At that time Herod the king laid his hands on some of those of the assembly to do them hurt,
A king now turns on the church in Jerusalem. Three questions follow: who was this Herod, why did God let his hands fall on some of His own people, and who held real power?
More than one Herod appears in the New Testament. This one came from a famous family and had a political motive.
At this moment "Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church." This Herod was the grandson of Herod the Great, who commanded the massacre at Bethlehem, and the father of that King Agrippa before whom Paul was brought. History knows him as Herod Agrippa I. His ruling passion was to stand well with everybody, no matter what it cost. He mixed this vanity with careful attention to the rites of the Jewish religion, so he stood well with his subjects. To win their favour even more, he no doubt began the new persecution of the Christians.
The attack changed hands, and that raised a question.
Until now all attempts to stop the movement in Jerusalem had come from the religious authorities. Now the civil power held by Agrippa entered the fight. He began a campaign against the followers of the Lord Jesus. Would it succeed where the others had failed? At first it seemed to triumph. Herod executed James the brother of John, and heaven gave no sign of its horror at the deed.
The alliance behind this attack was strange.
It was about A.D. 44 that Herod sought to win favour with his Jewish subjects by persecuting the harmless Christians. Not that there was any love between Herod and the Jews, for they hated each other deeply. But here they united, since both hated the heavenly testimony.
Herod did not strike at random.
If one of the sons of Zebedee was to be kept as the last of the twelve apostles, the other fell to the sword of Herod Agrippa. He was the first martyr among the apostles. The king was in no way a violent, unpredictable ruler like his grandfather, Herod the Great. But his grandfather courted the favour of the Romans, and this grandson courted the favour of the Jews. And those who seemed to be pillars in the church gave him the readiest means and objects for gratifying Jewish spite.
Note the word "some." The hand fell on a few, not on all. God did not deal with them all the same way.
He kills James, and goes on to seize Peter and put him in prison. But God preserves His servant, and delivers him by His angel in answer to the prayers of the saints. He allows some to be killed — happy witnesses to their heavenly portion in Christ. He preserves others to carry on the testimony on earth, despite all the power of the enemy, which seemed impossible to resist.
Not every writer explains the difference. One leaves the question open: "Why the Lord did not step in on his behalf, as He did for Peter, who can tell?" (F. B. Hole)
This king also stands as a picture of one still to come.
Here is a striking foreshadowing of the evil king who will appear in the last days. He will reign over the Jews under the shadow and support of the Gentiles, as Herod did. Not less but more than the one before him, he will be bent on murdering the innocent. His heart will be full of evil toward others, whom the Lord will rescue by His goodness.
The chapter opens with a king stretching out his hands. It ends with those hands stilled.
So our God rules over all. He is the Governor among the nations, whatever the pride and will of man may be. Power belongs to Him. The power of every enemy is feeble when He steps in. Herod could not understand the power that beat him. Baffled and confused, he condemns the prison guards to death and leaves Jerusalem. But he little thought that his own death was to come before that of his prisoners.
- The hands that reached — Herod Agrippa I, grandson of Herod the Great, wanted to stand well with everybody. He began this persecution to win favour with his subjects.
- The hands that joined — the king and the Jews hated each other. Here they united, because both hated the heavenly testimony.
- The hands that fell — he struck at those who seemed to be pillars, the easiest targets for Jewish spite. James died by the sword, and heaven gave no sign.
- The hands that were held — God let some die as happy witnesses and kept others to carry the testimony on. Why James was not spared, no writer claims to know.
- The hands that were stilled — power belongs to God, the Governor among the nations. Herod never guessed that his own death would come before his prisoner's.
and slew James, the brother of John, with the sword.
One short sentence records the death of an apostle. Herod's sword falls on James, and Scripture moves on without a word of protest or explanation. That silence raises the questions commentators press hardest: who was this James, why did God allow it, and why was Peter spared days later?
The New Testament holds more than one James, and readers often mix them up.
The James who wrote it was not the brother of John. Herod killed him in the very early years, as Acts 12:2 records. The author of the letter was the James spoken of in Acts 15:13 and Acts 21:18. Paul calls him, "James, the Lord's brother," in Galatians 1:19.
This James is a fisherman's son, and his death holds a unique place in the record.
James. This was one of the sons of Zebedee the fisherman. The name James is the English form of the Hebrew and Greek name Jacob. He is the only apostle whose death the New Testament mentions. Herod Agrippa I had him executed in Jerusalem.
Years earlier, the mother of James and John had asked for the two best seats in the coming kingdom for her sons. Jesus turned to the brothers with a question about a cup, and both said they were able.
