The Persecuted Church and the Dawn of the Mission of the Persecutor (Acts 12)
The Persecuted Church and the Dawn of the Mission of the Persecutor (Acts 12)
In Acts 12 we find the following schema: 1) Acts 12:1-19 the persecution of Herod, death of James, imprisonment of Peter; 2) Acts 12:20-23 the fate of the persecutor; 3) Acts 12:24 the fate of the persecuted church. The purpose of the narrative is to exhibit the condition of the church in Jerusalem when St. Paul arrives. This persecution must have happened before St. Paul arrived. But, one could say, not necessarily so, what about the death of Herod? Well, this is simply added to show how God disposes events and how futile is the opposition to Him and his divine purposes. The persecutor is disposed of miraculously because he allows himself to be clothed in divine ways; the persecuted church meantime grows and flourishes. Still it may have transpired before St. Paul’s arrival. At all events it was nearly synchronous. Josephus places the death of Herod Agrippa at about A.D. 44. This agrees with the other notice of time, in Acts 11:28, respecting the famine.
Vs. 1 ἐπέβαλεν Ἡρῴδης ὁ βασιλεὺς τὰς χεῖρας Herod persecutes the church.
Vs. 2 Ἰάκωβον Perhaps he was singled out for some bold act, the son of thunder, an act that would be likely to provoke persecution. See the moving story of Clement which however is reproduced e.g. in the case of St. Hippolytus.
Vss. 3-4 Herod’s compliance with Jewish feeling in respecting the festival is in accordance with his character as given by Josephus. See also ἰδὼν δὲ ὅτι ἀρεστόν ἐστιν τοῖς Ἰουδαίοις. He had not the natural cruelty of Herod the Great or Herod Antipas. As to his demise, he invites comparison with what St. Paul says in 2 Thess 2:3—‘the man of sin, the son of perdition who exalts himself over all that is called god, or that is worshipped, so that he as god sits in the Temple showing himself to be god.’
Vs. 10 See the strange addition of D.
Vs. 12 Ἰωάνου τοῦ ἐπικαλουμένου Μάρκου
Vs. 13 ὑπακοῦσαι ‘to answer the knock.’ On the probable classical term see Plato Phaedo 59E.
Vs. 17 Ἰακώβῳ as the permanent resident authority in Jerusalem, probably not an apostle. The view of Baumg. (Vol. I, p. 322) with regard to ‘and he went to another place’ (i.e. Peter) seems to have some truth to it. And the conduct of Peter here is similar to that of Paul in Acts 9:31. External persecution is the signal that they are called to a wider mission field.
Vs. 20 θυμομαχῶν having an angry quarrel.
Vs. 24 Ὁ δὲ λόγος τοῦ κυρίου ηὔξανεν καὶ ἐπληθύνετο. For the contrast comp. 1 Peter 1:24-25. On the object of the account of Herod’s demise see Baumg. Vol. I, p. 328.
Vs. 25 No allusion to this event in the Epistle to the Galatians, see Lightfoot, Galatians, p. 126.
Ἰωάνην He has been mentioned before (Acts 12:12). How they came to select him is explained. Here we have one of the ‘undesigned coincidences’ comp. Col 4:10—ὁ ἀνεψιὸς Βαρναβᾶ. On this, his first appearing, he is mentioned with both St. Peter (Acts 12:12) and St. Paul (here). So it is to the latest period of their lives. Of St. Paul see 2 Tim 4:11, and of St. Peter 1 Pet 5:13.