Acts 12:1

Persecution by Herod; St. Peter's deliverance. κατʼ ἐκεῖνον τὸν καιρὸν : “about that time,” or more precisely “at that time,” Rendall, cf. Romans 9:9, so in Genesis 18:10; Malachi 3:5; Malachi 3:5 : in the early part of 44 A.D. Ἡρώδης ὁ β., Herod Agrippa I.: only in this chapter in the N.T.: on his character and death, see below Acts 12:3; Acts 12:23. Born in B.C. 10 and educated in his early life in Rome, he rose from a rash adventurer to good fortune and high position first through the friendship of Caligula and afterwards of Claudius. He united under his own sway the entire empire of his grandfather, Herod the Great, while his Pharisaic piety and also his attachment to the Roman supremacy found expression in the titles which he bore, βασιλεὺς μέγας φιλόκαισαρ εὐσεβὴς καὶ φιλορώμαιος. On the pathetic story told of him in connection with the Feast of Tabernacles (A.D. 41) see Hamburger, Real-Encyclopädie des Judentums, ii., 1, p. 28, and the whole article; Schürer, Jewish People, div. i., vol. ii., p. 150 ff., E.T.; Farrar, The Herods, p. 179 ff. (1898). ἐπέβαλεν τὰς χεῖρας, Luke 20:19; Luke 21:12, and cf. Acts 4:3; Acts 5:18; Acts 21:27, once in Matthew and Mark, in John twice; Friedrich, p. 39, cf. LXX, Genesis 22:12; 2 Samuel 18:12 (so in Polyb.), cf. for similar construction of the infinitive of the purpose Acts 18:10, not in the sense of ἐπεχείρησε, conatus est, but to be rendered quite literally; cf. also the context, Acts 12:3. κακῶσαι : five times in Acts, only once elsewhere in N.T., 1 Peter 3:13, “to afflict,” R.V., A.V. “vex,” so Tyndale. τῶν ἀπὸ τῆς ἐκ., for the phrase cf. Acts 6:9; Acts 15:5, Grimm-Thayer, sub v., ἀπό, ii., but see also Blass, Gram., p. 122 and in loco.