Acts 12:2Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Why, they say, did he not kill Peter at once? The writer gave the reason: "Then," he says, "were the days of Unleavened Bread." Herod wished to perform his killing with greater solemnity.

The Jews themselves, following Gamaliel's counsel, now refrained from murders. Besides, they found no grounds for them, yet through others they accomplished the same thing.

Since there was another James, the brother of the Lord, he identifies this one by saying, "the brother of John."

Do you see that these three apostles were the chief ones, and especially Peter and James? This serves for the greater condemnation of the Jews.

For it was already clear that their preaching was not human. Truly what was said was being fulfilled: "They are counted as sheep for the slaughter" (Ps 44:22).

The Apostles themselves loved their Lord so greatly, and showed Him such devotion, that they wished to bring down fire from heaven upon those who did not believe in Him, in order to destroy them (Lk 9:54). They would have done this, had not the merciful Lord Jesus Christ Himself forbidden them.

To these two Apostles, James the son of Zebedee and John, and also to the Apostle Peter, the Lord revealed His divine attributes and His mysteries more than to the other Apostles. Thus it was on Tabor, when the Lord, wishing to show the glory of His Godhead, took Peter, James, and John with Him (Mt 17 and following).

After the voluntary Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of our Lord, and after the sending down of the Holy Spirit, the holy Apostle James passed through Spain and other lands, preaching the word of God.

Then he returned again to Jerusalem. There he was terrible to the Jews, like thunder (Mk 3:17), for he preached Jesus Christ courageously and boldly, saying that He is the true Messiah, the Savior of the world.

James overcame the Pharisees and scribes in disputation, exposing and reproving them for their hardness of heart and unbelief. Unable to withstand him, they hired against him, for money, a certain magician named Hermogenes, so that he might enter into debate with James and put him to shame.

But the magician, being proud, did not wish to speak with James himself. He sent his disciple, named Philitus, and said, "James will not be able to overcome in argument not only me, but even my disciple."

Philitus came and spoke with the holy Apostle James. Yet he could not resist the wisdom of the Holy Spirit with which the Apostle was filled. He was silent as a mute, and could not open his mouth at all to answer the Apostle.

Having recognized the truth, Philitus humbled himself. Returning to his teacher, the magician, he announced that James could not be overcome, since he confirmed his words even by miracles.

At the same time, Philitus advised his teacher to abandon his own reasoning and sorcery, and himself become a disciple of James.

But proud Hermogenes summoned demons by his spells. He commanded them to hold Philitus bound in one place, so that he could not move from the spot. Then he said, "I shall see how your James delivers you."

Philitus secretly sent word to the Apostle that he was bound by demons through the spells of Hermogenes. When the Apostle learned this, he sent him his towel. He told him to take the towel sent to him and say these words: "The Lord looses the prisoners; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind; the Lord raises up those who are bowed down" (Ps 145:7-8).

As soon as Philitus spoke these words, he was immediately freed from the invisible bonds. The demons, terrified by the Apostle's towel and by the power of the words spoken, left Philitus and fled from him.

Then Philitus mocked Hermogenes, came to Saint James, and, having been instructed by him in the holy faith, was baptized.

Hermogenes was filled with fierce rage and anger. He adjured the demons who served him to bring James and Philitus to him bound.

But when the demons approached the dwelling where Saint James lived with Philitus, an Angel of the Lord, by God's command, immediately seized those demons. Binding them with invisible bonds, he began to torment them.

The demons, tormented by the power of God, cried out in the hearing of all: "James, Apostle of Christ, have mercy on us. At the command of Hermogenes we came to bind you and Philitus, but now we ourselves are tightly bound and suffer cruelly."

Saint James said to the demons, "May the Angel of God who bound you release you from your bonds. Go and bring Hermogenes here to me, without doing him any harm."

Immediately the demons, released from their bonds, went to Hermogenes. Seizing him, they set him bound before the Apostle in the twinkling of an eye. They asked the Apostle to allow them to avenge their injuries upon Hermogenes.

The Apostle asked the demons why they had not bound Philitus, as Hermogenes had commanded them to do. The demons answered, "We cannot touch even a fly in your house."

Then the Apostle said to Philitus, "Our Lord commanded us to repay evil with good. Therefore free Hermogenes also, and deliver him from the demons."

After this the Apostle said to Hermogenes, who had been freed from the demonic bonds, "Our Lord does not wish to have servants by compulsion, but wishes to have willing servants. Therefore go wherever you wish."

But Hermogenes said, "As soon as I leave your house, the demons will immediately kill me. I know how great their rage is. I also know that it is impossible for me to escape them unless you protect me."

Then the Apostle placed in his hands the staff which he used on the road. Hermogenes went with that staff to his house, and on the way he suffered no harm from the demons.

Thus recognizing the power of Christ and seeing the weakness of the demons, Hermogenes gathered all his books of magic, brought them to Saint James, and fell at his feet. He cried out, "True servant of the true God, deliverer of men's souls from perdition, have mercy on me also, and receive your enemy as your disciple."

Instructed by James in the holy faith, Hermogenes received baptism. At the Apostle's command, he burned his books of magic and became a true servant of Christ. He even worked miracles in the name of Jesus Christ.

When the Jews saw all that had happened, they were filled with great rage. They persuaded King Herod to raise a persecution against the Church of Christ and to put James to death.