You remember that this martyr's mother, Salome, had once prayed, "Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom." Turning to them, the Lord had replied, "Are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" They said to Him, "We are able" (Matthew 20:21-22, in an older translation). The moment had come for one of the two brothers to drink the cup. The other drank his many years later. John was probably the last of all the apostles to die for his faith, but James was the first. His time of service was short. He died only some twelve or thirteen years after his Master's crucifixion.
James had asked for a throne, and a sword answered him. One writer wonders whether James would have wanted it any other way.
Here we are reminded of James. In the first great success of the gospel he had to seal with his blood the truth he had preached. So he found our Lord's word proved true: he was to be baptized with the same baptism as Jesus Himself. Do you think James would have wanted a throne on earth instead of the martyr's crown?
The killing was not a burst of rage. It was politics, and the most visible Christians made the most useful targets.
So one of the sons of Zebedee lived on as the last of the twelve apostles. The other fell to the sword of Herod Agrippa, the first martyr among the apostles. This king was not a violent, high-handed ruler like his grandfather, Herod the Great. But his grandfather had worked to win favour with the Romans, and this man did the same with the Jews. And those who seemed to be pillars in the church were the easiest targets for satisfying Jewish spite.
James dies; Peter, chained in the same city under the same king, walks out past the guards. One writer traces both outcomes to God.
He kills James, and proceeds to take Peter and put him in prison. But God preserves His servant, and delivers him by His angel in answer to the prayers of the saints. He allows some to be killed. They are happy witnesses to their heavenly portion in Christ. He keeps others alive to carry on the testimony on earth, despite all the power of the enemy, a power that looks impossible to resist. The Lord defeats it by showing the power that belongs to Him and to Him alone — a power He uses when He will and how He will.
Nothing of James's work survives in Scripture. He appears beside Peter and John, then vanishes until this verse.
Yet James was one of the three whom the Lord took into His confidence, along with John and Peter. His life is a blank to us, and his day went down at noon! How little we can see of God's ways! And if we judge a life only by its results, we are certain to judge it wrongly!
- The cup asked for. James asked for a throne beside Christ and said he could drink His cup. Herod's sword answered him.
- The cup given. He is the first of the twelve apostles to die, and the only apostle whose death Scripture records. He is the son of Zebedee, not the James who wrote the letter.
- The cup as politics. Herod struck at the best-known believers to win favour with the Jews. Visible service made James a target.
- The cup withheld. An angel rescues Peter from the same king. God lets some die as witnesses to a heavenly portion and keeps others to carry on the testimony.
- The cup and the crown. James left no record of his work, and his day ended at noon. Judge a life by its visible results and you will judge it wrong.
And seeing that it was pleasing to the Jews, he went on to take Peter also (and they were the days of unleavened bread)
A king kills one apostle, finds the crowd approves, and reaches for a second — all while Jerusalem keeps a holy feast. So who really holds Peter's life: the king with the chains, or God?
The Herod here is not the king of the nativity story but his grandson, and writers describe a man whose whole policy was public approval.
This Herod was the grandson of Herod the Great, who ordered the massacre at Bethlehem. He was also the father of King Agrippa, whom Paul later stood before. History knows him as Herod Agrippa I. His ruling passion was to stand well with everybody, no matter what it cost. He combined this personal vanity with careful attention to the rites of the Jews' religion. That kept him in good standing with his subjects. He no doubt began the new persecution of the Christians to make himself even more popular with them.
Herod saw that the killing pleased the crowd, and went further. One writer looks behind that step to the God who permitted it.
God allows James, the brother of John, to fall to the malice of Herod, the enemy of the gospel. Because this pleased the Jews, the king had a further excuse to keep up his opposition. The death of a few Christians mattered little to him, if their death made him popular with the Jews.
Herod and his subjects were not natural allies. One writer names what brought them together.
Around A.D. 44, Herod tried to win favour with his Jewish subjects by persecuting the harmless Christians. Not that there was any love between Herod and the Jews, for they hated each other deeply. But here they united, because both hated the heavenly testimony.
The note about the feast is not filler. Leaven had to be cleared out of every house at that season, and the timing of the arrest exposes what kind of religion was on display.
The Holy Spirit makes a significant remark: "This was during the days of Unleavened Bread." Everywhere in Scripture leaven is the emblem of corruption. During their religious festivals the Jewish people had to clear it out of their houses. Yet at such a season, when they were more zealous than usual about outward things, they could take delight in blood! In the same way, our Lord's accusers were careful not to cross a Gentile doorstep at Passover time. Yet they had no conscience at all about murdering an innocent Man! (John 18:28) Oh religion, what bloody deeds and what complete hypocrisy people have carried out in your name!
