Acts 12:1 - Meaning and Application

Since Paul was converted, we have heard no more about the priests driving the believers at Jerusalem into suffering. Perhaps that great change in Paul, and the failure of their plan against the Christians at Damascus, had softened them somewhat. Maybe Gamaliel’s earlier advice, to leave those men alone and wait to see what would happen, had started to restrain them. But now the trouble rises from another side. The civil government, not apparently stirred up by the religious leaders this time, takes the lead in the persecution.

Herod, though he came from an Edomite family, seems to have become a Jew in religion. Josephus says he was eager to keep the Law of Moses and strongly attached to the ceremonies. He was not only tetrarch of Galilee, as Herod Antipas had been, but also had Judea under his rule from Emperor Claudius. He spent most of his time at Jerusalem, and that is where he was at this time.

We are told three things that he did. First, he stretched out his hand to mistreat some in the church (Acts 12:1). This wording suggests that his hand had been held back before, perhaps by his own conscience. Now he broke through those restraints and acted with deliberate malice. He had some believers seized and brought into custody, so they could be prosecuted.

Notice how he moved step by step. He began with some church members of lesser rank and importance. He tested small targets first, but later aimed at the apostles themselves. His hatred was aimed at the church, and he troubled people only because they belonged to Christ. At first he only vexed them, meaning he imprisoned them, fined them, took their property, and used other forms of pressure. Later he went on to greater cruelty. In this way, Christ’s suffering servants are trained by smaller trials for greater ones, so that trouble may produce patience, and patience tested character.

Second, he killed James the brother of John with the sword (Acts 12:2). This James is called the brother of John to distinguish him from James the son of Joses. He is the one often called James the Greater, while the other is James the Less. This James was one of the first three disciples of Christ, one of those who saw the transfiguration and the agony in Gethsemane, and so was prepared for martyrdom. He was one of the sons of Zebedee whom Christ called “sons of thunder,” and perhaps his powerful preaching had stirred Herod or those around him, as John the Baptist had stirred the other Herod. That may have brought him into danger.

He was also one of those sons of Zebedee whom Christ told that they would drink from his cup and be baptized with his baptism (Matthew 20:23). Now those words were fulfilled in him. But they led to his sharing Christ’s glory, for if we suffer with him, we shall also reign with him. He was one of the Twelve sent to make disciples of all nations. To strike him down now, before he had left Jerusalem, was like Cain killing Abel when the world still needed to be filled with people. Killing an apostle was like killing many people at once.

Why did God allow it? The blood of his saints is precious in his sight, especially the blood of apostles, so we may be sure it was shed only for a wise purpose. Perhaps God meant to stir the other apostles to scatter among the nations and not remain settled at Jerusalem any longer. Or perhaps he was showing that, though the apostles were appointed to plant the gospel in the world, God could continue his work even if they were removed. The apostle died as a martyr to warn the rest of them what they must expect, so they could prepare for it.

The tradition in the Roman Church that James had already been in Spain and planted the gospel there is without foundation. There is no sure proof or reliable support for it.

His death was by the sword, meaning his head was cut off with a sword. The Romans considered this a more disgraceful form of beheading than death by an axe. Beheading was not commonly used among the Jews, but when rulers gave quick private orders for execution, this was the most direct way to carry them out. It is likely that Herod killed James privately in prison, just as the other Herod killed John the Baptist.

It is striking that we do not have a fuller account of the martyrdom of this great apostle, as we do of Stephen. Even so, this brief notice is enough to show that the first gospel preachers were fully convinced of the truth they preached, since they sealed it with their blood. That should encourage us to resist even to the point of blood if we are ever called to do so. The Old Testament martyrs were killed with the sword (Hebrews 11:37). Christ did not come to bring peace in every worldly sense, but a sword (Matthew 10:34). So we must arm ourselves with the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and then we need not fear what men’s swords can do.

Third, Herod imprisoned Peter, the apostle of whom he had heard the most, because Peter was the most prominent among them. Herod would have taken pride in cutting him off too. After he had beheaded James, he went on to seize Peter as well. Blood to a bloodthirsty man only makes him more bloodthirsty. The path of persecution, like the path of other sins, slopes downward. Once people are on it, they do not easily stop themselves, but keep going. One evil deed is covered by another, so that there is no room left to turn back. When people take one bold step in sin, they give Satan room to urge them into another, and they provoke God to leave them to themselves, so they go from bad to worse. That is why we must watch carefully at the very start of sin.

He did this because he saw that it pleased the Jews. The Jews made themselves guilty of James’s blood by showing their approval after the fact, even if they had not first pushed Herod to do it. There are those who are guilty after the fact, and they will be counted among the persecutors. That includes all who take pleasure in other people’s persecution, who are glad to see good men badly treated, and who say, “Aha, that is what we wanted,” or at least secretly approve of it.

Cruel persecutors are encouraged when people praise them for what everyone should condemn. Such approval strengthens their hands, hardens their hearts, and silences their own consciences. It also becomes a powerful temptation for them to do more of the same, as it did for Herod when he saw that what he planned pleased the Jews. Even if he had no real reason to fear their anger if he refused, as Pilate condemned Christ, he still hoped to win their favor by doing it and build influence with them. Those who make it their goal to please people leave themselves easy prey for Satan.

Luke also notes the time when Herod seized Peter: it was during the days of Unleavened Bread. This was the Passover season, when the people were remembering their outward, temporary deliverance from Egypt, and should have been moved to accept their greater, spiritual deliverance in Christ. Instead, while claiming zeal for the law, they were fiercely fighting against it. In the days of Unleavened Bread, they were full of the old leaven of malice and wickedness.

At Passover, when Jews came to Jerusalem from all places to keep the feast, they stirred each other up against Christians and the Christian faith. They were then more violent than at other times. When Herod seized Peter, he first examined him, then put him in prison, in the inner prison, the most secure part. Some think it was the same prison where he and the other apostles had once been held and then rescued by an angel (Acts 5:18). He assigned four squads of soldiers, sixteen men in all, to guard Peter, four at a time, so that he could not escape or be rescued by his friends. In their minds, they had him securely trapped.

Herod planned to bring Peter out before the people after Passover. He wanted to make a public show of him. He had likely put James to death privately, and the people had complained, not because they cared about justice, but because they wanted to see the execution. So now that he knew what they wanted, he meant to give them Peter in chains and Peter for execution, so they could enjoy the sight. He was eager to please the crowd, and his willingness to do this shows how far he would go for their approval.

The phrase means, literally, after the Passover, and that is how it should be read. There is no reason to turn it into a gospel feast replacing the Passover, since the New Testament gives no such feast. Herod would not sentence Peter until the feast was over, some think, because he feared Peter’s influence with the people and did not want them to ask for his release, as was sometimes done during the feast. Or, after the feast crowds had gone and the city was less full, he planned to stage Peter’s trial and execution publicly. So the scheme was set, and both Herod and the people were eager for the feast to end so they could enjoy this cruel entertainment.