmen,

whereas the chains are molten and are loosed, whereas the iron gate openeth itself to

him; hereby it appeareth that it was a mere divine kind of deliverance, and it was

profitable for Peter to be thus taught by these signs, that he might with more

assurance forthwith declare unto men the grace of God thus known. Again, it

appeareth by this strait keeping that Herod meant nothing less (757) than to let

Peter go away alive.

COFFMA�, "PETER'S CO�DITIO� WAS A TYPE OF SI�

Many of the old commentators allegorized this remarkable episode; and despite the

fact that the �ew Testament does not refer to it as an allegory, there are undeniably

elements of an astounding allegory in this event. Just as Paul allegorized the history

of Abraham and his two wives in Galatians, we shall allege an allegory here, but at

the same time receiving the episode as history. The visit of the wisemen to the infant

Jesus (Matthew 2:1) has been allegorized for ages, as more particularly noted in my

Commentary on Matthew, Matthew 2:1. The deliverance of Peter in this chapter

was declared by Matthew Henry to "represent our redemption by Christ, which is

not only the proclaiming of liberty to the captives, but the bringing them out of the

prison house.[4]

Of course, this making of Peter's condition a fitting allegory, or illustration, of the

terror, helplessness, and shame of man's condition in sin, should not be read as

applicable to Peter's character. He was not only free from any unusual degree of sin,

but he was a worthy member of the sacred Twelve, one of the most glorious

characters earth ever knew. It was his condition in Herod's prison that is referred to

here. �ote the following:

Peter was a captive ... all sinners are captives of Satan (2 Timothy 2:24-26).

He was guarded ... Satan likes to stand watch over his victims to prevent their

escape. Every Bible teacher knows that as soon as some young person has learned

enough to obey the gospel and is ready to be baptized, someone over in another part

of town will elect him president of a Sunday school class he hasn't attended in a

year. It is the old strategy of Satan to post a guard and set a watch to keep a man

from obeying the gospel even when he has already made up his mind to do it.

He was bound with two chains ... Everyone in sin is bound with chains, even if they

are nothing but the chains of habit. Procrastination from day to day becomes at last

a chain stronger than iron.

He was asleep ... Sleep is a state of insensitivity, inactivity, insecurity, and illusion.

In the spiritual sense, every sinner is asleep (Romans 13:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:6).

He was in darkness ... Like the night of sin, the blackness of midnight had settled

over Herod's prison.

He was naked ... Peter had cast off his garment in order to be relieved of the

suffocating heat of the dungeon. All sin and spiritual deficiency are nakedness

(Revelation 3:17,18).

He was condemned to death ... This is the state of every unredeemed sinner on earth

(John 3:18).SIZE>

Thus, Peter's condition in that dungeon of Herod is remarkably suggestive of the

sin-condition of every unredeemed person on earth. It is likewise true that his

deliverance had overtones of applicability to the soul's conversion from sin.

E�D�OTE:

[4] Ibid.

CO�STABLE, "The night before Peter's trial and probable execution he lay sound

asleep in his cell. How could he sleep soundly when God had allowed James to die?

Peter, of course, had a record of sleeping when he should have been praying (cf.

Matthew 26:36-46). He had no problem with insomnia. �evertheless on this occasion

God may have wanted him to sleep. Perhaps he did not fear for his life because

Jesus had implied that he would live to an old age (John 21:18). �ormally the

Romans chained a prisoner by his right hand to his guard's left hand, but each of

Peter's hands was chained to a guard on either side of him. [�ote: Barclay, p. 101;

Longenecker, p. 409.] Herod wanted to make sure Peter did not get away.

ELLICOTT, "(6) Peter was sleeping between two soldiers.—The picture of the calm

repose of the Apostle as of one to whom God had given the sleep of His beloved

(Psalms 127:2), undisturbed by the fear of coming suffering and death, will be felt

by most readers to be one of singular interest.

STEDMA�, "What a remarkable story! You can see how unexpected this is. I think

Peter really expected to be executed. But, remarkably, he slept. He had been there

for several days, and this is not the first time he has been in prison, but it is, as he

knows, the last night before his scheduled execution. Yet he is sleeping peacefully,

obviously trusting that God will glorify himself either by his death or by delivering

him so that he can live. Yet when the angel comes Peter is taken by surprise.

When we read this account we can see what a supernatural deliverance this was.

The angel takes no note of the guards whatsoever, but simply strikes the chains

from Peter's arms. The guards were evidently bemused, or asleep. Then he has to

tell Peter everything he must do. �otice how bewildered Peter is. The angel has to

tell him, "�ow get up. Put on your shoes. Wrap your mantle around you." He leads

him by the hand out into the city streets. Peter is not sure what is happening. But

when he gets outside and sees the iron gate open of its own accord, he knows that

God is at work. And the realization suddenly strikes him that God has indeed set

him free from prison. Then we get this interesting and most human account of what

happens when he comes to the church:

7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a

light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side

and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and

the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.

�OTE, Quickly-some things have to be done with speed. The clear implication is

that supernatural power does not guarantee all things. A guard could wake and put

a sword through Peter and the angel may not have prevented it. It is still a risky

time and every moment is perilous.

BAR�ES, "And, behold, the angel of the Lord - See the notes on Act_5:19.

Came upon him - Greek: was present with him; stood near him πέστη epestē.

And a light shined in the prison -Many have supposed that this was lightning. But light, and splendor, and shining apparel are commonly represented as the accompaniments of the heavenly beings when they visit the earth, Luk_2:9; Luk_24:4; compare Mar_9:3. It is highly probable that this light was discerned only by Peter; and it would be to him an undoubted proof of the divine interposition in his behalf.

And he smote Peter on the side - This was, doubtless, a gentle blow or stroke to arouse him from sleep.

And his chains ... - This could have been only by divine power. No natural means were used, or could have been used without arousing the guard. It is a sublime expression of the ease with which God can deliver from danger, and rescue his friends. Compare Act_16:26.

CLARKE, "Smote Peter on the side - He struck him in such a way as was just sufficient to awake him from his sleep.

His chains fell off from his hands - The chains mentioned above, by which he was bound to the two soldiers.

GILL, "And behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him,.... Suddenly and at once, and stood by him; this was one of the ministering spirits sent forth by Christ, to minister to a servant of his:

and a light shined in the prison; the Syriac version renders it, "in the whole house"; and the word that is used does signify an habitation, or a dwelling house properly, but is used also by the Greek writers (f) for a prison: this was an uncommon light produced by the angel, partly as an emblem of the presence, majesty, and power of God, who was present, to work a great deliverance; and partly for the use of Peter, that when being awaked he might see to rise and walk by:

and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up; he touched him on that side which lay uppermost, or punched him on it, in order to awake him, and raise him out of his sleep:

saying arise up quickly; without delay, make haste:

and his chains fell off from his hands; from both his hands, and were left with the soldiers, between whom he slept; which must be ascribed to an almighty power, which caused them to drop off.

HE�RY, "III. It also magnified his deliverance very much that an angel was sent from heaven on purpose to rescue him, which made his escape both practicable and warrantable. This angel brought him a legal discharge, and enabled him to make use of it.

1. The angel of the Lord came upon him; epestē - stood over him. He seemed as one

abandoned by men, yet not forgotten of his God; The Lord thinketh upon him. Gates and guards kept all his friends from him, but could not keep the angels of God from him: and they invisibly encamp round about those that fear God, to deliver them (Psa_34:7), and therefore they need not fear, though a host of enemies encamp against them, Psa_27:3. Wherever the people of God are, and however surrounded, they have a way open heavenward, nor can any thing intercept their intercourse with God.

2. A light shone in the prison. Though it is a dark place, and in the night, Peter shall see his way clear. Some observe that we do not find in the Old Testament that where angels appeared the light shone round about them; for that was a dark dispensation, and the glory of angels was then veiled. But in the New Testament, when mention is made of the appearing of the angels, notice is taken of the light that they appeared in; for it is by the gospel that the upper world is brought to light. The soldiers to whom Peter was chained were either struck into a deep sleep for the present (as Saul and his soldiers were when David carried off his spear and cruise of water), or, if they were awake, the appearance of the angel made them to shake, and to become as dead men, as it was with the guard set on Christ's sepulchre.

3. The angel awoke Peter, by giving him a blow on his side, a gentle touch, enough to rouse him out of his sleep, though so fast asleep that the light that shone upon him did

not awaken him. When good people slumber in a time of danger, and are not awakened by the light of the word, and the discoveries it gives them, let them expect to be smitten on the side by some sharp affliction; better be raised up so than left asleep. The language of this stroke was, Arise up quickly; not as if the angel feared coming short by his delay, but Peter must not be indulged in it. When David hears the sound of the going on the tops of the mulberry trees, then he must rise up quickly, and bestir himself.

4. His chains fell off from his hands. It seems they had handcuffed him, to make him sure, but God loosed his bands; and, if they fall off from his hands, it is as well as if he had the strength of Samson to break them like threads of tow. Tradition makes a mighty rout about these chains, and tells a formal story that one of the soldiers kept them for a sacred relic, and they were long after presented to Eudoxia the empress, and I know not what miracles are said to have been wrought by them; and the Romish church keeps a feast on the first of August yearly in remembrance of Peter's chains, festum vinculorum Petri - The feast of Peter's chains; whereas this was at the passover. Surely they are thus fond of Peter's chains in hope with them to enslave the world!

JAMISO�, "the angel of the Lord— rather, “an angel.”

came upon him - so in Luk_2:9, expressive of the unexpected nature of the visit.

smote Peter on the side ... Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off ... Gird thyself ... And so he did ... Cast thy garment— tunic, which he had thrown off for the night.

CALVI�, "7.A light shined, It is to be thought that Peter alone saw this light, and

that the soldiers did either sleep so soundly, or else were so amazed, that they

neither felt nor perceived any thing, And there might be two causes why God would

have the light to shine; either that Peter might have the use thereof, and that the

darkness might be no hindrance to him, or that it might be to him a sign and token

of the heavenly glory. For we read oftentimes that the angels appeared with

glistering brightness, even when the sun did shine, Assuredly, Peter might have

gathered by the strange light that God was present, and also he ought to have made

his profit thereof. When as the angel smiteth Peter’s side, it appeareth hereby what

a care God hath for his, who watcheth over them when they sleep, and raiseth them

when they are drowsy. And surely there were nothing more miserable than we, if

the continuance of our prayers alone did keep God in his watching over us; for such

is the infirmity of our flesh that we faint and quail, and we stand most of all in need

of his help when our minds, being drawn away, do not seek him. Sleep is a certain

image of death, and doth choke and drown all the senses, what should become of us

if God should then cease to have respect to us? But forasmuch as when the faithful

go to sleep, they commit their safety to God, it cometh to pass by this means, that

even their sleep doth call upon God.

Whereas he saith, that immediately after the angel had said the word the chains

were loosed, we gather by this, that there is power enough in the commandment of

God alone to remove all manner [of] lets, when all ways seem to be stopt on all sides,

so that if he intend to appease the motions and tumults of war, although the whole

world were appointed in armor, their spears and swords shall forthwith fall out of

their hands; on the other side, if he be determined to punish us and our sins with

war, in a moment, (in the twinkling of an eye,) their minds, which were before given

to peace, shall wax hot, and they shall lay hand on their swords. Whereas Luke

setteth down severally both the words of the angel, and also the course of the matter,

it serveth for the more certainty of the history, that it may in every respect appear

that Peter was delivered by God.

COFFMA�, "Several things entered into Peter's deliverance. (1) There was a

prayer meeting, mentioned later in Luke's narrative here, but already going on, and

for days previously. (2) There was a messenger, in this case an angel of the Lord;

but always there is a messenger when people are to be saved. "How shall they hear

without a preacher?" (Romans 10:14). (3) There was light in that prison. The angel

delivered the word of God to Peter; but the word of God is always light (Psalms

119:105); and like the "light" delivered to every sinner by faithful preachers of the

word of God, it consisted of a command to arise and act. "Why tarriest thou? Arise

and be baptized and wash away thy sins" (Acts 22:16). (4) Here the angel

commanded Peter to get up and put on his sandals, and follow.

He smote Peter on the side ... Older readers of these lines will recall the manner of

Pullman porters on passenger trains who always awakened their charges in exactly

the same manner as here, striking them gently on the side, through the curtains,

there never having been devised a better way of doing it without startling or

frightening the sleeper. Thus, in an infinitesimal detail such as this, one sees the

glorious truth of the word of God.

BE�SO�, "Acts 12:7-10. And behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him —

Greek, επεστη, stood over him; and a light shined in the prison — εν τω οικηµατι,

in the house, the whole house in which he was confined; and he smote — Greek,

παταξας, having smote, Peter on the side — He awoke him; saying, Arise up quickly.

And, in that moment, his chains — With which his right arm was bound to one of

the soldiers, and his left to the other, fell off — The soldiers, in the mean time, being

by a miraculous power kept so fast asleep, that they were not at all alarmed by the

noise of their fall. And the angel said, Gird thyself, &c. — Probably Peter had put

off his girdle, sandals, and upper garment before he lay down to sleep. And he went

out — Of the prison, as he was guided by the angel, meeting with no opposition in

his way; and wist not — That what appeared to him to be done was real, but

supposed that he was in a dream, or saw a vision. When they were past the first and

second ward — At each of which, doubtless, was a guard of soldiers, who, however,

were all asleep; they came unto the iron gate leading into the city — Which, though

a heavy gate, and very strongly fastened, yet was no hinderance in their way; but

opened of its own accord — Without Peter or the angel touching it. And they passed

on through one street — That Peter might know which way to go. And forthwith the

angel — Having done all that was requisite for his deliverance, and set him at full

liberty; departed from him — Peter being himself sufficient for what remained to be

done.

CO�STABLE, "Again an angel of the Lord (Gr. angelos kyriou) visited Peter in

prison (Acts 5:19; cf. Acts 8:26; Acts 12:23). A light also illuminated his cell (cf. Acts

9:3). The angel instructed him to get up quickly, and when he did his chains fell

from his hands. Peter's guards slept through the whole event.

"Luke clearly regards Peter's escape as a miracle, a divine intervention by a

supernatural visitant (cf. Luke 2:9) ..." [�ote: �eil, p. 149.]

Thomas Watson, the Puritan preacher, reportedly said, "The angel fetched Peter

out of prison, but it was prayer that fetched the angel." [�ote: Wiersbe, 1:452-53.]

ELLICOTT, "(7) The angel of the Lord came upon him.—The phrase is identical

with that of Luke 2:9. The absence of the article in the Greek leaves it open to

render it either as “the angel” or “an angel.” The “light” in this instance

corresponds to the “glory of the Lord” in that.

In the prison.—Literally, in the dwelling, or chamber. The term appears to be used

as an euphemism for “prison.”

F. F. BRUCE relates the story of Sundar Singh, a Tibetan Christian who was

likewise freed miraculously from a prison. For his preaching of the gospel, he was

thrown into a well, and a cover was put over it and securely locked. He would be left

in the well until he died, and he could see the bones and rotting corpses of those who

had already perished in their. On the third night of his imprisonment, he heard

someone unlocking the cover of the well and removing it. A voice told him to take

hold of the rope that was being lowered. Sundar was grateful that the rope had a

loop he could put his foot in, because he had injured his arm in the fall down into

the well. He was raised up, and the cover was replaced and locked, but when he

looked to thank his rescuer he could find no one. When morning came, he went back

to the same place he was arrested and started preaching again. �ews of the

preaching came to the official who had him arrested, and Sundar was brought

before him again. When the official said someone must have gotten the key and

released him, they searched for the key - and found it on the official's own belt. God

is still writing the Book of Acts!

MACLARE�, "THE ANGEL'S TOUCH

Act_12:7, Act_12:23

The same heavenly agent performs the same action on Peter and on Herod. To the one, his touch brings freedom and the dropping off of his chains; to the other it brings gnawing agonies and a horrible death. These twofold effects of one cause open out wide and solemn thoughts, on which it is well to look.

I. The one touch has a twofold effect.

So it is always when God’s angels come, or God Himself lays His hand on men. Every manifestation of the divine power, every revelation of the divine presence, all our lives’ experiences, are charged with the solemn possibility of bringing us one or other of two directly opposite results. They all offer us an alternative, a solemn ‘either -or.’

The Gospel too comes charged with that double possibility, and is the intensest and most

fateful example of the dual effect of all God’s messages and dealings. Just as the ark maimed Dagon and decimated the Philistine cities and slew Uzzah, but brought blessing and prosperity to the house of Obed-edom, just as the same pillar was light to Israel all the night long, but cloud and darkness to the Egyptians, so is Christ set ‘for the fall of’ some and ‘for the rising of’ others amidst the ‘many in Israel,’ and His Gospel is either ‘the savour of life unto life or of death unto death,’ but in both cases is in itself ‘unto God,’ one and the same ‘sweet savour in Christ.’

II. These twofold effects are parts of one plan and purpose.

Peter’s liberation and Herod’s death tended in the same direction-to strengthen and conserve the infant Church, and thus to prepare the way for the conquering march of the Gospel. And so it is in all God’s self-revelations and manifested energies, whatever may be their effects. They come from one source and one motive, they are fundamentally the operations of one changeless Agent, and, as they are one in origin and character, so they are one in purpose. We are not to separate them into distinct classes and ascribe them to different elements in the divine nature, setting down this as the work of Love and that as the outcome of Wrath, or regarding the acts of deliverance as due to one part of that great whole and the acts of destruction as due to another part of it. The angel was the same, and his celestial fingers were moved by the same calm, celestial will when he smote Peter into liberty and life, and Herod to death.

God changes His ways, but not His heart. He changes His acts, but not His purposes. Opposite methods conduce to one end, as winter storms and June sunshine equally tend to the yellowed harvest.

III. The character of the effects depends on the men who are touched.

As is the man, so is the effect of the angel’s touch. It could only bring blessing to the one who was the friend of the angel’s Lord, and it could bring only death to the other, who was His enemy. It could do nothing to the Apostle but cause his chains to drop from his wrists, nor anything to the vainglorious king but bring loathsome death.

This, too, is a universal truth. It is we ourselves who settle what God’s words and acts will be to us. The trite proverb, ‘One man’s meat is another man’s poison,’ is true in the highest regions. It is eminently, blessedly or tragically true in our relation to the Gospel, wherein all God’s self-revelation reaches its climax, wherein ‘the arm of the Lord’ is put forth in its most blessed energy, wherein is laid on each of us the touch, tender and more charged with blessing than that of the angel who smote the calmly sleeping Apostle. That Gospel may either be to us the means of freeing us from our chains, and leading us out of our prison-house into sunshine and security, or be the fatal occasion of condemnation and death. Which it shall be depends on ourselves. Which shall I make it for myself?

8 Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes

and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak

around you and follow me,” the angel told him.

BAR�ES, "Gird thyself -When they slept the outer garment was thrown off, and the girdle with which they bound their inner garment, or tunic, was loosed. He was directed now to gird up that inner garment as they usually wore it; that is, to dress himself, and prepare to follow him.

Bind on thy sandals - Put on thy sandals; prepare to walk. See the notes on Mat_3:11.

Cast thy garment about thee - The outer garment, that was thrown loosely around the shoulders. It was nearly square, and was laid aside when they slept, or worked, or ran. The direction was that he should dress himself in his usual apparel. See the notes on Mat_5:38-42.

CLARKE, "Gird thyself - It seems Peter had put off the principal part of his clothes, that he might sleep with more comfort. His resuming all that he had thrown off was a proof that every thing had been done leisurely. There was no evidence of any hurry; nor of any design to elude justice, or even to avoid meeting his accusers in any legal way. It appears that the two soldiers were overwhelmed by a deep sleep, which fell upon them from God.

GILL, "And the angel said unto him, gird thyself,.... He slept in his inner garment loose about him; wherefore the angel bids him gird it up with his girdle, and prepare to walk out after him:

and bind on thy sandals; which were a sort of shoes that covered only the soles of the feet, and were fastened to the leg, with strings:

and so he did; he did not ask any question, or the reason of these orders; he did not dispute the matter, but at once obeyed:

and he saith unto him, cast thy garment about thee; meaning his upper garment, or cloak, which lay by him:

and follow me; suggesting hereby, that he should take care of him, and show him his way, and bring him safe out of the prison.

HE�RY, "5. He was ordered to dress himself immediately, and follow the angel; and he did so, Act_12:8, Act_12:9. When Peter was awake he knew not what to do but as the angel directed him. (1.) He must gird himself; for those that slept in their clothes ungirded themselves, so that they had nothing to do, when they got up, but to fasten their girdles. (2.) He must bind on his sandals, that he might be fit to walk. Those whose bonds are loosed by the power of divine grace must have their feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. (3.) He must cast his garments about him, and come away as he was, and follow the angel; and he might go with a great deal of courage and cheerfulness who had a messenger from heaven for his guide and guard. He went out, and followed him. Those who are delivered out of a spiritual imprisonment must follow their deliverer, as Israel when they went out of the house of bondage did; they went out,

not knowing whither they went, but whom they followed. Now it is said, when Peter went out after the angel, he knew not that it was true which was done by the angel, that it was really a matter of fact, but thought he saw a vision; and, if he did, it was not the first he had seen: but by this it appears that a heavenly vision was so plain, and carried so much of its own evidence along with it, that it was difficult to distinguish between what was done in fact and what was done in vision. When the Lord brought back the captivity of his people we were like those that dream, Psa_126:1. Peter was so; he thought the news was too good to be true.

JAMISO�, "about thee ... follow me— In such graphic minuteness of detail we have a charming mark of reality: while the rapidity and curtness of the orders, and the promptitude with which they were obeyed, betoken the dispatch which, in the circumstances, was necessary.

COFFMA�, "And he did so ... Peter's response to God's message was exactly what

it should have been. If the apostle had been like many today who are commanded to

obey the word of God, he might have said, "Sh-sh-sh, Angel, don't wake up the

guard!" Or he might have said, "Well, thanks, Angel, I'll think about it! Some other

time, I just might do what you say." Still another possible response was, "Well,

Angel, I won't promise you anything. You know how it is. I'd like to get out of here

all right; but you know we might wake somebody up, and that would be bad. The

jailer would not like that!" Are not the excuses which men make ridiculous?

(5) The fifth thing that entered into Peter's deliverance was the falling off of his

chains. They fell off when he rose to obey the word of the angel. The application is

in this, that men's chains of sin will fall off when they arise and are baptized into

Christ; and they will never fall off until this is done.

(6) Then Peter followed the angel. See next verse.

CO�STABLE, "The angel coached Peter as a parent to get dressed and to follow

him out of the prison. Peter was so groggy that he did not know that he was really

being set free. He thought he might be having another vision (Acts 10:10, cf. Acts

9:10).

ELLICOTT, "(8) Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals.—In lying down to sleep the

Apostle had naturally laid aside his “cloak,” loosened the girdle that bound his

tunic, and put off his sandals. As regards the latter we note his continued

observance of the rule of Mark 6:9.

9 Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had

no idea that what the angel was doing was really

happening; he thought he was seeing a vision.

BAR�ES, "And wist not - Knew not.

That it was true - That it was real.

But thought he saw a vision - He supposed that it was a representation made to his mind similar to what he had seen before. Compare Act_10:11-12. It was so astonishing, so unexpected, so wonderful, that he could not realize that it was true.

CLARKE, "He - wist not - He knew not; from the Anglo-Saxon, to know. He supposed himself to be in a dream.

GILL, "And he went out and followed him,.... He came out from between the two soldiers, and out of that apartment in the prison, in which he was, and followed the angel where he led him:

and wist not that it was true that was done by the angel; not that he thought the angel was a mere apparition, and all this that was done was a delusion; but he did not know whether this was matter of fact, or whether it was, not represented to him in a visionary way, as what could be, or would be done:

but thought he saw a vision; imagined he was in a dream or a trance, and only saw these things in a vision, and that they were not really done, the whole was so amazing and astonishing.

JAMISO�, "wist not that it was true; but thought he saw a vision— So little did the apostle look for deliverance!

CALVI�, "9.He knew not that it was true. He did not think that it was a vain or

false visor, as Satan doth oftentimes delude men with jugglings; buttrue is taken in

this place for that which is done naturally and after the manner of men. For we

must note the contrariety [antithesis] that is between the thing itself and the vision.

Furthermore, though he think that it is a vision, yet doth he willingly obey; whereby

his obedience is proved, whilst that being content with the commandment of the

angel alone, he doth not inquire nor reason what he must de, but doth that which he

is commanded to do.

COFFMA�, "Think of the importance of following. Peter's chains had fallen off,

but he was still in Herod's dungeon; and his deliverance would be meaningful only

when the iron gates closed behind him as he went out.

ELLICOTT, "(9) And wist not that it was true . . .—The kind of introspective

analysis of the Apostle’s consciousness suggests the thought that he was himself,

possibly through some intermediate channel, St. Luke’s informant. As in the activity

of somnambulism, the will directed the actions of the body, and yet was only half-

conscious of what it did. It may be noted that his experience of the trance and vision

narrated in Acts 10 would tend to suggest the impression that he was passing

through phenomena of a like kind.

10 They passed the first and second guards and

came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened

for them by itself, and they went through it. When

they had walked the length of one street, suddenly

the angel left him.

BAR�ES, "The first and second ward - The word which is here rendered “ward”

φυλακήν phulakēn properly denotes “the act of guarding”; but it is most commonly used

to denote “a prison, or place of confinement.” In this place it seems to denote the guard itself - the soldiers stationed at intervals in the entrance into the prison. These were passed silently, probably a deep sleep having been sent on them to facilitate the escape of Peter.

The iron gate - The outer gate, Secured with iron, as the doors of prisons are now.

That leadeth unto the city - Or rather into ε,ς eis the city. The precise situation of

the prison is unknown. It is supposed by some (compare Lightfoot on this place) that the prison was between two walls of the city, and that the entrance to the prison was immediately from the inner wall, so that the gate opened directly into the city.

Of his own accord - Itself. It opened spontaneously, without the application of any force or key, thus showing conclusively that Peter was delivered by miraculous interposition.

And passed on through one street - Until Peter was entirely safe from any danger of pursuit, and then the angel left him. God had effected his complete rescue, and now left him to his own efforts as usual.

CLARKE, "The first and - second ward - It is supposed that ancient Jerusalem was surrounded by three walls: if so, then passing through the gates of these three walls successively is possibly what is meant by the expression in the text. The prison in which he was confined might have been that which was at the outer wall.

Iron gate - This was in the innermost wall of the three, and was strongly plated over with iron, for the greater security. In the east, the gates are often thus secured to the present day. Pitts says so of the gates of Algiers; and Pocock, of some near Antioch.

Perhaps this is all that is meant by the iron gate. One of the quaternions of soldiers was placed at each gate.

Which opened - of his own accord - Influenced by the unseen power of the angel.

The angel departed from him - Having brought him into a place in which he no longer needed his assistance. What is proper to God he always does: what is proper to man he requires him to perform.

GILL, "When they were past the first and the second ward,.... Or watch, which were set within the prison, and might be some of the quaternions of soldiers to whom Peter was delivered; two of them were with him, and others might be placed at these two wards for further security; and these circumstances make the deliverance the more wonderful and remarkable; the watch must either be asleep, or their eyes were holden, or the angel and Peter passed by so swiftly that they were unobserved:

they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city: which was not one of the gates of the city, as if the prison was without the walls of it; but was the great and strong gate of the prison, which for the security of the prisoners was made of iron, and this gate led directly into the city of Jerusalem:

which opened to them of his own accord; as the gates of the temple are said to do (g), forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem: this was done by a divine power; and because no human creature had any hand in it, it is said to be done of its own accord:

and they went out. The Cambridge copy of Beza's adds, "they went down seven steps"; that is, from the prison into the city:

and passed on through one street; what street this was is not certain; there were several streets in Jerusalem: See Gill on Act_9:11 and forthwith the angel departed from him: he being now safe and out of danger, he left him to himself, to betake himself to what house he should think fit.

HE�RY, "6. He was led safely by the angel out of danger, Act_12:10. Guards were kept at one pass and at another, which they were to make their way through when they were out of the prison, and they did so without any opposition; nay, for aught that appears, without any discovery: either their eyes were closed; or their hands were tied, or their hearts failed them; so it was that the angel and Peter safely passed the first and second ward. Those watchmen represented the watchmen of the Jewish church, on whom God had poured out a spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see and ears that they should not hear, Rom_11:8. His watchmen are blind, sleeping, lying down, and loving to slumber. But still there is an iron gate, after all, that will stop them, and, if the guards can but recover themselves, there they may recover their prisoner, as Pharaoh hoped to retake Israel at the Red Sea. However, up to that gate they march, and, like the Red Sea before Israel, it opened to them. They did not so much as put a hand to it, but it opened of its own accord, by an invisible power; and thus was fulfilled in the letter what was figuratively promised to Cyrus (Isa_45:1, Isa_45:2): I will open before him the two-leaved gates, will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron. And probably the iron gate shut again of itself, that none of the guards might pursue Peter. Note, When God will work salvation for his people, no difficulties in their way are insuperable; but even gates of iron are made to open of their

own accord. This iron gate led him into the city out of the castle or tower; whether within the gates of the city or without is not certain, so that, when they were through this, they were got into the street. This deliverance of Peter represents to us our redemption by Christ, which is often spoken of as the setting of prisoners free, not only the proclaiming of liberty to the captives, but the bringing of them out of the prison-house. The application of the redemption in the conversion of souls is the sending forth of the prisoners, by the blood of the covenant, out of the pit wherein is no water, Zec_9:11. The grace of God, like this angel of the Lord, brings light first into the prison, by the opening of the understanding, smites the sleeping sinner on the side by the awakening of the conscience, causes the chains to fall off from the hands by the renewing of the will, and then gives the word of command, Gird thyself, and follow me. Difficulties are to be passed through, and the opposition of Satan and his instruments, a first and second ward, an untoward generation, from which we are concerned to save ourselves; and we shall be saved by the grace of God, if we put ourselves under the divine conduct. And at length the iron gate shall be opened to us, to enter into the New Jerusalem, where we shall be perfectly freed from all the marks of our captivity, and brought into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

7. When this was done, the angel departed from him, and left him to himself. He was out of danger from his enemies, and needed no guard. He knew where he was, and how to find out his friends, and needed no guide, and therefore his heavenly guard and guide bids him farewell. Note, Miracles are not to be expected when ordinary means are to be used. When Peter has now no more wards to pass, nor iron gates to get through, he needs only the ordinary invisible ministration of the angels, who encamp round about those that fear God, and deliver them.

IV. Having seen how his deliverance was magnified, we are next to see how it was manifested both to himself and others, and how, being made great, it was made known. We are here told,

JAMISO�, "first and the second ward ... the iron gate that leadeth unto the city— We can only conjecture the precise meaning of all this, not knowing the position of the prison.

passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him— when he had placed him beyond pursuit. Thus “He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their heads cannot perform their enterprise” (Job_5:12).

CALVI�, "10.When they were past. God was able to have carried Peter away in the

turning of an hand; (758) but he overcometh diverse straits one after another, that

the glory of the miracle might be the greater. So he created the world in six days,

(Genesis 1:0.) not because he had any need of space of thee, but that he might the

better stay us in the meditating upon his works, (Exodus 20:11,) for he applieth the

manner of doing unto our capacity, and unto the increase of faith. If Peter had at a

sudden been carried unto the house where the brethren were assembled, then

should one only deliverance have been acknowledged, but now we see, as it were

with our eyes, that he was delivered more than ten times.

COFFMA�, "That great iron gate stands for death in this allegory. �o man is safe

from the fury of the evil one until death has ended his probation. To leave off

following the Lord before death is to die in Satan's dominion and under his control.

That is why an apostle said, "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord" (Revelation

14:13). Peter did not leave off following the angel until the iron gate opened and

closed behind him. That gate took twenty-five men to open and close it. It was the

gate of a fortress so impregnable that soldiers were not even stationed to guard it. It

did not need it. They just locked it and left it, unlocking it only as needed, and

leaving it unattended the rest of the time.

Which opened unto them of its own accord ... The gate of death opened for Stephen

who saw Jesus standing on the right hand of God (7:56); and every true Christian

may expect the Lord to bless him in the hour of death. Its iron gates will open of

their own accord (Psalms 23).

