Read or listen The Acts of the Apostles Chapter 12 online (ESV, Bible Gateway)

New persecution – Acts 12:1-4

King Herod in this chapter refers to Herod Julius Agrippa I (later, Acts 25:13-26:32, Agrippa II is mentioned). Agrippa I was the grandson of Herod the Great, who was born a few years before Jesus. Herod the Great had executed his father Aristobulus out of suspicion. Agrippa had been sent to Rome to be raised in the court of Caesar, as was the custom at that time in the princely courts of the Roman Empire.

Agrippa became a fellow student and good friend of Claudius in Rome. In Rome he also met another future emperor, Caligula. However, during his student days, Agrippa fell into deep debt and was forced to flee his creditors to Palestine.

Caligula became emperor in 37 AD, and in the same year the tetrarch Philip also died. This, from Agrippa's point of view, was a fortunate coincidence, and Agrippa inherited Philip's kingdom and even received the title of king. In 40 AD, his brother-in-law (Herod) Antipas was deposed and Agrippa also received the rule of Galilee.

In 41, Caligula was assassinated and the cautious and learned Claudius became emperor, giving Agrippa control of Samaria and Judea, which had until then been directly under Roman rule. Thus, Agrippa had gained control of the entire empire of his grandfather Herod the Great.

Herod the Great was an Edomite (in the New Testament, Idumea and Idumean), but Agrippa's grandmother had been the Jewish Mariamne, whom Herod the Great had beheaded in a fit of jealousy, despite the fact that Mariamne was his favorite wife. Agrippa was therefore partly Jewish.

To the Jews, Agrippa wanted to be a Jew, but in the same way, to the Hellenists, he was a Hellenist who organized circus shows, etc.

To please the Jews, Agrippa initiated the first official, state-sanctioned persecution in church history, which Luke tells us about in Acts 12. More than ten years had passed since the stoning of Stephen. Previously, the people had been relatively friendly to the Christians (Acts 2:47, 3:9, 5:16,26), but over the years the situation had become more hostile to the Christians.

When the gospel was not accepted, the result was hardening and an ever stronger turning against God. Also behind this was the Jews' ever-increasing desire to separate themselves from the Gentiles. The Christians had also included non-Jews

The fact that it was Jacob, John's brother, who became the first martyr of the apostle group shows that he had a significant position in the early church. This is also indicated by the many accounts in the Gospels that tell us that Jesus had a core group of three disciples—Peter, James, and John (for example, Luke 9:28). Later Christian tradition states that all the apostles except John suffered martyrdom.

The fact that Luke only mentions the martyrdom of James in a few words is probably because Luke has already described the stoning of one martyr, Stephen, in great detail. Luke did the same elsewhere: he reported the first incident, but later similar situations were given less attention.

The reason for this has been the desire to reduce the size of the book, as Acts is already the longest book in the New Testament. In ancient times, books were expensive and therefore what was said had to be condensed into the shortest possible form.

Peter is released from chains – Acts 12:5-17

Peter was also imprisoned when Agrippa realized that the execution of James had pleased the Jews. Apparently, Agrippa was trying to gain favor with the Pharisees. The Pharisees became the leading faction of the Jews, especially after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Once again, Agrippa seems to have made a clever choice in his political alliances.

Luke does not describe Agrippa’s plans for Peter in great detail. Peter was kept in prison for a week (verse 6) awaiting the last, great day of the festival, when he would be brought before the people for trial and thus gain the popular favor that Agrippa desired. For the Passover, devout Jews from all over the known world gathered in Jerusalem.

Peter was kept under close guard: normally a prisoner was chained to one guard, but Peter was chained to two for safety. Since there were four night watches per night (18-21, 21-24, 0-3, 3-6), as many as 4 x 4, i.e. 16 guards, were needed (verse 4).

Peter's fate seemed sealed. He would receive the same judgment as Jesus in his time. Apparently, the Jews considered Peter to be their main opponent, so it was not difficult to guess the will of the religiously fanatic Jews.

But God's plan was not yet for Peter to be martyred. An angel miraculously freed Peter from a deep sleep. In his sleep we can see a sign that Peter had left his affairs entirely in God's hands and was no longer concerned with his own destiny.

God who hears prayers

Peter headed toward a house where he knew Christians were gathered. John Mark (see also Acts 12:25, 13:5,13, ​​15:37, Col. 4:10, and Philem 24) is thought to have written the Gospel of Mark, and apparently that is why the house is named after him—he was a well-known Christian. The Christians gathered in the house had asked God to save Peter (verse 5). But now that God had answered their prayers, they found it hard to believe (verse 15).