Herod treated James and Peter as interchangeable targets. God did not. The difference is left unexplained, and one writer refuses to smooth it over.
Here we have, in effect, the slain and the spared remnant pictured in the opposite lot of James and Peter. One was given up to a violent death — strange as it seems — with his service only just begun. For the other, God must send an angel from heaven to rescue him... Yet James was one of the three whom the Lord took into His confidence, along with John and Peter. His life is a blank to us, and his day went down at noon! How little we can see of God's ways! And if we judge a course only by its results, we are bound to misjudge!
Peter's escape was not luck. The Lord had already said how Peter would die, and the timing was not Herod's to set.
God's thoughts are not like man's. The Lord had already shown by what death Peter would glorify God, but the time had not yet come: "when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go." Herod meant not only to imprison Peter but to bring him before the people... But the Passover came in between, and Herod was too careful about his religion to ignore the days of Unleavened Bread.
One writer puts Herod's prison in its place with a single image.
But Peter's work was not finished, and Herod's chains were only cobwebs when they stood against God's purposes.
One writer reads the chapter as a picture of what is still to come.
I have no doubt at all that Acts 12 looks to the future... In James and Peter we have those who suffer and those who are spared. We have the Lord stepping in to deliver, and at the very same time the presence of the persecutor in Jerusalem itself.
- Applause — Herod lived to be liked. The first murder pleased the crowd, so he made a second arrest.
- Alliance — king and people hated each other, yet united against the heavenly testimony.
- Appearance — they cleared leaven out of their houses and delighted in blood, just as at the trial of Jesus.
- Ambiguity — James died with his service only just begun, and an angel came for Peter. Results are a poor way to judge a life.
- Authority — the Lord had already said how Peter would die. Herod's chains were only cobwebs against God's purpose.
whom having seized he put in prison, having delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep, purposing after the passover to bring him out to the people.
Herod has Peter in prison, sixteen soldiers guard him, and the execution waits only for the feast to end. Every detail makes the prisoner more secure — and every one of them makes his escape harder to explain away.
Some older English Bibles print the word here as "Easter." That has led readers to look for a Christian festival in the text. Commentators agree on how to read the word.
Simply "the Passover," Acts 12:4, as the word is elsewhere translated.
But was the early church keeping such a feast?
There is nothing in the New Testament about the keeping of Easter. Acts 12:4 simply refers to the Passover as a suitable time for Herod to hand Peter over to destruction.
The phrase behind "four squads" tells us how Herod organised the watch.
A party of "four soldiers." Four such parties guarded Peter in prison. They relieved each other every three hours in the night.
Why so heavy a guard for one man? One writer looks back at what happened the last time Peter was locked up.
He thought he had made a grand step when he took Peter. So he put four squads of soldiers beside him — sixteen soldiers — to guard one single man! Peter had escaped from prison once before, and no one knew how he got out (Acts 5). But Peter knew, and that is why he went to sleep so quietly here, for he knew the Lord could take him out again, if He so willed.
"To bring him out to the people" meant a public death, timed for the crowds the feast would draw into Jerusalem.
Herod sought to win favour with his Jewish subjects by persecuting the harmless Christians. There was no love between Herod and the Jews, for they hated each other; but here they united, since both hated the heavenly testimony. He wickedly intended to keep Peter in prison till after the Passover. Then a great many Jews from all parts would be in Jerusalem, and he would make a public spectacle of his execution. But God preserved and delivered His servant in answer to the prayers of the saints. They have weapons of warfare which the governments of this world know nothing of.
The delay in this verse comes from religion. Herod would kill an apostle, but not during the feast.
Herod meant to do more than imprison Peter. He would bring him before the people, perhaps for sentence, and certainly for execution as a public example. But the Passover came in between, and Herod was too careful a religious man to make light of the days of unleavened bread.
The same contradiction ran through the people he was trying to please.
Leaven is everywhere in Scripture the picture of corruption. During their religious festivals the Jewish people had to clear it out of their houses. Yet at such a time, when they were more zealous than usual about outward things, they could delight in blood! In the same way, our Lord's accusers were careful not to step inside a Gentile house at Passover time. Yet they had no conscience at all about the murder of an innocent Man (John 18:28).
Herod set the date; he did not set the outcome. Peter would die a martyr one day, as the Lord had told him — but not on this schedule.
God's thoughts are not like man's. The Lord had already shown by what death Peter would glorify God, but the time had not yet come: "When you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go."