It should be noted that Peter was destined to go through that iron gate in one of two

ways. Had he passed through it the next morning it would have been in custody of

Herod's soldiers on the way to his execution; but to go through it with an angel of

God was a far different thing. So also, every Christian and every man will pass

through the iron gate of death; but for some, alas, it will be the gate to everlasting

sorrow; and for others it will be the gate of everlasting joy.

CO�STABLE, "Luke related this incident as though God was orchestrating Peter's

release (cf. Acts 5:18-20; Acts 16:23-29). There is no reason to take the account as

anything less than this. Once outside the prison and left alone by his angelic guide

Peter realized that his release was genuine. God did here for Peter what He had

done for the Israelites in leading them out of their Egyptian prison in the Exodus.

God's enemies can never frustrate His plans (Matthew 16:18).

Why did God allow Herod to kill James but not Peter?

"The answer is that this is the sovereign will of God. He still moves like this in the

contemporary church. I have been in the ministry for many years, and I have seen

the Lord reach in and take certain wonderful members out of the church by death.

And then there are others whom He has left. Why would He do that? If He had

asked me, from my viewpoint as the pastor, I would say that He took the wrong one

and He left the wrong one! But life and death are in the hands of a sovereign God....

This is His universe, not ours. It is God's church, not ours. The hand of a sovereign

God moves in the church." [�ote: McGee, 4:562.]

ELLICOTT, "(10) When they were past the first and the second ward.—It would

seem from this that Peter had been placed in the innermost dungeon, and had to

pass the two court-yards. Lightfoot supposes the prison to have been between the

inner and outer walls of the city, the direction of Peter’s movements being from the

outer to the inner.

The iron gate.—The touch of topographical precision may be noticed as

characteristic of St. Luke.

Passed on through one street.—The word implies one of the narrow streets or lanes

of the city. (See �ote on Matthew 6:2.)

MEYER, "I wonder if you grasp, then, what I should venture to call the helpful

doctrine of the departing angel? I think it is a feature of God's dealing that has been

somewhat neglected in our thought. It means that in extraordinary difficulties we

may reasonably look for extraordinary help. It means that when we are shut in

prison walls, and utterly helpless to extricate ourselves, God has unusual powers in

reserve, that He is willing to dispatch to aid His own. But when the clamant need

goes, so does the angel. In the open street, under the common sky, do not expect

miraculous intervention. It was better for Peter's manhood, and it is better for

yours, that only the hour of the dungeon should bring that. The angel departs, but

the law of God abides. The angel departs, but the love of Christ remains. And I

think that all God's leading of His people, and all the experience of the Christian

heart, might be summed up, with not a little gain, in the departing angel and the

Acts 12:10 The Iron Gate

There are iron gates before most of us. We are not specially anxious about the first

or second ward, but ah, that iron gate! The iron gate of supreme difficulty; of a

parent’s prohibition against entering the mission-field; of some obstinate

circumstance which seems to forbid the execution of our plans; of some barred and

locked prohibition; of death at the end of all. It may be that in his strange

bewilderment, between waking and sleeping, Peter anticipated this iron gate with a

good deal of dread. That at least would bar his progress; but lo, it opened of its own

accord! So shall it be with many of the evils that we anticipate.

�ot before we come to them, but at the moment of reaching them; when heart and

flesh threaten to fail — in the dim light we shall find them standing open, set back

for us to pass. The tram-line is not cleared from end to end before the tram starts.

Were the driver to wait for this, he would never start at all. But as he comes to each

van, or drag, or carriage, it moves, and allows him a free course; or, if it seems

dilatory, his whistle hastens it. Thus, when we arise to follow the angel of God’s

purpose, who has suddenly entered the dark cell of our life, we shall discover that

apparently insuperable difficulties, which we have long dreaded, shall open to us,

and allow us to pass; when we come to the object we have dreaded most, we shall

find it gone.

Let there be plenty of prayer, “prayer without ceasing.” Let there be prompt

obedience to the angel’s touch and summons; the willingness to gird the relaxed

loins, and follow; and as you go through life, you will find yourself escorted by an

invisible Companion, who holds the key to all doors.

11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “�ow I

know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his

angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and

from everything the Jewish people were hoping

would happen.”

BAR�ES, "And when Peter was come to himself - This expression naturally means, when he had overcome bas amazement and astonishment at the unexpected deliverance, so as to be capable of reflection. He had been amazed by the whole transaction. He thought it was a vision: and in the suddenness and rapidity with which it was done, he had no time for cool reflection. The events of divine providence often overwhelm and confound us; and such are their suddenness, and rapidity, and unexpected character in their development as to prevent calm and collected reflection.

Of a surety - Certainly, surely. He considered all the circumstances; he saw that he was actually at liberty, and he was satisfied that it could have been effected only by divine interposition.

The expectation of the people - From this it appears that the people earnestly desired his death; and it was to gratify that desire that Herod had imprisoned him.

CLARKE, "When Peter was come to himself - Every thing he saw astonished him; he could scarcely credit his eyes; he was in a sort of ecstasy; and it was only when the angel left him that he was fully convinced that all was real.

Now I know - that the Lord hath sent his angel - The poor German divine is worthy of pity, who endeavored to persuade himself and his countrymen that all this talk about the angel was mere illusion; that Peter was delivered in a way which he could not comprehend, and therefore was led to attribute to a particular providence of God what probably was done by the prefect of the prison, who favored him! But it is the study of this writer to banish from the word of God all supernatural influence; and to reduce even the miracles of Christ to simple operations of nature, or to the workings of imagination and the prejudices of a weak and credulous people. Such men should at once cast off the mask which so thinly covers their infidelity, and honestly avow themselves to be, what they are, the enemies of revelation in general, and of the Christian religion in particular. Peter could say, Now I know of a certainty that the Lord hath sent his angel, and delivered me, etc. No such thing, says Mr. E., Peter was deceived; it was not the Lord, it was the prefect or some other person. Now we know that Peter spoke by the Holy Ghost; but we have no much testimony of Mr. E. nor of any of his associates.

And all the expectation of the - Jews - It seems they had built much on the prospect of having him sacrificed, as they already had James.

GILL, "And when Peter was come to himself.... For upon his being awaked out of sleep, what with the uncommon light, which shone around him, and with the appearance of the angel, and the chains dropping from his hands, and his surprising escape through the several wards, together with the iron gate opening of itself, he was so filled with amazement, that he was not himself; he could scarcely tell whether he was in the body or not, and whether he was in a dream or a trance, or whether he saw a vision or not; but upon the angel's leaving him he came to himself, the amazement wore off, and he found himself thoroughly awake, and perfectly in his senses, and that the deliverance was real: and then,

he said, now know I of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel; this was a thanksgiving to God, and an acknowledgment, that the deliverance, though it was by the ministry an angel, yet was owing to the goodness and power of God; it was God that sent his angel, and the salvation was of the Lord's doing, and it was marvellous in the eyes of Peter, and gratefully owned by him:

and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod; who intended that morning to have brought him forth, and sacrificed him to the will of the people:

and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews; not only the inhabitants of Jerusalem, but the body of the Jewish nation, who were now at Jerusalem, on account of the passover; and who before they departed into their several cities and towns, expected to have had Peter brought forth, and put to death before them; but now both Herod and they were disappointed.

HE�RY, "1. How Peter came to himself, and so came himself to the knowledge of it, Act_12:11. So many strange and surprising things coming together upon a man just awoke out of sleep put him for the present into some confusion; so that he knew not where he was, nor what he did, nor whether it was fancy or fact; but at length Peter came to himself, was thoroughly awake, and found that it was not a dream, but a real thing:

“Now I know of a surety, now I know alēthōs - truly, now I know that it is truth, and not

an illusion of the fancy. Now I am well satisfied concerning it that the Lord Jesus hath sent his angel, for angels are subject to him and go on his errands, and by him hath delivered me out of the hands of Herod, who thought he had me fast, and so hath disappointed all the expectation of the people of the Jews, who doubted not to see Peter cut off the next day, and hoped it was the one neck of Christianity, in which it would all be struck off at one blow.” For this reason it was a cause of great expectation, among not only the common people, but the great people of the Jews. Peter, when he recollected himself, perceived of a truth what great things God had done for him, which at first he could not believe for joy. Thus souls who are delivered out of a spiritual bondage are not at first aware what God has wrought in them. Many have the truth of grace that want the evidence of it. They are questioning whether there be indeed this change wrought in them, or whether they have not been all this while in a dream. But when the Comforter comes, whom the Father will send sooner or later, he will let them know of a surety what a blessed change is wrought in them, and what a happy state they are brought into.

JAMISO�, "when Peter was come to himself— recovered from his bewilderment, and had time to look back upon all the steps that had followed each other in such rapid succession.

Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath

delivered me, etc.— another evidence that Peter expected nothing but to seal his testimony with his blood on this occasion.

HAWKER 11-17, "And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews. (12) And when he had considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark; where many were gathered together praying. (13) And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. (14) And when she knew Peter’s voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate. (15) And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, It is his angel. (16) But Peter continued knocking: and when they had opened the door, and saw him, they were astonished. (17) But he, beckoning unto them with the hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he said, Go show these things unto James, and to the brethren. And he departed, and went into another place.

This interview must have been particularly interesting. The Lord which brought Peter from the prison, no doubt directed his steps to the house of Mary the mother of Mark. See Col_4:10. Here he found many of the Church at prayer for him (see Act_12:5). The knocking at such an hour, and at such a time, as the night before the intended execution of Peter, must have excited wonderful apprehensions. Who shall describe what the different party felt? It seems they were all panic struck; for none ventured to go to the gate. At length a damsel went, perhaps chosen for this purpose, that whoever it was knocking, the voice of a mere child, might not convey an idea, that there was any fear within. Ye people of God! judge ye, for I cannot explain, how these things, and similar ones, sometimes operate in life. Oh! what a world of wonders will be explained at the great day of account! The name of Rhoda, which signifies Rose, would not have been memorable but from this circumstance. The situation of Peter, however, compelled him to be importunate. And when at length they opened the door, (for it should seem that the whole party went to do it,) what surprise it must have occasioned !

But, Reader! the grand point remains to be considered. Do not overlook, the blessed answers to prayer in Peter’s deliverance. So gracious, so abundantly gracious was the Lord in this event, that they who were so earnest in prayers, did not believe the thing was done, when answers came to their prayers: so that the Lord far exceeded all their expectations. And oh! how often, both before and since, hath the Lord done so by all his people! See a beautiful proof of it in the Church of old, Ps 126 throughout.

CALVI�, "11.Then Peter returning to himself. It is word for word, being made in

himself, because, being before astonied with a strange and incredible thing, he was,

as it were, without himself. But now at length, as it were after a trance, he knoweth

that he is delivered from death. His words set down by Luke contain a thanksgiving;

for he extolleth with himself the benefit of God which he had tried, [experienced,]

and whereof he had tasted, and he doth highly commend it with himself, until he

find some other witnesses. He saith that the angel was sent of God, according to the

common meaning of the godly, who hold that the angels are appointed to be

ministers, to be careful for, and to take charge of their safety; for unless he had been

thus persuaded, he would not have spoken of the angel. And yet he doth not

commend the angel as the author of the grace, but he ascribeth all the whole praise

of the work to God alone, neither do the angels help us to this end, that they may

derive unto themselves even the least jot of God’s glory. Whereas he saith that he

was delivered out of the hand of Herod, he amplifieth the goodness and benefit of

God, by the power of his enemy. To the same end tendeth that which he addeth of

the Jews; for the greater the number of the enemies was, the more excellent was the

grace of God toward his servant; for it is a great matter that God alone being

favorable, the deadly hatred of all the whole world should come to nought.

COFFMA�, "As in the sacred records throughout the �ew Testament, God left

here a nail where the unbeliever can hang his hat. "When Peter was come to himself

..." Ah, does not that mean that this event never really happened, but that Peter

dreamed it? �ot at all; but what is meant is that Peter's deliverance was so fantastic

and contrary to all natural things that he found it nearly impossible to believe it

himself until the press of events brought him to the full realization of what had

happened, yes, HAPPE�ED. Profane history records Peter's deliverance thus:

Herod Agrippa I was popular with his subjects, and his brief reign marked the peak

of their material felicity. He did all in his power to crush the nascent Christian

church, and after executing James the son of Zebedee, he arrested Peter, WHO

ESCAPED FROM PRISO�![5]

The only explanation of that escape from prison is that of Luke in this chapter. The

stupid and unreasonable conclusion by Herod that his own soldiers had released

Peter was the only alternative to such a supernatural deliverance as actually

occurred; and Herod's execution of his own guard proves only how determined that

evil ruler was to deny the true explanation of Peter's escape. �ot very long after this,

God would deliver another message to Herod which he would find no way to deny.

E�D�OTE:

[5] Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 11, p. 512.

COKE, "Acts 12:11. �ow I know of a surety, &c.— The apostle may be understood

here as alluding to a similar deliverance, chap. Acts 5:19. Thetime in which he was

delivered was very critical,—it being the night preceding the day appointed for his

execution; and if the apostle had not been thus miraculously freed, he would

probably have been put to death like Stephen or James.

BE�SO�, "Acts 12:11-15. When Peter was come to himself — And perceived that

the extraordinary things which had been shown him were not visionary

representations, but real facts; and when he saw where he was; he said, �ow know I

of a surety, that the Lord — In whose cause I was upon the point of suffering; hath

sent his angel, and delivered me — As he formerly did, Acts 5:19. I know that my

deliverance is real and effectual; out of the hand of Herod — Who not only intended

my destruction, but thought he had taken effectual measures assuredly to

accomplish it; and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews — Who,

notwithstanding the many beneficial miracles I have wrought among them, were

thirsting for my blood, and waiting impatiently to see me executed. And when he

had considered the thing — How imminent his danger was, and how great his

deliverance, and now what was best to be done; he came to the house of Mary — A

friend’s house, which, it is likely, was near, and where many, even then, though it

was midnight; were gathered together, praying — Doubtless, for his deliverance;

God thus answering them while they were yet speaking, and bringing him, for

whom they were so much concerned, to the very house in which they were

assembled, praying for his release. And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate —

Of an outer gate at some distance from the house, designing, it seems, to awaken

them out of sleep; a damsel came to hearken — Whether any one knocked, and if so,

not to open the door till she knew who was there, a friend or foe, and what his

business was at that unseasonable time of the night. This damsel was probably a

Christian, and even of some note in the church, as her name is mentioned, and more

zealously affected toward the cause of Christ than the generality of her age. And

when she knew Peter’s voice — Having probably often heard him pray, preach, and

discourse; she opened not the gate for gladness — Through surprise and an ecstasy

of joy. Thus, sometimes, in a transport of affection toward our friends, we do what

is unkind to them; but ran in — Instantly, to the company that were assembled in

the house; and told that Peter stood before the gate — As she certainly believed,

though she had not had courage or presence of mind to open the gate. And they

said, Thou art mad — Surely thou art out of thy senses, to imagine so incredible and

impossible a thing, for Peter is undoubtedly in prison, strongly guarded. But she

constantly affirmed that it was even so — Persisted in it, that she was sure she had

heard his voice. Then said they, It is his angel — His guardian angel, who has

assumed his form, and imitates his voice, to bring us some tidings of him. It was a

common opinion among the Jews, that every man had his particular guardian angel,

who frequently assumed both his shape and voice: and Philo speaks of it as also a

received notion among the Jews, that the souls of good men deceased officiate as

ministering spirits. But these are points on which the Scriptures are silent. And

whatever the notion of the Jews was concerning them, no argument can be drawn

from it, as to the truth of either of those suppositions.

ELLICOTT, "(11) When Peter was come to himself.—Here again we find the tone

of a personal reminiscence. He finds himself at night, free, in the open street. It was

no dream. As before (Acts 5:19), his Master had sent His angel to deliver him.

MACLARE�, "‘SOBER CERTAINTY’

Where did Luke get his information of Peter’s thoughts in that hour? This verse sounds like first-hand knowledge. Not impossibly John Mark may have been his informant, for we know that both were in Rome together at a later period. In any case, it is clear that, through whatever channels this piece of minute knowledge reached Luke, it must have come originally from Peter himself. And what a touch of naturalness and evident truth it is! No wonder that the Apostle was half dazed as he came from his dungeon, through the prison corridors and out into the street. To be wakened by an angel, and to have such following experiences, would amaze most men.

I. The bewilderment of the released captive.

God’s mercies often come suddenly, and with a rush and a completeness that outrun our

expectations and our power of immediate comprehension. And sometimes He sends us sorrows in such battalions and so overwhelming that we are dazed for the moment. A Psalmist touched a deep experience when he sang, ‘When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like unto them that dream.’

The angel has to be gone before we are sure that he was really here. The tumult of emotion in an experience needs to be calmed down before we understand the experience. Reflection discovers more of heaven and of God in the great moments of our lives than was visible to us while we were living through them,

There is one region in which this is especially true-that of the religious life. There sometimes attend its beginnings in a soul a certain excitement and perturbation which disable from calm realising of the greatness of the change which has passed. And it is well when that excitement is quieted down and succeeded by meditative reflection on the treasures that have been poured into the lap, almost as in the dark. No man understands what he has received when he first receives Christ and Christ’s gifts. It occupies a lifetime to take possession of that which we possess from the first in Him, and the oldest saint is as far from full possession of the unspeakable and infinite ‘gift of God,’ as the babes in Christ are.

But, looking more generally at this characteristic of not rightly understanding the great epochs of our lives till they are past, we may note that, while in part it is inevitable and natural, there is an element of fault in it. If we lived in closer fellowship with God, we should live in an atmosphere of continual calm, and nothing, either sorrowful or joyful, would be able so to sweep us off our feet that we should be bewildered by it. Astonishment would never so fill our souls as that we could not rightly appraise events, nor should we need any time, even in the thick of the most wonderful experiences, to ‘come to’ ourselves and discern the angel.

But if it be so that our lives disclose their meanings best, when we look back on them, how much of the understanding of them, and the drawing of all its sweetness out of each event in them, is entrusted to memory! And how negligent of a great means of happiness and strength we are, if we do not often muse on ‘all the way by which God the Lord has led us these many years in the wilderness’! It is needful for Christian progress to ‘forget the things that are behind,’ and not to let them limit our expectations nor prescribe our methods, but it is quite as needful to remember our past, or rather God’s past with us, in order to confirm our grateful faith and enlarge our boundless hope.

II. The disappearance of the angel.

Why did he leave Peter standing there, half dazed and with his deliverance incomplete? He ‘led him through one street’ only, and ‘straightway departed from him.’ The Apostle delivered by miracle has now to use his brains. One distinguishing characteristic of New Testament miracles is their economy of miraculous power. Jesus raised Lazarus, for He alone could do that, but other hands must ‘loose him and let him go,’ He gave life to Jairus’s little daughter, but He bid others ‘give her something to eat’ God does nothing for us that we can do for ourselves. That economy was valuable as a preservative of the Apostles from the possible danger of expecting or relying on miracles, and as stirring them to use their own energies. Reliance on divine power should not lead us to neglect ordinary means. Alike in the natural and in the spiritual life we have to do our part, and to be sure that God will do His.

III. The symbol here of a greater deliverance.

Fancy may legitimately employ this story as setting forth for us under a lovely image the

facts of Christian death, if only we acknowledge that such a use is entirely the work of fancy. But, making that acknowledgment, may we not make the use? Is not Death, too, God’s messenger to souls that love Him, ‘mighty and beauteous, though his face be hid’? Would it not be more Christian-like, and more congruous with our eternal hope, if we pictured him thus than by the hideous emblems of our cemeteries and tombs? He comes to Christ’s servants, and his touch is gentle though his fingers are icy-cold. He removes only the chains that bind us, and we ourselves are emancipated by his touch. He leads us to ‘the iron gate that leadeth into the city,’ and it opens to us ‘of its own accord.’ But he disappears as soon as our happy feet have touched the pavement of that street of the city which is ‘pure gold, as transparent as glass,’ and in the midst of which flows the river of the crystal-bright ‘water of life proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.’ Then, when we see the Face as of the sun shining in his strength, we shall come to ourselves, and ‘know of a surety that the Lord hath sent His angel and delivered’ us from all our foes and ills for evermore.

12 When this had dawned on him, he went to the

house of Mary the mother of John, also called

Mark, where many people had gathered and were

praying.

BAR�ES, "And when he had considered ... - Thinking on the subject; considering what he should do in these circumstances.

He came to the house of Mary ... - Probably this house was near him; and he would naturally seek the dwelling of a Christian friend.

The mother of John ... - Probably this was the John Mark who wrote the gospel. But this is not certain.

Whose surname - Greek: who was called Mark. It does not mean that he had two names conferred, as with us, both of which were used at the same time, but he was called by either, the Greeks probably using the name Mark, and the Jews the name John. He is frequently mentioned afterward as having been the attendant of Paul and Barnabas in their travels, Act_12:25; Act_15:39; 2Ti_4:11. He was a nephew of Barnabas, Col_4:10.

Where many were gathered together, praying - This was in the night, and it shows the propriety of observing extraordinary seasons of prayer, even in the night. Peter was to have been put to death the next day; and they assembled to pray for his release, and did not intermit their prayers. When dangers increase around us and our friends, we should become more fervent in prayer. While life remains we may pray; and even when there is no human hope, and we have no power to heal or deliver, still God may interpose, as he did here, in answer to prayer.

CLARKE, "And when he had considered -When he had weighed every thing, and was fully satisfied of the Divine interposition, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, the author of the Gospel, where it appears many were gathered together making prayer and supplication, and probably for Peter’s release.

GILL, "And when he had considered the thing,.... The whole of the salvation wrought for him; or rather, where he should go, to what house he should betake himself; ere he was aware,

he came to the house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark. This good woman seems to be a widow, no mention being made of her husband, and was sister to Barnabas, Col_4:10. She is described by a son she had, whose name was John Mark, because of the frequent mention made of him hereafter; her house being large, and her heart as large as her house, the saints met here, and were welcome, and where they were at this time, though so late:

where many were gathered together, praying; the Ethiopic version adds, "for him"; and there were some in other places, for one place could not hold them all; see Act_12:17 they held out to the end in prayer; this was their last effort in this way, and in this they were no doubt exceeding vehement and importunate, and they succeeded; so true is that observation in Jam_5:16.

HE�RY, "2. How Peter came to his friends, and brought the knowledge of it to them. Here is a particular account of this, and it is very interesting.

(1.) He considered the thing (Act_12:12), considered how imminent his danger was, how great his deliverance; and now what has he to do? What improvement must he make of this deliverance? What must he do next? God's providence leaves room for the use of our prudence; and, though he has undertaken to perform and perfect what he has begun, yet he expects we should consider the thing.

(2.) He went directly to a friend's house, which, it is likely, lay near to the place where he was; it was the house of Mary, a sister of Barnabas, and mother of John Mark, whose house, it should seem, was frequently made use of for the private meeting of the disciples, either because it lay obscure, or because she was more forward than others were to open her doors to them; and, no doubt, it was, like the house of Obededom, blessed for the ark's sake. A church in the house makes it a little sanctuary.

(3.) There he found many that were gathered together praying, at the dead time of the night, praying for Peter, who was the next day to come upon his trial, that God would find out some way or other for his deliverance. Observe, [1.] They continued in prayer, in token of their importunity; they did not think it enough once to have presented his case to God, but they did it again and again. Thus men ought always to pray, and not to faint. As long as we are kept waiting for a mercy we must continue praying for it. [2.] It should seem that now when the affair came near to a crisis, and the very next day was fixed for the determining of it, they were more fervent in prayer than before; and it was a good sign that God intended to deliver Peter when he thus stirred up a spirit of prayer for his deliverance, for he never said to the seed of Jacob, Seek ye my face in vain. [3.] They gathered together for prayer on this occasion; though this would made them obnoxious to the government if they were discovered, yet they know what an

encouragement Christ gave to joint-prayer, Mat_18:19, Mat_18:20. And it was always the practice of God's praying people to unite their forces in prayer, as 2Ch_20:4; Est_4:16. [4.] They were many that were got together for this work, as many perhaps as the room would hold; and first one prayed, and then another, of those who gave themselves to the word and prayer, the rest joining with them; or, if they had not ministers among them, no doubt but there were many private Christians that knew how to pray, and to pray pertinently, and to continue long in prayer when the affections of those who joined were so stirred as to keep pace with them upon such an occasion. This was in the night, when others were asleep, which was an instance both of their prudence and of their zeal. Note, It is good for Christians to have private meetings for prayer, especially in times of distress, and not to let fall nor forsake such assemblies. [5.] Peter came to them when they were thus employed, which was an immediate present answer to their prayer. It was as if God should say, “You are praying that Peter may be restored to you; now here he is.” While they are yet speaking, I will hear, Isa_65:24. Thus the angel was sent with an answer of peace to Daniel's prayer, while he was praying, Dan_9:20, Dan_9:21. Ask, and it shall be given.

JAMISO�, "he came to the house of Mary, etc.— who “must have had a house of some pretensions to receive a large number; and, accordingly, we read that her brother Barnabas (Col_4:10) was a person of substance (Act_4:37). She must also have been distinguished for faith and courage to allow such a meeting in the face of persecution” [Webster and Wilkinson]. To such a house it was natural that Peter should come.

mother of John ... Mark— so called to distinguish him from the apostle of that name, and to distinguish her from the other Marys.

where many were gathered together praying— doubtless for Peter’s deliverance, and continuing, no doubt, on this the last of the days of unleavened bread, which was their last hope, all night in prayer to God.

CALVI�, "12.Into the house of Mary It appeareth that she was a matron of rare

godliness, whose house was, as it were, a certain temple of God, where the brethren

did use to meet together. And Luke saith that there were many assembled there,

because, seeing they could not all meet together in one place without fear of some

tumult, they came together in diverse places of the city in companies, as they could

conveniently. For, doubtless, there were other companies gathered together

elsewhere, because it is not to be thought that (at such times as many of the faithful

did give themselves to prayer) the apostles were not in like sort occupied, and one

house could not hold so many. And we must always mark the circumstance of time,

because, even in the heat of the enemy’s cruelty, the godly were, notwithstanding,

assembled together. For if, at any time, this exercise be profitable, then is it most

necessary when hard conflicts approach.

COFFMA�, "When he had considered the thing ... Peter no doubt recalled that

when the angel had released him and the other apostles, he was commanded, not to

leave Jerusalem, but to continue preaching in the temple. Peter honored that

instruction here by not fleeing for safety, but by taking his place with the praying

disciples.

Where many were gathered ... This cannot mean that the entire church were

gathered in a single residence, but that the place mentioned was one among many

such gatherings throughout the city. The church at this time numbered many

thousands of faithful Christians. The choice of Mary's residence as the place where

Peter went might have turned on the deep personal attachment of the apostle to

John Mark, who in time, after a long companionship with Peter, would write the

apostle's gospel under the title of MARK.

COKE, "Acts 12:12. And when he had considered the thing,— And making haste, (

σπευδων ) Hammond. And deliberating with himself, or recollecting where he was;

Heylin and Doddridge. The Mark here mentioned is thought by Grotius to have

been a different person from St. Mark the evangelist. He was the Son of Mary, as we

are here informed, and he is spoken of as sister's son to Barnabas, (Colossians 4:10.)

who appears to have had a great affection for him, not only by taking him with him

to Antioch, and thence to Pamphylia, but by his insisting afterwards, when setting

out upon another progress, that Mark should go with them to visit the churches, to

which Paul was so averse, that they parted; chap. Acts 15:37-40. We have no further

account of him in the Acts; but he appears to have so far retrieved his character,

that he is recommended afterwards by the apostles to the Colossians as above; and

when he was at Rome, St. Paul mentions him among his fellow-labourers, Phil. Acts

12:24 and at last speaks of his desire to see him, as one who was useful to him in the

ministry, 2 Timothy 4:11.

CO�STABLE, "Peter went directly to a home where he may have known that

Christians would be praying for him. This was the house of Mary the mother of

John (Jewish name) Mark (Greek name). Barnabas sold his land and gave it to the

church (Acts 4:37), but Mary kept her house. This shows that communal living was

not required among the early Christians. John Mark was the man who accompanied

Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey (Acts 13:5). He was Barnabas'

cousin (Colossians 4:10) who travelled with Barnabas to Cyprus when Paul chose

Silas as his companion for his second missionary journey (Acts 15:37-39). Mark

later accompanied Paul again (Colossians 4:10; Philemon 1:24), as well as Peter (1

Peter 5:13). According to early church tradition he wrote the Gospel that bears his

name, served as Peter's interpreter in Rome, and founded the church in Alexandria,

Egypt. [�ote: The Ecclesiastical History . . ., pp. 34-35, 79, 188.]

ELLICOTT, "(12) Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark.—On the

probable identity of this Mark with the evangelist of that name, see Introduction to

St. Mark’s Gospel. Here we may note (1) that as being mentioned by St. Peter as his

“son” (1 Peter 5:13) he was probably converted by him; (2) that he was cousin to

Barnabas, probably through his mother, and was therefore at least connected with

the tribe of Levi (Acts 4:36), and possibly belonging to it; (3) that the fact that

Mary’s house was the meeting-place of the Church indicates comparative wealth, as

did Barnabas’s sale of his estate; (4) that the absence of any mention of Mark’s

father makes it probable that she was a widow; (5) that the Latin name of Marcus

indicates some point of contact with Romans or Roman Jews.

Many were gathered together praying.—The facts of the case show that the meeting

was held at night, possibly to avoid persecution, or, it may be, as the sequel of the

evening gathering to “break bread.”

BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, "And when he had considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark.

John Mark

1. Two names are here, one Jewish, the other Roman; the latter adopted at first as a secondary one, and gradually superseding the former, just as “Joses” grew into “Barnabas,” and “Saul” became universally known as “Paul.” Thus we have “John, whose surname was Mark”; but later always “Mark” or “Marcus,” the Jewish name being entirely gone.

2. The scenes of this man’s youth are not difficult to imagine. His father is never mentioned, but his mother is of note in the Christian community. She has a house commodious enough to receive a number of its members when they desire to meet. She has servants; the name of one of them we know, “Rhoda,” or “Rose.” There would meet, on various occasions, the choicest spirits of the early Church. Barnabas was Mary’s nephew, and would often be her guest. Peter must have been an intimate friend. We find traces of these connections in the Epistles. “Marcus, sister’s son” (or rather cousin) “to Barnabas,” is the designation given to him in Colossians, and in Peter’s first Epistle he is called “Marcus my son,” no doubt in the spiritual sense, as Timothy stood related to Paul. Mary was a devout and courageous woman, ready, even when Herod’s sword was loose, with a welcome for all who loved the Lord. It was a fine moral atmosphere for a youth to breathe: a godly mother, praying friends, missionaries and martyrs and apostles coming and going there; and a bracing one withal, with frequent winds of fierce opposition raging around something it must have been to be a son in the house to which Peter came that night, and to have been in the company when cousin Barnabas introduced Saul of Tarsus. But, so far, we have proceeded mainly on conjecture. Mark’s recorded history begins about the year A.D. 44, the era of the earliest mission to the heathen.

3. When Barnabas and Saul were set apart for this work, it was settled that Mark should accompany them as their “minister,” or servant. It was the excellent custom of the older evangelists to associate the younger with them; just as Moses chose Joshua for his assistant, and Elisha “poured water on the hands of Elijah.” The design was to inure them to the discipline of the missionary life, and to instruct them in its duties. It was the squire learning to win his spurs in the Christian chivalry by attendance on the knight who had won them already. And what could be more suitable, or full of promise, than that Mark should serve his first campaign under Barnabas.

4. But what sudden change is this, occurring when that missionary journey has been but a little while begun? “John, departing from them, returned to Jerusalem.” Short words, but how significant and disappointing! After witnessing the awful judgment on Elymas, and the glorious conversion of Sergius Paulus; after seeing how Paul could smite, and how Barnabas could heal; after feeling some thrill of holy emulation in his own bosom, does he now give up the Christian work? What motive can have turned him back? Matthew Henry says, “Either he did not like the work, or he

wanted to go see his mother.” A fit of homesickness, in fact! Perhaps also Paul, himself so hardy and self-sacrificing, was a little impatient with the young man, and treated him with an outspoken severity not pleasant to endure. Mark was no traitor, for his heart was true at bottom; but he was at present a coward, too soft to suffer hardship, and he had forgotten to count the cost. A failure, it would seem; a hand taken from the plough; a ship, scarcely out of dock, and already stranded on the shore! What a sorrow to that noble mother to see her son return like this; better he had been borne home dead upon his shield than have cast it away in dishonourable flight.

