Acts 12
12:1 Herod This is not the same Herod as in Jesus’ day (Herod the Great; Matt 2:3,19). This is Herod Agrippa I, a grandson of Herod the Great. In AD 37 he was given the territory of Philip the tetrarch (see Luke 3:1). He added Galilee and Perea in AD 39 and the rest of Judaea two years later, reigning over all of them for just three years. Later in Acts, Paul encounters his son Agrippa II (Acts 25:13–26:32).
He was thus very popular with the people, on behalf of whom he used his influence. He was pro-Pharisee and frequented the temple.
To kill someone with the sword, as opposed to having them stoned as Stephen had been, strongly indicates that Herod either saw, or wanted people to think he saw, the Christian movement as a political threat. Certainly a movement whose very name, by this stage, stakes out a claim for Jesus as the true, anointed ‘king of the Jews’ cannot have been anything other than threatening to the person who bore that title as the gift of the Roman superpower.
Thus the destructive power of Herod and the saving power of God are contrasted. Indeed
12:3 it was pleasing to the Jews According to the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, Agrippa I enjoyed a good relationship with the Jewish people (Josephus, Antiquities 19.328–31). Agrippa I may have seen persecution of Christians as an opportunity to further improve his relationship with the Jewish people (compare 9:1).
feast of Unleavened Bread This Jewish feast took place for seven days every spring in conjunction with Passover (Exod 12:14–20; 23:15; compare Luke 22:1).
12:4 The prison was probably the Tower of Antonia, which was at the northwestern corner of the temple complex and was the quarters of the Roman garrison. The use of four squads of soldiers reflects Roman practice: one squad of four soldiers for each of the four three-hour watches of the night.
12:5–6. Prisoners who were chained between guards (as often they were—21:33; cf. 28:16, 20) had no human hope of escaping.
striking The Greek word used here suggests a forceful blow (compare Luke 22:49–50; Acts 7:24)—which, ironically, an angel will deal to Agrippa I as well (v. 23)—although in Peter’s case, it is for his deliverance.
12:11 came to himself Peter finally realized that his dream was real (compare note on v. 7).
the Jewish people This is not a reference primarily to Jews as opposed to Gentiles (non-Jewish people), but to Jews who have rejected Jesus as Messiah and are opposed to the Christian community and its mission.
12:12 Mark Also known as John Mark. A missionary companion to Paul and Barnabas (vv. 25; 15:37), who seems to have been Barnabas’ cousin (Col 4:10) to whom the early church ascribed the authorship of the Gospel of Mark.
12:13 slave The Greek word used here, paidiskē, always refers to slaves in the NT (e.g., Luke 22:56; Acts 16:16). This means Rhoda was a household slave.
angel The Greek word used here is not phantasma, the typical Greek word for ghost used elsewhere in the NT (Matt 14:26; Mark 6:49) and in other ancient Greek literature. Instead the Greek word used is angelos, which is used to describe a heavenly being sent from Yahweh or a messenger. The church’s reaction likely testifies to an ancient belief that one’s angel was a kind of celestial entity that accompanied a person for his or her welfare (compare Matt 18:10; Heb 1:14).
I find all this strangely comforting: partly because Luke is allowing us to see the early church for a moment not as a bunch of great heroes and heroines of the faith, but as the same kind of muddled, half-believing, faith-one-minute-and-doubt-the-next sort of people as most Christians we all know
12:17 James This James is the brother of Jesus, and the early church ascribed the authorship of the book of James to him. He seems to have been prominent in the Jerusalem church leadership (compare Acts 15:13).
12:18 not a little commotion The Greek phrase used here is known as a litotes—a figure of speech that states facts conservatively for effect. The point is that there was a great commotion.
12:21 royal clothing According to the ancient Jewish historian Josephus, who offers a parallel account of this story (Josephus, Antiquities 19.344), Herod’s robes on this occasion were made of silver and sparkled in the sunlight.
12:21. Agrippa I liked to flaunt his power; his self-display had unfortunately led to anti-Jewish riots in Alexandria earlier. His public meeting with these emissaries is in the theater of Caesarea, built by his grandfather Herod the Great; the foundations of this theater still remain today. According to Josephus this speech occurred on a festival day in honor of the emperor (probably his birthday, but perhaps a rare festival held in March A.D. 44).
12:23 immediately God, who will not share His glory with any other (e.g., Isa 42:8; Ezek 28:2, 6), acts without delay to judge Herod for accepting divine honor and praise for himself. Compare note on Acts 12:7.
12:22–24. The first-century Jewish historian Josephus reports that on this occasion Agrippa flaunted his power, and his flatterers praised him as a god—the sort of flattery toward royal patrons common for centuries in the Greek East. But in the Roman period Caesar expected even pagans who were not emperors (such as the general Germanicus in Egypt) to humbly deflect such praise. Because Agrippa does not repudiate their praise, he collapses immediately. Josephus reports that he was carried to the palace, where he died at the age of fifty-four, after five days of stomach pains caused by worms. Deaths from bowel diseases and worms were thought among the most horrible.
12:24 word of God In contrast to the speech of Herod that brought on his destruction, the word of the true God—that is, the proclamation of Jesus’ death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins and new life in the Spirit—continues to grow and spread.
12:25 completed their service Paul and Barnabas had been sent from Antioch to Jerusalem to bring a famine relief offering (11:29–30), and now returned to Antioch with John Mark (see v. 12 and note).
The chapter opens with James dead, Peter in prison and Herod triumphing; it closes with Herod dead, Peter free, and the word of God triumphing. Such is the power of God to overthrow hostile human plans and to establish his own in their place.