The hard question this chapter raises is not how Peter got out. It is why James, killed one verse earlier, did not.
God surely designed this history as an object lesson. There is absolutely no circumstance we can be in that is too difficult for God to overcome. Escape was impossible for Peter by any natural means, but it was a simple thing for an angel to do at God's direction. So if God does not deliver us from hard circumstances, He has a wise reason for it. His superior power and grace can enable us to endure what we must face. God could just as easily have delivered James, but allowed him to be martyred instead.
- Passover, not Easter. The word here is the ordinary word for the Jewish Passover. Nothing in the verse points to a Christian festival.
- Sixteen against one. Four squads guarded Peter in shifts, all night long. Herod feared another escape like Acts 5 — and his own precautions made Peter's rescue undeniable.
- Religion timed the murder. Herod would not kill during the feast, yet he had already planned a public execution. He kept the calendar and still meant to murder.
- The delay was God's. Peter's death was foretold, but "the time had not yet come" — the king fixed the date, God fixed the hour.
- Two servants, two outcomes. God could as easily have rescued James; He did not. Where He does not deliver, His grace carries His people through instead.
Peter therefore was kept in the prison; but unceasing prayer was made by the assembly to God concerning him.
Herod had killed James, and Peter was in prison next. This verse puts the prison on one side and the praying church on the other, and shows which one decides the outcome.
The little word "but" divides the verse. Human help had run out, so the disciples took the only road left.
They knew it was useless to turn to Herod. Turning to God was their only resource at this critical moment. God has always been the help of His people.
This was not panic. Prayer was the church's settled habit in a time of conflict.
The assembly should not lean on human help. It should not forget the Lord's promise that the gates of hades will not prevail against it. Through its day of conflict its habit is to pray always, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit (Eph. 6:18). So in Jerusalem the disciples prayed to God for Peter. They prayed not as separate people but as one body.
The closing words of the verse are short, but each phrase carries weight. One commentator takes them apart, using an older wording of the verse.
The last twelve words of verse 5 set out in a remarkable way what makes prayer effective. It was "to God," and therefore real prayer. It was "of the church," and therefore united prayer. It was "for him," and therefore definite. It did not wander over a hundred and one requests, but stayed on one object. It was "without ceasing," and therefore fervent and persistent — the prayer that gets answers, according to Luke 18:1 and James 5:16. The prayer of the church brought an angel from heaven to deliver.
Praying alone matters. Praying together carries a promise of its own.
In Acts 12, we find Christians in crisis. The church in Jerusalem responds not by petition or protest but by a far more effective method — a prayer meeting. Personal prayer is powerful in itself, but assembly prayer comes with the Lord's special promise (Matt. 18:19).
An angel opened the prison. But the cause runs further back than the angel.
The pooled prayers of God's people work for good to the godly. The angel fetched Peter out of prison, but it was prayer that fetched the angel.
The same king, the same hatred, two different outcomes. God was behind both.
He kills James, and goes on to take Peter and put him in prison. But God preserves His servant, and delivers him by His angel in answer to the prayers of the saints. He allows some to be killed — happy witnesses to their heavenly portion in Christ. He preserves others to carry on the testimony on earth, despite the enemy's power, which looks unstoppable.
Another writer applies this to how we judge events. James was one of the three closest to the Lord, yet his life is a blank to us, and his day ended at noon. If we judge a path only by its results, we will misjudge it (F. W. Grant).
The strangest detail comes after the prayer. The people who prayed were the last to believe the answer.
God answered them. Rhoda told the praying company that Peter was at the gate. They said to her, "You are out of your mind." When she insisted, they allowed that it might be his angel. Then the gate opened and they saw him, and "they were astonished." What a sad tale of unbelief it is when we so little expect an answer to prayer that we are astonished when it comes, and call it "a remarkable answer."
Their desire went up to God sincerely, yet "faith can hardly count on Him" (J. N. Darby). God answered anyway. Peter "stepped into the prayer-circle." He was living proof that assembly prayer can set heaven's unstoppable power moving on earth (William J Hocking).
- Crisis — Herod held Peter, and no human help was left. The church turned to God as its only resource, not its last resort.
- Concentration — Prayer that gets answers is to God, of the church, for him, and without ceasing. That means real, united, definite and persistent.
- Chain — The angel opened the prison, but prayer brought the angel. A room in Jerusalem set heaven moving.
- Contrast — The same God let James die and set Peter free. He takes some as witnesses and keeps others for more testimony. Results alone will mislead us.
- Confidence — They prayed hard and still called the answer madness. God answered their asking, not their expecting — so keep asking.