5. Five years must be supposed to pass. Barnabas and Paul have accomplished their journey, and returned. The great conflict with the Pharisaic party at Jerusalem has been fought out. The two missionaries are panting to be at work again. And of all men, who should appear, applying to accompany them, but the deserter Mark? Paul has never seen him since that unhappy parting at Perga; and he does not mean to be deceived a second time. Barnabas must do as he thinks right, but Paul will rather break their own old companionship, and go by himself. Then Barnabas will break it too. Barnabas takes the more hopeful, more indulgent view; he has probably heard better things of his young cousin. The decision of the “son of consolation” is to give him another chance. “And so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus.” How often has that “other chance” been the making of a man!

6. Another blank occurs here. We lose sight for ten years of Barnabas and Mark. Barnabas may be dead; and Mark appears again, and, singularly enough, in the Epistles of Paul to the Colossians and to Philemon. But can it be the same man? Another stamp is set now upon his name by the very hand that was once ready to brand “deserter.” Surely our stranded ship floats again! Our fallen brother has lifted himself up, with heaven’s help, and is on his own feet, pressing forward with as stout a heart as the bravest. Barnabas was right; there was a true heart in the man after all.

7. We turn to the first Epistle of Peter, and Mark is now at Babylon; what an indefatigable traveller he has grown, and what a heart has he for labour! And he is found with aged Peter, his father in the faith. Presently Paul is writing again; it is the last of all his letters, the second to Timothy. His friends have left him; he is cold, and he is ill, and, with all his steadfast faith in the Divine support, he craves for a little human sympathy. Therefore let Timothy, if it may be, come quickly from Ephesus, where he is, bringing cloak and parchments, and his own filial care; and let him bring also some other tried and trusty brother, as a second source of consolation. Who, then, shall the chosen one be? “Take Mark, and bring him with thee”; a “profitable man,” the very man for a minister, a servant, a friend! Mark, the runaway? Even him; for years have passed since then, and the timid stripling has become the resolute and energetic veteran.

8. One further reference remains, a large and a long one; for it is a whole book of Scripture—“the Gospel according to Mark.” All the early traditions agree in attributing this to Mark, as the scribe and interpreter of Peter. And thus the image which remains is not that of the fugitive youth, but of the missionary, the faithful companion of the chief apostles, and one among the four evangelists.

9. On the northern coast of Devon there spreads a bay, along which the sea comes tide after tide, washing a broad beach of tiny shells; but you may search the shore for hours, and find no perfect specimen: the shells are broken. I can conceive many a disheartened traveller in life’s hard journey sitting down on that beach, and saying, “Behold the image of my own experience, of my broken resolutions, unaccomplished

purposes, and perpetual failures!” Even in the Christian Church there are not a few who feel that they have failed of the high aims, the noble impulses, which warmed and quickened them at first! To any such disheartened souls this story of Mark’s recovery should come like a trumpet call of hope. Never too late, while life lasts. Once more to the front! If Paul does not trust you, Barnabas will. If Paul does not care for you now, he may come to lean on you with all his strength. And One, of whom you know, clearer-sighted by far than that shrewd apostle, tenderer of heart than that “son of consolation,” marks your struggles, and prays for your success; and He, as you arise, will breathe into your ear those words of unutterable hope and encouragement, “Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more.” (W. Brock.)

And many were gathered together praying.—

The special prayer meeting

It was a great wonder that the infant Church of Christ was not destroyed. She was like a lone lamb in the midst of furious wolves. With what weapons did she protect herself? The answer is—prayer. Whatever may be the danger of the times, and each age has its own peculiar hazard, our defence is of God, and we may avail ourselves of it by prayer. But this is not all: the newborn Church not only escaped, but it multiplied. What made it grow? The answer is that on all occasions “many were gathered together praying”; and if our Churches are to live and grow they must be watered from the self-same source. We have heard a great deal of talk in certain sections of the Church about going back to primitive times; but unfortunately what they call the early Church is not early enough. If we must have the early Church let us have the earliest Church of all. Notice—

I. The importance which the early Church attributed to prayer meetings.

1. As soon as we begin to read in the Acts, and continually as we read on we note that meetings for prayer had become a standing institution in the Church. They were not met to hear a sermon, although that is proper, but praying was the business on hand. The eminent speaking brethren seem to have been all away, and perhaps the Church was too much engrossed in intercession. There is a serious flaw in the arrangements of a Church when such gatherings are omitted or placed in a secondary position. The private Christian will read, and hear, and meditate, but none of these can be a substitute for prayer: the same truth holds good upon the larger scale.

2. It appears, however, that while prayer meetings were a regular institution, the prayer was sometimes made special. It adds greatly to the interest and fervency of prayer when there is some great object to pray for. Here the special object was Peter. They prized the man, for they saw what wonders God had wrought by his ministry, and they could not let him die if prayer would save him. Why not pray for a certain missionary, or some chosen district, or class of persons, or order of agencies? We should do well to turn the grand artillery of supplication against some special point of the enemy’s walls.

3. These friends fully believed that there was power in prayer; for, Peter being in prison, they did not meet together to arrange a plan for getting him out. It looked as if they could do nothing, but they felt they could do everything by prayer. They thought little of the fact that sixteen soldiers had him in charge. If there had been sixteen thousand these believing men and women would still have prayed Peter out. Let it never be insinuated in the Christian Church that prayer is a good and useful exercise to ourselves, but that it would be superstition to suppose that it affects the

mind of God. As surely as any law of nature can be proven, we know both by observation and experiment that God assuredly hears prayer.

4. This prayer was industriously continued. As soon as Herod had put Peter into prison the Church began to pray. As in times of war, when two armies lie near each other they both set their sentries, so in this case Herod had his sentries, and the church had its pickets too. As soon as one little company were compelled to separate they were relieved by another, and when some were forced to take rest in sleep, others were ready to take up the work. Some mercies are not given to us except in answer to importunate prayer. There are blessings which, like ripe fruit, drop into your hand the moment you touch the bough; but there are others which require you to shake the tree again and again, until you make it rock with the vehemence of your exercise, for then only will the fruit fall down. I would pause here, and urge my brethren to attach as much importance to prayer as the early Church did. Some prize active agencies, but prayer is the steam engine which makes the wheels revolve, and really does the work, and therefore we cannot do without it. Suppose a foreman were employed by some great builder to manage works at a distance. He has to pay the men their wages weekly, but he forgets to write for cash to go on with. Is this wise? Keep up a constant communication with heaven, or your communications with earth will be of little worth. You may go on preaching and teaching, and giving away tracts, and what you like, but nothing can possibly come of it when the power of Almighty God has ceased to be with you.

II. The number assembled.

1. This is a rebuke to some here present. The text says, “Many were gathered.” Somebody said that two or three thousand people had no more power in prayer than two or three. That is a grave mistake in many ways; but clearly so in reference to each other; for have you never noticed that when many meet together praying, warmth of desire and glow of earnestness are greatly increased. Have you not observed how one brother suggests to another to increase his petition, and so the petitions grow by the mingling of heart with heart, and the communion of spirit with spirit? Besides, faith is a cumulative force. “According to thy faith so be it done unto thee” is true to one, to two, to twenty, to twenty thousand.

2. This is not a very common occurrence, and why is it that so many prayer meetings are so very thin? Gentlemen who do not get home from the city and have their dinner till seven o’clock, cannot be expected to go out to a prayer meeting. They work all the day, so much harder than working men. Some of you who have your delightful villas are very careful of your health, and never venture out into the evening air at prayer meetings, though I rather suspect that your parties and soirees are still kept up. After all, this is a personal matter. How are we to increase the number? Not by complaining of those who stay away, but by coming yourself. The largest numbers are made up of units.

3. I am not sure that quite so many would have been gathered together that night if it had not been that Peter was in prison. Ministers laid aside by illness find their people pray better, and perhaps one reason for his being afflicted was God’s desire to stir the hearts of His people to intercede. Now, the best way to do good to your pastor is to pray to be kept in a right condition, and not need his sickness as a stimulus to prayer.

III. The place of assembly. A private house, and I want to urge my brethren to consecrate their houses by frequently using them for prayer meetings. There was a

meetness in their meeting in this particular house, for the family stood in a very dear relationship to Peter. Peter in his First Epistle refers to “Marcus, my son.” Mark would be sure to pray for his spiritual father. There is sure to be prayer for the pastor in the house where the pastor has been blessed to the family. Mark was not all we should like him to have been, but he might have been a useless Christian, and never have used his graphic pen for the Lord had not the good people come to his house. The house received a blessing, and so will you, too, if your house shall be every now and then opened for special prayer. Prayer meetings at private houses are very useful, because friends who would be afraid to pray before a large assembly are able to feel free and easy in a smaller company in a private house. Sometimes, too, the social element is consecrated by God to promote a greater warmth and fervour, so that prayer will often burn in the family when perhaps it might have declined in the public assembly.

IV. The time of this prayer meeting. At dead of night. Now, if the time for prayer meetings be an inconvenient hour, and I should think the dead of night was rather inconvenient, nevertheless go. Better hold prayer meetings at twelve o’clock at night than not at all. But the dead of the night was chosen for safety. Let the time fixed for modern prayer meetings be an hour suited to the habits of the people.

V. The success of the prayer meetings as an encouragement to us. The answer came so speedily that they were themselves surprised. It has sometimes been said that their astonishment was the result of unbelief. I doubt that, for their prayer did set Peter free, and therefore it could not have been unbelieving prayer. I trace their surprise to their probable expectation that Peter would be delivered at a different time and manner. And God can send us surprises quite as great as this. We may pray for some sinner, and while we are yet praying we may hear him cry, “What must I do to be saved?” We may offer our prayers for the sleeping Church, and while we pray it may be answered. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda.

Rhoda

“Rhoda” means “a rose,” and this rose has kept its bloom for eighteen hundred years, and is still sweet and fragrant. What a lottery undying fame is! Men will give their lives to earn it; and this servant girl got it by one little act, and never knew that she had it. Now there is a very singular resemblance between the details of this incident and those of another case, when Peter was recognised in the dark by his voice, and the evangelist Luke, who is the author of the Acts of the Apostles, seems to have had the resemblance between the two scenes, that in the high priest’s palace and that outside Mary’s door, in his mind, because he uses in this narrative a word which occurs, in the whole of the New Testament, only here and in his account of what took place on that earlier occasion. In both instances a maid servant recognises Peter by his voice, and in both she “constantly affirms” that it was so. Luke felt how strangely events sometimes double themselves; and how the man that is here all but a martyr is re-enacting, with differences, something like the former scene, when he was altogether a traitor.

I. We may notice in the relations of Rhoda to the assembled believers a striking illustration of the new bond of union supplied by the gospel. Rhoda was a slave. The word rendered in our version “damsel” means a female slave. Her name being a Gentile name, and her servile condition, make it probable that she was not a Jewess. If one

might venture to indulge in a guess, it is not at all unlikely that her mistress, Mary, John Mark’s mother, Barnabas’ sister, a well-to-do woman of Jerusalem, who had a house big enough to take in the members of the Church in great numbers, and to keep up a considerable establishment, had brought this slave girl from the island of Cyprus. At all events, she was a slave. In the time of our Lord, and long after, these relations of slavery brought an element of suspicion, fear, and jealous espionage into almost every Roman household, because every master knew that he passed his days and nights among men and women who wanted nothing better than to wreak their vengeance upon him. And now here this child slave, this Gentile, has been touched by the same mighty love as her mistress; and Mary and Rhoda were kneeling together in the prayer meeting when Peter began to hammer at the door. In God’s good time, and by the slow process of leavening society with Christian ideas, that diabolical institution perished in Christian lands. Violent reformation of immoralities is always a blunder. “Raw haste” is “half-sister to Delay.” Settlers in forest lands have found that it is endless work to grub up the trees, or even to fell them. “Root and branch” reform seldom answers. The true way is to girdle the tree by taking off a ring of bark round the trunk, and letting nature do the rest. Dead trees are easily dealt with; living ones blunt many axes and tire many arms, and are alive after all. Thus the gospel waged no direct war with slavery, but laid down principles which, once they are wrought into Christian consciousness, made its continuance impossible. But, pending that consummation, the immediate action of Christianity was to ameliorate the condition of the slave. The whole aspect of the ugly thing was changed as soon as master and slave together became the slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ. That slight, girlish figure, standing at the door of Mary, her slave, and yet her sister in Christ, may be taken as pointing symbolically the way by which the social and civic evils of this day are to be healed, and the war of classes to cease.

II. Note how we get here a very striking picture of the sacredness and greatness of small common duties. Rhoda came out from the prayer meeting to open the gate. It was her business, as we say, “to answer the door,” and so she left off praying to go and do it. So doing, she was the means of delivering the apostle from the danger which still dogged him. It was of little use to be praying on one side of the shut door, when on the other he was standing in the street, and the day was beginning to dawn; Herod’s men would be after him as soon as daylight disclosed his escape. It is not unnecessary to insist that no heights or delights of devotion and secret communion are sufficient excuses for neglecting or delaying the doing of the smallest and most menial task which is our duty. If your business is to keep the door, you will not be leaving, but abiding in the secret place of the Most High, if you get up from your knees in the middle of your prayer, and go down to open it. The smallest, commonest acts of daily life are truer worship than is rapt and solitary communion, or united prayer, if the latter can only be secured by the neglect of the former. Let us remember how we may find here an illustration of another great truth, that the smallest things, done in the course of the quiet discharge of recognised duty, and being, therefore, truly worship of God, have in them a certain quality of immortality, and may be eternally commemorated.

III. The same figure of the damsel named Rhoda may give us a warning as to the possibility of forgetting very plain duties under the pressure of very legitimate excitement. “She opened not the door for gladness,” but ran in and told them, Yes! And if, whilst she was running in with her message, Herod’s quaternions of soldiers had come down the street, there would have been “no small stir” in the Church as to “what had become of Peter.” Now joy and sorrow are equally apt to make us forget plain and pressing duties, and we may learn from this little incident the old-fashioned but always necessary advice, to keep feeling well under control, to use it as impulse, not as guide,

and never to let emotion, which should be down in the engine room, come on deck and take the helm. It is dangerous to obey feeling, unless its degrees are countersigned by calm common sense illuminated by Scripture. Sorrow is apt to obscure duty by its darkness, and joy by its dazzle. It is hard to see the road at midnight, or at midday when the sun is in our eyes. Both need to be controlled. Duty remains the same, whether my heart be beating like a sledge hammer, or whether my “bosom lord sits lightly on its throne.” Whether I am sad or glad, the door that God has given me to watch has to be opened and shut by me.

IV. Lastly, we have here an instance of a very modest but positive and fully warranted trust in one’s own experience, in spite of opposition. They had been praying, as has often been remarked, for Peter’s deliverance, and now that he is delivered they will not believe it. Nobody ever seems to have thought of going to the door to see whether it was he or not, but they went arguing with Rhoda as to whether she was right or wrong. The unbelief that alloys even golden faith is taught us in this incident. Rhoda “constantly affirmed that it was so.” The lesson is—trust your own experience whatever people may have to say against it. If you have found that Jesus Christ can help you, and has loved you, and that your sins have been forgiven, because you have trusted in Him, do not let anybody laugh or talk you out of that conviction. If you cannot argue, do like Rhoda, “constantly affirm that it is so.” (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Rhoda

I. Her name. Miriam and Rhoda are the only two girls of the Bible whose names we know. A learned German has written a book on “the names of women taken from flowers.” He shows that these names mark the qualities which we expect to find in girls. Now Rhoda is the Greek name for a rose. It is the first part of the word “rhododendron,” which means “rose tree.” In the olden times, as nowadays, people hoped that girls would be in the home what the rose is in the garden: that they would add a charm, a beauty, and a sweet perfume to life. I have read somewhere that a rose is carved on a girl’s tombstone in France, with these words underneath, “She was just like that.” The rose, however, is as famed for its speedy decay as for its sweetness and beauty. But when the ancients gave this name to their girls, they meant that, as they would wear, so they would justify and deserve their name all their days. Some, however, grow like the rose that has shed its leaves, and kept only its bare thorns. Others resemble the autumn flower, whose leaves are highly coloured while its sweet savour is gone. Some are like the rose into whose bud the cankerworm has crept; some are like the rose planted among thorns, which shows its wounds as well as its beauty; and some are even like the rose that is soiled and trampled in the dust of the highway. But Rhoda was a girl who deserved her beautiful name, and wore it well. For she was good; and to be good is to be beautiful with the best beauty. In old languages they used to call the bad ugly, and they do so in some parts of the world at this day. The good and the beautiful are really the same, when the matter is rightly understood. The grace of God is the grand beautifier. It makes people graceful, that is both good and beautiful.

II. Her company. It is the very best in the world; she is among the Christians. Whether she was the slave or the daughter of Mary, we know not; but it is plain that she was among the Christians not by chance, but by choice, or else she would have gone to bed, or fallen asleep, like Eutychus. But Peter had hardly done knocking when she was at the keyhole, asking who was there. She knew his voice at once in the dark, and so must have been intimate with him. She was like the blind girl who, unexpectedly hearing her old

minister at a meeting, shook with excitement, and said aloud, “Oh, that’s my minister!” And Rhoda’s gladness shows where her heart was. What efforts many make to get into what they call “good society”! This restlessness to be something which we are not, causes a world of misery. But Rhoda easily gained admittance to the very flower of human kind. They who come to Christ at once enter into the most splendid society in the world. Who would be foolish enough to shut herself out from that glorious band which embraces the best of every age and nation, all God’s heroes, and the noble army of the apostles and martyrs?

III. Her courage. Every Christian then was a hero for God; for he ran the risk of poverty, prison, and death. It was so in this land two hundred years ago. In Rhoda’s days it needed double courage to be a Christian in Jerusalem, for the maddest of the Jews lived there, and Herod’s sword was smoking with the blood of the saints. James, one of their leaders, had just been slain; and Peter was in prison, ready to be offered up. Rhoda, who shared the dangers, must have also shared the courage of the apostles. It was as much as her life was worth to attend that prayer meeting. One small touch in her story gives us a hint of her dangers. When Peter knocked, she did not open the door till she knew who was knocking: they were afraid of Herod’s soldiers. Persecution has passed away, but none the less on that account do you need the courage you admire in Rhoda. For mean, false shame is one of the worst of your snares. Pray that you may have the free and fearless spirit of those bold hymns which you love to sing: “Dare to be a Daniel”; “Stand up for Jesus.” Be ready with a round, rousing No, when sinners entice you.

IV. Her service. Though only a girl, we see her here doing service. It was very humble; for she was as one who keeps a door in the house o! God. But she did her part, and did it right heartily. And God asks no more of you. Angels are perfect servants of God, and this chapter gives us a specimen of their way of serving. Watch the angel delivering Peter from prison, and take him as your model in doing God’s work. How swiftly he works! Most pictures give angels wings, to denote the swiftness of a willing mind. Thus when Rhoda’s heart was full of joy, she ran on her errand. Be this your resolve, “I will run the way of Thy commandments, when Thou shalt enlarge my heart.” Gratitude makes wings grow on the feet of life. And how humbly the angel does his work! He does not even mention his name, but hastens back to God, to whom he gives all the glory. An old minister was once preaching a funeral sermon upon the death of an “elect lady,” who had been his helper in Christ. She was angel-like in humility; and he compared her to a fair taper in a room, which is bright to others, but is itself hid in the shade made by its own light. You, too, may have an angel’s spirit in doing the work God has put into your hands. (J. Wells, M. A.)

And they said unto her, Thou art mad.—

Surprised by answers to prayer

Mr. Muller, of Bristol, believes in God for the support of his benevolent institution, and God supplies him with all his needs; but whenever you speak about him you say, “What a wonderful thing!” Has it come to this, that in the Christian Church it is accounted a marvel for Christians to believe in the promises of God, and something like a miracle for God to fulfil them? Does not this wonderment indicate more clearly than anything else how fallen we are from the level of faith at which we ought constantly to live? If the Lord wants to surprise His people, He has only at once to give an answer to their prayers. No sooner had they obtained their answer, than they would say, “Who would have thought it!” Is it really surprising that God should keep His own promise? Oh, what unbelief! Oh,

what wretched unbelief on our part! We ask and we receive not, because we do not believe in God. We waver; we must not expect to receive anything at His hand except what He chooses to give as a gratuity; an act of sovereign mercy, not a covenanted blessing. We do not get what we might have as the reward of faith, because we have not got the faith that He honours. I like that story of a godly old woman, who, when told of God’s answering prayer, supplemented with a reflection, “Is not that wonderful?” replied, “No, it is just like Him. Of course He answers prayer; of course He keeps His promise.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Forgetfulness through joy

On one occasion, in Limehouse chapel, a woman dressed in her working clothes appeared amongst the penitent inquirers. After being taught the way of salvation and prayed with, she found, peace in believing. She suddenly remembered that her house was locked and the key in her pocket, and told us that, in leaving home, she had no thought whatever of a religious service. Seeing the chapel lit up and hearing the singing, she entered, heard the sermon, was convinced of sin, and remained to pray, with the result already mentioned. Rhoda, seeing Peter standing at the gate, was so overjoyed that she forgot to let the liberated apostle in; so the woman at Limehouse, rejoicing that she herself was made free indeed, forgot that her house key was in her pocket, and that some of her family might be knocking at her door unable to enter. (T. McCullagh.)

The girl who was called mad

This girl—

I. Had a beautiful name. Many Jewish and other parents gave to their children the names of certain plants, trees, and flowers. Hadassa, a myrtle; Susanna, a lily; Tamar, a palm tree; Rhoda, a rose. That is beautiful, because it leads us to think of the garden in summer, and one of the prettiest flowers there. Have you such a name? Be thankful. Have you not such a name? Be content. It was given to you by others. They, and not you, are responsible. Besides, to grumble about it is to do no good. The time may come when it will be your duty to give names to children. Select those only that are associated with lovely things. Let all the words which you employ in writing and speaking be of the same description.

II. Was a domestic servant. Her duty was to open the door when anyone knocked. In this respect she has advantages over those in other situations. She is more free from—

1. Care. Nothing to pay for except her clothing.

2. Danger. Has not to go out in all kinds of weather. Sheltered from rains and storms.

3. Temptations. Others may have greater liberty. This often leads to temptations which do not come to the domestic servant.

4. Risk of losing her situation. Her class not so numerous as others. Masters and mistresses value a good servant, and will keep her as long as she does her duty. Nothing degrading about such a situation. To serve in a good family is exceedingly honourable. To show this the Bible has recorded some of the names and doings of domestic servants.

III. Was a Christian.

1. She was serving in a Christian home.

2. There was a prayer meeting in that home, and she loved to be there.

3. She was quite familiar with the voice of one of the apostles. Your parents, teachers, and, above all, Jesus, wish you to be Christians.

IV. Was very cautious. It was night. All around lonely and still. Some one knocking at the door. Instead of opening it at once, she said, “Who is there?” Never open the door at night till you know who is on the outside. Be cautious in all other things—in writing to, speaking about, and acting in the presence of others.

V. Was accused of madness. When she heard Peter’s voice, she was so glad that she could not open the door. The same thing has often happened; and the praying company, instead of believing her, said she was mad. This did not make her angry, for she knew that she was right. If you know you are right, and others say you are wrong, be not angry, but calm. The truth sooner or later will appear to others as it does to you. (A. McAuslane, D. D.)

But Peter continued knocking.—

Christian persistency

That’s right. Bang away! If Christians will not bestir themselves at your first call, hammer at them until they do. There is nothing like persistency for overcoming the sluggishness and sloth of half-hearted faith. The preacher, or the teacher, or the parent, or the Christian worker in any sphere, who turns away from the door of the heart he wants to enter, simply because it is not opened at his first call, is not really deserving of success in his mission. “Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” If it is not opened the first time, knock again. If it is not opened after ten times knocking, continue knocking until it is opened. When the door is opened, you can enter in. But until it is opened, your duty is to keep up a knocking. (H. C. Trumbull.)

Acts 12:19-25

And … Herod … went down from Judea to Caesarea.

The death of Herod

This journey of Herod is described by Josephus. It would seem that he left Judaea in disgust and spleen because Peter had escaped from his hands. We are next informed that “Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon,” etc. Judaea being an agricultural and a pastoral country, and Tyre and Sidon being mercantile countries, the latter were dependent on the inland trade for their support, and therefore it would have been almost ruin to them if Herod had carried his thoughts into execution; for the expression “highly displeased” means that he contemplated war. They, therefore, came to him in the most submissive manner, and bribed Blastus to use his influence. Herod having acceded to their request, and being a vainglorious man, determined to receive the ambassadors of Tyre and Sidon with a display of royal splendour. He also made an eloquent oration, probably reminding them of his own great condescension in receiving

their ambassadors and granting them peace; and then “the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him.” And when the tyrant was dead, it is added, in striking and beautiful contrast, “But the Word of God grew and multiplied.” Note—

I. The miserable end of Herod. Observe—

1. The extreme emptiness of earthly splendour. How wonderful it is, that with such a lesson as this continually recorded in the page of history, and in our own experience, we should still need to be reminded of it; for it seldom happens that any grand ceremonial takes place without there being some circumstance connected with it to stamp vanity upon it. But it is not merely in the dazzling circumstances of courts and kings that the worldliness of man’s heart is shown; it is ingrained in us all. We are by nature lovers of this present world; and even when they are not actually removed, God often embitters to us our idols, and although we clearly see our own folly in idolising them, yet we cannot tear the idols away. We are all hastening towards the grave; and, painful as it must be, it would be very wholesome if we could look upon each other’s countenances, and feel an abiding sense that dissolution must soon come. Parents and children, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, dear as they are to each other, must soon part. Oh! that we could meditate then upon this; and when we see a great king thus awfully cut down—when there seems but a step between the gorgeous apparel and the filthy worm—let us pause, learn how short our time is, and pray that we may not set our hearts upon the fleeting shadows of the world, but may seek to lay up treasure where “rust and moth doth not corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.” How blessed, to think that there is a garment which shall never be exchanged for the worm, that there is a crown which shall never fall from our heads, that there is an abode where sorrow cannot come! Who would believe it, to see men frantically pursuing things that are not worth the having?

2. An awful instance of God’s wrath against the persecutors of His Church and people. This man had killed James, etc. What a change is here. A little while, and Peter is safe, and the proud and mighty Herod is the prey of worms. “So let all Thine enemies perish, O Lord”; and so must they perish, if they die in their sins. There are few sins which are followed up with more signal punishment than the persecution of God’s saints. We see this in the fate of those who persecuted Israel, and it would be easy to show, from the history of modern Europe, that there has not been a power, papal or heathen, which has persecuted the Church of God, but the Lord has rendered an awful retribution into their bosoms. “He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of His eye.” There is no organ so delicate as the apple of the eye. The smallest puncture there will give pain over the whole body. How strikingly is this illustrated in the case of Saul. “Why persecutest thou Me?” And our Saviour says that it would be better for a man who persecutes the saints of God “that a millstone had been hung around his neck, and he had been cast into the depths of the sea.” And let us remember that it is the spirit of the persecutor which God looks at. You may say that men are not now sent to prison and to bonds for serving Christ. But ungodly men show the same disposition as ever to persecute. They point with the finger of scorn; they apply names of contempt, and endeavour to injure reputation. This is nothing else but the spirit which lifted the hand of Herod, and all that were like him, to persecute the saints of God. Happy are they who are “persecuted for righteousness’ sake,” but woe be unto them that persecute them.

3. God’s jealousy of His own glory and condemnation of human pride. The sin for

which he was eaten of worms was only a negative sin. When the people said, “It is the voice of a god, and not of a man,” Herod did nothing, said nothing; but it is added, “Immediately the angel of the Lord smote him.” And why? “Because he gave not God the glory.” Oh, what a little sin does this appear! How singular that this man should have been suffered to go through a long career of cruelty, oppression, and profligacy, ending with the murder of God’s saints, and that the blow should be withheld until he had committed this apparently little sin—namely, not to reproach the people for their idolatry! Now this is well worthy of our serious consideration, because it is just by such things as these that we are led to the secret root of sin, and led to detect its hidden springs. It is of no use just to cut off the tops of the weeds in our gardens; we must pluck them up by the roots, or they will grow again. So it is with sin. The case of Herod is not a singular one. It is very remarkable, that we read of many instances in the Old Testament in which persons known to be of the most profligate and wicked character, and nations and people of the most debauched habits, have had the judgments of God poured out upon them, not for what are ordinarily considered great crimes, but for the crime of pride and exaltation against God (Isa_10:5, etc.; 47:10; Dan_4:1-37.). It is perhaps said, “But this is an uncommon sin.” Certainly in its full development it is; for all are not kings, nor can they array themselves in royal apparel; but as to the sin itself, it is universal. Oh! how many are there amongst us who spend their lives “in arraying themselves in apparel!” The love of personal admiration is one of the most universal sins of our fallen nature. From the queen upon her throne down to the meanest of her subjects, the love of dress and personal display is an indigenous sin in the hearts of all of us, according to our various stations in life. But, you observe, it was not for his apparel that the people admired Herod, but for his oration. Here is the pride of oratory, the pride of intellect. There are many who utterly despise the former, who feed eagerly upon the latter; and the more intellectual our sin, the more subtle it is, and perhaps the more venomous and deadly. There is no pride more detestable in the sight of God than intellectual or spiritual pride. And here again you see the love of flattery, the love of the admiration of our fellow creatures. There is scarcely any human being insensible to this. If there be any avenue by which you can infuse folly into a wise man’s heart, it is by flattering him. Oh! how mean and little do we seem when these bosom sins of ours are stripped open! How many a splendid action, how many an apparently virtuous one, how many a seemingly self-denying one, becomes a detestable and abominable sin, when the secret self-love and self-admiration that guided it is exposed! “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.” “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God.”

II. The progress of the gospel, notwithstanding all these events (verse 24). Remarkable juxtaposition of facts! Here is the persecutor eaten of worms, and gives up the ghost. Poor, feeble, wretched man! he can do nothing against God and His truth; and while he is dying, the Word of the Lord multiplies. This is a sort of recurring chorus in the whole history of the Acts. Thus it was after the deliverance of Peter and John, after the doom of Ananias and Sapphira, after the death of Stephen, and the conversion of Saul. What an idea does this give us of the omnipotence with which the Word is clothed, and of the mighty purposes of God concerning it! He hath said, “So shall My Word be, that goeth forth out of My mouth,” etc. And so it has been throughout the whole of the history of Christ’s Church militant here upon earth. Infinitely diversified is the story; there is no history so romantic as that. The Church, founded upon a Rock, never can be shaken; the gates of hell cannot prevail against it; men and devils may unite, but they shall be “eaten of worms” and “give up the ghost”; while the “Word of God” shall “grow and multiply.”

Let us repose our minds on these glorious considerations. It is the consolation of every well-regulated Christian mind that all the things which we see around us, however untoward, work together for the purpose of God. The Lord will show who is right and who is wrong; the work of every man will be submitted to the fire, and we shall then see which was the gold, and which the wood, hay, and stubble. Meanwhile His people have a confidence that they are serving a Master who cannot be defeated, and obey Him who has all things in His hands, and who said to another persecutor, “Thou couldest have no power at all against Me, except it were given thee from above.” (Dean Close.)

The death of Herod

I. He would not glorify God. To exceed a just proportion, even in that which is good, is sometimes blameful; too much justice; too much love. But to give God the glory is a duty unto which we are bound with an infinite devotion. Wherefore if God gave children by seventies, He asked but the first born. Every hour of our time is His benevolence; yet the law is only to keep the Sabbath day. The earth is the Lord’s, and yet His portion is but the tenth; but of His glory, it is His own entirely; He will not part with it. Themistocles, demanding tribute of the men of Andria, told them that he had brought two powerful advocates to plead his cause—Persuasion if they pleased, Violence if they refused. These two apparitors go before the glory of the Most High. Doth it like you to bless His name? So God is glorified by the devotion of His creature. Doth it like you to exalt yourself? Then He will be honoured in your confusion. He that swells to the greatest in this world shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. When the heathen traduced the Christians that they debased their emperor and made him less than the God of heaven, “Know you not,” says Tertullian, “that this is the eminency of your emperor to be less than God?” The heathen said that everything which grew too tall was thunder blasted, and that great fortunes, when they came to excess, did end in shameful ruin. As Virgil says of his bees, that one hive will fight cruelly against another; but cast a little dust into the air, and the fray is parted. So when the pride of man swells with vain opinion, methinks the casting of a little dust should pluck down our stomach, the base mould of which our flesh is made. Says St. Austin, “Set aside this corrupt leaven of ostentation, and all men are but men, as naked in their pomp as when they were born, or when they shall be buried.” It was pride that dethroned the bad angels, and it is that which makes man stubborn against the law and refractory against faith, blow there are four ways whereby this daring vice of pride doth diminish from that which should be given to God’s glory.

