EXCURSUS. ON THE DELIVERANCE OF PETER BY THE ANGEL. Grave indeed had been the danger which had threatened the Church of Christ in the year 44. The Christian community had enjoyed for a considerable period comparative peace and security. This quiet season had been a time of blessed work: the little C... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 12:1. NOW ABOUT THAT TIME. The events related in this twelfth chapter took place in the year 44. Paul and Barnabas were then on their mission, bearing alms from the Christians in Antioch to the Church of Jerusalem and Palestine. The famine alluded to (chap. Acts 11:29-30) happened after the dea... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 12:2. AND HE KILLED JAMES THE BROTHER OF JOHN. After eleven years of patient noble work, the brother of John received one portion of the high reward which Salome had asked for her sons (Matthew 20:21). He was the first of the Twelve to drink of the cup of which Christ drank, and to be baptized... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 12:3. AND BECAUSE HE SAW IT PLEASED THE JEWS. See note on Acts 12:1, in which the policy and character of King Herod are discussed at length. THEN WERE THE DAYS OF UNLEAVENED BREAD. During seven days at the feast of Passover no leaven was allowed in the houses of the Jews. St. Jerome on Ezekie... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 12:4. AND DELIVERED HIM TO FOUR QUATERNIONS OF SOLDIERS. That is, to four bands of soldiers, each band consisting of four. These were to relieve each other in guarding the prisoner. The Roman practice of dividing the night into four watches of three hours each was generally adopted by the Jews... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 12:5. PETER THEREFORE WAS KEPT IN PRISON; BUT PRAYER WAS MADE WITHOUT CEASING OF THE CHURCH TO GOD FOR HIM. This verse is introduced between the account of the arrest and the miraculous deliverance. It suggests the thought that the angel's interference was without doubt the result of the prayer... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 12:6. THE SAME NIGHT. That is, the night before the day fixed for the execution. Peter was not missed by the guards till sunrise about six o'clock (see Acts 12:18). It was, then, in the fourth watch, some time between three and six o'clock, that the angel - presence entered the prison chamber.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 12:7. AND, BEHOLD, THE ANGEL OF THE LORD. This should be rendered, ‘an angel of the Lord,' one of that glorious host of Spirits of whom mention so often is made in this book of the ‘Acts' with reference to their office toward the faithful servants of God. A LIGHT SHINED IN THE PRISON. In the... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 12:8. GIRD THYSELF, AND BIND ON THY SANDALS. The angel gives these various directions 1st, to indicate the reality of the appearance; 2d, to show there was no need for haste. The prisoner was to arise at once; he would find the iron fetters which bound him to the two sleeping soldiers already s... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 12:9-10. AND HE WENT OUT, AND FOLLOWED HIM.... WHEN THEY WERE PAST THE FIRST AND THE SECOND WARD, THEY CAME UNTO THE IRON GATE THAT LEADETH UNTO THE CITY. Silently, without a word, the radiant Messenger from heaven and the AMAZED apostle passed through the galleries of the fortress (the prison... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 12:11. AND WHEN PETER WAS COME TO HIMSELF. Up to this time, all that had happened had seemed to Peter as a dream; but now, when he stood alone in the midst of the city, and he called to mind distinctly all the varied circumstances of his deliverance, and the angel's calm, deliberate directions,... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 12:12. HE CAME TO THE HOUSE OF MARY. It was natural that Peter should betake himself to Mary's house, for it is evident that between this family and himself there existed some close tie of friendship. Mary, we believe, was the sister of the famous Barnabas the Cypriote (see Colossians 4:10), wh... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 12:13. AND AS PETER KNOCKED. Peter's knock startled and alarmed the anxious, troubled assembly. It suggested fresh arrests and new cares and anxieties. AT THE DOOR OF THE GATE. The door was most probably that small outer door by which one entered through the large gate from the street into th... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 12:14. AND WHEN SHE KNEW PETER'S VOICE, SHE OPENED NOT THE GATE FOR GLADNESS. So eager was Rhoda, the servant, perhaps the slave, of Mary, to make the others assembled there that night partakers of the great joy she felt in beholding Peter again alive and free, that she ran back and forgot to o... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 12:15. THEN SAID THEY, IT IS HIS ANGEL. Some have tried to explain away this difficult passage by suggesting that the word rendered ‘angel' in the original signified ‘messenger' simply; but this is most improbable, for how could they have expected a messenger from the prison at such an hour? Be... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 12:17. BECKONING ONTO THEM WITH THE HAND. These are evidently the words of an eye-witness of Peter's visit to the house of Mary after his escape from prison. GO SHOW THESE THINGS UNTO JAMES. James the brother of the Lord is here specially mentioned, as he held a peculiar position of authority... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 12:18. AS SOON AS IT WAS DAY. The angel's visit and Peter's escape must have taken place during the last watch of the night, between the hours of three and six; otherwise the absence of the prisoner would have been discovered _before_ the break of day, when the guard of four soldiers was change... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 12:19. AND HE WENT DOWN FROM JERUSALEM TO CÆSAREA. No doubt bitterly disappointed at not being able to comply with the Jewish desire in the matter of putting to death the famous Nazarene leader, Herod left his Jewish capital for a short season, as he thought, and went down to Cæsarea, then the... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 12:20. AND HEROD WAS HIGHLY DISPLEASED WITH THEM OF TYRE AND SIDON. The angry feeling which had sprung up between King Herod and the inhabitants of the Phoenician cities was no doubt owing to the commercial rivalry which existed between these ancient ports and the newly built and highly favoure... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 12:21. AND UPON A SET DAY HEROD, ARRAYED IN ROYAL APPAREL, SAT UPON HIS THRONE, AND MADE AN ORATION UNTO THEM. Some fifty years before, Herod the Great, grandfather of the present king, had established a festival in honour of the Roman Cæsar, to be observed every five years (Quinquennalia). Thi... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 12:23. HE WAS EATEN OF WORM. Josephus speaks of violent and torturing pains. The writer of the ‘Acts,' whom we believe to have been identical with Luke, the beloved physician, gives a more accurate description of the mysterious and terrible disease which closed the brilliant career of the ‘last... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 12:24. BUT THE WORD OF GOD GREW AND MULTIPLIED. In strong contrast to the mournful end of the powerful enemy of the Christians, the Church of Christ kept on increasing in numbers and in power. These few rejoicing words sound like the Christians' victory hymn: the powerful king who hated the Chr... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 12:25. BARNABAS AND SAUL RETURNED FROM JERUSALEM WHEN THEY HAD FULFILLED THEIR MINISTRY. The thread of the history is here taken up again from chap. Acts 11:30. Barnabas and Saul, after the prediction of Agabus, had been sent from Antioch to Judea with alms for the poor saints of Jerusalem and... [ Continue Reading ]