Acts 12:12

συνιδών, cf. Acts 14:6; so several times in Apocrypha, so in classical writers, and also in Josephus. It may also include a consideration of the future (Bengel and Wetstein), but the aorist refers rather to a single act and not to a permanent state (so Alford). Μαρίας : as no mention is made of Mark's father, she may well have been a widow, possessed of some wealth like Barnabas; see below. Ἰωάννου τοῦ ἐπικ., Acts 1:23; Acts 4:36; Acts 10:5; Acts 10:18; Acts 10:32; Acts 11:13; and below, Acts 13:9. As in the case of Paul, his Roman name is used most frequently, cf. Acts 15:39; 2 Timothy 4:11; Philemon 1:24, although in Acts 13:5; Acts 13:13 he is spoken of as John. No reason to doubt the identity of this John Mark with the second Evangelist: the notice of Papias that Mark was the ἑρμηνευτής of Peter, Eusebius, H. E., iii., 39, is quite in accordance with the notice here of the Apostle's intimacy with the family of Mark, and with his mention in 1 Peter 5:13. Blass comments on Μάρκου, “quasi digito monstratur auctor narrationis,” and similarly Proleg., p. 11; Philology of the Gospels, pp. 192, 193. In Colossians 4:10 the A.V. calls him “sister's son to Barnabas,” ὁ ἀνεψιός, but ἀνεψ. properly means “first cousin”; so R.V. the cousin of Barnabas (cf. LXX, Numbers 36:11, Tob 7:2), Lightfoot on Colossians 4:10; see on Acts 15:39. προσευχόμενοι, cf. James 5:16; “media nocte,” Bengel; they betook them to prayer, “to that alliance which is indeed invincible,” Chrys., Hom., 26. On ἦσαν with participle as characteristic of St. Luke, see Acts 1:10. As in the former miraculous deliverance, Acts 5:16, all attempts to get rid of the supernatural in St Luke's narrative are unsuccessful. This is frankly admitted by Wendt, although he also maintains that we cannot discern the actual historical conditions owing to the mingling of legend and history. But he does not deny that St. Peter was liberated, and the same fact is admitted by Weizsäcker, see Wendt (1899), p. 219; and Zöckler, Apostelgeschichte, p. 230, and Wendt (1888), pp. 269, 270, for an account of the different attempts to explain the Apostle's liberation. In contrast to all such attempts the minute circumstantiality and the naturalness of the narrative speak for themselves, and we can hardly doubt (as Wendt is inclined to admit in some details) that John Mark has given us an account derived partly from St. Peter himself, cf. Acts 12:9; Acts 12:11, and partly from his own knowledge, cf. the peculiarly artless and graphic touches in Acts 12:13-14, which could scarcely have come from any one but an inmate of the house, as also the mention of the name of the servant; cf. Ramsay, St. Paul, p. 385; Blass, Acta Apostolorum, p. 142; Belser, Theol. Quartalschrift, Heft ii. (1895), p. 257; Zahn, Einleitung, ii., 244.