1. It is a sin no less ungrateful than presumptuous to enjoy wit, and art, and memory, and the blessings of the best portion, and to forget God. Everything that renowns us, feeds us, preserves us, is but a crumb that falls from our Master’s table.

2. Violence is done to God’s glory when conscience will acknowledge that God doth give all; but arrogancy will infer that man deserves all. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the free gift of God the Father, the unction of the Holy Spirit, are turned quite aside, like a river from his own true channel, when it falls into such a soil that thinks it deserves it. When good works sue to be called merits, they are like the ambitious men of the world, that spend their whole revenue to buy some gaudy title of honour; and when they have it, they want substance to maintain it.

3. The third transgression is a lofty stomach, that will seem to be no less than to have no equals. The proud man is deciphered by the single horn of the unicorn, who would be solitary in all God’s graces, and without a companion; whereas the

congregation of the militant church is compared to a field of wheat, where all the ears of the field are of an equal growth, and if any stalk over-top the rest it is lank and without fructification. They that are not contented to be equal with the common condition of men, shall never be equal with the angels; and he that despiseth the gifts of God in his fellow servants, is not the man that gives God the glory.

4. There is one feather more in the tail of pride, and full as long as the rest: when they arrogate to themselves that which indeed they have not. Christ hath said we cannot add one cubit to our stature; no, nor make one hair of our head black or white. Why do ye practise it, then, O ye gaudy beauties! to bring that about which Christ told you was impossible? I have seen books of meditations whose subject was to let all men know that they are vain, and sinful, and ignorant, and yet they were dedicated to some great man most virtuous and most religious. Presume not to take false titles upon you, as Herod encroached upon the name of God Himself.

But as to the pride of Herod, it is a monster that riseth up into two heads—

1. A tongue full of vain and insolent speech.

2. An ear obnoxious to the flattery of the people. Of both in their order, and for your edification. It was Epaminondas’s praise that he seldom met with a man that knew more than himself or spake less; and so the least doers inch out their poor works with much talk. As the artificial prospective to the eye, so is the tongue unto the ear an hollow instrument to make everything seem bigger and fairer than it is. The beasts, the birds, the serpents may be sooner tamed, says St. James, than the tongue of man. Worse than these creatures is the tongue of man; fiercer than the beasts, more flitting than the birds, more poisonous than the serpents. It is a member of the body that can taste everything but itself, and knows how all things relish but its own pride and bitterness. And as we are taught from hence to set a watch before our lips, so let us learn from Herod’s example to circumcise our ears, to renounce the flatteries of evil men. The French proverb says that the boiling pot doth discover the little pea which is in the bottom of it, and the applause of a little vainglory doth discover the disposition of the mind of man more than any other passion. Says Seneca, “Glory is the fire that kindles virtue when it provokes virtue to good achievements; but when glory begets nothing but the desire of glory, it is but childish popularity.” All flattery is the corruption of true glory; but to flatter any man in his vices is a sacrilege against virtue. It is a note of a reprobate that he speaketh good of the covetous, whom God abhorreth. To flatter vice is to promote Satan’s kingdom; to flatter princes is to destroy their kingdoms; to flatter princes, as the Sidonians did Herod, is to pluck down God’s kingdom. The Athenians, who were but Gentiles at the wisest, could not endure such injury to be offered to the God whom they knew not, but put Timagoras, their ambassador, to death, because he adored the king of Persi like a god.

II. God was glorified in him.

1. He, the king. The obedience of the law was violated; but the castigation of the law cannot be avoided. Machiavel, among his irreligious principles, says that all the credit of great enterprises depends upon success; for if Caesar had miscarried in his civil wars, his infamy had been more odious than Cataline’s. Mighty sinners run into mighty destructions; and such conspicuous offenders as Herod was, leave themselves as a beacon. Where is his eloquence now? Where is his costly garment? Where is the outcry of the Sidonians that canonised his tongue for the voice of a god? Take heed lest you forfeit your own possession of the earth for denying God the

possession of heaven. The Sidonians gave Herod so much of heaven, that they lost him all the earth but a grave. St. Chrysostom asks why the people giving the first offence, yet Herod is punished, and the principal malefactors acquitted.

(1) Josephus gives the reason: he should have reproved and abhorred their flatteries. He should have rent his spangled garment, as St. Paul did at Lystra. Woe will be to thousands that suffer so many unsavoury words to fly about their ears and not reprove them.

(2) God will take a more exact account of great men’s actions than of the vulgar multitude, because their lives are conspicuous and should be exemplary; and if their life is infectious unto many, so their doom will be dreadful unto many.

(3) The people were not altogether free from chastisement. Look now upon him that was your idol, ye Sidonians! Imagine with what astonishment the whole assembly was dissolved, if their consciences were not as full of worms as Herod’s body!

(4) Clemency and justice, when they meet together, attend how they may punish few and save many. If Herod suffer the malediction, one man feels the smart, and the whole assembly may repent and be saved.

(5) Let the rabble go home in peace for this time; they were not all white for harvest upon that day, but behold the end. Where is Caesarea now? Or who almost knows the Sidonians? They have learnt to know by dear experience that thunder and judgment is the voice of God, and not an eloquent oration.

2. He was smitten by an angel of the Lord. Strange wickednesses procure strange kinds of death. If the earth will not avenge them, the angel of the Lord will come down and fight. Do the trees of paradise deserve to have a cherubim set before them with a flaming sword? And shall not all the host of heaven stand about the majesty of the Most High, and see the honour of His name preserved?

3. Immediately he was smitten. In such splendour of attire, in such celebrity of attendants, before the face of strangers, among those who in their hearts were no better than his enemies; never did he come out of that chair of the scorner, from that throne wherein he was canonised, till he was stripped of all dignity. It is the most dreadful thing upon earth to be suddenly apprehended by judgment. But let the Christian pray every morning as if he should see the sun rise no more; every evening as if he should see the sun set no more; be ready to meet the bridegroom at midnight, and yet despise not that supplication, “From sudden death, good Lord deliver us.”

4. Lest he should glory that he was smitten by no less than an angel, behold the meanest of all creatures, the worms, are made his executioners! He that humbled himself to be a worm and no man, he is exalted above men to the right hand of God. He that would have been Deus non homo, a God and not a man, is dejected below a man, and made a worm. This disease is more observed in histories to be the arrow of the Lord against sinners of high presumption than any other. Thus Sylla died; thus Antiochus Epiphanes; thus Herod the Great; thus Arnulphus, that spoiled the churches of the Christians; thus Phericides, that gloried he never offered sacrifice, and yet lived as prosperously. (Bp. Hacket.)

Herod’s death

I. Wherefore has it found a place in the Acts? Not as if it had been a punishment for the murder of James, but also because political events are not matters of indifference to Christianity.

II. What are we to learn from it? That the commonweal can prosper, not by flattery and yielding to the lusts and passions of men, but only when we are free from both, looking to the eternal and unchangeable will of God. (Schleirmacher.)

Herod smitten by the angel—an old picture of human society

Here we have—

I. National interdependence. The Phoenicians wanted what the Palestinians had, and vice versa. This is a glorious fact in God’s government of man. Throughout the earth one zone produces what other zones want, and the peculiar products of each contribute towards the consummation of man’s well-being. This interdependence serves—

1. To stimulate human activities. It presses ever on the sense of need and love of gain, and thus keeps man’s faculties ever on the stretch contriving and constructing methods to work the soil to the greatest advantage, and to increase facilities of transit. He makes seas his high road, electricity his messenger, winds and fire the carriers of his commodities.

2. To check all monopolies. There are narrow souls who would keep all their land produces to themselves. Ignorant alike of the laws of the universe, the genius of the world, and their own insignificance, they vainly talk of national independence. Nature laughs them to scorn. Creature independence is a solecism.

3. To promote international concord.

(1) A free commerce throughout the world is one of the best means by which men may become mutually acquainted. Buyers and sellers mutually show themselves in their transactions.

(2) It advances interest in man. It is to the interest of traders to be on terms of amity and free intercourse. The commercial interests of the world are against war.

(3) But the higher concord, the brotherhood of soul, commerce can only effect this as it becomes thoroughly inspired and ruled by those principles which were embodied in Him who came to break down all partition walls.

II. Class wickedness.

1. Unbounded arrogance on the part of the ruler.

(1) The “set day” some think was in honour of Claudius’ return from Britain, which he had reduced to a Roman province. Anyhow, the occasion was a grand one. Caesarea was crowded with pleasure seekers. The king enters that theatre which had been erected by his grandfather. The stone seats, rising in a great semicircle, tier above tier, were covered by an excited multitude.

(2) The king magnificently arrayed makes an oration. What he said we know not; but we may be sure it was very “grand,” like modern “orations”—as gorgeous as his costume, as arrogant as his pretensions. Probably it dealt with the message he

received through Blastus. Herod is a type of his class. The haughtiness of rulers is proverbial. Many treat their fellow men as if they themselves were a race of gods.

(2) Base servility on the part of the ruled. Who can credit the shrewd Phoenician traders, the cultured Greeks, and the religious Jews with sincerity here? It was simply that base flattery which has been the sin and curse of the people in all ages. It is not uncommon, even in these days of enlightenment, to see men crushed by the injustice of rulers shouting hosannas in their ears. There is no greater obstruction to free government, wholesome law and national advancement, than the servile spirit of millions to those above them. No government can help the man who respects not the high prerogatives of his own humanity.

III. Retributive justice. Angels have often done such work before (Exo_12:21; 2Ki_19:35; 2Sa_24:16; 2Ch_32:21). The justice of this man’s fate is clear. Surely he who had killed James, imprisoned Peter, and massacred his own guards, and now accepted Divine homage, deserved the end which befell him. Such instances of retributive justice had occurred with Pharaoh, Belshazzar, etc., but they are confessedly rare as compared with the number of notorious offenders. Yet they are sufficient to show that there is a moral government in the world, and to prophesy the coming of a time when retribution shall be fairly dealt out to all.

IV. Remedial forces.

1. The Word of God. This “grew and multiplied.” The seed was growing everywhere, and the fruit was the antidote to the world’s evils, the provision for the cravings of the human soul. Herod had done his best to crush it, but it went on, and as it advanced it elevated and blessed.

2. The agency of the good. Here are Barnabas, and Saul, and Mark, all working to help on the true and the right. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

This world’s honour

Death strips us of this world’s glory as a boot jack draws off your boots. Another wears my boots when I am dead, and another wears my glory. It is of little value. (Martin Boos.)

Fleeting honour

It was a custom in Rome, that when the emperor went out upon some grand day in all his imperial pomp, there was an officer appointed to burn flax before him, crying out, “Sic transit gloria mundi”; which was done to put him in mind that all his honour and grandeur should soon vanish away like the smoke from the burning flax.

The law of reprisal

When we consider the almost invincible power which the crustaceans derive from their armour, their muscular vigour, their ferocity, and their numbers, we ask how is it that they have not depopulated the shores where they meet none but victims, no enemies capable of contending with them upon equal terms? For formidable as they are to all the tribes of molluscs and zoophytes, what have they to fear—except in a few countries certain littoral or amphibious mammals which, for the most part, only attack them as a

last resort, preferring prey more easily devoured, and assisting them in their work of extermination rather than fighting them? Their tyranny then seems at first sight absolute and without counterbalance. Such, however, is not the ease. The crustaceans undergo at certain epochs a fatal crisis, which delivering them up defenceless to external shocks and the blows of their enemies, places an easy vengeance within the reach of the oppressed. These epochs are their sloughing times, when, willy nilly, with great difficulty, and at the cost of the most painful and sometimes the deadliest efforts, they are forced to shed their armour of proof, to expose their living flesh barely covered with a thin soft pellicle, and to bury themselves piteously under the sand until the calcareous secretion shall be reformed and solidified anew. This is their season of fear and fright. Their hiding places are easily discoverable, and once unearthed the disarmed brigands are lost beyond redemption. Myriads perish in this manner, devoured by other animals, crushed among the stones, or dashed in pieces against the rocks by the movement of the waves. Thus Nature enforces her law of reprisal. The power of all tyrants and oppressors has its fixed limits. The quarrelsome crustacean and the despotic king are alike subject to the hour of retaliation. (Scientific Illustrations.)

Danger of flattery

Whitefield, when flattered, said, “Take care of fire: I carry powder about me.”

Flattery answered

When the French ambassador visited Lord Bacon in his last illness, and found him in bed, with the blinds drawn, he addressed this compliment to him: “You are like the angels, of whom we read and hear much, but have not the pleasure of seeing them.” The reply was the sentiment of a philosopher, and not unworthy of a Christian: “If the complaisance of others compares me to an angel, my infirmities tell me I am a man.”

Flattery rebuked

A flattering priest told Constantine the Great that his virtues deserved the empire of the world here, and to reign with the Son of God hereafter. The emperor cried, “Fie, fie! for shame! let me hear no more such unseemly speeches; but, rather, suppliantly pray to my Almighty Maker, that, in this life and the life to come, I may be reckoned worthy to be His servant.”

Royal piety

One of the first acts performed by George III after his accession to the throne, was to issue an order prohibiting any of the clergy who should be called to preach before him, from paying him any compliment in their discourses. His Majesty was led to this from the fulsome adoration which Dr. Thos. Wilson, prebendary of Westminster, thought proper to deliver in the Chapel Royal, and for which, instead of thanks, he received from his royal auditor a pointed reprimand, his Majesty observing that he came to chapel to hear the praises of God and not his own. (Clerical Anecdotes.)

The certainty of retribution

As you stood some stormy day upon a sea cliff, and marked the giant billow rise from the deep to rush on with foaming crest, and throw itself thundering on the trembling shore, did you ever fancy that you could stay its course, and hurl it back to the depths of ocean?

Did you ever stand beneath the leaden, lowering cloud, and mark the lightning’s leap, as it shot and flashed, dazzling athwart the gloom, and think that you could grasp the bolt and change its path? Still more foolish and vain his thought, who fancies that he can arrest or turn aside the purpose of God, saying, “What is the Almighty that we should serve Him? Let us break His bands asunder, and cast away His cords from us!” Break His bands asunder!—How He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh! (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

God’s ministers of retribution

An angel was the agent of judgment here, but worms were the ministers of vengeance. But God can dispense with superior ministers altogether. No need that He should grasp ten thousand thunders, or come riding on the wings of the wind. A grasshopper, a wire worm, a taint of air, the sporule of a microscopic mass, the bacillus of an invisible animalculae—ah! these loathly nothings are potent enough in the hand of God to abase into dust the majesty of man. Julian would fain have trampled Christianity into the dust; a devious arrow, and Julian was struck down before the face of his enemies. Napoleon insolently remarked that God he usually found on the side of the strongest battalions; softer than feathers, melting at a breath, fell on the plains of Russia the white flakes of snow, and Napoleon was a fugitive, and his grand army lay wrapped in its ghastly winding sheet. (Archdeacon Farrar.)

13 Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a

servant named Rhoda came to answer the door.

BAR�ES, "At the door of the gate - Rather the door of the vestibule, or principal entrance into the house. The house was entered through such a porch or vestibule, and it was the door opening into this which is here intended. See the notes on Mat_9:2.

A damsel - A girl.

Came to hearken - To hear who was there.

Named Rhoda - This is a Greek name signifying a rose. It was not unusual for the Hebrews to give the names of flowers, etc., to their daughters. Thus, Susanna, a lily; Hadessa, a myrtle; Tamar, a palm-tree, etc. (Grotius).

CLARKE, "As Peter knocked - The door was probably shut for fear of the Jews; and, as most of the houses in the east have an area before the door, it might have been at

this outer gate that Peter stood knocking.

A damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda - She came to inquire who was there. Rhoda signifies a rose; and it appears to have been customary with the Jews, as Grotius and others remark, to give the names of flowers and trees to their daughters: thus Susannah signifies a lily, Hadassah, a myrtle, Tamar, a palm tree, etc., etc.

GILL, "And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, &c. The lesser door in the great gate, or the door of the porch through which they entered into the house. So the

Jews distinguish between פתח, "the door", and שער, "the gate"; see Jdg_18:16 where the

Septuagint use the same words as here. Kimchi (h) says,

"xtp, "the door" is what is of the gate, without the folding doors; for all is called שער, "the

gate", whether within or without, with the folding doors, and the outward threshold, as that is joined to the side posts and lintel.''

The door was kept shut, for fear of the Jews, lest they should be disturbed: here Peter stood and knocked:

a damsel came to hearken; hearing a knocking, she came out to the door, and listened, to try if she could know who it was, a friend or a foe, before she opened; or she came "to answer", as the Syriac version renders it, to know who was there, and what he or she wanted, and to give an answer. And the damsel was

named Rhoda, which signifies a rose in the Greek language: so the Jewish women often had their names, in the Hebrew tongue, from flowers and trees, as Susanna from a lily, or rose: and which, perhaps, was the Hebrew name of this damsel; and Esther was called Hadassah, from the myrtle tree.

HE�RY, "(4.) He knocked at the gate, and had much ado to get them to let him in (Act_12:13-16): Peter knocked at the door of the gate, designing by it to awaken them out of their sleep, and, for aught that appears, not knowing that he disturbed them in their devotions. Yet, if his friends were permitted to speak with him in private in the prison, it is possible he might know of this appointment, and it was this which he recollected and considered when he determined to go to that house, where he knew he should find many of his friends together. Now when he knocked there, [1.] A damsel came to hearken; not to open the door till she knew who was there, a friend or a foe, and what their business was, fearing informers. Whether this damsel was one of the family or one of the church, whether a servant or a daughter, does not appear; it should seem, by her being named, that she was of note among the Christians, and more zealously affected to the better part than most of her age.

JAMISO�, "came to hearken— not to open; for neither was it a time nor an hour of night for that, but to listen who was there.

COFFMA�, "The scene that emerges here is one of affluence, if not wealth. Mary's

was a house large enough to contain a gathering for prayer meeting, having a

courtyard and a gate attended by a servant. From Mary's example, we may

conclude that there were many who had not sold all their possessions during those

occasions mentioned earlier in Acts.

COKE, "Acts 12:13. At the door of the gate,— The word πυλων, here, properly

signifies what we generally call the gateway of a large house; and it is probable that

this was no small house, as many were assembled there. Rhoda signifies in English

rose; and Grotius has observed, that the Jews frequently gave to their female

children the names of agreeable flowers or plants. Thus Susanna signifies a lily,

Hedessa a myrtle, Tamar a palm-tree, &c. See the note on Mark 2:4.

CO�STABLE, "This amusing incident is very true to life. Rhoda's (Rosebud's) joy

at finding Peter at the gate, which admitted people from the street into a courtyard,

overpowered her common sense. Instead of letting him in she ran inside the house

and announced his arrival. The believers could not believe that God had answered

their prayers so directly and dramatically. Peter meanwhile stood outside still trying

to get in. Finally they let him in hardly able to believe that it really was Peter.

Evidently the Christians thought Peter's guardian angel had appeared (Acts 12:15;

Daniel 10:21; Matthew 18:10). Another explanation is that we should understand

"angel" as a reference to a human messenger that Peter had sent. A third possibility

is that the Christians thought that Herod had killed Peter and that the apostle's

spirit had come to visit them. [�ote: See Witherington, p. 387, for additional

options.]

ELLICOTT, "(13) A damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda.—The mention of the

name of the slave indicates St. Luke’s care in ascertaining details, as far as his

opportunities allowed. The office of opening the door to strangers was commonly

assigned, as in the case even of the high priest’s palace (Matthew 26:69; Matthew

26:71), to a female slave. The name, which means “a rose,” is of the same class as

Tamar = a palm tree; Deborah = a bee; Margarita = a pearl; Dorcas = an antelope.

MACLARE�, "RHODA

‘Rhoda’ means ‘a rose,’ and this rose has kept its bloom for eighteen hundred years, and is still sweet and fragrant! What a lottery undying fame is! Men will give their lives to earn it; and this servant-girl got it by one little act, and never knew that she had it, and I suppose she does not know to-day that, everywhere throughout the whole world where the Gospel is preached, ‘this that she hath done is spoken of as a memorial to her.’ Is the love of fame worthy of being called ‘the last infirmity of noble minds’? Or is it the delusion of ignoble ones? Why need we care whether anybody ever hears of us after we are dead and buried, so long as God knows about us? The ‘damsel named Rhoda’ was little the better for the immortality which she had unconsciously won.

Now there is a very singular resemblance between the details of this incident and those of another case, when Peter was recognised in dim light by his voice, and the Evangelist Luke, who is the author of the Acts of the Apostles, seems to have had the resemblance

between the two scenes-that in the high priest’s palace and that outside Mary’s door-in his mind, because he uses in this narrative a word which occurs, in the whole of the New Testament, only here and in his account of what took place on that earlier occasion. In both instances a maid-servant recognises Peter by his voice, and in both ‘she constantly affirms’ that it was so. I do not think that there is anything to be built upon the resemblance, but at all events I think that the use of the same unusual word in the two cases, and nowhere else, seems to suggest that Luke felt how strangely events sometimes double themselves; and how the Apostle who is here all but a martyr is re-enacting, with differences, something like the former scene, when he was altogether a traitor. But, be that as it may, there are some lessons which we may gather from this vivid picture of Rhoda and her behaviour on the one side of the door, while Peter stood hammering, in the morning twilight, on the other.

I. We may notice in the relations of Rhoda to the assembled believers a striking illustration of the new bond of union supplied by the Gospel.

Rhoda was a slave. The word rendered in our version ‘damsel’ means a female slave. Her name, which is a Gentile name, and her servile condition, make it probable that she was not a Jewess. If one might venture to indulge in a guess, it is not at all unlikely that her mistress, Mary, John Mark’s mother, Barnabas’ sister, a well-to-do woman of Jerusalem, who had a house large enough to take in the members of the Church in great numbers, and to keep up a considerable establishment, had brought this slave-girl from the island of Cyprus. At all events, she was a slave. In the time of our Lord, and long after, these relations of slavery brought an element of suspicion, fear, and jealous espionage into almost every Roman household, because every master knew that he passed his days and nights among men and women who wanted nothing better than to wreak their vengeance upon him. A man’s foes were eminently those of his own household. And now here this child-slave, a Gentile, has been touched by the same mighty love as her mistress; and Mary and Rhoda were kneeling together in the prayer-meeting when Peter began to hammer at the door. Neither woman thought now of the unnatural, unwholesome relation which had formerly bound them. In God’s good time, and by the slow process of leavening society with Christian ideas, that diabolical institution perished in Christian lands. Violent reformation of immoralities is always a blunder. ‘Raw haste’ is ‘half-sister to delay.’ Settlers in forest lands have found that it is endless work to grub up the trees, or even to fell them. ‘Root and branch’ reform seldom answers. The true way is to girdle the tree by taking off a ring of bark round the trunk, and letting nature do the rest. Dead trees are easily dealt with; living ones blunt many axes and tire many arms, and are alive after all. Thus the Gospel waged no direct war with slavery, but laid down principles which, once they are wrought into Christian consciousness, made its continuance impossible. But, pending that consummation, the immediate action of Christianity was to ameliorate the condition of the slave. The whole aspect of the ugly thing was changed as soon as master and slave together became the slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Gospel has the same sort of work to do to-day, and there are institutions in full flourishing existence in this and every other civilised community as entirely antagonistic to the spirit and principles of Christianity as Roman slavery was. I, for my part, believe that the one uniting bond and healing medicine for society is found in Jesus Christ; and that in Him, and that the principles deducible from His revelation by word and work, applied to all social evils, are their cure, and their only cure. That slight, girlish figure standing at the door of Mary, her slave and yet her sister in Christ, may be taken as pointing symbolically the way by which the social and civic evils of this day are to be healed, and the war of classes to cease.

II. Note how we get here a very striking picture of the sacredness and

greatness of small common duties.

Bhoda came out from the prayer-meeting to open the gate. It was her business, as we say, ‘to answer the door,’ and so she left off praying to go and do it. So doing, she was the means of delivering the Apostle from the danger which still dogged him. It was of little use to be praying on one side of the shut door when on the other he was standing in the street, and the day was beginning to dawn; Herod’s men would be after him as soon as daylight disclosed his escape. The one thing needful for him was to be taken in and sheltered. So the praying group and the girl who stops praying when she hears the knock, to which it was her business to attend, were working in the same direction. It is not necessary to insist that no heights or delights of devotion and secret communion are sufficient excuses for neglecting or delaying the doing of the smallest and most menial task which is our task. If your business is to keep the door, you will not be leaving, but abiding in, the secret place of the Most High, if you get up from your knees in the middle of your prayer, and go down to open it. The smallest, commonest acts of daily life are truer worship than is rapt and solitary communion or united prayer, if the latter can only be secured by the neglect of the former. Better to be in the lower parts of the house attending to the humble duties of the slave than to be in the upper chamber, uniting with the saints in supplication and leaving tasks unperformed.

Let us remember how we may find here an illustration of another great truth, that the smallest things, done in the course of the quiet discharge of recognised duty, and being, therefore, truly worship of God, have in them a certain quality of immortality, and may be eternally commemorated. It was not only the lofty and unique expression of devotion, which another woman gave when she broke the alabaster box to anoint the feet of the Saviour which were to be pierced with nails to-morrow, that has been held worthy of undying remembrance. The name and act of a poor slave girl have been commemorated by that Spirit who preserves nothing in vain, in order that we should learn that things which we vulgarly call great, and those which we insolently call small, are regarded by Him, not according to their apparent magnitude, but according to their motive and reference to Him. He says, ‘I will never forget any of their works’; and this little deed of Rhoda’s, like the rose petals that careful housekeepers in the country keep upon the sideboard in china bowls to diffuse a fragance through the room, is given us to keep in memory for ever, a witness of the sanctity of common life when filled with acts of obedience to Him.

III. The same figure of the ‘damsel named Rhoda’ may give us a warning as to the possibility of forgetting very plain duties under the pressure of very legitimate excitement.

‘She opened not the door for gladness,’ but ran in and told them. And if, whilst she was running in with her message, Herod’s quaternions of soldiers had come down the street, there would have been ‘no small stir’ in the church as to ‘what had become of Peter.’ He would have gone back to his prison sure enough. Her first duty was to open the door; her second one was to go and tell the brethren, ‘we have got him safe inside’; but in the rush of joyous emotions she naively forgot what her first business was, ‘lost her head,’ as we say, and so went off to tell that he was outside, instead of letting him in. Now joy and sorrow are equally apt to make us forget plain and pressing duties, and we may learn from this little incident the old-fashioned, but always necessary advice, to keep feeling well under control, to use it as impulse, not as guide, and never to let emotion, which should be down in the engine-room, come on deck and take the helm. It is dangerous to obey feeling, unless its decrees are countersigned by calm common sense illuminated by Scripture. Sorrow is apt to obscure duty by its darkness, and joy to do so by its dazzle. It

is hard to see the road at midnight, or at midday when the sun is in our eyes. Both need to be controlled. Duty remains the same, whether my heart is beating like a sledge-hammer, or whether ‘my bosom’s lord sits lightly on its throne.’ Whether I am sad or glad, the door that God has given me to watch has to be opened and shut by me. And whether I am a door-keeper in the house of the Lord, like Rhoda in Mary’s, or have an office that people think larger and more important, the imperativeness of my duties is equally independent of my momentary emotions and circumstances. Remember, then, that duty remains while feeling fluctuates, and that, sorrowful or joyful, we have still the same Lord to serve and the same crown to win.

IV. Lastly, we have here an instance of a very modest but positive and fully-warranted trust in one’s own experience in spite of opposition.

I need not speak about that extraordinary discussion which the brethren got up in the upper room. They had been praying, as has often been remarked, for Peter’s deliverance, and now that he is delivered they will not believe it. I am afraid that there is often a dash of unbelief in immediate answers to our prayers mingling with the prayers. And although the petitions in this case were intense and fervent, as the original tells us, and had been kept up all night long, and although their earnestness and worthiness are guaranteed by the fact that they were answered, yet when the veritable Peter, in flesh and blood, stood before the door, the suppliants first said to the poor girl, ‘Thou art mad,’ and then, ‘It is his angel! It cannot be he.’ Nobody seems to have thought of going to the door to see whether it was he or not, but they went on arguing with Rhoda as to whether she was right or wrong. The unbelief that alloys even golden faith is taught us in this incident.

Rhoda ‘constantly affirmed that it was so,’ like the other porteress that had picked out Peter’s voice amongst the men huddled round the fire in the high priest’s chamber.

The lesson is-trust your own experience, whatever people may have to say against it. If you have found that Jesus Christ can help you, and has loved you, and that your sins have been forgiven, because you have trusted in Him, do not let anybody laugh or talk you out of that conviction. If you cannot argue, do like Rhoda, ‘constantly affirm that it is so.’ That is the right answer, especially if you can say to the antagonistic party, ‘Have you been down to the door, then, to see?’ And if they have to say ‘No!’ then the right answer is, ‘You go and look as I did, and you will come back with the same belief which I have.’

So at last they open the door and there he stands. Peter’s hammer, hammer, hammer at the gate is wonderfully given in the story. It goes on as a kind of running accompaniment through the talk between Rhoda and the friends. It might have put a stop to the conversation, one would have thought. But Another stands at the door knocking, still more persistently, still more patiently. ‘Behold! I stand at the door and knock. If any man open the door I will come in.’

14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so

overjoyed she ran back without opening it and

exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”

BAR�ES, "She opened not the gate - At this time of night, and in these circumstances, the door would be fastened. Christians were doubtless alarmed by the death of James and the imprisonment of Peter, and they would take all possible precautions for their own safety.

For gladness - In her joy she hastened to inform those who were assembled of the safety of Peter.

GILL, "And when she knew Peter's voice,.... often heard him preach and converse in the family:

she opened not the gate for gladness, filled with joy to hear his voice, and that he was delivered from prison, and in haste to carry the welcome news to the company within, stayed not to open the gate, and let Peter in:

but ran in and told how Peter stood before the gate: she went into the house in a great hurry, and related to them within, that Peter was at the door without.

HE�RY, "She knew Peter's voice, having often heard him pray, and preach, and discourse, with a great deal of pleasure. But, instead of letting him in immediately out of the cold, she opened not the gate for gladness. Thus sometimes, in a transport of affection to our friends, we do that which is unkind. In an ecstasy of joy she forgets herself, and opened not the gate. [3.] She ran in, and probably went up to an upper room where they were together, and told them that Peter was certainly at the gate, though she had not courage enough to open the gate, for fear she should be deceived, and it should be the enemy. But, when she spoke of Peter's being there, they said, “Thou art mad; it is impossible it should be he, for he is in prison.” Sometimes that which we most earnestly wish for we are most backward to believe, because we are afraid of imposing upon ourselves, as the disciples, who, when Christ had risen, believed not for joy. However, she stood to it that it was he.

JAMISO�, "opened not for gladness, but ran in and told, etc.— How exquisite is this touch of nature!

COFFMA�, "It is of interest that class distinctions did not exist in the primitive

church. This serving girl was as happy to see Peter as were any the others; and, in

her joy, she forgot to open the gate.

ELLICOTT, "(14) She opened not the gate for gladness.—The slave, it would seem,

had shared the anxiety and borne her part in the prayers of the Church; and the

eager desire to tell the good news that their prayers had been answered overpowers

her presence of mind. There is something characteristic of the writer in this analysis

of a state of consciousness. (See �ote on Acts 12:9, and Luke 24:14.)

15 “You’re out of your mind,” they told her.

When she kept insisting that it was so, they said,

“It must be his angel.”