Do we have a tendency to do the same? Do we pray without believing that God will answer our prayers? Has prayer become just a pious habit for us? Sometimes God’s answers to prayer can exceed even our wildest expectations!

Christian escape

When Peter finally entered the house, he told what had happened to him. He left the leadership of the church to James, the eldest of Jesus' brothers. Peter himself quickly left Jerusalem before the search and chase began. Christians in the early church used to save themselves by fleeing. But if they were caught, they did not try to escape again, but submitted to whatever was to come.

Also significant is the mention of the transfer of leadership of the early church in Jerusalem to Jesus' brother James (verse 17). This is also confirmed by early Christian tradition. James the Just, as he was called, was an excellent fit to be the leader of the church in Jerusalem. He was more conservative than Peter and therefore did not irritate the Jews as much. James is said to have been such a diligent prayerful man that his knees resembled those of a camel. He too experienced a martyr's death by being stoned in the early 60s.

Where did Peter go?

The question of where Peter went after leaving Jerusalem has puzzled scholars.

The Catholic Church considers Peter to be the founder of the Roman Church, its first bishop and at the same time the first pope. According to Catholics, Peter therefore went to Rome. However, this view is contradicted by the fact that a few years later (47 or 48 AD) at the council of the apostles (Acts 15), Peter is again in Jerusalem. Of course, it can be assumed that Peter visited Rome and returned to Palestine after the death of Agrippa in 44 AD. But would that have been likely at that time, when the journey from Jerusalem to Rome took a very long time?

It seems more likely that Peter went somewhere outside Agrippa's jurisdiction. Syria has often been suggested. The only thing the New Testament says about this is that Peter became the leader of the Jewish mission (Gal 2:7).

This is the last account of Peter in the Acts of the Apostles. Peter is mentioned again at the meeting of the apostles (Acts 15:7-11). But in that context the main issue is no longer Peter's work in converting Jews to Christianity, but the Gentile mission that God had entrusted to the leadership of another man, Paul (Acts 9:15).

The emergency of the Guards – Acts 12:18-19

When morning dawned, the grim truth was revealed to Peter's guards: the prisoner was gone. It was normal practice in the Roman army for the guards to be responsible for the prisoner with their lives. When the prisoner was nowhere to be found, an enraged Agrippa ordered the execution of the guards. (Compare also Acts 16:27-28, the suicide attempt of the Philippian jailer.)

Agrippa left Jerusalem for Caesarea and apparently at the same time the persecution of Christians ended.

The death of Agrippa – Acts 12:20-25

Agrippa had begun a trade war with Phoenicia. Since Phoenicia was dependent on food supplies from Palestine (1 Kings 5:9, Ezekiel 27:17), the Tyrians and Sidonians had no choice but to try to make peace with Agrippa. They managed to bribe Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, to their side, and peace was restored.

When the reconciliation was celebrated in Caesarea, Agrippa, according to the Jewish historian Josephus, was dressed entirely in a suit made of silver. According to Josephus, too, the people shouted: “The voice of a god, and not of a man.” It was common in the East at that time to regard the king as a god. The Roman emperor was also revered as a god, but for both Jews and Christians, this was a terrible sin and blasphemy.

Josephus tells us that in the middle of the festivities, Agrippa got a severe stomach ailment and was carried home, where he died five days later. It has been suggested that it was a sudden rupture of the appendix and the resulting peritonitis. The worms that entered the abscesses and inflamed wounds (verse 23) were a grim reality at that time.

Who has authority in the world?

At the beginning of the chapter it seemed as if the Christian church was on the verge of destruction. But the chapter ends with the story of the death of the persecutor of Christians and the spread of the gospel. Apparently the time of growth for the early church in Jerusalem was already over, but elsewhere the gospel was advancing triumphantly. So what was important was not, and still is not, who seems to be the strongest and most dominant, but whose side God is on.

The events of chapter 12 take place between 42 and 44 AD. Agrippa died in 44. It was not until 41 AD that he also gained control of Judea and Samaria. Some scholars believe that the beheading of James took place immediately after the year 41, perhaps in the year 42. Others believe that all the events of the chapter took place shortly before the death of Agrippa, i.e. in the year 44.

At the end of the chapter, Luke prepares for the events of the next chapter and brings back to the scene Paul and Barnabas, as well as Barnabas’ cousin John Mark (Col 4:10), who was already mentioned earlier in the chapter.