seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Acts 12:1 It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. 2 He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. 3 When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. 4 After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.
5 So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.
6 The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.
8 Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. 9 Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10 They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.
11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”
12 When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. 13 Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. 14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”
15 “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”
16 But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. 17 Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,” he said, and then he left for another place.
18 In the morning, there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. 19 After Herod had a thorough search made for him and did not find him, he cross-examined the guards and ordered that they be executed.
Then Herod went from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there. 20 He had been quarreling with the people of Tyre and Sidon; they now joined together and sought an audience with him. After securing the support of Blastus, a trusted personal servant of the king, they asked for peace, because they depended on the king’s country for their food supply.
21 On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. 22 They shouted, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” 23 Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died.
24 But the word of God continued to spread and flourish.
25 When Barnabas and Saul had finished their mission, they returned from[a] Jerusalem, taking with them John, also called Mark.
a. Acts 12:25 Some manuscripts to
I knew I needed the history of this story so I went to bible-studys.org.
“Herod the king”: Herod Agrippa I reigned from A.D. 37-44 and was the grandson of Herod the Great. He ran up numerous debts in Rome and fled to Palestine. Imprisoned by Emperor Tiberius after some careless comments, he eventually was released following Tiberius’ death, and was made ruler of northern Palestine, to which Judea and Samaria were added in A.D. 41.
As a hedge against his shaky relationship with Rome, he curried favor with the Jews by persecuting Christians.
“Herod Agrippa”, referred to only as Herod, nephew of Herod Antipas, and brother of Herodias (Matt. 14:1-11). Agrippa was schooled in Rome but lived as a prodigal both in Rome and Palestine. When his friend Caligula became emperor in A.D. 37, Agrippa received the title of king and part of Palestine to rule.
When Antipas requested the same honor, he was deposed and Agrippa received his realm. Shortly afterward he was given all of Palestine. He is mentioned only in Acts 12 when he beheaded James and intended to do the same to Peter. But God intervened and it was Herod Agrippa who died violently under God’s judgment.
We see here, that the opposition to the church has gone violent. About that time means about the time Saul and Barnabas were preaching together, and about the time the followers of Jesus started to be called Christians. This Herod is Herod Agrippa probably. He ruled over Judea and Samaria at the time this happened.
“James”: The first of the apostles to be martyred.
“With the sword”: The manner of his execution indicates James was accused of leading people to follow false gods (Deut. 13:12-15).
This James, brother of John, was a son of Zebedee and was known along with his brother as sons of thunder. He is not to be confused with the James (half-brother of Jesus), who wrote the Book of James. Jesus had predicted that James would die a violent death for the gospel. History (not the Bible), says that James and his accuser were beheaded together.
They were treating Peter as if he were a hardened criminal. They not only had his hands in chains, but had two soldiers, one on each side to even sleep next to him to keep him from escaping.
These two soldiers were probably chained to Peter, but the Scripture does not say. This was not even enough restraints, so they positioned soldiers at the door to watch as well. It is just like the Lord to wait until just before Peter was to be brought before Herod for sentencing to save him.
Peter believed that he was dreaming, or had a vision, and had no idea that this angel was releasing him from this prison. God cares for his own. When there seems no way out of a problem, God makes a way for us.
Meanwhile.... after the rescue..... Peter went to Mary's house. [the commentary continues]
“Mary”: Mark is called the cousin of Barnabas, she is his aunt.
“John Mark” was apparently a Jew and a native of Jerusalem. His mother Mary, was a woman of means, since her home was large enough to house church meetings and since she possessed at least one maidservant. Mark went with him on Paul’s first missionary journey. But he abandoned that mission.
We see that Rhoda had been assigned to watch and listen at the door. This was a very dangerous time for the Christians, and they were very cautious. This was in the middle of the night, and she was afraid.
She was so excited that she ran to tell the others, even before she opened the gate. She was really excited, and we do unusual things many times when we get that excited. Peter was well known by this family, and Rhoda was probably a member of it. He had stayed with them many times before. It would be a natural thing for her to recognize Peter's voice.
Peter had been standing at the door knocking all this time. They were amazed when they saw him, because they were expecting him to die.
Even though they were praying for a miracle, they did not expect it to happen.
At the end of the chapter.... Herod found Peter missing and decided to have the guards murdered instead. The commentary says that Herod suffered a horrible death.... worms ate his insides for a few days..... ugh.... I can relate. The commentary supposes that Herod died that horrible death because of what he did to James [one of the Zebedee boys] and what he tried to do to Peter.Now the commentary says that James was the first Apostle to be murdered.... and when I first read about it... I thought "Stephen is already dead"... but Stephen wasn't an Apostle. Stephen was a disciple.... James was one of the Apostles who learned directly from Jesus of Nazareth. James was one of the Zebedee boys who had the ambitious mom. She wanted her sons to be honored..... and James is honored as the first martyred Apostle.
What a grueling experience it must have been for Peter to be chained to those two men. Peter had to put on his sandals and his cloak so he was not fully clothed.... and no doubt the proximity of those two guards chained to him was extremely difficult for a descendant of Jacob [Israel] to bare.
Peter thought he was having a dream about being rescued..... turned out to be true.... I can relate.... sometimes life is so surreal it's crazy.... and Peter must have been really confused..... So when Rhoda heard his voice at the door.... it's no surprise to me that she thought she was hearing things.... Pete was in prison, she thought.... chained to two guards with another guard at the doorway, she thought.... no way he's getting out of that.... but it sounds like him at the door.... "go tell someone" she thought.... and left him standing there knocking.... what a hoot.....
At the end of the chapter it also talked about Barnabus and Saul [of Tarsus... not yet Paul] had returned to Jerusalem.... in the last chapter one of them had a vision about a worldwide famine... and the Christians pooled their resources and delivered food to the other Christian "churches". Barnabus and Saul [of Tarsus... not yet Paul] had returned from delivering the food.... so they were in attendance at Mary's when Peter was knocking at the door.....
Ok.... I take it back.... maybe Jesus was indeed being honest when He said "on this rock". I considered the idea that Jesus might have been being sarcastic.... after all, Peter does have a problem with denial...... But I see here that God had Peter rescued.... so magnificent leader or magnet of denial... God loves Peter so I can sit back and know Peter is working for God [not himself].