BAR�ES, "Thou art mad - Thou art insane. They seemed to have regarded his rescue as so difficult and so hopeless, that they deemed it proof of derangement that she now affirmed it. And yet this was the very thing for which they had been so earnestly praying. When it was now announced to them that the object of their prayers was granted, they deemed the messenger that announced it insane. Christians are often surprised even when their prayers are answered. They are overwhelmed and amazed at the success of their own petitions, and are slow to believe that the very thing for which they have sought could be granted. It shows, perhaps, with how little faith, after all, they pray, and how slow they are to believe that God can hear and answer prayer. In a revival of religion in answer to prayer, Christians are often overwhelmed and astonished when even their own petitions are granted, and when God manifests his own power in his own way and time. Prayer should be persevered in, and we should place ourselves in a waiting posture to catch the first indications that God has heard us.

But she constantly affirmed - She insisted on it. How much better it would have been to have hastened at once to the gate, than thus to have engaged in a controversy on the subject. Peter was suffered to remain knocking while they debated the matter. Christians are often engaged in some unprofitable controversy when they should hasten to catch the first tokens of divine favor, and open their arms to welcome the proofs that God has heard their prayers.

Then said they - Still resolved not to be convinced.

It is his angel - Any way of accounting for it rather than to admit the simple fact, or to ascertain the simple truth. All this was caused by the little hope which they had of his release, and their earnest desire that it should be so. It was just such a state of mind as is indicated when we say, “The news is too good to e believed.” The expression “It is his angel” may mean that they supposed that the “tutelary guardian,” or angel appointed to attend Peter, had come to announce something respecting him, and that he had assumed the voice and form of Peter in order to make them certain that he came from him. This notion arose from the common belief of the Jews that each individual had assigned to him, at birth, a celestial spirit, whose office it was to guard and defend him through life. See the notes on Mat_18:10. That the Jews entertained this opinion is clear from their writings. See Kuinoel. Lightfoot thinks that they who were assembled supposed that the angel had assumed the voice and manner of Peter in order to intimate to them that he was about to die, and to excite them to earnest prayer that he might die with constancy and firmness. Whatever their opinions were, however, it proves nothing on these points. There is no evidence that they were inspired in these opinions, nor are their notions countenanced by the Scriptures. They were the mere common traditions of the Jews, and prove nothing in regard to the truth of the opinion one way or the other.

CLARKE, "It is his angel - It was a common opinion among the Jews that every man has a guardian angel, and in the popish Church it is an article of faith. The Jews also believed that angels often assumed the likeness of particular persons. They have

many stories of the appearance of Elijah in the likeness of different rabbins. As αγγελος

signifies in general a messenger, whether Divine or human, some have thought that the angel or messenger here means a servant or person which the disciples supposed was sent from Peter to announce something of importance to the brethren: it was also an opinion among the Jews, even in the time of the apostles, as appears from Philo, that the departed souls of good men officiated as ministering angels; and it is possible that the disciples at Mary’s house might suppose that Peter had been murdered in the prison; and that his spirit was now come to announce this event, or give some particular warning to the Church.

GILL, "And they said unto her, thou art mad, &c. "Or art thou not mad?" as the Ethiopic version, and two of Beza's exemplars read, and some others: they thought the girl must be out of her senses; they looked upon the thing impossible; for though they were praying for him, and praying in faith, yet they might have no expectation of a deliverance; but were praying that they might be supported under such a trial, and that it might be sanctified to them; and for Peter, that he might be strengthened and made steadfast, and kept faithful to the last; and bear, by his sufferings and death, a glorious and honourable testimony for Christ:

but she constantly affirmed that it was even so; she asserted it over and over, and was positive in it; nothing they could say could put her off of it; she was sure of it; which when they observed, they could not tell what to say to it, but as follows: then said they,

it is his angel; not his tutelar or guardian angel, everyone having, as some think, a particular angel to attend him; whereas sometimes one angel attends many persons, and sometimes many angels encamp about, and are a guard to a single saint; nor did they think it was an angel sent to give notice of his death, as some persons, by one means or another, have had previous notices of the death of their friends; but rather, that it was an angel in Peter's shape, who had something to communicate: and this agrees with the notions of the Jews, who think that angels do assume the shapes of men on certain occasions: so they say (i), when Moses was in danger in Pharaoh's court, God sent Michael, the prince of the host of heaven, "in the shape of an executioner"; who brought him at once out of Egypt, and set him at the border of it, the distance of three days

journey: Bar Kaphra says (k), an angel descended בדמות�משה, "in the likeness of Moses",

and caused him to flee, and they thought the angel had been Moses: and so it is elsewhere said (l), that an angel descended "in the likeness of Solomon", sitting upon his throne: there are some who think, that the sense of the brethren praying for Peter, was not that it was an angel, a celestial spirit, but a messenger sent by Peter from the prison on some errand: who represented him, or mentioning his name, the damsel took him for Peter himself. Beza's ancient copy reads, "then said they unto her, perhaps it is his angel", and so the Syriac version.

HE�RY, "Then said they, It is his angel, Act_12:15. First, “It is a messenger from

him, that makes use of his name;” so some take it; angelos often signifies no more than a

messenger. It is used of John's messengers (Luk_7:24, Luk_7:27), of Christ's, Luk_9:52. When the damsel was confident it was Peter, because she knew his voice, they thought it was because he that stood at the door had called himself Peter, and therefore offer this solution of the difficulty, “It is one that comes with an errand from him, and thou didst mistake as if it had been he himself.” Dr. Hammond thinks this the easiest way of understanding it. Secondly, “It is his guardian angel, or some other angel that has assumed his shape and voice, and stands at the gate in his resemblance.” Some think that they supposed his angel to appear as a presage of his death approaching; and this agrees with a notion which the vulgar have, that sometimes before persons have died their ward has been seen, that is, some spirit exactly in their likeness for countenance and dress, when they themselves have been at the same time in some other place; they call it their ward, that is, their angel, who is their guard. If so, they concluded this an ill omen, that their prayers were denied, and that the language of the apparition was, “Let it suffice you, Peter must die, say no more of that matter.” And, if we understand it so, it only proves that they had then such an opinion of a man's ward being seen a little before his death, but does not prove that there is such a thing. Others think they took this to be an angel from heaven, sent to bring them a grant to their prayers. But why should they imagine that angel to assume the voice and shape of Peter, when we find not any thing like it in the appearance of angels? Perhaps they herein spoke the language of the Jews, who had a fond conceit that every good man has a particular tutelar angel, that has the charge of him, and sometimes personates him. the heathen called it a good genius, that attended a man; but, since no other scripture speaks of such a thing, this alone is too weak to bear the weight of such a doctrine. We are sure that the angels are ministering spirits for the good of the heirs of salvation, that they have a charge concerning them,and pitch their tents round about them; and we need not be solicitous that every particular saint should have his guardian angel, when we are assured he has a guard of angels.

JAMISO�, "Thou art mad— one of those exclamations which one can hardly resist on hearing what seems far “too good to be true.”

she constantly affirmed— “kept steadfastly affirming.”

that it was even so. Then said they, It is his angel— his disembodied spirit, his ghost; anything, in fact, rather than himself. Though this had been the burden of their fervent prayers during all the days of unleavened bread, they dispute themselves out of it as a thing incredible. Still, it is but the unbelief of the disciples who “believed not for joyand wondered” at the tidings of their Lord’s resurrection. How often do we pray for what we can hardly credit the bestowment of, when it comes in answer to our prayers! This, however, argues not so much hard unbelief as that kind of it incident to the best in this land of shadows, which perceives not so clearly as it might how very near heaven and earth, the Lord and His praying people, are to each other.

CALVI�, "15.When he did knock at the gate. Whereas they think that the maid is

mad, which telleth them that Peter was come; we gather by this, that they did not

hope or look for Peter’s deliverance, and yet we will not say that they prayed

without faith; because they looked for some other success, to with that Peter being

armed with power from heaven, should be ready, whether it were by life or death, to

glorify God, (759) that the flock being terrified with the violent invasion of wolves

might not be scattered abroad, that those that were weak might not faint, that the

Lord would put away that whirlwind of persecution. But in that the Lord granteth

them more than they hoped for, he surpasseth their desires with his infinite

goodness. And now that which was done seemeth to them incredible, that they may

be the more provoked to praise his power.

It is his angel. They call him his angel, who was by God appointed to be his keeper

and the minister of his safety. In which sense Christ saith that the angels of little

ones do always see the face of his Father, (Matthew 18:10.) And what do they gather

hence commonly? that every particular man hath a particular angel, which taketh

charge of him; but it is too weak. For the Scripture doth sometimes testify (Exodus

14:10) that there is one angel given to a great people, and to one man only a great

host. For Elizeus [Elisha] his servant had his eyes opened, so that he saw in the air

chariots of fire, which were appointed to defend the prophet, (2 Kings 6:17.) And in

Daniel there is but one angel of the Persians, and one of the Grecians named,

(Daniel 10:5.) �either doth the Scripture promise to every man a certain and

peculiar angel, but rather that the Lord hath charged his angels to keep all the

faithful, (Psalms 91:11;) also that they pitch their tents about the godly, (Psalms

34:8.) Therefore, that vain surmise which is common touching the two angels of

every man is profane. Let this be sufficient for us, that the whole host of heaven

doth watch for the safety of the Church; and that as necessity of time requireth

sometimes one angel, sometimes more do defend us with their aid. Assuredly, this is

inestimable goodness of God, in that he saith that the angels, who are the beams of

his brightness, are our ministers.

COFFMA�, "For reasons underlying the surprise of the church that their prayers

had been answered, see under Acts 12:5.

It is his angel ... This verse proves that in the apostolic church the Christians

believed that every person has a guardian angel; but it is uncertain what deductions

should be made from this fact. Jesus apparently justified such a view by his

reference to the angels of little children in Matthew 18:10, as being angels of the

highest rank. See in my Commentary on Matthew, under Matthew 18:10 , and in my

Commentary on Hebrews, Hebrews 1:14. The thinking of those who said this seems

to be that "Since Herod has already killed Peter, it must be his personal angel who

is knocking at the gate."

Peter kept on knocking, however; and the stunned hearers finally let him in.

COKE, "Acts 12:15. It is his angel.— Many commentators understand this as if they

had said, "It is his messenger, or one sent from him;" and it is certain that the word

Αγγελος has frequently this sense in the scripture; but as the maid averred that she

knew his voice, and was assured that it was Peter himself, it seems clear that they

judged it to be something supernatural. Possibly they might imagine that it was an

angel who assumed his form, to bring them some tidings of him; or that he had been

executed in prison, as John the Baptist was, in the night, and that his separate spirit

appeared as a token of its being employed, asangels are, in ministering to the church

on earth. See Matthew 18:10. It is by no means certain that they imagined this to be

his guardian angel; for Philo speaks of it as a received notion among the Jews, that

the souls of good men deceased officiated as ministering spirits.

ELLICOTT, "(15) It is his angel.—The language expresses the common belief of the

Jews, that every true Israelite had a guardian angel specially assigned to him, who,

when he appeared in human form, assumed the likeness of the man whom he

protected. It is obvious that the record of the casual utterance of such a belief cannot

be taken as an authoritative sanction of it.

16 But Peter kept on knocking, and when they

opened the door and saw him, they were

astonished.

�OTE, You wonder if Peter was getting angry. He got out of prison alright, but

how I the world can I get into the house of my friends for protection. It was easier

to get out of the chains and past prison bars then to get into this house. Here again

we see no angel picking the locks, for Peter had to wait for human cooperation. He

may have been thinking, where is my angel now? Peter is impulsive by nature and

he is now in a state of great fear as an escapee on the run. It is hard to believe he

was not banging on that door with his large fists.

BAR�ES, "Were astonished - They were now convinced that it was Peter, and they were amazed that he had been rescued. As yet they were of course ignorant of the manner in which it was done.

GILL, "But Peter continued knocking,.... That they might come to him, and let him in; beginning to be impatient, and being very desirous of seeing his friends, as well as being in danger of being taken up, and had to prison again, should any of his enemies come by, who knew him:

and when they had opened the door, and saw him, they were astonished: they could hardly believe their own eyes; it was amazing to them, how it should be, that he should be delivered out of prison, when they knew there was such a strong guard about him.

HE�RY, "(5.) At length they let him in (Act_12:16): He continued knocking though they delayed to open to him, and at last they admitted him. The iron gate which opposed his enlargement opened of itself, without so much as once knocking at it; but the door of his friend's house that was to welcome him does not open of its own accord, but must be knocked at, long knocked at; lest Peter should be puffed up by the honours which the angel did him, he meets with this mortification, by a seeming slight which his friends put upon him. But, when they saw him, they were astonished, were filled with wonder and joy in him, as much as they were but just now with sorrow and fear concerning him. It was both surprising and pleasing to them in the highest degree.

JAMISO�, "Peter continued knocking— delay being dangerous.

COFFMA�, "This verse reveals emphatically that there had been no plot by the

Christians to aid Peter in a prison break; for they were astounded by his

appearance and unwilling, at first, to believe it.

BE�SO�, "Acts 12:16-17. But Peter continued knocking — Though they delayed to

open to him; and when — At length, several of them, it seems, going out together;

they had opened the door, and saw him — That it really was he; they were

astonished — Were filled with wonder and joy, as much as they were just before

with sorrow and fear concerning him. But beckoning unto them (many of whom,

being amazed, were talking together) to hold their peace — That they might hear

him relate in what an extraordinary manner he had been delivered; he declared

unto them how the Lord had — By the ministry of an angel; brought him out of

prison. — And it is probable, that, having found them praying for his deliverance,

he did not part with them till he and they had solemnly given God thanks together

for so wonderfully answering their prayers. And he said, Go show these things unto

James — The brother, or kinsman, of our Lord, and author of the epistle that bears

his name. He appears to have been a person of considerable weight and importance,

probably the chief overseer of the Christian societies of that province, and of the

church in Jerusalem in particular. And to the brethren — �amely, The other

disciples, that they might join in praising God for this great deliverance, and

consider it as laying a further obligation upon them to serve him with still greater

zeal and fidelity. And he departed thence to another place — Where he might be

better concealed till the rage of persecution was abated.

17 Peter motioned with his hand for them to be

quiet and described how the Lord had brought

him out of prison. “Tell James and the other

brothers and sisters about this,” he said, and then

he left for another place.

BAR�ES, "But he, beckoning ... - To prevent the noise, and tumult, and transport which was likely to be produced. His wish was, not that there should be clamorous joy, but that they should listen in silence to what God had done. It was sufficient to awe the soul, and produce deep, grateful feeling. A noise might excite the neighboring Jews, and produce danger. Religion is calm and peaceful; and its great scenes and surprising deliverances are rather suited to awe the soul to produce calm, sober, and grateful contemplation, than the noise of rejoicing, and the shoutings of exultation. The consciousness of the presence of God, and of his mighty power, does not produce rapturous disorder and tumult, but holy, solemn, calm, grateful emotion.

Go, show these things ... - Acquaint them that their prayer is heard, and that they may rejoice also at the mercy of God.

Unto James - James, the son of Alpheus, commonly called the Less. See Act_12:2note; Act_1:13 note; Mat_10:2 note.

And to the brethren - Particularly to the other apostles.

And went into another place - Probably a place of greater safety. Where he went is not known. The papists pretend that he went to Rome. But of this there is no evidence. He is mentioned as in Jerusalem again in Acts 15. The meaning is evidently that he went into some place of retirement until the danger was past.

CLARKE, "Declared - how the Lord had brought him out of the prison - He still persisted in the belief that his deliverance was purely supernatural. It seems that some modern critics could have informed him of his mistake. See Act_12:11.

Show these things unto James, and to the brethren - That is, in one word, show them to the Church, at the head of which James undoubtedly was; as we may clearly understand by the part he took in the famous council held at Jerusalem, relative to certain differences between the believing Jews and Gentiles. See Act_15:13-21. There is still no supremacy for Peter. He who was bishop or overseer of the Church at Jerusalem was certainly at the head of the whole Church of God at this time; but James was then bishop or inspector of the Church at Jerusalem, and, consequently, was the only visible head then upon earth.

He departed - into another place - Some popish writers say that he went to Rome, and founded a Christian Church there. Those who can believe any thing may believe this. Where he went we know not; but it is probable that he withdrew for the present into a place of privacy, till the heat of the inquiry was over relative to his escape from the prison; for he saw that Herod was intent on his death.

GILL, "But he beckoning unto them with the hand,.... This is what the Jews call

:an hint" (m), which is a beckoning, or making signs, either with the head or hand" ,רמיזה

and this was now made, to hold their peace; to be silent, and not clamorous in their expressions of joy and wonder, lest it should alarm the neighbourhood, and the

consequence be bad both to him and them; as also that he might have an opportunity of relating the whole affair to them; which he did, after he had entered into the house; which though not expressed is understood, and is added in Beza's ancient copy, and in the Syriac version:

and he went in; that is, into the house: and declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out of prison: how he had sent his angel to him in prison, what a light shone about him, how his chains fell from his hands, and how the angel conducted him through the several wards, till they came to the iron gate, which opened of itself; and how when he had brought him into the public streets, he left him; he ascribes this wonderful deliverance not to the angel, but to the Lord himself:

and he said, go show these things to James; the son of Alphaeus, sometimes called the brother of our Lord; for James the son of Zebedee, the brother of John, Herod had lately killed with the sword, Act_12:2 and this other James very likely succeeded him as pastor of the church at Jerusalem, or at least had the superintendency of affairs there:

and to the brethren; the rest of the apostles, and even all the members; whom he would have acquainted with these things, which he knew would be matter of joy unto them, and a means of strengthening them in the ways of the Lord:

and he departed, and went into another place; to Rome, say the Papists, but without any foundation; if he went out of the city, and to any distant place for more safety, very likely he went to Antioch; but the words do not necessarily oblige us to conclude, that he went out of the city at that time, only that he went from Mary's house; "and went", as the Ethiopic version reads, "to another house": where another company of saints might be assembled, and where he might be more private and secure.

HE�RY, "(6.) Peter gave them an account of his deliverance. When he came to the company that were gathered together with so much zeal to pray for him, they gathered about him with no less zeal to congratulate him on his deliverance; and herein they were so noisy that when Peter himself begged them to consider what peril he was yet in, if they should be overheard, he could not make them hear him, but was forced to beckon to them with the hand to hold their peace, and had much ado thereby to command silence, while he declared unto them how the Lord Jesus had by an angel brought him out of prison; and it is very likely, having found them praying for his deliverance, he did not part with them till he and they had together solemnly given thanks to God for his enlargement; or, if he could not stay to do it, it is probable they staid together to do it; for what is won by prayer must be worn with praise; and God must always have the glory of that which we have the comfort of. When David declares what God had done for his soul, he blesses God who had not turned away his prayer, Psa_66:16, Psa_66:20.

(7.) Peter sent the account to others of his friends: Go, show these things to James, and to the brethren with him, who perhaps were met together in another place at the same time, upon the same errand to the throne of grace, which is one way of keeping up the communion of saints and wrestling with God in prayer-acting in concert, though at a distance, like Esther and Mordecai. He would have James and his company to know of his deliverance, not only that they might be eased of their pain and delivered from their fears concerning Peter, but that they might return thanks to God with him and for him. Observe, Though Herod had slain one James with the sword, yet here was another James, and that in Jerusalem too, that stood up in his room to preside among the

brethren there; for, when God has work to do, he will never want instruments to do it with.

JAMISO�, "But he, beckoning ... with his hand to hold their peace— a lively touch this. In the hubbub of joyful and wondering interrogatories there might mingle reflections, thrown out by one against another, for holding out so long against the testimony of Rhoda; while the emotion of the apostle’s own spirit would be too deep and solemn to take part in such demonstrations or utter a word till, with his hand, he had signified his wish for perfect silence.

Go show these things unto James and to the brethren— Whether James the son of Alpheus, one of the Twelve, usually known as “James the Less,” and “James the Lord’s brother” (Gal_1:19), were the same person; and if not, whether the James here referred to was the former or the latter, critics are singularly divided, and the whole question is one of the most difficult. To us, it appears that there are strong reasons for thinking that they were not the same person, and that the one here meant, and throughout the Acts, is the apostle James. (But on this more hereafter). James is singled out, because he had probably begun to take the oversight of the Church in Jerusalem, which we afterwards find him exercising (Act_15:1-29).

And he departed, and went into another place— according to his Lord’s express command (Mat_10:23). When told, on a former miraculous liberation from prison, to go and speak unto the people (Act_5:20), he did it; but in this case to present himself in public would have been to tempt God by rushing upon certain destruction.

CALVI�, "17.Tell James and the brethren: By brethren I understand not every one

that was of the Church but the apostles and elders. For though it were requisite that

the miracle should be made known to all, yet will Peter worthily for honor’s sake,

have his fellows in office to be certified thereof. Ecclesiastical writers after Eusebius

report that this James was one of the disciples; but forasmuch as Paul reckoneth

him in the number of the three pillars of the Church, (Galatians 2:9,) I do not think

that a disciple was advanced to that dignity, and the apostles set aside. Wherefore, I

do rather conjecture, that this was James the son of Alpheus, whose holiness was

such, that it caused the Jews to wonder at it. And there be two reasons for which

Peter would have this joyful message brought unto the brethren; to wit, that he

might rid them of that care which did vex them; secondly, that they might be

encouraged with such an example of God’s goodness to be the more bold. Whereas

he passeth into another place, I think it was done for this cause, because, forasmuch

as the house was well known and famous, because many of the brethren resorted

thither, he might lie hid elsewhere with less danger. Therefore, he sought a place

which was not so much suspected of the enemy, and that he might not only save

himself, but also his hostess and others.

COFFMA�, "The Lord had brought him forth ... An angel, actually, had done this,

but he had acted as God's servant; hence it was altogether correct to say that the

Lord had done it.

Unto James and the brethren ... This is not James the son of Zebedee, already slain

by Herod (Acts 12:2), but James the Lord's brother, one of the church leaders in

Jerusalem, and the author of the book of James.

The brethren ... has reference to the Christians throughout the city, assembled in

just such places as that in view here, and who were also praying for Peter.

Went to another place ... The instructions just given by Peter regarding informing

James and the brethren seems to indicate that Peter did not himself undertake such

a task, but that he went to a place of greater security.

COKE, "Acts 12:17. Unto James,— As James the brother of John was dead, Acts

12:2 the person here referred to, must have been St. James the Less, the son of

Alpheus, who was probably the only apostle then at Jerusalem, except St. Peter. He

was in great esteem among the apostles, and wrote the epistle which bears his name.

The papists will have it that St. Peter, at this time retiring fromJerusalem, went to

Rome, to found a Christian church there; but they say so, only because they

apprehend that it makes for their purpose to have men believe so: for they have no

ancient or authentic history to support their assertion of his going thither so early, if

at all.

CO�STABLE, "The James Luke mentioned here was the half brother of Jesus (cf.

Acts 15:13; Acts 21:18; Galatians 1:19; Galatians 2:9; Galatians 2:12 : James 1:1).

He became the foremost leader of the Jerusalem church after Peter's departure.

Peter proceeded to disappear from Jerusalem. Scripture does not tell us where he

went immediately. Probably he left Judea (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:5). Many other

believers in Jerusalem were not present in Mary's house that night. Peter wanted to

be sure they learned of his release, too.

Earlier Peter had returned from prison to the temple to resume preaching at the

Lord's command (Acts 5:19-21). �ow the Jews were much more hostile to the

Christians. Saul had previously left Jerusalem for his own safety (Acts 9:29-30), and

this time Peter followed his example. Peter had become infamous among the Jews in

Jerusalem for associating with Samaritans and Gentiles as well as for being the

leader of the Christians. Corinth and Rome are two places that Peter evidently

visited (1 Corinthians 1:12; 1 Corinthians 9:5; 1 Peter 5:13), and various church

fathers wrote that he ministered throughout the Jewish Diaspora. [�ote: For many

sources, see Longenecker, p. 411.] Peter also may have been in Antioch (Galatians

2:11-21), and he was in Jerusalem again for the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:7-11;

Acts 15:14), though perhaps only as a visitor.

ELLICOTT, "(17) Go shew these things unto James, and to the brethren.—The

James, or Jacob, thus spoken of may have been either James the son of Alphæus or

James the brother of the Lord. Many writers have maintained the identity of the

person described under these two names; but reasons have been given in the �otes

on Matthew 10:3; Matthew 12:47; Matthew 13:55, for believing that they were two

distinct persons, and that the brother of the Lord was therefore not an Apostle. It is

obvious that about this time, probably in consequence of the death of his namesake,

the son of Zebedee, James the brother of the Lord comes into a fresh prominence.

He is named as receiving St. Paul in Galatians 1:19, and as being, with Peter and

John, one of the pillars of the Church (Galatians 2:9). Probably about this time (but

see Introduction to the Epistle of St. James) he addressed the letter that bears his

name to the Twelve Tribes that were scattered abroad. He presides at the Council of

Jerusalem in Acts 15:13, and acted as bishop of the Church at Jerusalem. According

to the statement of Hegesippus, a Jewish Christian writer of the second century,

preserved by Eusebius (Hist. ii. 23). he led the life of a �azarite in all its rigour, was

regarded by the Jews as having a priestly character, wore the linen ephod, and the

golden petalon or plate, fitting on the brow of the priests, and as such was admitted

to the Holy Place in the Temple. In A.D. 62 or 63 he was tempted by the priestly

rulers, especially by the high-priest Ananias, to declare that the Christ was a

deceiver, and on proclaiming his faith in Him was thrown from the pinnacle of the

Temple, and as he lay on the ground, received a coup de grace from a fuller’s club.

The way in which St. Peter here speaks of him implies that he was, in some way, the

head and representative of the Christian community at Jerusalem.

He departed, and went into another place.—The act was in accordance with the

precept which had been given to the Twelve in Matthew 10:23. What the “other

place” was we can only conjecture. Some Romish writers have hazarded the wild

guess that he went to Rome, and having founded the Church there, returned to

Jerusalem in time for the council in Acts 15. Others have assumed Antioch, which is,

perhaps, less improbable; but there are no traces of his presence there till after the

council (Galatians 2:12). Some nearer city, such as Lydda or Joppa, might, however,

have been sufficient as a place of refuge, and the absence of the name of the place

suggests the inference that it was comparatively unimportant, and that Peter had

carried on no conspicuous work there.

MACLARE�, "PETER AFTER HIS ESCAPE

When the angel ‘departed from him,’ Peter had to fall back on his own wits, and they served him well. He ‘considered the thing,’ and resolved to make for the house of Mary. He does not seem to have intended to remain there, so dangerously near Herod, but merely to have told its inmates of his deliverance, and then to have hidden himself somewhere, till the heat of the hunt after him was abated. Apparently he did not go into the house at all, but talked to the brethren, when they came trooping after Rhoda to open the gate. The signs of haste in the latter part of the story, where Peter has to think and act for himself, contrast strikingly with the majestic leisureliness of the action of the angel, who gave his successive commands to him to dress completely, as if careless of the sleeping legionaries who might wake at any moment. There was need for haste, for the night was wearing thin, and the streets of Jerusalem were no safe promenade for a condemned prisoner, escaped from his guards.

We do not deal here with the scene in Mary’s house and at the gate. We only note, in a word, the touch of nature in Rhoda’s forgetting to open ‘for gladness,’ and so leaving Peter in peril, if a detachment of his guards had already been told off to chase him. Equally true to nature, alas, is the incredulity of the praying ‘many,’ when the answer to their prayers was sent to them. They had rather believe that the poor girl was ‘mad’ or

that, for all their praying, Peter was dead, and this was his ‘angel,’ than that their intense prayer had been so swiftly and completely answered. Is their behaviour not a mirror in which we may see our own?

Very like Peter, as well as very intelligible in the circumstances, is it that he ‘continued knocking,’ Well he might, and evidently his energetic fusillade of blows was heard even above the clatter of eager tongues, discussing Rhoda’s astonishing assertions. Some one, at last, seems to have kept his head sufficiently to suggest that perhaps, instead of disputing whether these were true or not, it might be well to go to the door and see. So they all went in a body, Rhoda being possibly afraid to go alone, and others afraid to stay behind, and there they saw his veritable self. But we notice that there is no sign of his being taken in and refreshed or cared for. He waved an imperative hand, to quiet the buzz of talk, spoke two or three brief words, and departed.

I. Note Peter’s account of his deliverance.

We have often had occasion to remark that the very keynote of this Book of Acts is the working of Christ from heaven, which to its writer is as real and efficient as was His work on earth. Peter here traces his deliverance to ‘the Lord.’ He does not stay to mention the angel. His thoughts went beyond the instrument to the hand which wielded it. Nor does he seem to have been at all astonished at his deliverance. His moment of bewilderment, when he did not know whether he was dreaming or awake, soon passed, and as soon as ‘the sober certainty of his waking bliss’ settled on his mind, his deliverance seemed to him perfectly natural. What else was it to be expected that ‘the Lord’ would do? Was it not just like Him? There was nothing to be astonished at, there was everything to be thankful for. That is how Christian hearts should receive the deliverances which the Lord is still working for them.

II. Note Peter’s message to the brethren.

James, the Lord’s brother, was not an Apostle. That he should have been named to receive the message indicates that already he held some conspicuous position, perhaps some office, in the Church. It may also imply that there were no Apostles in Jerusalem then. We note also that the ‘many’ who were gathered in Mary’s house can have been only a small part of the whole. We here get a little glimpse into the conditions of the life of a persecuted Church, which a sympathetic imagination can dwell on till it is luminous. Such gatherings as would attract notice had to be avoided, and what meetings were held had to be in private houses and with shut doors, through which entrance was not easy. Mary’s ‘door’ had a ‘gate’ in it, and only that smaller postern, which admitted but one at a time, was opened to visitors, and that after scrutiny. But though assemblies were restricted, communications were kept up, and by underground ways information of events important to the community spread through its members. The consciousness of brotherhood was all the stronger because of the common danger, the universal peril had not made the brethren selfish, but sympathetic. We may note, too, how great a change had come since the time when the Christians were in favour with all the people, and may reflect how fickle are the world’s smiles for Christ’s servants.

III. Note Peter’s disappearance.

All that is said of it is that he ‘went into another place.’ Probably Luke did not know where he went. It would be prudent at the time to conceal it, and the habit of concealment may have survived the need for it. But two points suggest themselves in regard to the Apostle’s flight. There may be a better use for an Apostle than to kill him, and Christ’s boldest witnesses are sometimes bound to save themselves by fleeing into another city. To hide oneself ‘till the calamity be overpast’ may be rank cowardice or

commendable prudence. All depends on the circumstances of each case. Prudence is an element in courage, and courage without it is fool-hardiness. There are outward dangers from which it is Christian duty to run, and there are outward dangers which it is Christian duty to face. There are inward temptations which it is best to avoid, as there are others which have to be fought to the death. Peter was as brave and braver when he went and hid himself, than when he boasted, ‘Though all should forsake Thee, yet will not I!’ A morbid eagerness for martyrdom wrought much harm in the Church at a later time. The primitive Church was free from it.

But we must not omit to note that here Peter is dropped out of the history, and is scarcely heard of any more. We have a glimpse of him in Act_15:1-41, at the Council in Jerusalem, but, with that exception, this is the last mention of him in Acts. How little this Book cares for its heroes! Or rather how it has only one Hero, and one Name which it celebrates, the name of that Lord to whom Peter ascribed his deliverance, and of whom he himself declared that ‘there is none other Name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved.’

18 In the morning, there was no small commotion

among the soldiers as to what had become of

Peter.

BAR�ES, "No small stir - Amazement that he had escaped, and apprehension of the consequences. The punishment which they had reason to expect, for having suffered his escape, was death.

GILL, "Now as soon as it was day,.... When it was morning; as soon as there was any light in the prison, by which the guards could discern one another and their prisoners:

there was no small stir among the soldiers: the two between whom Peter slept, and the rest of the quaternions that were employed in the wards to keep watch; who were now all in an uproar, and in the utmost concern and fright:

what was become of Peter; whether he was in any other part of the prison, by what means he could escape, and whither he was gone.

HE�RY, "(8.) Peter had nothing more to do for the present than to shift for his own

safety, which he did accordingly: He departed, and went into another place more obscure, and therefore more safe. He knew the town very well, and knew where to find a place that would be a shelter to him. Note, Even the Christian law of self-denial and suffering for Christ has not abrogated and repealed the natural law of self-preservation, and care for our own safety, as far as God gives an opportunity of providing for it by lawful means.

