The Great Escape
YouVersion
Introduction
The Church has faced opposition
Public Opposition
The Herod of Acts 12 is Agrippa I (born in 10 B.C.), the grandson of Herod the Great and the son of Aristobulus. After his father’s execution in 7 B.C., he was sent with his mother Bernice to Rome, where he grew up on intimate terms with the imperial family. In his youth he was something of a playboy, and in A.D. 23 he went so heavily into debt that he had to flee to Idumea to escape his creditors. Later he received asylum at Tiberias and a pension from his uncle Herod Antipas, with whom, however, he eventually quarreled. In 36 he returned to Rome but offended the emperor Tiberius and was imprisoned. At the death of Tiberius in 37, he was released by the new emperor Caligula and received from him the northernmost Palestinian tetrarchies of Philip and Lysanias (cf. Luke 3:1) and the title of king. When Herod Antipas was banished in 39, Agrippa received his tetrarchy as well. And at the death of Caligula in 41, Claudius, who succeeded Caligula and was Agrippa’s friend from youth, added Judea and Samaria to his territory, thus reconstituting for him the entire kingdom of his grandfather Herod the Great, over which he ruled till his death in 44.
Knowing how profoundly the masses hated his family, Herod Agrippa I took every opportunity during his administration in Palestine to win their affection. When in Rome, he was a cosmopolitan Roman. But when in Jerusalem, he acted the part of an observant Jew.
While in prison, the apostle was guarded by “four squads of four soldiers each,” probably on shifts of three hours each (cf. Vegetius De Re Mili 3.8), with two soldiers chained to him on either side and two standing guard at the inner entrance to the prison (cf. v. 6). Evidently Agrippa planned to make of Peter a spectacle and warning at a forthcoming show trial. And he did not want to be embarrassed by Peter’s escape.
Spiritual Opposition
Peter’s Opposition
The Great Escape
Peter
Peter’s Situation
Peter’s encounter with an Angel
Peter’s Response
The Church
They are gathered
They are praying
and Rhoda the servant girl was rushing back and forth for joy. The unfolding scene is one of confusion and joyful humor, which must have led to hilarity every time it was repeated among the early believers. There was Peter’s knocking, becoming more and more urgent as he beat on the door; Rhoda’s losing her wits for joy and forgetting to open the door; the Christians’ refusal to believe it was Peter, even though they had just been praying for him; their belittling of Rhoda (“You are out of your mind” [mainē]) and of her saying she had heard Peter’s voice at the door (“It must be his angel”); Rhoda’s frantic persistence; and their utter astonishment when they finally opened the door and let him in.