The Acts of the Apostles, the history of the early church, by Luke the physician - Acts 12:1-4 comments: Peter arrested

 

Acts 12:1 ¶  Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. 2  And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. 3  And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also. (Then were the days of unleavened bread.) 4  And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.

 

Herod, called Herod the Great, who finished the second temple, is reported to have died back in Matthew 2. This must be Herod the Tetrarch, who beheaded John the Baptist. He murders or orders murdered John’s brother James.

 

Matthew 4:21a  And going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother…

 

Peter is arrested in the days of unleavened bread, the Passover celebration.

 

Luke 22:1  Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover…7  Then came the day of unleavened bread, when the passover must be killed.

 

We know from the gospels that this is when Jesus was crucified and rose again. So, this is the anniversary of Easter as well. Herod has several possible good reasons for not wanting to put him in front of the people, the rabble that demanded the crucifixion of Jesus until after these events. There is the danger of a riot demanding he be killed, first and foremost, for the Jews of this time needed very little reason to cause a civil disturbance. The anniversary of Christ’s death and resurrection was something that Herod wanted to put behind him before displaying his captive. Herod has authority over Galilee as per Luke 3 and Peter is a Galilean as per Mark 14:70 and other verses. Christianity was considered a sect that started in Galilee. Read Luke 23 and other passages regarding Jesus’ works in Galilee.

 

But, verse 11 will show us that the concern is for the Jews and their reaction to Peter’s arrest.

 

A quaternion of soldiers were four soldiers with four of them being sixteen with each group of four taking a watch of the night and day as their turn possibly. Herod seriously was worried that either Christians would try to free Peter or a Jewish mob would attempt to murder him.