V. Having seen the triumph of Peter's friends in his deliverance, let us next observe the confusion of his enemies thereupon, which was so much the greater because people's expectation was so much raised of the putting of him to death. 1. The guards were in the utmost consternation upon it, for they knew how highly penal it was to them to let a prisoner escape that they had charge of (Act_12:18): As soon as it was day, and they found the prisoner gone, there was no small stir or strife, as some read it, among the soldiers, what had become of Peter; he is gone, and nobody knows how or which way. They thought themselves as sure as could be of him but last night; yet now the bird is flown, and they can hear no tale nor tidings of him. This set them together by the ears; one says, “It was your fault;” the other, “Nay, but it was yours;” having no other way to clear themselves, but by accusing one another. With us, if but a prisoner for debt escape, the sheriff must answer for the debt. Thus have the persecutors of the gospel of Christ been often filled with vexation to see its cause conquering, notwithstanding the opposition they have given to it.

JAMISO�, "as soon as it was day, etc.— His deliverance must have been during the fourth watch (three to six a.m.); else he must have been missed by the keepers at the change of the watch [Wies].

HAWKER 18-20, "Now as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers, what was become of Peter. (19) And when Herod had sought for him, and found him not, he examined the keepers, and commanded that they should be put to death. And he went down from Judea to Caesarea, and there abode. (20) And Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon: but they came with one accord to him, and, having made Blastus the king’s chamberlain their friend, desired peace; because their country was nourished by the king’s country.

It is a question, more of curiosity than usefulness, where Peter went after he left the house of Mary, and where he secreted himself. It is enough for the Church to discover the Lord’s gracious hand in delivering him at that time from Herod, and the expectation of the Jews. The Lord had other work for his servant to accomplish. But when that was over, Peter, like other men, proved to be vulnerable, 2Pe_1:4.

CALVI�, "18.When it was day. Luke returneth now unto Herod and the soldiers;

and he saith that there was no small ado amongst them. For they could not suspect

that Peter was taken from them by violence, or that he was escaped by some subtle

shift. Herod examineth the matter afterward as a judge; but when as he perceived

that the soldiers were in no fault, he himself is also enforced to be a witness of the

deliverance wrought by God. Whereas he commandeth them to be carried out of his

sight, or to be carried to prison, we may thereby gather, that their faithfulness and

diligence were approved and seen; for if there had been any suspicion of negligence,

there was punishment prepared for them; but the cause why he doth not let them go

free was partly rage, mixed with tyrannous cruelty, and partly shamefacedness.

Though some expound it otherwise, that he commanded that they should be

punished forthwith. (760) And whether, being angry, he delivered them to the

hangman, or he was content to punish them with perpetual imprisonment, it is

assuredly an excellent example of blindness, that whereas he ought to perceive the

power of God, yea, though his eyes were shut, yet doth he not bend, neither doth he

wax more meek, but proceedeth to resist God of obstinate malice. Thus doth Satan

deprive the wicked of understanding, that in seeing they see not; and the Lord, by

smiting them with this horrible amazedness, doth justly revenge himself and his

Church.

COFFMA�, "Examined the guards ... Anyone familiar with how such examinations

were conducted must know that if any of those men had really been involved in

Peter's escape, there could have been no way for them to conceal it. That sixteen

men died to cover the blame of a few of these is incredible, as is also the monstrous

notion that all sixteen were involved in it. �o! The Lord delivered Peter, as Luke

related.

To Caesarea ... There at Caesarea, God would terminate the ability of Herod to

harass and persecute the church. Claudius the emperor of Rome and personal

friend of Herod had just returned from a journey to Britain, an event celebrated

widely throughout the ancient empire, Herod presiding over extensive games and

ceremonies honoring the emperor at Caesarea in 44 A.D. In the midst of those

festivities, Herod was cut down, as revealed in the next paragraph.

BE�SO�, "Acts 12:18-19. As soon as it was day — And they found their prisoner

escaped; there was no small stir [Greek, ταραχος ουκ ολιγος, not a little tumult, or

confusion] among the soldiers, what was become of Peter — Who was gone, and

nobody knew how or which way. For the guards, awaking out of their sound sleep,

could none of them give any account of what had passed, and were ready to suspect

or accuse each other of negligence or treachery, in giving the prisoner an

opportunity to make his escape. And indeed it was very fatal to them that he had

escaped; for, when Herod had sought for him — Wherever there was any

probability of his being concealed; and found him not, he examined the keepers —

As strictly as possible, or rather, questioned them in a judicial manner; and as he

could make nothing out by his inquiry, save that the prisoner was gone while they

slept; and as he thought it by no means prudent to give any intimation that a

miraculous interposition had taken place, in favour of a man whom he had devoted

to destruction; he commanded that they should be put to death — Greek,

απαχθηναι, led away to execution, for their negligence. He probably used this

severity for another reason also, namely, lest if any apprehension of a miraculous

deliverance should prevail, (an apprehension to which what had happened to all the

apostles some time before could not but give countenance: see Acts 5:19,)

Christianity should thereby gain additional strength. Be this as it may, undoubtedly

this seasonable interposition of Providence in its favour, contributed greatly to its

further progress; as, it seems, it also, together with the death of Herod, which took

place soon after, put a speedy end to this persecution. And he went down from

Judea to Cesarea — With shame, for not having brought forth Peter, according to

his promise; and abode there — Till, in the midst of all his pride and glory, the

judgment of God overtook him, and avenged the death of James, and the intended

murder of Peter, in a most awful manner. Thus have the persecutors of the gospel of

Christ been often filled with vexation, to see its cause conquering, notwithstanding

all their opposition to it; and have been terribly reckoned with for the cruelties

exercised on God’s servants.

CO�STABLE 18-19, "Understandably there was "no small disturbance" (a litotes,

cf. Acts 14:28; Acts 15:2; Acts 17:4; Acts 17:12; Acts 19:23-24) when the authorities

found Peter's cell empty. Herod evidently concluded that the guards had cooperated

with Peter's escape or at least had been negligent. Roman guards who allowed their

prisoners to escape suffered the punishment of those prisoners. [�ote: Barclay, p.

101; Witherington, p. 389, footnote 107.] These guards died. Herod then left Judea

(the old Jewish name for the area around Jerusalem) and returned to Caesarea, the

nominal capital of the Roman province of Judea. One wonders if Peter's escape

played a role in Herod's decision to leave the center of Jewish life and so save face.

Even a Roman authority could not prevent the church from growing.

19 After Herod had a thorough search made for

him and did not find him, he cross-examined the

guards and ordered that they be executed.

Herod’s Death

Then Herod went from Judea to Caesarea and

stayed there.

BAR�ES, "He examined the keepers - The soldiers who were entrusted with his custody. Probably only those who had the special care of him at that watch of the night. The word “examine” here means “to inquire diligently, to make investigation.” He subjected them to a rigid scrutiny to ascertain the manner of his escape; for it is evident that Herod did not mean to admit the possibility of a miraculous interposition.

Should be put to death - For having failed to keep Peter. This punishment they had a right to expect for having suffered his escape.

And he went down ... - How soon after the escape of Peter he went down to Caesarea, or how long he abode there, is not known. Caesarea was rising into

magnificence, and the Roman governors made it often their abode. See the notes on Act_8:40. Compare Act_25:1, Act_25:4. This journey of Herod is related by Josephus (Antiq., book 19, chapter 8, section 2). He says that it was after he had reigned over all Judea for three years.

And there abode - That is, until his death, which occurred shortly after. We do not learn that he made any further inquiry after Peter, or that he attempted any further persecutions of the Christians. The men on guard were undoubtedly put to death; and thus Herod used all his power to create the impression that Peter had escaped by their negligence; and this would undoubtedly be believed by the Jews. See Mat_28:15. He might himself, perhaps, have been convinced, however, that the escape was by miracle, and afraid to attempt any further persecutions; or the affairs of his government might have called off his attention to other things; and thus, as in the case of the. “persecution that arose about Stephen,” the political changes and dangers might divert the attention from putting Christians to death. See the notes on Act_9:31. Thus, by the providence of God, this persecution, that had been commenced, not by popular tumult, but by royal authority and power, and that was aimed at the very pillars of the church, ceased. The prayers of the church prevailed; and the monarch was overcome, disappointed, bummed, and, by divine judgment, soon put to death.

CLARKE, "Commanded that they should be put to death - He believed, or pretended to believe, that the escape of Peter was owing to the negligence of the keepers: jailers, watchmen, etc., ordinarily suffered the same kind of punishment which should have been inflicted on the prisoner whose escape they were supposed to have favored.

He went down from Judea to Caesarea - How soon he went down, and how long he stayed there, we know not.

GILL, "And when Herod had sought for him and found him not,.... Neither in the prison, nor in any part of the city:

he examined the keepers; of the prison, and those that were upon the watch, whether they had not been accessary to his escape:

and commanded that they should be put to death: or brought forth, not before a judge to be tried and judged, because they had been examined by Herod already; but either that they should be carried and laid in bonds, or be led forth to suffer punishment; and so our version directs, and which is confirmed by the Syriac; and the Greeks say (n),

that απαγωγη is a kind of punishment:

and he went down from Judea to Caesarea; not Peter, but Herod:

and there abode; of this journey of Agrippa's to Caesarea, Josephus makes mention (o); this place was distant from Jerusalem six hundred furlongs, or seventy five miles (p).

HE�RY, "Houses were searched in vain for the rescued prisoner (Act_12:19): Herod sought for him, and found him not. Who can find whom God hath hidden? Baruch and Jeremiah are safe, though searched for, because the Lord has hidden them, Jer_36:26. In times of public danger, all believers have God for their hiding-place, which is such a

secret, that there the ignorant world cannot find them; such a strength, that the impotent world cannot reach them. 3. The keepers were reckoned with for a permissive escape: Herod examined the keepers, and finding that they could give no satisfactory account how Peter got away, he commanded that they should be put to death, according to the Roman law, and that 1Ki_20:39, If by any means he be missing, then shall thy life go for his life. It is probable that these keepers had been more severe with Peter than they needed to be (as the jailor, Act_16:24), and had been abusive to him, and to others that had been their prisoners upon the like account; and now justly are they put to death for that which was not their fault, and by him too that had set them to work to vex the church. When the wicked are thus snared in the work of their own hands, the Lord is known by the judgments which he executes. Or, if they had not thus made themselves obnoxious to the justice of God, and it be thought hard that innocent men should suffer thus for that which was purely the act of God, we may easily admit the conjectures of some, that though they were commanded to be put to death, to please the Jews, who were sadly disappointed by Peter's escape, yet they were not executed; but Herod's death, immediately after, prevented it. 4. Herod himself retired upon it: He went down from Judea to Cesarea, and there abode. He was vexed to the heart, as a lion disappointed of his prey; and the more because he had so much raised the expectation of the people of the Jews concerning Peter, had told them how he would very shortly gratify them with the sight of Peter's head in a charger, which would oblige them as much as John Baptist's did Herodias; it made him ashamed to be robbed of this boasting, and to see himself, notwithstanding his confidence, disabled to make his words good. This is such a mortification to his proud spirit that he cannot bear to stay in Judea, but away he goes to Cesarea. Josephus mentions this coming of Herod to Cesarea, at the end of the third year of his reign over all Judea (Antiq. 19.343), and says, he came thither to solemnize the plays that were kept there, by a vast concourse of the nobility and gentry of the kingdom, for the health of Caesar, and in honour of him.

JAMISO�, "examined the keepers— who, either like the keepers of our Lord’s sepulchre, had “shaken and become as dead men” (Mat_28:4), or had slept on their watch and been divinely kept from awaking.

commanded that they should be put to death— Impotent vengeance!

COKE, "Acts 12:19. And commanded that they should be put to death.— And

commanded them to be led away to execution. It is well known that the word

απαχθηναι has this signification; thus the wicked suffered in the room of the

righteous. Herod, probably, punished the keepers with such severity, lest the

apprehension of a miraculous deliverance should have prevailed, and so

Christianityhave gained, as it probably did, additional strength. What had so

notoriously happened to all the twelve apostles, in a circumstance muchresembling

this, ch. Acts 5:19 would no doubt add great weight to such a representation; and it

seems that this seasonable interposition of Divine Providence, joined with the death

of Herodsoon after, put a speedy end to this persecution.

COKE, Acts 12:19-20. And he went down from Judea, &c.— See on ch. Acts 8:40.

Herod the Great, after he had built Caesarea Palestine, had instituted games to the

honour of Caesar, which were to be celebrated every fifth year. �ot long after the

apprehending of St. Peter, the usual time recurred for the celebration of these

games. Herod Agrippa went down to Caesarea upon this occasion. Another affair

which called him to that part of his dominions was, his being highly offended with

the inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon, against whom he meditated a war; but they being

tradingcities, and unable to carry on their traffic without a free commerce in Galilee

and other parts of Herod's dominions, whence they used to purchase large

quantities of corn and other provisions, they bribed Blastus the king's chamberlain,

who had great influence over his master, and by that means obtained peace.

Josephus confirms this account of Herod's journey, which, according to him, was in

the third year of his reign over the whole country. See 1 Kings 5:9-11. Ezekiel 27:17.

Instead of was highly displeased, Heylin reads was preparing to make war,—

θυµοµαχων : and instead of was nourished, he reads subsisted.

ELLICOTT, "(19) Commanded that they should be put to death.—Literally, that

they should be led away—i.e., to execution. The phrase was half-technical, half-

euphemistic. Capital punishment was, according to Roman usage, the almost

inevitable penalty for allowing a prisoner to escape. So at Philippi, the gaoler, when

he thought the prisoners had escaped, was on the point of anticipating the sentence

by suicide (Acts 16:28). See �ote on Acts 27:42.

20 He had been quarreling with the people of Tyre

and Sidon; they now joined together and sought

an audience with him. After securing the support

of Blastus, a trusted personal servant of the king,

they asked for peace, because they depended on

the king’s country for their food supply.

BAR�ES, "And Herod was highly displeased ... - Greek: “bore a hostile mind,”

intending war. See the margin. The Greek word θυµοµαχ�ν thumomachōn does not occur

elsewhere in the New Testament. It means to meditate war; to purpose war in the mind; or here, probably, to be enraged or angry at them. What was the cause of this hostility to the people of Tyre and Sidon is not mentioned, and conjecture is useless. It is not at all inconsistent, however, with the well known character of Herod. It was probably from some cause relating to commerce. Tyre and Sidon were under the Roman power, and had some shadow of liberty (Grotius), and it is probable that they might have embarrassed Herod in some of his regulations respecting commerce.

Tyre and Sidon - See the notes on Mat_11:21. They were north of Caesarea.

They came with one accord - Fearing the effects of his anger, they united in sending an embassage to him to make peace.

Blastus, the king’s chamberlain - See Rom_16:23. The word “chamberlain” denotes an officer who is charged with the direction and management of a chamber or chambers, particularly a bed-chamber. It denotes here a man who had charge of the bed chamber of Herod.

Because their country was nourished ... -Was supplied by the territories of Herod. The country of Tyre and Sidon included a narrow strip of land on the coast of the Mediterranean. Of course they were dependent for provisions, and for articles of commerce, on the interior country; but this belonged to the kingdom of Herod; and as they were entirely dependent on his country, as he had power to dry up the sources of their support and commerce, they were the more urgent to secure his favor.

CLARKE, "Highly displeased with them of Tyre - On what account Herod was thus displeased is not related by any historian, as far as I have been able to ascertain. Josephus, who speaks of this journey of Herod to Caesarea, says nothing of it; and it is useless for us to conjecture.

Having made Blastus - their friend - Blastus was probably a eunuch, and had considerable influence over his master Herod; and, to reach the master, it is likely they bribed the chamberlain.

Desired peace - The Tyrians and Sidonians being equally subjects of the Roman government with the inhabitants of Galilee, Herod could not go to war with them; but, being irritated against them, he might prevent their supplies: they therefore endeavored to be on peaceable, i.e. friendly, terms with him.

Their country was nourished by the king’s country - That is, they had all their supplies from Galilee; for Tyre and Sidon, being places of trade and commerce, with little territory, were obliged to have all their provisions from the countries under Herod’s jurisdiction. This had been the case even from the days of Solomon, as we learn from 1Ki_5:11; where it is said that Solomon gave Hiram twenty thousand measures of wheat, for food to his household; and twenty measures of pure oil: thus gave Solomon to Hiram year by year. See also Eze_27:17.

GILL, "And Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon,.... Two cities on the sea coast, in the land of Phoenicia; with the inhabitants of which Herod was so enraged, that though he had not declared war against them, yet he had meditated it in his mind, and intended to do it at a proper time: what gave him this offence is not certain; that it should be for entertaining and concealing of Peter, when he made his escape, is without any foundation; and nothing but this following on that account, could ever occasion such a thought:

but they came with one accord to him; the ambassadors from both cities united in an address to him, and joined in ways and means to reconcile him to them:

and having made Blastus the king's chamberlain their friend; not merely by arguments, entreaties, and good works, but very likely by gifts, by making presents to him: persons in such an office had usually very great interest in the princes they served

(q), as Blastus doubtless had with Herod; Commodus the emperor did every thing at the instances of his chamberlains, and so other princes; for these officers had access when others could not, the king's bedchamber next to sacred; and therefore the Tyrians and Sidonians privately applied to him first:

desired peace; either of Herod himself, to whom, by the means of Blastus, they were introduced; and in their address to him, entreated he would forgive the offence, and be at peace with them; or else of Blastus, whom by some means or another they made their friend; and therefore entreated of him, that he would use his interest with the king, and procure peace for them: and this sense the Arabic version inclines to, which renders the words thus, "and they prayed him that he would take care of reconciliation and peace"; though the former seems to be the true sense: "because their country was nourished by the king's country". These cities were seaports, and the inhabitants of them were much concerned in sending ships to sea, and in merchandise; and it was in Judea and Galilee, which were under Herod's jurisdiction, where they vented the goods they imported, and from whence they were supplied with wheat, honey, and oil, both for their own use, and perhaps to export abroad; see 1Ki_5:1 Eze_27:3, &c. And it looks as if Herod had forbid all commerce with them, which if it had been continued, would have been the ruin of them.

HE�RY, "In these verses we have,

I. The death of Herod. God reckoned with him, not only for his putting James to death, but for his design and endeavour to put Peter to death; for sinners will be called to an account, not only for the wickedness of their deeds, but for the wickedness of their endeavours (Psa_28:4), for the mischief they have done and the mischief they would have done. It was but a little while that Herod lived after this. Some sinners God makes quick work with. Observe,

1. How the measure of his iniquity was filled up: it was pride that did it; it is this that commonly goes more immediately before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.Nebuchadnezzar had been a very bloody man, and a great persecutor; but the word that was in the king's mouth when the judgments of God fell upon him was a proud word: Is not this great Babylon that I have built? Dan_4:30, Dan_4:31. It is the glory of God to look on every one that is proud, and bring him low, Job_40:12. The instance of it here is very remarkable, and shows how God resists the proud.

(1.) The men of Tyre and Sidon had, it seems, offended Herod. Those cities were now under the Roman yoke, and they had been guilty of some misdemeanours which Herod highly resented, and was resolved they should feel his resentment. Some very small matter would serve such a proud imperious man as Herod was for a provocation, where he was disposed to pick a quarrel. He was highly displeased with this people, and they must be made to know that his wrath was as the roaring of a lion, as messengers of death.

(2.) The offenders truckled, being convinced, if not that they had done amiss, yet that it was in vain to contend with such a potent adversary, who, right or wrong, would be too hard for them; they submitted and were willing upon any terms to make peace with him.Observe, [1.] The reason why they were desirous to have the matter accommodated: Because their country was nourished by the king's country. Tyre and Sidon were trading cities, and had little land belonging to them, but were always supplied with corn from the land of Canaan; Judah and Israel traded in their market, with wheat, and honey, and oil, Eze_27:17. Now if Herod should make a law to prohibit the exportation of corn to Tyre and Sidon (which they knew not but a man so revengeful as he might

soon do, not caring how many were famished by it), their country would be undone; so that it was their interest to keep in with him. And is it not then our wisdom to make our peace with God, and humble ourselves before him, who have a much more constant and necessary dependence upon him than one country can have upon another? for in him we live, and move, and have our being. [2.] The method they took to prevent a rupture: They made Blastus the king's chamberlain their friend, probably with bribes and good presents; that is usually the way for men to make courtiers their friends. And it is the hard fate of princes that they must have not only their affairs, but their affections too, governed by such mercenary tools; yet such men as Herod, that will not be governed by reason, had better be so governed than by pride and passion. Blastus had Herod's ear, and has the art of mollifying his resentments; and a time is fixed for the ambassadors of Tyre and Sidon to come and make a public submission, to beg his majesty's pardon, throw themselves upon his clemency, and promise never again to offend in the like manner; and that which will thus feed his pride shall serve to cool his passion.

JAMISO�, "Act_12:20-25. Herod’s miserable end - Growing success of the gospel -Barnabas and Saul return to Antioch.

Herod was ... displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon— for some reason unknown; but the effect on their commercial relations made the latter glad to sue for peace.

their country was nourished by the king’s country— See 1Ki_5:11; Ezr_3:7; Eze_27:17. Perhaps the famine (Act_11:28) made them the more urgent for reconciliation.

CALVI�, "20.A worthy (761) history, which doth not only show, as it were in a

glass, what end is prepared for the enemies of the Church, but also how greatly God

hateth pride. The Scripture saith that “God resisteth the proud,” (1 Peter 5:5.) God

himself did show a lively image thereof in the person of Herod. And assuredly men

cannot extol themselves higher than becometh them, but they shall make war with

God, who, to the end he may surpass all, (762) commandeth all flesh to keep silence.

And if God did so sharply punish pride in a king whom prosperity did puff up, what

shall become of those of the common sort who are ridiculously puffed up without

cause? Furthermore, we must note the course of the history, that all things go well

with Herod after that he had miserably vexed the Church; he enforced the nations

round about him, being tamed with hunger, to come to crave pardon upon their

knees, as if God had rewarded him well for his wicked fury. This was no small trial

for the godly, who might have thought thus with themselves (763) that God cared

not for them, and they were afraid lest with Herod’s power his tyranny and cruelty

should increase. But the Lord had another purpose, (764) for he set the oppressor of

his Church on high that he might have the greater fall. Therefore, that shadowish

felicity, wherein he delighted too much, was unto him a certain falling against the

day of slaughter. In like sort, when at this day we see the bloody enemies of the

Church carried up upon the wings of fortune into heaven, there is no cause why we

should be discouraged; but let us rather call to mind that saying of Solomon,

“Pride goeth before calamity;

and the heart is lifted up before a fall,”

(Proverbs 16:18.)

Herod was displeased. Luke useth the compound participle, θυµοµαχον which

signifieth privy grudging or hatred. Therefore Herod did not make open war

against those cities; but such was his displeasure, that he essayed to subdue them by

policy, as it were by undermining them by little and little. It is a rare matter, saith

Demosthenes, for free cities to agree with monarchs. Moreover, Herod was naturally

cruel, bold, of insatiable covetousness; and it is not to be doubted but that Tyre and

Sidon were, as it were, certain bars or rails to stay his fury, as they were wealthy

cities, and unaccustomed to bear the yoke. Also, the remembrance of their old glory

might have encouraged them; forasmuch as pride cometh commonly of wealth, it is

no marvel if these two cities were proud, the one whereof Isaiah calleth queen of the

seas, whose merchants, he said, were kings, and her chapmen dukes, (Isaiah 23:8.)

Also, he saith elsewhere that Sidon was become proud by reason of her wealth. And

although they had sundry times been brought almost to utter ruin, yet the

commodiousness of their situation did shortly restore them to their wonted state.

Hereby it came to pass that they could more hardly digest Agrippa, of late a base

fellow, a man of no estimation, (765) and one who had been let out of prison;

especially seeing that he had behaved himself so cruelly toward his own subjects,

and was troublesome and injurious to his neighbors.

Forasmuch as their country was nourished. It had not been good for him to have

assailed the men of Tyre and Sidon with open war, therefore he giveth

commandment that there should no corn nor victual be carried (766) out of his

realm. By this means did he, without any army, besiege them by little and little. For

the borders of both cities were strait, and their ground barren, whereas there was a

great people to be fed. Therefore, after that they were tamed with hunger, they

humbly crave peace, and that not free, for assuredly they had some laws given them;

and it is to be thought that this Blastus mentioned by Luke was not with bare words

persuaded, but with rewards [gifts] won to entreat the peace. (767) I know not why

Erasmus did think it good to translate this place otherwise than the words import.

COFFMA�, "This judgment of Herod is confirmed in its entirety by Josephus,

although Luke needs no corroboration from him. The following is taken from

Josephus:

When Agrippa had reigned three years over Judaea, he exhibited shows in honor of

Caesar; on the second day of which shows he put on a garment made wholly of

silver, truly wonderful, and came into the theater early in the morning, the silver of

his garment reflecting the sun's rays, spreading a horror over those that looked ....

His flatterers cried, from one place, and another, that he was a god, adding, Be

merciful to us; for, although we have hitherto reverenced thee only as a man, yet

shall we henceforth own thee as superior to mortal nature .... Presently a severe pain

arose in his belly, and began in a most violent manner .... Herod said, "I whom you

call a god am presently commanded to depart this life .... I am bound to accept what

Providence allots."[6]

If we may depend on what Josephus says, to the effect that Herod disapproved of

the blasphemous compliments of his flatterers, then we have new light on what Luke

means by:

He gave not God the glory ... This means that he would not give God the glory for

releasing Peter, a refusal that could have originated in nothing else than his pride

and stubbornness. Given the nature of the prison and the extent of Peter's guard,

Herod knew that God had delivered him; but he would not give God the glory,

putting sixteen innocent men to death in order to emphasize his denial. This was

exactly the same kind of conduct as that of the Pharisees who decided to kill

Lazarus to prevent people from believing in Jesus who had raised him from the

dead.

E�D�OTE:

[6] Flavius Josephus, Antiquities and Wars of the Jews, translated by William

Whiston (�ew York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston), p. 582.

BE�SO�, "Acts 12:20. Herod, &c. — The historian now proceeds to mention some

circumstances that were introductory to the miserable end of Herod; was highly

displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon — On account of some supposed affront

which he had received from them, and which provoked him so far that, having

vowed a severe revenge, he was preparing with all speed to make war upon them.

But they came with one accord to him — Being a trading people, and apprehensive

of the consequences of the king’s displeasure, they unanimously adopted the

resolution of sending proper representatives to Cesarea, to appear before him; and

having made Blastus their friend, desired peace — They sued for, and obtained,

reconciliation with Herod. And thus the Christians of those parts were, by the

providence of God, delivered from scarcity: because their country was nourished —

Was provided with corn; by the king’s country — Thus Hiram also, king of Tyre,

desired of Solomon food, or corn, for his household, 1 Kings 5:9.

CO�STABLE, "King Herod had become displeased with his subjects who lived in

Tyre and Sidon on the Mediterranean coast north of Caesarea. Because these towns

depended on Galilee, part of King Herod's country, for their food supply, they were

eager to get on his good side again. One writer pointed out parallels between King

Herod and the King of Tyre in Ezekiel 27:17; Ezekiel 28:4. [�ote: Mark R. Strom,

"An Old Testament Background to Acts 12:20-23," �ew Testament Studies 32:2

(April 1986):289-92.] Blastus, Herod's chamberlain (Gr. koitonos), was one of the

king's trusted servants.

ELLICOTT, "(20) Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon.—

Literally, as in the margin, was in a hostile state of mind; was, in modern phrase,

“contemplating hostilities.” The two Phœnician cities were not subject to Agrippa,

but were under the control of Rome with a nominal independence.

Desired peace.—Literally, were seeking peace. They apparently feared that Herod

would show his displeasure by prohibiting the export of corn, and oil, and wine, on

which the Phœnician cities, with their large population and narrow strips of

territory, were dependent for subsistence. Comp. 1 Kings 5:11, and Ezekiel 27:17, as

showing the identity of the commercial relations of the two countries at long

intervals in their history.

21 On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal

robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public

address to the people.

BAR�ES, "And upon a set day - An appointed, public day. This was the second day of the sports and games which Herod celebrated in Caesarea in honor of Claudius Caesar. Josephus has given an account of this occurrence, which coincides remarkably with the narrative here. The account is contained in his “Antiquities of the Jews,” book 19, chapter 8, section 2, and is as follows: “Now when Agrippa had reigned three years over all Judea, he came to the city Caesarea, which was formerly called Strato’s Tower; and there he exhibited shows in honor of Caesar, upon his being informed that there was a certain festival celebrated to make vows for his safety. At which festival a great multitude was gotten together of the principal persons, and such as were of dignity throughout his province. On the second day of which shows he put on a garment made wholly of silver,” etc.

Arrayed in royal apparel - In the apparel of a king. Josephus thus describes the dress which Herod wore on that occasion. “He put on a garment made wholly of silver, and of wonderful contexture, and early in the morning came into the theater place of the shows and games, at which time the silver of his garment, being illuminated by the first reflection of the sun’s rays upon it, shone after a surprising manner, and was so resplendent as to spread a horror over those that looked intently on him.”

Sat upon his throne - This does not denote a throne in the usual sense of that word, but “a high seat” in the theater, where he sat, and from whence he could have a full view of the games and sports. From this place he made his speech.

Made an oration - Addressed the people.’ What was the subject of this speech is not intimated by Luke or Josephus.

CLARKE, "Upon a set day, etc. - A day on which games, etc., were exhibited in honor of the Roman emperor. What this refers to, we learn from Josephus. “Herod, having reigned three years over All Judea, (he had reigned over the tetrarchy of his

brother Philip four years before this), went down to Caesarea, and there exhibited shows and games in honor of Claudius, and made vows for his health. On the second day of these shows, he put on a garment made wholly of silver, and of a contexture most truly wonderful, and came into the theater early in the morning; at which time the silver of his garment, being illuminated by the first reflection of the sun’s rays, shone out after a surprising manner, and was so resplendent as to spread a horror over those who looked intently upon him; and presently his flatterers cried out, one from one place, and another from another, ‘He is a god:’ and they added, ‘Be thou merciful to us, for although we have hitherto reverenced thee only as a man, yet shall we henceforth own thee as superior to mortal nature.’ Nor did the king rebuke them, nor reject their impious flattery. But, looking up, he saw an owl on a certain rope over his head, and immediately conceived that this bird was to him a messenger of ill tidings; and he fell into the deepest sorrow; a severe pain also arose in his bowels, and he died after five days’ severe illness.” This is the sum of the account given by Josephus, Ant. lib. xix. cap. 8, sect. 2. (See Whiston’s edition.) Notwithstanding the embellishments of the Jewish historian, it agrees in the main surprisingly with the account given here by St. Luke. Josephus, it is true, suppresses some circumstances which would have been dishonorable to this impious king; and, according to his manner, puts a speech in Herod’s mouth, when he found himself struck with death, expressive of much humility and contrition. But this speech is of no authority. When Josephus takes up and pursues the thread of mere historical narration, he may be safely trusted; but whenever he begins to embellish, or put speeches in the mouths of his actors, he is no longer to be credited. He even here transforms an angel of the Lord into an owl, and introduces it most improbably into his narration; as if an owl, a bird of all others that can least bear the light, should come and perch on the pavilion of the king, when the sun was shining with the most resplendent rays!

GILL, "And upon a set day,.... Either on some feast day of divine appointment, as a

feast day was by the Jews called מועד, "a stated day"; or on some day appointed by Herod,

for the receiving of the ambassadors of Tyre and Sidon, and of hearing their petitions; or as Josephus (r) says, it was on the second day of the sports and plays, instituted by him in honour of Caesar:

Herod, arrayed in royal apparel; the same Jewish historian in the same place says, that this his apparel was all of silver, and of a wonderful contexture; and that going in this very early in the morning into the theatre, the silver shone so with the rays of the rising sun, that it struck the spectators with terror and admiration:

sat upon his throne; and very likely with the other ensigns of royalty, as a crown on his head, and a sceptre in his hand:

and made an oration unto them; either unto the ambassadors from Tyre and Sidon, or rather unto the common people, the multitude that were gathered together in the theatre, where the above historian says he was.

