| Acts 12 | |
|---|---|
_recto.jpg) Acts 11:29–12:2 on therecto side ofUncial 0244 (Gregory-Aland) from the 5th century. | |
| Book | Acts of the Apostles |
| Category | Church history |
| Christian Bible part | New Testament |
| Order in the Christian part | 5 |
Acts 12 is the twelfth chapter of theActs of the Apostles in theNew Testament of theChristianBible. It records the death of the first apostle,James, son of Zebedee, followed bythe miraculous escape of Peter from prison, the death ofHerod Agrippa I, and the early ministry ofBarnabas andPaul of Tarsus. The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed thatLuke composed this book as well as theGospel of Luke.[1]
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The original text was written inKoine Greek.This chapter is divided into 25 verses.
Some earlymanuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:
This chapter mentions the following places:
Sometime after the events in theprevious chapter, the apostles inJerusalem are harassed by a new persecution (12:1) by a "Herod", notHerod Antipas, who was involved in thetrial of Jesus (Luke 23:6–12;Acts 4:27) butAgrippa I, a grandson ofHerod the Great, resulting in the killing ofJames the son ofZebedee and the imprisonment ofSimon Peter.[3]
Heinrich Meyer suggests that these events took place in44 AD,[5] the year of the death ofHerod Agrippa, at the same time as the prophets fromJerusalem travelled toAntioch and returned with aid for the Judean church.[6]J. R. Lumby, in theCambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges suggests "some time near43 AD",[7] and theJerusalem Bible assigns them to "between 41 and 44".[8]John Stott holds that Luke was "deliberately vague" in regard to timing.[9]
This part of the chapter tells that after Peter was put into prison byKing Herod, on the night before his trial an angel appeared to him, and told him to leave. Peter's chains fell off, and he followed the angel out of prison, thinking it was avision (verse 9). The prison doors opened of their own accord, and the angel led Peter into the city.[3]
This verse is referred to inCharles Wesley's hymnAnd Can It Be.[11]
Peter's reception by the church in this account has an element of humor that far from expecting their prayers to be answered, the believers are completely taken aback when Peter knocks at the door that the maidRhoda (another minor character noted by Luke) runs back to the house instead of quickly open the door, so despite his supernatural escape, when prison doors was opened up for him, the house doors 'remain obstinately closed' for Peter.[3]
The account's focus returns briefly back to the prison, where Herod, "depicted as a typical persecuting tyrant",[3] vents his frustration on the guards. In verse 19 he orders them to be "led away" (ἀπαχθῆναι,apachthēnai), by implication to their deaths.[16] There is anirony in the situation, in that "neither the soldiers nor Herod share the readers' privileged knowledge of Peter's secret" and whereabouts.[3] Through no fault of their own they earn the punishment intended for their escaped prisoners.[17]
Herod's sensational death (verses 20–23) was well documented inJosephus'Antiquities of the Jews (19.343-50), and while it is independent from Luke's account, both report him "dying a horrible death as a punishment for being acclaimed as divine".[3]
Luke provides a political setting for his account of Herod's death, which, though not present in Josephus' account, is "not implausible".[3] Meyer notes that θυμομαχῶν (thymomachōn, "furiously angry") can denote either warfare or some other kind of enmity. He suggests that "an actual war" between Herod and the Roman confederate cities ofTyre andSidon was "very improbable", reading their desire for peace as a desire for "thepreservation of the peace".[5]
This part contrasts the death of the persecutor with the successful growth of God's word (verse 24) with the expansion of the church (cf. 9:31) by God's power.[21] Verse 25 provides a narrative link of the completed relief mission by the major characters from this point on as they return to Antioch.[21]
