John Gill Commentary Acts 12

Now about that time
That the famine was in Judea, and Saul and Barnabas were sent there with what the church at Antioch had collected.

Herod the king ;
not Herod the great that slew the infants at Bethlehem, nor Herod Antipas that beheaded John, but Herod Agrippa; and so the Syriac version adds here, "who is surnamed Agrippa"; he was a grandson of Herod the great, and the son of Aristobulus: this prince

stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church ;
Beza's ancient copy adds, "in Judea": it seems to be the church at Jerusalem; perhaps some of the principal members of them; and so the Ethiopic version renders it, the rulers of the house of God. It is scarcely credible that he should lay hands on any of them himself in person; but it is very likely he encouraged his soldiers, or his servants, to abuse them, reproach them, strike and buffet them, as they met with them in the streets; or when at worship, might disturb them, and break them up.

And he killed James the brother of John with the sword .
This was James, the son of Zebedee, whom our Lord told, that he should be baptized with the baptism he was baptized with, (Matthew 20:22) meaning the baptism of martyrdom; and he was the first martyr among the apostles.

The death he was put to was one of the four capital punishments among the Jews, and was reckoned by them the most disgraceful of them all. It was inflicted upon deceivers of the people; and such an one James was thought to be ^F5 .

FOOTNOTES:

• F5: Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 7. sect. 1, 3. & 11. 4.

And because he saw it pleased the Jews
That is, as Beza's ancient copy adds, "his stretching out his hands upon the faithful"; this pleased the Jews, a bloodthirsty generation of men, who had killed the prophets, and the Lord Jesus, and who were now greedy after the death of the apostles: it may easily be seen from what principle and spirit Herod acted; it was not out of regard to the Jewish religion, rites, and ceremonies, but to ingratiate himself into the affections of the people:

he proceeded further to take Peter also ;
a principal apostle, and who was well known, and against whom the Jews had doubtless a particular antipathy, and would have been glad to have been rid of him; this Herod was, sensible of, and therefore to please them, ordered him to be taken up:

then were the days of unleavened bread ;
or the feast of the passover.

When he had apprehended him
When his officers he sent to take him had brought him:

he put him in prison ;
in the common prison, very likely where he had been once before, (Acts 5:18)

and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him;
each quaternion consisted of four soldiers, so that they were in all sixteen; and so the Syriac version renders it, "and delivered him to sixteen soldiers": how the Ethiopic version should make "seventeen" of them is pretty strange: these perhaps might take their turns to watch him by four at a time, two to whom he was chained, and two others to keep the doors; or all the sixteen together, being posted in one place or another for greater security: and it may be, that the reason of all this caution, and strong guard, might be, because it was remembered that he, and the rest of the apostles, when committed to the same prison some years ago, were delivered out of it:

intending after Easter ,
or the passover,

to bring him forth to the people ;
to insult and abuse him, and to put him to what death they should desire.

Peter therefore was kept in prison
Till the feast of the passover was at an end:

but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him ;
this was not done by them as a body together, but either by them in several bands at different places, or by some of the principal of the church at some one certain place, and where they might frequently change companies, and keep on a continual incessant prayer for days together; and whereas it is very likely it might be at the beginning of the passover, when Peter was taken up, and it was now at the close of it, when he was delivered, the church might be engaged by companies alternately, a whole week together, in prayer, on this occasion.