HE�RY, "(3.) Herod appeared in all the pomp and grandeur he had: He was arrayed in his royal apparel (Act_12:21), and sat upon his throne. Josephus gives an account of this splendid appearance which Herod made upon this occasion - Antiq. 19.344. He says that Herod at this time wore a robe of cloth of silver, so richly woven, and framed with such art, that when the sun shone it reflected the light with such a lustre as dazzled the

eyes of the spectators, and struck an awe upon them. Foolish people value men by their outward appearance; and no better are those who value themselves by the esteem of such, who court it, and recommend themselves to it as Herod did, who thought to make up the want of a royal heart with his royal apparel; and sat upon his throne, as if that gave him a privilege to trample upon all about him as his footstool.

(4.) He made a speech to the men of Tyre and Sidon, a fine oration, in which, probably, after he had aggravated their fault, and commended their submission, he concluded with an assurance that he would pass by their offence and receive them into his favour again - proud enough that he had it in his power whom he would to keep alive, as well as whom he would to slay; and probably he kept them in suspense as to what their doom should be, till he made this oration to them, that the act of grace might come to them with the more pleasing surprise.

JAMISO�, "And upon a set day Herod ... made an oration unto them— to the Tyrians and Sidonians especially.

HAWKER 21-23, "And upon a set day Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat upon his throne, and made an oration unto them. (22) And the people gave a shout, saying, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man. (23) And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten of worms, and gave up the ghost.

Here we arrive at the close of Herod’s pomp, in which we behold the sure end of iniquity. We see that in the very moment of all his pomp, and earthly grandeur, an Angel of God smiting the monster to the earth. And to distinguish him yet more, as one execrated both by God and man, he was eaten of worms, even before his death. It is the common sentence on human nature, by reason of sin, to return to the dust, out of which man was taken. But this hater of God, and persecutor of his people, shall have an end yet more despicable, and loathsome. He shall be eaten of worms while alive; a prelude to the everlasting devouring by that worm which dieth not, and in that fire which shall not be quenched. And if we may credit profane history, it is remarkable how many tyrants have died this death!

CALVI�, "21.Upon an appointed day. Luke saith that the men of Tyrus and Sidon

had peace granted them, because this was the occasion of the king’s oration, without

doubt, that he might make them his underlings hereafter. The same history is extant

in Josephus, in his �ineteenth Book of Antiquities, save only that he calleth him

everywhere Agrippa, whom Luke calleth Herod. It is to be thought that Agrippa

was his proper name, and that he was called by none other name so long as he was a

private man; but after that he was advanced to be a king, he took to himself princely

dignity, according to the name of his grandfather. Josephus and Luke agree

together wonderfully in the thing itself, and in all circumstances. First, they agree

concerning the place. Josephus saith, That his garment was embroidered with gold,

on which, when the sun-beams light, it did glister again; and that this was the cause

which moved the courtiers to call him (768) a god. That he was suddenly wounded;

also, that there was seen an owl sitting upon a cord over his head, which cord did

prognosticate his ruin. And he is so far from doubting that his sacrilegious pride

was punished with this kind of punishment, that he saith, that he confessed the same

openly amidst his cruel torments, “Behold me, whom you call a god; I am enforced

to finish my life most miserable.” There is no mention made there of the peace made

with those of Tyrus and Sidon; but that he made and set forth plays (769) in honor

of Caesar. But it may be that the solemnity of the plays was appointed in respect of

the peace concluded, which we know was a solemn thing.

COFFMA�, "This wonderful verse was a favorite of the late R.B. Sweet who

preached a great sermon from it. Over against all human interference, infidelity,

unbelief, and opposition, there is opposed this divine "BUT." But the word of God

grew and multiplied. The success of God's plans is never in question. All that God

intended shall surely come to pass.

COKE, "Acts 12:21-23. And upon a set day Herod, &c.— Upon occasion of the

games and approaching festival hinted at in the last verse, there was a great resort

of the governors and principal men of the neighbouring provinces, and of persons of

figure from all the surrounding countries. On the second day of that solemnity,

Herod Agrippa came early in the morning, most probably into the amphitheatre,

built by his grandfather Herod the Great, dressed in a robe of most curious

workmanship, all made of silver, as Josephus informs us; which, reflecting the rays

of the rising sun with an unusual and almost insupportable splendor, gave him a

most awful and majestic appearance. In that magnificent manner he sat upon his

throne, and made an oration to the people; which when he had finished, they cried

out with flattering acclamations, "Surely this is the Bath kol,—the speech of God,—

and not of any mortal man!" See the Syriacversion. The king was pleased with this

blasphemous applause, and did not reprove the persons, nor reject their impious

adulation. Mr. Fleming imagines, that they herein referred to the glory with which

the Shechinah used to appear; and that Herod being profane enough to assume the

honour of it, provoked the Divine Majesty beyondany further sufferance; so that he

sent a disease upon him, which rendered him equally contemptible and miserable.

"As he did not rebuke this impious flattery, says Josephus, he was immediately

seized with exquisite and racking tortures in his bowels, so that he was compelled,

before he left the place, to own his folly in admitting such acclamations, and

upbraided those about him with the wretched condition in which they saw their

God; and being carried out of the assembly to his palace, he expired in violent

agonies the fifth day after he was taken, in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and the

seventh of his reign;" reckoning from the time of his first advancement by Caligula

to the tetrarchy of his uncle Philip, being the fourth year of the emperor Claudius,

in the year of the Christian aera, 44. The word Σκωληκοβρωτος, Acts 12:23 signifies

in the general consumed with vermin, and may express the disease called morbus

pedicularis, of which several cruel and persecuting princes have died. Elsner has

given several instances ofthe madness of heathen princes, who arrogated divinity to

themselves, and came to the most infamous and shocking ends. Antiochus

Epiphanes and Herod the Great both died in the same manner with Herod Agrippa.

See 2 Maccab. Acts 9:9 and on Matthew 2:19. Herod Agrippa's knowledge of the

true God, and of his jealousy with respect to divine honours, no doubt aggravated

his guilt. The reader will find, by referring to Josephus, a wonderful harmony

between the accounts which he and St. Luke have given of this affair. Josephus is

indeed larger and more express; though out of a partial fondness, as it seems, for

Herod Agrippa, whom he had so much extolled, he has concealed the particular

disease, which was the true cause of the excruciating pains in the bowels which he

mentions. Herod left behind him a son called Agrippa, then seventeen years of age,

before whom St. Paul afterwards appeared, and made an apology for Christianity.

He left also two daughters, taken notice of in the �ew Testament; namely, Berenice,

who was married to Herod king of Chalcis, his father's brother, being sixteen years

of age; and Drusilla, who was afterwards married to the governor Felix; as well as

Mariamne, of whom there is no mention in the Scripture. After the death of Herod

Agrippa, the kingdom was again reduced to a Roman province, when the

persecution of the Christians for a while abated. Comp. 2 Samuel 24:16. 2 Kings

19:35.

BE�SO�, "Acts 12:21-23. And upon a set day — When shows and games were

exhibited by him in honour of Claudius Cesar; Herod, arrayed in royal apparel —

In a garment so wrought with silver, that the rays of the rising sun, striking upon,

and reflected from it, dazzled the eyes of the beholders; sat upon his throne — In a

public theatre; and made an oration unto them — �ot to the Tyrian and Sidonian

deputies merely, but unto all the people assembled on this grand occasion. And the

people gave a shout, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man — Such profane

flattery the heathen frequently paid to princes. But the commonness of a wicked

custom rather increases than lessens the guilt of it. And the unhappy king, instead of

expressing a just indignation at such base and impious adulation, hearkened to it

with a secret pleasure. And immediately — For frequently God does not delay to

vindicate his injured honour; an angel of the Lord smote him — Of this, other

historians say nothing; so wide a difference there is between divine and human

history! An angel of the Lord brought out Peter, an angel smote Herod. Men did not

see the instruments in either case: these were only known to the people of God.

Because he gave not God the glory — Did not reject these blasphemous applauses,

but willingly received them, and thus filled up the measure of his iniquities. So then

vengeance tarried not. And he was eaten of worms — Or vermin, which bred in his

bowels, and rendered him a most loathsome and horrible spectacle to all about him;

and he gave up the ghost — Expired in agony and infamy, (as his grandfather,

Herod the Great, had done, see on Matthew 2:19,) and sunk as much below the

common state of human nature, as his flatterers endeavoured to raise him above it!

The Jewish historian, Josephus, confirms St. Luke’s account of the end of this

miserable man. He tells us, that “as he did not rebuke the impious flattery addressed

to him, he was immediately seized with exquisite and racking tortures in his bowels,

so that he was compelled, before he left the place, to own his folly in admitting such

acclamations, and upbraided those about him with the wretched condition in which

they then saw their god; and being carried out of the assembly to his palace, he

expired in violent agonies, the fifth day after he was taken, in the fifty-fourth year of

his age, and the seventh of his reign.” Antiq., Acts 19:7.

CO�STABLE 21-23, "Josephus recorded this incident in more detail than Luke

did. He added that Herod appeared in the outdoor theater at Caesarea. He stood

before the officials from Tyre, Sidon, and his other provinces on a festival day

dressed in a silver robe. When the sun shone brilliantly on his shiny robe some

flatterers in the theater began to call out words of praise acclaiming him a god.

Immediately severe stomach pains attacked him. Attendants had to carry him out of

the theater, and five days later he died. [�ote: Josephus, Antiquities of . . ., 18:6:7;

cf. 19:8:2.] Doctor Luke saw Herod's attack as a judgment from God and gave a

more medical explanation of his death than Josephus did. One writer suggested that

Herod suffered from appendicitis that led to peritonitis complicated by

roundworms. [�ote: Marshall, The Acts . . ., p. 213; cf. Longenecker, p. 413.]

Another diagnosed him as having a cyst caused by a tapeworm. [�ote: �eil, p. 152.]

More important than the effect was the cause, namely, Herod's pride (cf. Isaiah

42:8; Daniel 4:30).

"The pride of man had ended in the wrath of God." [�ote: Barclay, p. 103.]

"The angel of the Lord who had delivered Peter was now to smite Herod the

persecutor. He had 'smitten' Peter, and we see that the same divine visitation may be

for life or for death. Herod Agrippa is the �T antitype of Pharaoh and Sennacherib,

the oppressor smitten by the angel of the Lord." [�ote: Rackham, p. 381.]

McGee regarded him as a miniature of Antichrist. [�ote: McGee, 4:565.]

ELLICOTT, "(21) And upon a set day . . .—Josephus (Ant. xix. 8, § 2) gives an

account of the incident that follows substantially agreeing with that here recorded.

The scene was the theatre at Cæsarea, which had been built by Herod the Great.

Agrippa was celebrating games in honour of the Emperor Claudius, who had

succeeded Caligula in A.D. 41, possibly in honour of his return from Britain in A.D.

44. He was arrayed in a robe of silver tissue, such as Caligula had been wont to wear

at banquets and games in Rome, which glittered with a dazzling brightness under

the rays of the morning sun. His courtiers, taking up the Roman fashion of showing

honour to kings and emperors, hailed him as a god, and prayed him, as such, to be

propitious to them. The king did not repress the flattery, which fell on the ears of all

Jewish by-standers as a fearful blasphemy. He accepted for himself the divine

honours which he had dissuaded Caligula from claiming. He looked up, and saw an

owl perched on a rope behind him, and recognised in it an omen of evil, fulfilling a

prediction which had been made to him by a fellow-prisoner during his confinement

at Rome (Jos. Ant. xviii. 8). Sharp pain fell on him, and in five days he died.

Comparing St. Luke’s narrative with this, it seems probable that the delegates from

Tyre and Sidon were among those who raised the cry, “Be thou propitious to us,”

and that their friend Blastus, knowing the weak point in Herod’s character, had

instructed them that this was the way to obtain his favour. We feel, as we read the

narrative, the contrast between St. Peter’s refusal even of Cornelius’s attitude of

homage, and Agrippa’s acceptance of the profane apotheosis of the multitude.

22 They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of

a man.”

BAR�ES, "And the people gave a shout - A loud applause.

It is the voice of a god ... - It is not probable that the Jews joined in this acclamation, but that it was made by the idolatrous Gentiles. Josephus gives a similar account of their feelings and conduct. He says, “And presently his flatterers cried out, one from one place, and another from another (though not for his good), that he was a god; and they added, ‘Be thou merciful unto us; for although we have hitherto reverenced thee only as a king, yet shall we henceforth own thee as a superior to mortal nature.’” It is true that Josephus says that this was done when they saw his splendid apparel, and that he gives no account of his addressing the people, while Luke describes it as the effect of his speech. But the discrepancy is of no consequence. Luke is as credible an historian as Josephus, and his account is more consistent than that of the Jewish historian. It is far more probable that this applause and adoration would be excited by a speech than simply by beholding his apparel.

GILL, "And the people gave a shout,.... At the end of the oration; these were flatterers, as Josephus says in the place before referred to, who cried out one from another, saluting him as God; saying, be merciful to us, hitherto we have revered thee as a man, henceforward we confess thee somewhat more excellent than mortal nature: and so it follows here,

saying it is the voice of a God, and not of a man; the Vulgate Latin version reads, "the voices of God and not men"; and the Ethiopic version, "the city shouted in, or with the voice of God", with the voice of man; as if this referred to the acclamation of the people, and not the speech of the king; very wrongly.

HE�RY, "(5.) The people applauded him, the people that had a dependence upon him, and had benefit by his favour, they gave a shout; and this was what they shouted, It is the voice of a god, and not of a man, Act_12:22. God is great and good, and they thought such was Herod's greatness in his apparel and throne, and such his goodness in forgiving them, that he was worthy to be called no less than a god; and perhaps his speech was delivered with such an air of majesty, and a mixture of clemency with it, as affected the auditors thus. Or, it may be, it was not from any real impression made upon their minds, or any high or good thoughts they had indeed conceived of him; but, how meanly soever they thought of him, they were resolved thus to curry favour with him, and strengthen the new-made peace between him and them. Thus great men are made an easy prey to flatterers if they lend an ear to them, and encourage them. Grotius here observes that, though magistrates are called gods (Psa_82:1), yet kings or monarchs, that is, single persons, are not, lest countenance should thereby be given to the Gentiles, who gave divine honours to their kings alive and dead, as here; but they are a college of senators, or a bench of judges, that are called gods - In collegio toto senatorum non idem erat periculi; itaque eos, non autem reges, invenimus dictos elohim. Those that live by sense vilify God, as if he were altogether such a one as themselves, and deify men, as if they were gods; having their persons in admiration, because of advantage.This is not only a great affront to God, giving that glory to others which is due to him alone, but a great injury to those who are thus flattered, as it makes them forget

themselves, and so puffs them up with pride that they are in the utmost danger possible of falling into the condemnation of the devil.

JAMISO�, "the people gave a shout, etc.— Josephus’ account of his death is remarkably similar to this [Antiquities, 19.8.2]. Several cases of such deaths occur in history. Thus was this wretched man nearer his end than he of whom he had thought to make a public spectacle.

COFFMA�, "This is a reference to the same journey mentioned in Acts 11:30; but

here is the additional word that John Mark accompanied them. See under Acts

11:30.

Fulfilled their ministration ... This means that they accomplished the purpose of

their journey, delivering to the elders in Jerusalem the bounty provided by the

generosity of the Christians to relieve the victims of that famine in the reign of

Claudius. The year 44 A.D. was the time of these events, this being one of the points

at which Acts touches firm dates in the secular history of the first century.

John whose surname was Mark ... Just as Stephen's martyrdom was made the

occasion, by Luke, of mentioning Saul of Tarsus, here is the introduction of another

character who would figure prominently in Luke's subsequent chapters of Acts,

John Mark. If Luke had ever seen Mark's gospel, this would have been a "must"

occasion for his mentioning it; and therefore the silence of Luke here concerning the

gospel of Mark is a strong suggestion that he knew nothing of it.

With the conclusion of this chapter, Luke had set the stage for the world-wide

program of evangelism among the Gentiles; and he would at once move to the

narrative of Paul's first missionary journey.

23 Immediately, because Herod did not give

praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him

down, and he was eaten by worms and died.

BAR�ES, "And immediately the angel of the Lord - Diseases and death axe in the Scriptures often attributed to an angel. See 2Sa_24:16; 1Ch_21:12, 1Ch_21:15, 1Ch_21:20, 1Ch_21:27; 2Ch_32:21. It is not intended that there was a miracle in this case, but

it certainly is intended by the sacred writer that his death was a divine judgment on him for his receiving homage as a god. Josephus says of him that he “did neither rebuke them the people nor reject their impious flattery. A severe pain arose in his belly, and began in a most violent manner. And when he was quite worn out by the pain in his belly for five days, he departed this life, in the 54th year of his age, and the 7th year of his reign.” Josephus does not mention that it was done by an angel, but says that when he looked up, he saw an owl sitting on a rope over his head, and judging it to be an evil omen, he immediately became melancholy, and was seized with the pain.

Because he gave not God the glory - Because he was willing to receive the worship due to God. It was the more sinful in him as he was a Jew, and was acquainted with the true God, and with the evils of idolatry. He was proud, and willing to be flattered, and even adored. He had sought their applause; he had arrayed himself in this splendid manner to excite admiration; and when they carried it even so far as to offer divine homage, he did not reject the impious flattery, but listened stir to their praises. Hence, he was judged; and God vindicated his own insulted honor by inflicting severe pains on him, and by a most awful death.

And he was eaten of worms - The word used here is not found elsewhere in the New Testament. A similar disease is recorded of Antiochus Epiphanes, in the Apocrypha, 2 Macc. 9:5, “But the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, smote him with an invisible and incurable plague; for a pain in the bowels that was remediless came upon him, and sore torments of the inner parts Act_12:9, so that worms rose up out of the body of this wicked man,” etc. Probably this was the disease known as morbus pedicularis. It is loathsome, offensive, and most painful. See the death of Antiochus Epiphanes described in 2 Macc. 9. With this disease also Herod the Great, grandfather of Herod Agrippa, died (Josephus, Antiq., book 17, chapter 6, section 5). Such a death, so painful, so sudden, and so loathsome, was an appropriate judgment on the pride of Herod. We may here learn:

(1) That sudden and violent deaths are often acts of direct divine judgment on wicked people.

(2) That people, when they seek praise and flattery, expose themselves to the displeasure of God. His glory he will not give to another, Isa_42:8.

(3) That the most proud, and mighty, and magnificent princes have no security of their lives. God can in a moment - even when they are surrounded by their worshippers and flatterers - touch the seat of life, and turn them to loathsomeness and putrefaction. What a pitiable being is a man of pride receiving from his fellow-men that homage which is due to God alone! See Isa. 14.

(4) Pride and vanity, in any station of life, are hateful in the sight of God. Nothing is more inappropriate to our situation as lost, dying sinners, and nothing will more certainly meet the wrath of heaven.

(5) We have here a strong confirmation of the truth of the sacred narrative. In all essential particulars Luke coincides in his account of the death of Herod with Josephus. This is one of the many circumstances which show that the sacred Scriptures were written at the time when they professed to be, and that they accord with the truth. See Lardner’s Credibility, part 1, chapter 1, section 6.

CLARKE, "The angel of the Lord smote him - His death was most evidently a judgment from God.

Because he gave not God the glory - He did not rebuke his flatterers, but permitted them to give him that honor that was due to God alone. See on Act_12:21(note).

And was eaten of worms -Whether this was the morbus pedicularis, or whether a violent inflammation of his bowels, terminating in putrefaction, did not actually produce worms, which, for several days, swarmed in his infected entrails, we cannot tell. It is most likely that this latter was the case; and this is at once more agreeable to the letter of the text, and to the circumstances of the case as related by Josephus.

And gave up the ghost - That is, he died of the disorder by which he was then seized, after having lingered, in excruciating torments, for five days, as Josephus has stated. Antiochus Epiphanes and Herod the Great died of the same kind of disease. See the observations at the end of Act_1:26 (note) relative to the death of Judas.

GILL, "And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him,.... With a disease after mentioned; this angel, according to Josephus, appeared in the form of an owl; for he says, that a little after (the shout of the people) the king looked up, and saw an owl sitting upon a rope over his head; whom he immediately understood to be an angel, or messenger of evil things to him, as it had been before of good things; for it seems by the same historian (s), that when he was bound by the order of Caligula, he saw an owl sitting on that tree, on which he leaned; when a certain German predicted, that things would in a short time be changed with him, and he should be advanced to great honour; but remember, says he, whenever you see that bird again, you will die within five days. Eusebius (t), out of Josephus, makes no mention of the owl, but relates it thus; that a little after (the oration and the salutation of the people) the king looked up, and saw an angel sitting over his head, whom he immediately understood to be the cause of evil things to him, as he had formerly been of good: the reason of the angel's smiting him was,

because he gave not glory to God; or as the Jewish historian says, because he reproved not the flatterers, nor rejected their impious flattery, but tacitly took that to himself, which belonged to God:

and he was eaten of worms: Beza's most ancient copy adds, "while he was alive"; Josephus only makes mention of pains in his belly, but these were occasioned by the gnawing of the worms: this was accounted by the Jews a very accursed death; they say (u), that the spies which brought an ill report on the good land, died this death: their account is this, that

"their tongues swelled and fell upon their navels, and worms came out of their tongues and went into their navels, and out of their navels they went into their tongues,''

of this death died many tyrants, oppressors, and persecutors! as Antiochus,

"So that the worms rose up out of the body of this wicked man, and whiles he lived in sorrow and pain, his flesh fell away, and the filthiness of his smell was noisome to all his army.'' (2 Maccabees 9:9)

and Herod the great, the grandfather of this, according to Josephus (w); and Maximianus Galerius, according to Eusebius (x), and many others:

and gave up the ghost: not directly, but five days after, as Josephus relates, in the fifty fourth year of his age, and when he had reigned seven years; but before he died, and as soon as he was smitten, he turned to his friends and said, I your God am obliged to depart this life, and now fate reproves the lying words you have just now spoke of me; and I who was called immortal by you, am led away to die, with more, as related by Josephus: by such a token as this, a man was discovered to be a murderer with the Jews; for so they say (y), that

"out of the beheaded heifer went a vast number of worms, and went to the place where the murderer was, and ascended upon him, and then the sanhedrim laid hold on him and condemned him.''

HE�RY, "(6.) These undue praises he took to himself, pleased himself with them, and prided himself in them; and this was his sin. We do not find that he had given any private orders to his confidants to begin such a shout, or to put those words into the mouths of the people, nor that he returned them thanks for the compliment and undertook to answer their opinion of him. But his fault was that he said nothing, did not rebuke their flattery, nor disown the title they had given him, nor give God the glory(Act_12:23); but he took it to himself, was very willing it should terminate in himself, and that he should be thought a god and have divine honours paid him. Si populus vult decipi, decipiatur - if the people will be deceived, let them. And it was worse in him who was a Jew, and professed to believe in one God only, than it was in the heathen emperors, who had gods many and lords many.

2. How his iniquity was punished: Immediately (Act_12:23) the angel of the Lord smote him (by the order of Christ, for to him all judgment is committed), because he gave not God the glory (for God is jealous for his own honour, and will be glorified upon those whom he is not glorified by); and he was eaten of worms above ground, and gave up the ghost. Now he was reckoned with for vexing the church of Christ, killing James, imprisoning Peter, and all the other mischiefs he had done. Observe in the destruction of Herod,

(1.) It was no less than an angel that was the agent - the angel of the Lord, that angel that was ordered and commissioned to do it, or that angel that used to be employed in works of this nature, the destroying angel: or the angel, that is, that angel that delivered Peter in the former part of the chapter - that angel smote Herod. For those ministering spirits are the ministers either of divine justice or of divine mercy, as God is pleased to employ them. The angel smote him with a sore disease just at that instant when he was strutting at the applauses of the people, and adoring his own shadow. Thus the king of Tyre said in his pride, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God; and set his heart as the heart of God; but he shall be a man, and no God, a weak mortal man, in the hand of him that slayeth him (Eze_28:2-9), so Herod here. Potent princes must know, not only that God is omnipotent, but that angels also are greater in power and might than they. The angel smote him, because he gave not the glory to God; angels are jealous for God's honour, and as soon as ever they have commission are ready to smite those that usurp his prerogatives, and rob God of his honour.

(2.) It was no more than a worm that was the instrument of Herod's destruction: He

was eaten of worms, genomenos�skōlēkobrōtos - he became worm-eaten, so it must be

read; rotten he was, and he became like a piece of rotten wood. The body in the grave is destroyed by worms, but Herod's body putrefied while he was yet alive, and bred the worms which began to feed upon it betimes; so Antiochum, that great persecutor, died.

See here, [1.] What vile bodies those are which we carry about with us; they carry about with them the seeds of their own dissolution, by which they will soon be destroyed whenever God does but speak the word. Surprising discoveries have of late been made by microscopes of the multitude of worms that there are in human bodies, and how much they contribute to the diseases of them, which is a good reason why we should not be proud of our bodies, or of any of their accomplishments, and why we should not pamper our bodies, for this is but feeding the worms, and feeding them for the worms. [2.] See what weak and contemptible creatures God can make the instruments of his justice, when he pleases. Pharaoh is plagued with lice and flies, Ephraim consumed as with a moth, and Herod eaten with worms. [3.] See how God delights not only to bring down proud men, but to bring them down in such a way as is most mortifying, and pours most contempt upon them. Herod is not only destroyed, but destroyed by worms, that the pride of his glory may be effectually stained. This story of the death of Herod is particularly related by Josephus, a Jew, Antiq. 19.343-350: “That Herod came down to Cesarea, to celebrate a festival in honour of Caesar; that the second day of the festival he went in the morning to the theatre, clothed with that splendid robe mentioned before; that his flatterers saluted him as a god, begged that he would be propitious to them; that hitherto they had reverenced him as a man, but now they would confess to be in him something more excellent than a mortal nature. That he did not refuse nor correct this impious flattery (so the historian expresses it); But, presently after, looking up, he saw an owl perched over his head, and was at the same instant seized with a most violent pain in his bowels, and gripes in his belly, which were exquisite from the very first; that he turned his eyes upon his friends, and said to this purpose: 'Now I, whom you called a god, and therefore immortal, must be proved a man, and mortal.' That his torture continued without intermission, or the least abatement, and then he died in the fifty-fourth year of his age, when he had been king seven years.”

CALVI�, "23.Forthwith he smote him. As, before, the angel was a minister of God’s

grace in the delivery of Peter, so now he taketh vengeance upon Herod. And God

doth sometimes use the ministry of angels in heaven in punishing; but sometimes he

maketh the devils as hangmen, by whose hand he executeth his judgments. And this

doth he as well toward his faithful servants as toward the reprobate. Saul was

troubled and vexed by Satan, (1 Samuel 16:14) but the same did also befall holy Job,

(Job 1:12.) In the Psalms, the punishments wherewith God doth chasten the wicked

are attributed to the evil angels; yet we see how the angel which had the government

of the safety of the Church smiteth the Egyptians in the first-begotten, (Exodus

12:29;) although the Scripture calleth the wicked spirits God’s spirits, because they

are obedient to his commandment, though full sore against their will. But where the

epithet evil is not added, as in this place, we must understand the angel which doth

willingly obey God, and yet the shape of the owl, whereof Josephus maketh mention,

did rather serve to figure the devil than an heavenly angel.

Furthermore, I dare not affirm for a surety what manner of disease that was. The

word which Luke useth doth signify that he was eaten up of worms. Many

conjecture that it was a lousy disease. This is certain, that even when he was yet

alive he was corrupt with stink and rottenness, so that he was, as it were, a living

carcass. So that he was not only vexed with cruel torments, but also made a

laughing-stock to all men, and of all men reviled. For God intended to make choice

of a kind of punishment wherewith he might repress the cruelty of a proud man

with extreme ignominy. If he had been overcome of some great and valiant army,

and had been brought to poverty, the judgment of God had not been so marked;

and this had been an honest and princely chastisement; (770) but forasmuch as he

abhorreth lice and worms, and this filthiness cometh out of his body, which doth kill

him by eating him up, he is handled according to his deserts.

In like sort Pharaoh, forasmuch as he did so oft exalt himself against God with

untamed pride, he was not orderly assailed by some prince that did border upon

him, but locusts and caterpillars were God’s warriors [soldiers] to make war against

him, (Exodus 8:17;) for the more proudly a man exalteth himself, the more doth he

deserve to be cast doom of God into the lowest hell with shame and reproach. This is

the reason why he set this reigned god Herod to be eaten up of worms, which he was

at length enforced to grant, when he said, “Behold me, whom ye saluted as a god; I

die miserable.” Such a manifest example of horrible vengeance in a king’s person

ought to terrify us not a little from presuming to take to ourselves more than we

ought; and that we do not suffer ourselves to be made drunk with the false

commendation and flattery of men as with deadly poison.

Because he gave not the glory to God. He is condemned of sacrilege, not only

because he suffered himself to be called God, but because, forgetting himself, he

took to himself the honor due to God. We do not read that the king of Babylon was

thus extolled; and yet the prophet upbraideth to him that he went about to make

himself equal with God, (Isaiah 14:13.) Therefore this sacrilege is a common fault in

all proud men, because, by taking to themselves more than they ought, they darken

the glory of God; and so, like giants, so much as ever they are able, they endeavor to

pluck God out of his seat. Howsoever, they do not usurp the title of God, neither

openly boast with their mouth that they are gods; yet because they take to

themselves that which is proper to God, they desire to be, and to be accounted gods,

having brought him under, furthermore, the prophet pointeth out the beginning of

this evil in one word, when he bringeth in �ebuchadnezzar speaking on this wise, “I

will go up,” (Isaiah 14:13.)

Wherefore there is but one remedy, if every one keep himself in that degree wherein

he is placed. Let those who are base and castaways [in a humble station] not desire

to climb higher; let kings, and those who are above others, remember that they are

mortal, and let them modestly submit their highness to God. And we must note, that

it is not enough if men give to God only half the honor which is due to him, who

challengeth all that wholly which is his own; if they submit themselves but in part,

whom he will have to be thoroughly humbled. �ow, forasmuch as the Scripture

despoileth us quite of all praise of wisdom, virtue, and righteousness, there is no one

of us that can take to himself the least jot of glory without sacrilegious robbing of

God. And it is a wonder that, seeing the Scripture pronounceth that all those make,

as it were, open war against God which exalt themselves; and we do all grant that

that cannot be done without our overthrow, [destruction;] the greatest part of men

runneth, notwithstanding, headlong with furious boldness unto their own

destruction; for there is scarce one of an hundred who, being mindful of his

condition, doth leave to God his glory undiminished.

ELLICOTT, "(23) The angel of the Lord smote him.—The intervention of the angel

is obviously regarded by St. Luke as the only adequate explanation at once of the

death of the persecutor and of the escape of his victim, and in the former he

recognised not only what has been called the irony of history, or an instance of the

law of �emesis, bringing down the haughty in the very hour of their triumph, but a

direct chastisement for an act of impiety.

Because he gave not God the glory.—The words probably mean something more

than that he did not ascribe to God the praise which was due to Him, and Him only.

To “give God the glory” was a phrase always connected with the confession of sin

and weakness, as in Joshua 7:19. (See �ote on John 9:24.)

He was eaten of worms.—The specific form of the disease is not named by Josephus,

and St. Luke’s precision in describing it may fairly be regarded as characteristic of

his calling. The form of the disease, probably of the nature of phtheiriasis, or the

morbus pedicularis, from its exceptionally loathsome character, had always been

regarded as of the nature of a divine chastisement. The more memorable instances

of it recorded in history are those of Pheretimo of Cyrene (Herod. iv. 205), Sylla,

Antiochus the Great (2 Maccabees 9:2), Herod the Great (Jos. Ant. xvii. 8), and

Maximinus, among the persecutors of the Church (Euseb. viii. 16; ix. 10, 11;

Lactant, De mort. Persecut. c. 33). The death of Agrippa took place A.D. 44, in the

seventh year of his reign, and at the age of fifty-three.

STEDMA�, "The Jewish historian, Josephus, also records the death of Herod. He

describes this occasion when Herod met with the people of Tyre and Sidon in what

we now call Lebanon. These people were dependent upon Judea, and especially

upon Galilee, for food. So when the king came out, dressed in his royal robes, they

flattered him. When he spoke to them they cried out, "Why, this is a voice of a god,

and not a man!" And this pompous, vain king believed them. It is almost incredible

-- the tragic, twisted mentality of a man like this, who could actually believe that he

had so much power that he had become a god.

