Acts 12:10

φυλακὴν : “ward,” perhaps the best translation here with διελθόντες so often used of traversing a place. The first ward might be the place outside the cell where the other soldiers of the quaternion were on guard, and the second ward might refer to some other part of the prison or fortress Antonia (see Blass in loco) where sentinels were stationed. Weiss apparently takes the expression to refer to the two φύλακες, Acts 12:6, cf. 1 Chronicles 26:16. σιδηρᾶν : specially noted since such a gate, when shut, would effectually bar their way; but it opened αὐτομάτη, only here in N.T. and in Mark 4:28, cf. Leviticus 25:5; Leviticus 25:11; 2 Kings 19:29, Wis 17:6, and in classical writers the striking parallel, Hom., Iliad, ver. 749 (Wendt, Blass); Virgil, Æneid, vi., 81 (Wetstein). φέρουσαν εἰς : only here in N.T., but quite usual in classical Greek. If the narrative means that immediately they were out of the prison they were in the street (so Weiss), evidently the prison was in the city, and εἰς τὴν π. would simply mean the open town, in contrast to the confined prison-house (so Weiss and Wendt, 1899). Blass decides for the tower of Antonia on account of. ἠνοίχθη, see critical notes. ἐξελθόντες : for remarkable addition in [251] see critical notes. εὐθέως : used several times in Acts, but εὐθύς only once, see Acts 10:16. ἀπέστη : when there were no further hindrances to the Apostle's flight, then the angel departed (Chrys.).

[251] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.