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.