But this was not uncommon in those days, nor is it in our own day. This, of course,

is exactly what happens in any man's mentality when he begins to think of himself

as what we call a "self-made" man. Sometimes you talk to men who own a lot of

property and they will tell you, "Well, I worked for it. I produced it all myself.

�obody helped me." They are falling into the same tragic error as this vain and

fatuous king who imagined that he had power in himself to operate. But Luke tells

us that he was immediately stricken by an angel of the Lord, and he was eaten of

worms and died. I do not know what Luke's exact diagnosis is here, but some

sudden catastrophe befell Herod and, as Josephus tells us, within two or three days

he died.

What does this mean? This is God's way of demonstrating the ultimate folly of the

person who thinks that he can live without God, who thinks that we are not

dependent people. This is the tragedy of mankind. You can frequently discern from

our newspapers or from our television programs that, as a people, we imagine that

we have what it takes to produce all that life requires, and that we do not need

anyone or anything else -- especially God. The great tragedy of the American nation

is that, more often than not, in a sense, we are saying to God, "Please, God, I'd

rather do it myself!" We want to do it all ourselves. But God strikes, oftentimes, to

remind us that our very life, our very breath, all that we have and are, is coming

from him, and that we are fools to think that we can exist and live, act and react, on

our own -- that we have some power of our own, apart from him, that we can

operate on. This episode shows how blinded, how distorted, how tragically twisted

becomes the thinking of men who depart from a sense of dependence upon God.

God oftentimes teaches lessons like this to whole nations. I sometimes think that is

the meaning of the tragic assassinations, brought upon us this past decade, of some

of our national leaders. It is God's way of saying to America, "You don't have what

it takes. You can't live independently of me."

24 But the word of God continued to spread and

flourish.

BAR�ES, "But the word of God grew ... - Great success attended it. The persecutions had now ceased; and notwithstanding all the attempts which had been made to crush it, stir the church increased and flourished. The liberation of Peter and the death of Herod would contribute to extend it. It was a new evidence of divine interposition in behalf of the church; it would augment the zeal of Christians; it would. humble their enemies, and would fill those with fear who had attempted to oppose and crush the church of God.

CLARKE, "But the word of God - The Christian doctrine preached by the apostles grew and multiplied - became more evident, and had daily accessions; for the spirit of revelation rested on those men, and God was daily adding to that word as circumstances required, in order to complete that testimony of his which we now find contained in the

New Testament. As there is in the original an allusion to the vegetation of grain, (ηυξανε,

it grew, as corn grows, the stalk and the ear; και�επληθυνετο, it was multiplied, as the

corn is in the full ear), there is probably a reference to the parable of the Sower and his seed; for the seed is the word of God, and the doctrine of the kingdom. It was liberally sown; it grew vigorously, and became greatly multiplied. And why? Because it was the word, the doctrine of God - there was no corruption in it; and because God watered it with the dew of heaven from on high.

GILL, "But the word of God grew and multiplied. The number of those who were converted by it, and embraced and professed it, increased; otherwise the word is the same, whether the professors of it be more or fewer; and this it did, notwithstanding the persecution raised against it by Herod whilst he was living; and after his death, it still gained more ground, met with less opposition, and was more freely professed.

HE�RY, "II. The progress of the gospel after this. 1. The word of God grew and multiplied, as seed sown, which comes up with a great increase, thirty, sixty, a hundred fold; wherever the gospel was preached, multitudes embraced it, and were added to the church by it, Act_12:24. After the death of James, the word of God grew; for the church, the more it was afflicted, the more it multiplied, like Israel in Egypt. The courage and comfort of the martyrs, and God's owning them, did more to invite people to Christianity, than their sufferings did to deter them from it. After the death of Herod the word of God gained ground. When such a persecutor was taken off by a dreadful judgment, many were thereby convinced that the cause of Christianity was doubtless the cause of Christ, and therefore embraced it.

JAMISO�, "But the word grew, etc.— that is, Not only was the royal representative ignominiously swept from the stage, while his intended victim was spared to the Church, but the cause which he and his Jewish instigators sought to crush was only furthered and glorified. How full of encouragement and consolation is all this to the Christian Church in every age!

HAWKER 24-25, "But the word of God grew and multiplied. (25) And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem, when they had fulfilled their ministry, and took with them John, whose surname was Mark.

What a sweet relief to the mind from the perusal of the foregoing account, in the awful death of the Reprobate, is the relation here made, of the progress, and blessedness of the Church. Yes! thou dearest Jesus! thy Church must stand: and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it!

CALVI�, "24.And the word of God. When the tyrant was once taken out of the way

the Church was suddenly delivered, as it were, out of the jaws of the wolf.

Therefore, though the faithful be accounted as sheep appointed to be slain, (Psalms

44:23,) yet the Church doth always overlive her enemies; and though the word of

God seem oftentimes to be oppressed with the wicked tyranny of men, yet it getteth

up the head again by and by, (Romans 8:37.) For Luke determined (771) not only

what had happened after that Herod was dead, but also by this example to

encourage us, that we may be assured that God will do that, in all ages, which he

then did, to the end the gospel may at length break through all impediments of the

enemies, and that the more the Church is diminished, it may the more increase

through the heavenly blessing.

COKE, "Acts 12:24. Grew and multiplied.— The expressions here used relate

properly to vegetables, and may be intended to signify, that the growth of the gospel,

that is, its prevalency in the minds and lives of some, was, as it were, the means of

sowing that divine seed in the hearts of many more. See Mark 4:26; Mark 4:41.

BE�SO�, "Acts 12:24-25. But the word of God grew and multiplied — Became

more successful; and in every place where it was preached, the number of disciples

was considerably multiplied, and their faith greatly established. So that, after all the

opposition of its enemies, who had endeavoured to extirpate it, the progress of

Christianity was apparently promoted by the concurrence of the extraordinary

events recorded in this chapter, namely, the deliverance of Peter, and the death of

Herod, that cruel persecutor, under such heavy tokens of divine vengeance. And

Barnabas and Saul returned — �amely, to Antioch, after a short abode at

Jerusalem; when they had fulfilled their ministry — Had faithfully performed the

charge committed to them: see Acts 11:30; and took with them John, surnamed

Mark — The son of Mary, (at whose house the disciples met to pray for Peter,) who

was sister to Barnabas.

CO�STABLE, "The continuing growth of the church 12:24

In contrast to Herod and like Peter, the word of the Lord, the gospel, continued to

grow and multiply through God's supernatural blessing. Therefore the church

continued to flourish in Jewish territory as well as among the Gentiles. This verse is

another of Luke's progress reports that concludes a section of his history (cf. Acts

6:7; Acts 9:31). �othing seemed capable of stopping the expansion of the church.

Corruption and contention in its ranks did not kill it (Acts 5:1-11; Acts 6:1-7). Its

religious enemies could not contain it (Acts 4:1; Acts 8:1; Acts 8:3; Acts 11:19). Even

Roman officials could not control it (Acts 12:1-23). In the next section we see that it

broke out into Asia Minor. Jesus' prediction that even the gates of Hades could not

overpower it was proving true (Matthew 16:18; Acts 1:8). God's purposes will

prevail!

ELLICOTT, "(24) But the word of God grew and multiplied.—The words describe

a continuous expansion. The death of the chief persecutor left free scope for the

activity of the preachers of the gospel, of which they were not slow to avail

themselves.

Barnabas and Saul Sent Off

25 When Barnabas and Saul had finished their

mission, they returned from[a] Jerusalem, taking

with them John, also called Mark.

BAR�ES, "Returned from Jerusalem - They had gone to Jerusalem to carry alms, and they now returned to Antioch, Act_11:30.

When they had fulfilled their ministry -When they had accomplished the purpose for which they had been sent there; that is, to deposit the alms of the church at Antioch in the hands of the eiders of the churches, Act_11:30.

John, whose surname was Mark - See the notes on Act_12:12. From this period the sacred historian records chiefly the labors of Paul. The labors of the other apostles are, after this, seldom referred to in this book, and the attention is fixed almost entirely on the trials and travels of the great apostle of the Gentiles. His important services, his unwearied efforts, his eminent success, and the fact that Luke was his companion, may be the reasons why his labors are made so prominent in the history. Through the previous chapters we have seen the church rise from small beginnings, until it was even now spreading into surrounding regions. We have seen it survive two persecutions, commenced and conducted with all the power and malice of Jewish rulers. We have seen the most zealous of the persecutors converted to the faith which he once destroyed, and the royal persecutor put to death by the divine judgment. And we have thus seen that God was the protector of the church; that no weapon formed against it could prosper; that, according to the promise of the Redeemer, the gates of hell could not prevail against it. In that God and Saviour who then defended the church, we may still confide, and may be assured that he who was then its friend has it still “engraved on the palms of his hands,” and designs that it shall extend until it fills the earth with light and salvation.

CLARKE, "Returned from Jerusalem - That is, to Antioch, after the death of Herod.

When they had fulfilled their ministry -When they had carried the alms of the Christians at Antioch to the poor saints at Jerusalem, according to what is mentioned, Act_11:29, Act_11:30, to support them in the time of the coming famine.

And took with them John, whose surname was Mark - This was the son of Mary, mentioned Act_12:12. He accompanied the apostles to Cyprus, and afterwards in several of their voyages, till they came to Perga in Pamphylia. Finding them about to take a more extensive voyage, he departed from them. See the case, Act_13:13; Act_15:37-40.

1. When the nature, spirit, and tendency of Christianity are considered, we may well be astonished that it should ever find a persecutor among the souls it was designed to instruct and save! Devils can have no part in it, and therefore we may naturally expect them, through envy and malice, to oppose it; but that men, for whose use and salvation the wisdom and mercy of God made it, should reject its offers of mercy, and persecute to death those who proclaimed it, is the most unaccountable thing that can be conceived. What a proof is this of mere maliciousness, where the persecutor not only serves no self-interest by it, but destroys, as far as he can, all that could promote his own present and eternal happiness! This argues such blindness of understanding, hardness of heart, and derangement of mind, as can be accounted for only on the supposition of a nature totally fallen from God, righteousness, and truth. The Jews crucify Christ, and martyr Stephen; and Herod murders James; and both join together to persecute the followers of Christ and destroy his cause. Reader, consider the consequences: this bad people were permitted to remain till they had filled up the measure of their iniquity, and were then cut of by a most terrible judgment; and Herod was visited for his

transgressions in such a most awful way as strongly marked the displeasure of God against persecutors. If a man contend with a man, the contest is in a certain way equal - the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth; but when a man enters the lists against his Maker, as every persecutor does, wo unto that man! - he must be torn in pieces, when there is none to deliver.

2. How true is the saying, there is neither counsel nor might against the Lord! In the midst of all troubles and afflictions, that kingdom of heaven which is like a grain of mustard seed grew and increased, and became a mighty tree which is now filling the whole earth, and fowl of every wing are flying to lodge in its branches. Ride on, and be thou prosperous, O Christ! We wish thee good luck with thine honor.

GILL, "And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem,.... Two of Beza's exemplars, the Complutensian edition and the Syriac version, add, "unto Antioch"; and certain it is, that from thence they were sent, and thither they returned, for we find them there in the beginning of the next chapter:

when they had fulfilled their ministry; which was the carrying the relief, or the money collected by the Christians at Antioch, for the brethren in Judea, on account of the famine that was there:

and took with them John, whose surname was Mark: the son of Mary, at whose house the disciples were met together, and praying; and where Peter first went, after he was delivered from prison, Act_12:12 him they brought with them from Jerusalem to Antioch, being a kinsman of Barnabas; and a man of promising gifts and usefulness, and judged to be a fit companion with them in their travels, for the spread of the Gospel.

HE�RY, "Barnabas and Saul returned to Antioch as soon as they had despatched the business they were sent upon: When they had fulfilled their ministry, had paid in their money to the proper persons, and taken care about the due distribution of it to those for whom it was collected, they returned from Jerusalem. Though they had a great many friends there, yet at present their work lay at Antioch; and where our business is there we should be, and no longer from it than is requisite. When a minister is called abroad upon any service, when he has fulfilled that ministry, he ought to remember that he has work to do at home, which wants him there and calls him thither. Barnabas and Saul, when they went to Antioch, took with them John, whose surname was Mark, at whose mother's house they had that meeting for prayer which we read of Act_12:12. She was sister to Barnabas. It is probable that Barnabas lodged there, and perhaps Paul with him, while they were at Jerusalem, and it was that that occasioned the meeting there at that time (for wherever Paul was he would have some good work doing), and their intimacy in that family while they were at Jerusalem occasioned their taking a son of that family with them when they returned, to be trained up under them, and employed by them, in the service of the gospel. Educating young men for the ministry, and entering them into it, is a very good work for elder ministers to take care of, and of good service to the rising generation.

JAMISO�, "Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem— where, it thus appears, they had remained during all this persecution.

when they had fulfilled their ministry— or service; that mentioned on Act_11:29, Act_11:30.

took with them John ... Mark— (See on Act_12:12), not to be confounded with the second Evangelist, as is often done. As his uncle was Barnabas, so his spiritual father was Peter (1Pe_5:13).

HAWKER, "REFLECTIONS

Reader! let not you and I overlook the wonderful success of prayer, in the case of Peter, as related in this Chapter. Oh! what cannot prayer accomplish, when awakened by the Spirit of the Lord? And let us not fail to remark, how very near sometimes the Lord permits the enemy to approach, and the apprehensions of his people to be exercised, before the Lord vouchsafeth his answer to prayer. The night was advanced, and the morning hastening on, which was to end the life of Peter, before that the prayers for the Apostle’s deliverance were answered. So is it frequently with the Church. But there is a time to favor Zion. And that time, shall not fully run out, before the Lord’s hour is come. Oh! the wonders of the Lord’s timing; and the Lord’s giving deliverance. And, oh! the exercises of the Lord’s people, thereby to their good. In everyone the Lord speaks; I the Lord teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go!

What a lesson is here read, to the great and the mighty of the earth, of such as are enemies to God, and his Christ. Oh! how suddenly do they consume, perish, and come to a fearful end! Behold in Herod, the sad representation. It is the shout of a god, said the mistaken multitude. And before the shout was hardly ended, he shrieked, though unheard by them, the first shriek of his in hell. What a striking, but just account, the word of God gives, of such awful characters, Like Sheep, (said the Psalmist,) they are laid in the grave: death shall feed on them, and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning: and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling. He shall go to the generation of his fathers: they shall never see light. And where is that? Nay, where is it not? Peter saith; to the spirits which are in prison. And if they never see light, where can that be but hell? A land of darkness, as Job saith; as darkness itself, and of the shadow of death, without any order; and where the light is as darkness. Oh! for grace to know distinguishing grace, and to say with the same Psalmist: But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, for he shall receive me.

CALVI�, "25And Barnabas and Paul. The ministry which Luke saith Barnabas

and Paul did finish, must be referred unto the alms, whereof mention was made

before. For after that Agabus the prophet had foretold the famine and barrenness,

the brethren gathered money at Antioch, whereby they might relieve the necessity of

the church which was at Jerusalem; the carrying of this money was committed to

Barnabas and Paul. �ow Luke saith that they returned to Antioch, that he may pass

over unto a new history. He addeth, that they took with them John, whose surname

was Mark, whose mother was honorably commended before, that he might keep

them company, who was afterward, as we shall see, a cause of grievous and

dangerous [hurtful] discord between them.

CO�STABLE, "1. The divine appointment of Barnabas and Saul 12:25-13:3

Luke recorded these verses to set the stage for the account of Barnabas and Saul's

first missionary journey that follows.

"The world ministry which thus began was destined to change the history of Europe

and the world." [�ote: Blaiklock, p. 102.]

Verse 25

B. The extension of the church to Cyprus and Asia Minor 12:25-16:5

Luke recorded that Jesus came to bring deliverance to the Jews and to the whole

world (Luke 4:14-30). In his Gospel, Luke told the story of Jesus' personal ministry,

primarily to the Jews. In Acts the emphasis is mainly on Jesus' ministry, through

His apostles, to the Gentile world. As the mission to the Gentiles unfolds in Acts we

can see that Luke took pains to show that the ministry to the Gentiles paralleled the

ministry to the Jews. He did this by relating many things that the missionaries to the

Gentiles did that were very similar to what the missionaries to the Jews did. This

demonstrates that God was indeed behind both missions and that they are really

two aspects of His worldwide plan to bring the gospel to all people and to build a

worldwide church.

The present section of text (Acts 12:25 to Acts 16:5) does more than just present the

geographical expansion of the church into Asia Minor (modern western Turkey).

Primarily it shows the legitimacy of dealing with Gentiles as Gentiles rather than

through Judaism before and after their conversion. It becomes increasingly clear

that the church and Judaism are two separate entities. God was not renewing the

remnant in Israel and refreshing it with Gentile's who believed in Jesus. He was

creating a new body: the church. This section culminates in the Jerusalem Council

(ch. 15) in which the issue of the Gentiles' relationship to the church came to a head.

The last verse (Acts 16:5) summarizes these events and issues.

After delivering the Antioch Christians' gift to the church in Jerusalem (Acts 11:27-

30), Barnabas and Saul returned to Antioch taking with them John Mark (Acts

12:12) who was Barnabas' cousin (Colossians 4:10). The round trip between Antioch

and Jerusalem would have been a distance of about 560 miles. This verse bridges

what follows with the earlier account of the virile Antioch church (Acts 11:19-30).

The reference to John Mark here also connects the preceding section about the

Jerusalem church (Acts 12:1-24) with what follows. The effect is to give the reader

the impression that what follows has a solid basis in both the Gentile Antioch

church and the Jewish Jerusalem church, which it did.

ELLICOTT, "(25) When they had fulfilled their ministry.—The same noun is used

as that translated “relief” in Acts 11:29. We may, perhaps, assign the vision related

in Acts 22:17-21, to this visit; but see �ote there.

Took with them John, whose surname was Mark.—The choice is, of course, partly

explained by his relationship to Barnabas, but it shows also that he entered heartily

into the work of the conversion of the Gentiles; and owing, as he did, his own

conversion to Peter, it would naturally be regarded as a proof of that Apostle’s

interest in it.

COKE, "Acts 12:25. And—when they had fulfilled their ministry,— When they had

delivered up the alms which they brought from Antioch to the elders at Jerusalem,

ch. Acts 11:29-30 and finished all their ministerial business there.—Thus ends the

second period of the history of the first planting of Christianity, in which the

conversion of the devout Gentiles, otherwise called proselytes of the gate, is chiefly

treated of; and here the history of the Apostles of the circumcision is very naturally

dropped; for it does not appear from the �ew Testament that they ever preached to

idolatrous Gentiles; at least, before the destruction of Jerusalem. That was the

province of the apostle of the un-circumcision and his co-adjutors, whose labours

with, and success among the idolatrous Gentiles, form the subject of the following

chapters.

Inferences.—How strange a consideration is it, that a murder like this of St. James

should please the Jews! To see the slaughter of one of the most excellent persons that

ever adorned their nation, one of the greatest benefactors that had ever appeared in

all the list of the prophetic and inspired race, slain with the sword of a lawless, time-

serving tyrant! yet thus it was that they proceeded to fill up the measure of their

fathers, Matthew 23:32 and such was still the hardness of their hearts, that after

having rejected the message, they soon came to hate the messengers, and to thirst for

their blood;—the surest token of wrath coming upon them to the uttermost! As

indeed it was but a few years more, and such an execution was done upon them, as

seemed to be the accumulated vengeance due for all the righteous blood from Abel

to James.

Peter is also imprisoned, and bound in chains; but the prayers and tears of the

church contending for his delivery, despicable as they might appear to his enemies,

pierce the clouds of heaven; and they find, to their shame and confusion, that his

Redeemer is strong, Jeremiah 50:34. The angel of the Lord Jesus is sent to his

faithful servant in his tribulation: he comes, and finds him, secure in his innocence,

and happy in hope, sleeping between those two guards, who, perhaps, in a few hours

were to have been his executioners; and sleeping so sweetly sound, that the

brightness of the angelic presence did not immediately awaken him. The angel

smites him, and his chains fall off; the iron gates are opened, as with a thought, and

the prisoner is set at full liberty:—and thus does the angel of death smite as it were,

but with a gentle blow, the servants of Christ; and the fetters of mortality fall off;

the doors of the dungeon are opened; they are led triumphantly into the new

Jerusalem, and there find another kind of society, another kind of rest, another kind

of joy, far more noble, sweet, and high, than Peter knew even in the first transports

of his wondrous deliverance.

The apostle was so venerated and beloved by the disciples, that on his behalf we find

the prayers of the night are added to those of the day. Pious men and women, the

aged and the young, with equal solicitude, assemble on this important occasion; and,

while they are praying, the God who heareth prayer answers them: while they are

yet speaking, he hears their cry, Isaiah 65:24. Behold! Peter himself is sent among

them, to bring the astonishing news of that real deliverance, which at first seemed to

him but as a vision of the night. What delight must such a mercy give their melting

hearts, especially when considered as an answer of prayer! What an encouragement

must it be to them all, to hold fast the profession of their faith without wavering,

and, in every future exigence, by prayer and supplication to make their requests

known unto God!

St. Peter was solicitous that it might be known to the surviving James, and the other

apostles, that so they might glorify God in him, and take encouragement from it to

go on boldly in the prosecution of their work. With such views as these should we

also own the goodness of God in any deliverance he grants us, that others may learn

to confide in him, and may join their praises with ours.

Herod, in his disappointment, turns his rage on the soldiers, and makes those

unhappy men the victims of his wrath,—unhappy indeed, if they had not learnt

from St. Peter, while they had him in their power, that lesson which his charity

would be so glad to teach them, in what he apprehended to be the last moments of

his life,—to believe in Jesus for life and salvation. But whatever they suffered, a

much severer fate was reserved for Herod, on whom GOD quickly began to visit

that innocent and pious blood which he had spilt, and that too after which he had

thirsted; for in His all-piercing sight he must have appeared the murderer of Peter,

as well as of James.

The wrath of a king, says Solomon, is as messengers of death; but a wise man will

pacify it, Proverbs 16:14. The world generally teaches this wisdom to its votaries;

and the ties of interest are felt, when those of affection have but little force. Tyre

and Sidon were nourished by the King's country, and therefore they sought peace

with him, But how much more necessary is it for all countries, and people, and

princes, to seek peace with the God of heaven, by whom the earth and all its

inhabitants are nourished; who giveth rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, and

can, by his sovereign word, turn the heavens into brass, and the earth into iron,

Deuteronomy 28:23.

How vain and impious was the applause of the servile multitude, when they were so

ready to compliment a mortal man, in shining apparel, and one royal throne, with

the title of divinity! How wretched the infatuation of his mind, when he could

receive that ascription without horror, nay, and even with complacency! Thus do

pomp and power, wealth and grandeur, corrupt and take away the heart of their

possessors. �ever is a mortal nearer to destruction, than when he forgets that he is a

mortal.

With pleasure, no doubt, did the angel of the Lord come down to execute upon this

proud and persecuting prince, the vengeance due to the honours of God which he

had invaded, and the blood of his saints which he had spilt.—Let us adore the

triumph of the injured Majesty of heaven. Herod was smitten with death, with a

death equally tormenting and ignominious. Vermin devoured this god: nor could all

his robes, his guards, or his physicians, preserve his living body from being as easy a

prey to them, as the carcase of the meanest slave.

Thus is the Almighty Sovereign of the universe known by the judgments which he

executeth upon the haughty ones of the earth: and well might the gospel flourish on

occasion of such an event, when this royal corpse was (as it were) given for manure

to the roots of that sacred vine, which he, in contempt of the King of Kings, by

whom it was planted, had impiously endeavoured to root up and destroy.

REFLECTIO�S.—1st, Herod had now, through the favour of Claudius the Roman

emperor, received the government of Judea as well as of Galilee. Being a bitter

enemy to Christianity, he interrupted the rest which the church had for a while

enjoyed, and lighted up afresh the fire of persecution.

1. He began to harass and distress the saints at Jerusalem; either countenancing

those who insulted and abused them, or imprisoning and persecuting them on

account of their profession. The faithful must be always prepared to suffer.

2. He killed James the brother of John, with the sword. Thus did the apostle James

drink of the cup with his Lord, as was foretold; and was the first of the apostles who

sealed his testimony with his blood. He was probably executed in prison, like the

Baptist, by a private order from the king, and led the way to his brethren, who were

hereby taught to prepare for the like fate and be faithful unto death.

3. Because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also; glad

to ingratiate himself with the people, at the same time that he gratified his own

enmity against the disciples of Jesus; and as St. Peter, as an especially active, zealous

preacher, was peculiarly obnoxious. Then were the days of unleavened bread, the

feast of the Passover approaching. When therefore he had apprehended him, he put

him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers, sixteen in number,

who guarded him by four at a time, and relieved each other, to keep him, that he

might not escape, intending after Easter, or the Passover, to bring him forth to the

people, to gratify them with the pleasing spectacle of his ignominious execution.

�ote; (1.) They who study to please men, will be led into many a guilty deed. (2.)

Success in wickedness often emboldens sinners to proceed to greater lengths.

2nd, To human view St. Peter's case seemed desperate; and a few days would

complete the triumph of his persecutors. But God had otherwise ordained; and then

the craft of the wisest and the power of the mightiest are alike vain.

1. During St. Peter's imprisonment, prayer was made without ceasing of the church

unto God for him; they were fervent and frequent at the throne of grace; perhaps

one company after another continued their incessant supplications, deeply

concerned for fear of losing him after all their other breaches, and trusting that,

though no human prospect of his deliverance appeared, the Lord would, in his own

time and way, rescue his suffering servant from the hands of his blood-thirsty

persecutors. �ote; When the faithful ministers of Jesus are suffering for their

testimony, the church is called to pray earnestly for them, that, if the Lord so please,

they may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, and spared for farther

usefulness.

2. The time fixed for St. Peter's execution now drew near; the next was the fatal day

appointed to bring him forth to the people. St. Peter, in the mean time, was kept

with the greatest care, chained to two soldiers within the prison, while the guards

kept the door without, to prevent any rescue or escape; and never could greater

precaution be taken. Yet, though his danger was so imminent, his case so desperate,

unterrified, composed, in peace he sweetly slept, while probably the eyes of his

malicious foes were held waking, and their disturbed minds could take no rest on

beds of ivory. A good cause, a good conscience, and the desire to glorify God,

whether by life or death, raised him superior to every fear; and, though expecting

no deliverance, he took his wonted repose. �ote; (1.) God suffers us sometimes to be

reduced to extremities, that his power and grace in rescuing us from our trials may

appear with more distinguished lustre. (2.) When wicked men seem to have ensured

the success of their enterprizes, God is often pleased to blast their designs, and to

cover them with confusion.

3. God sends his angel to deliver the faithful prisoner; and he, whom neither gates

nor guards could exclude, suddenly entering the prison in a blaze of light, awakened

Peter with a gentle touch from his slumbers; then, bidding him arise, his chains

marvellously fell off from his hands; and, being now at liberty, the angel said unto

him, Gird thyself and bind on thy sandals; and so he did. And he saith unto him,

Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me. St. Peter obeyed, and as yet

apprehended not the reality of the facts, but supposed the scene was merely

visionary. Passing now the first and second bodies of guards without molestation,

who were cast into a profound sleep, they came unto the iron gate, which opened of

its own accord; and, being now in the city, the angel accompanied Peter through one

street, and then departed, his presence being no longer needful; and Peter could

then provide for his own safety. �ote; (1.) We have in St. Peter's deliverance a lively

image of our redemption. We lie by nature fast bound in the chains of sin, and sleep

securely, not apprehensive of danger, though ruin is before us. Then God sends his

gospel as this angel, and, if we will receive it, his Spirit smiting our hearts awakens

us from our security and insensibility. Quickened by grace, the chains of corruption

fall off, and we are now enabled to rise and walk, clothed with the Spirit of holiness,

and our feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Under divine light and

guidance the faithful saints are enabled to pass through numberless difficulties, and

through hosts of enemies hold on their way, till the iron gate of death appears in

view, and, opening wide, admits them into the new Jerusalem. (2.) �o difficulties are

insurmountable, if God be for us. (3.) When we have the ordinary means before us,

we are not to expect miracles.

4. St. Peter, being left alone, soon recovered from his surprize, and, reflecting on

what was past, was fully assured that the scene was not visionary, but real; that the

Lord had sent his angel, and delivered him out of the hand of Herod, and from all

the expectation of the people of the Jews, who waited impatiently for his execution.

Deliberating then whither in prudence he should direct his steps, he came to the

house of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were

gathered together, praying; and importunate no doubt they were, when the danger

was now so near: when, lo! a most astonishing answer is given to their prayers;

behold, Peter knocked at the door,—a visitant little expected by them. A damsel,

named Rhoda, ran immediately into the porch, to listen whether it were a friend or

foe, before she opened the gate; when, hearing Peter's well-known voice, so

transported was she, that, instead of opening the door, she ran into the room where

they were all assembled for prayer, and told them, to their astonishment, that Peter

stood before the gate. Unable to credit so strange an incident, they said, thou art

mad; it is impossible. But she constantly affirmed the certainty of the fact, that it

was even so. Then said they, it is his angel, one of the celestial spirits, who imitates

his voice, and brings some tidings concerning him, or his own spirit delivered from

the flesh. Meantime Peter repeated his knocks at the gate; and, going down, they

opened the door, when with amazement they beheld him; and, eager to know the

circumstances of this extraordinary event, they together began to ask him

concerning it: whereupon he beckoned with his hand, commanding silence, while he

declared to them his miraculous deliverance. And as no time was to be lost to secure

himself, having charged them to inform James and the brethren of his escape, for

their comfort and encouragement, he departed, and went into another place, where

he might be secured from the danger. �ote; (1.) They who persevere in prayer, will

at last meet an answer of peace. (2.) Though when called of God, neither death nor

danger must deter us from the way of duty, yet, when the Lord opens a door for our

escape, we may lawfully provide for our own safety.

5. The next morning the guards were in the utmost consternation at finding their

prisoner gone, and justly dreaded the rage of the king, as if they had been

chargeable with neglect or connivance. In vain strict search is made by Herod every

where; and, unable to find Peter, he wreaks his vengeance on the keepers, who could

not give the least satisfactory account of the matter, and therefore were ordered to

be put to death for their supposed negligence or corruption. Then retiring from

Judea to Cesarea, in order to celebrate games in honour of Augustus Caesar, he

abode there for some time. �ote; God can, when he pleases, hide his people from the

malice of their most envenomed foes.

3rdly, Proud persecutors justly meet an avenging God.

1. Herod's pride now reached the summit of wickedness. On some provocation given

him by the maritime cities of Tyre and Sidon, Herod was highly offended; and,

justly fearing the wrath of this haughty monarch, they instantly dispatched

ambassadors to him to make their submission, and deprecate his displeasure; for, as

they chiefly drew their provision from his territories, if he had prohibited his

subjects from supplying them, it would have exposed them to a famine. Therefore

having by presents gained Blastus the king's chamberlain for their friend, who had

a considerable influence with his master, they desired peace; and a day was fixed to

give them public audience. Herod, arrayed in royal robes, glittering, says Josephus,

with silver, and reflecting the sun-beams so strongly as dazzled the eyes of the

spectators, and seated on his gorgeous throne, made an oration unto them, probably

expatiating on the provocations of the Tyrians, and displaying his own clemency in

pardoning them on their submission. The people, delighted with his splendid

appearance, pleased with his discourse, and willing to flatter his pride, shouted their

blasphemous admiration, as if they heard a present deity, saying, It is the voice of a

god, and not of a man; while he, well pleased, received the impious adulation.

2. Instantly God smote him, and hurled him from his towering height of pride into

the abyss of despicable wretchedness. An angel, the executioner of wrath, struck the

fatal blow, because he gave not God the glory, and dared accept such adoration. A

foul, filthy, and tormenting disease seized his vitals; in agonies he lingered five days;

worms bred in his putrid carcase; and, devoured alive, he miserably perished, a

spectacle of horror to every beholder. So easily can God abase those who walk in

pride, and make the meanest worm that crawls, an instrument of his vengeance.

3. In spite of all persecution and opposition, the word of God grew and multiplied,

spreading with rapidity and vast success. And Barnabas and Saul, having finished

their business at Jerusalem, returned again to Antioch. �ote; When ministers are

called abroad, and have finished their work, they must hasten back again to their

regular appointed labours.