Acts 12
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 12
Persecution, Death, and Imprisonment.[a] 1 It was about this period of time that King Herod[b] persecuted certain members of the Church. 2 He had James, the brother of John, killed with the sword, 3 and when he noted that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter as well. Since this happened during the feast of Unleavened Bread, 4 he imprisoned him and assigned four squads of four soldiers each to guard him, intending to subject him to a public trial after Passover. 5 While Peter was thus imprisoned, the Church prayed fervently to God for him.
6 On the night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter, secured by two chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while guards outside the door were keeping watch over the prison. 7 Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light flooded the building. He tapped Peter on the side and awakened him, saying, “Get up quickly!” And the chains fell away from his wrists. 8 Next, the angel said to him, “Fasten your belt and put on your sandals.” After he did so, the angel instructed him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.”
9 Accordingly, Peter followed him out. He did not realize that the intervention of the angel was real, thinking that he was seeing a vision. 10 After passing through the first guard post and then the second, they reached the iron gate that led out to the city. This opened for them of its own accord. They went outside and had walked the length of one street when suddenly the angel left him.
11 Then Peter came to his senses and said, “Now I am positive that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.” 12 As soon as he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, also called Mark,[c] where many had assembled and were at prayer.
13 When he knocked at the outer door, a maid named Rhoda came to answer it. 14 Recognizing Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that, instead of opening the door, she ran in with the news that Peter was standing outside. 15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind,” but she insisted that it was true. Then they said, “It must be his angel.”
16 Meanwhile, Peter continued to knock, and when they opened the door they saw him and were astounded. 17 He motioned to them with his hand to be silent. After he described to them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison, he said, “Report this to James[d] and the brethren.” Then he left and went to another place.
18 At daybreak, there was a great deal of commotion among the soldiers about what had become of Peter. 19 After instituting a search for him and being unable to find him, Herod interrogated the guards and ordered their execution. Then he left Judea to reside for a while in Caesarea.
20 Death of Herod Agrippa I.[e] For a long time, Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, who now came to him in a body. After gaining the support of Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, they asked for peace because their country depended on the king’s territory for their food supplies.
21 On the designated day, Herod donned his royal robes and, seated on a throne, delivered a public address to them. 22 They began to acclaim him, shouting, “This is the voice of a god, not a man!” 23 Immediately, the angel of the Lord struck him down because he had not attributed the honor to God. He was eaten away by worms and died.
24 Return of Barnabas and Saul to Jerusalem.[f] Meanwhile, the word of God continued to spread and gain more followers. 25 Then, after Barnabas and Saul had completed their mission, they returned to Jerusalem, bringing with them John, also called Mark.[g]
Footnotes
- Acts 12:1 Death and imprisonment are the fate of the disciple. Jesus has foretold it emphatically. Herod puts James (“the Greater”), the brother of John, to death by the sword. Since this pleases some of the Jews, he intends to put Peter to death, too, and takes him into custody. But Peter is freed from prison by an angel and goes back to the community, which rejoices that he is freed. Peter now departs from Acts without any indication of his further activity and his fate—martyrdom. Luke also leaves us in suspense regarding the end of Paul, on the last page of Acts.
- Acts 12:1 Herod: i.e., Herod Agrippa I, ruler of Judea and Samaria from A.D. 41 to 44; he was a nephew of the Herod Antipas whom we meet in the Passion of Jesus. James (“the Greater”) was the first of the apostles to drink the Lord’s cup (Mk 10:39) and give his life for the Master; his brother, John, will be the last of the apostles to leave the scene.
- Acts 12:12 Mark: cousin of Barnabas (see Col 4:10); we find Mark in Acts 12:25; 13:5, 13; 15:37-39, and in the service of Paul the prisoner (Col 4:10; Philem 24; 2 Tim 4:11). He was a disciple of Peter (1 Pet 5:13), and tradition considers him to be the author of the second Gospel.
- Acts 12:17 James: this is James the Lesser, a brother of the Lord, i.e., one of Jesus’ collateral relatives; we will find him presiding over the Church of Jerusalem (Acts 15; 17). Peter is said, in words surely carefully weighed, to have gone “to another place”; Acts will not speak of him again.
- Acts 12:20 This time again, in the manner of the Old Testament, the intervention of the hand of God is emphasized. The account poses the problem of war: it is a scourge in which the economy is tied to the will for power. Here the war against Tyre and Sidon is put off thanks to a compromise. But the political pride of a leader who takes himself for God is dissipated by a mortal sickness, which popular tradition interprets as a punishment.
The episode accords with the chronology of the time. It inserts Acts into universal history. Herod died, after a great feast, eaten by worms, in A.D. 44. - Acts 12:24 As in a refrain, Luke again refers to the vital power of the Gospel. With the return of Barnabas and Saul from Antioch, a new page begins.
- Acts 12:25 Mark: see note on Acts 12:12.