"Herod laid hands on some who belonged to the Church, to do them harm, and he killed James the brother of John with the sword. Seeing that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of Unleavened Bread. When he had seized him, he put him in prison" (Acts 12:1-4).

Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, recounts concerning Saint James that when Herod condemned him to death, a certain man named Josias, one of those who had denounced the Apostle to Herod, saw Saint James's courage and boldness.

He understood his innocence and holiness, and also the truth of the words he had spoken concerning the coming of the Messiah, Christ. He believed in Christ and became a confessor of Christ.

Immediately he too, together with the holy Apostle James, was condemned to death. As they went together to the place of execution, they met on the road a paralytic lying beside the way, and the holy Apostle healed him.

When they bowed their heads to be beheaded, Josias begged Saint James to forgive him the sin he had committed in ignorance. He asked forgiveness for having denounced him to the king.

The Apostle embraced and kissed him, and said to him, "Peace be with you." Then both bowed their heads to be beheaded, and together they died.

After their beheading, the disciples of the holy Apostle James took his body and, by divine will, carried it to Spain. There, even to this day, healings are granted to the sick from his tomb, and miracles are worked to the glory of Christ God.

To Him, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, all creation gives glory unto the ages. Amen.

The Pharisees were a religious sect that arose in Palestine two or three centuries before the Nativity of Christ. The sect set as its aim the exact observance of all the ritual prescriptions of the Mosaic Law, often to the point of petty scrupulousness.

A scribe was a teacher of the people, a rabbi.

Here Herod Agrippa I is meant, the son of Aristobulus and grandson of Herod the Great. He ruled Judea from the year 40 to the year 44.

Eusebius Pamphilus was a most renowned Church historian, who lived from 268 to 340. His Ecclesiastical History extends to the year 324.

The repose of the holy Apostle James took place about the year 42.

The relics of the holy Apostle James are now in Compostela, the chief city of the Spanish kingdom of Galicia. They were brought there at the beginning of the ninth century. The commemoration of the holy Apostle James the son of Zebedee.

There is an ancient tradition in the Church from the second century that the Lord Himself commanded the apostles not to leave Jerusalem before twelve years had passed. According to Eusebius, this tradition was found in Apollonius's work against the Montanists and in other books.

At this time the Church of Jerusalem, after eight years of peace since Stephen's death, was again disturbed, though not for long.

King Herod Agrippa, to whom Emperor Claudius had entrusted the government of Judea itself, wished to show his zeal for strict observance of the Law.

His conduct was not always consistent with this zeal. He adapted himself also to the Roman way of life in order to attract the favor of the Gentiles.

Yet, so as not to set the Jews against himself, he rose up against the preachers of the new doctrine. He ordered the Apostle James, elder son of Zebedee and brother of the Apostle John, to be put to death.

During the feast of Pascha in A.D. 44, he also threw Peter into prison, intending after the feast to deal with him just as he had dealt with James.

But Peter was freed from prison by a special act of God's help. At the Church's prayer for him, an angel loosed his bonds, led him out of the locked prison, and brought him into the city.

Thus the chief Apostle was saved from death, since his life was still needed for the Church.

Soon afterward Herod himself died, struck by an angel in punishment for his actions against the Church of Christ. His death restored peace to the Christians of Jerusalem.

Paul and Barnabas came to Jerusalem during these disturbances. Therefore, they were probably there only a very short time, were unable to do anything significant, and soon returned to Antioch.

The words καί έκείνον τόν καιρόν in Acts 12:1, however, do not define the time precisely.

Until then, those who warred against her were representatives of religious and ecclesiastical interests in Judaism: the Sanhedrin, with its chief priests at its head.

Now the Jewish ecclesiastical government enters into alliance against Christ and His Church with the civil government. In it, it finds support for its oppression of Christ's followers.

Herod did not stretch out his hands against some who belonged to the Church from zeal for the Jewish law, but to do them harm. That is, he imprisoned them, subjected them to bodily torments, and killed them.

For example, he killed with the sword, that is, beheaded, one of the pillars of the Church, James the son of Zebedee.

In this case he wished to do what pleased the Jews in Jerusalem, knowing that they nourished irreconcilable hatred toward Christians.

Seeing that this pleased the Jews, after killing James he seized the Apostle Peter also, intending to kill him. Peter was an even stronger preacher of the faith of Christ and an even more influential pastor of the Church.

But since these were the days of Unleavened Bread, during which one could not subject anyone to trial and capital punishment, Herod imprisoned the Apostle Peter until their end.

Among the Jews, the feast of Pascha was called the feast of Unleavened Bread (see Lk 2:1). This is probably why Herod was then in Jerusalem and not in Caesarea, which seems to have been his residence (verse 19).

He commanded four squads of soldiers to guard Peter. Because the Romans divided the night into four watches, four shifts of soldiers were assigned to guard Peter in prison, each shift consisting of four men.

After Pascha, Herod intended to bring him to a public trial.

"Now it is no longer the Jews or the Sanhedrin, but the king who stretches out his hands to do harm. This is the highest authority and a heavier warfare, all the more because it was done to please the Jews" (Chrysostom).

Most of all by bribes, he obtained from Emperor Claudius the rule of the other three parts of Palestine. Out of regard for him, even the procurator was removed.

Therefore this Herod, though he lived chiefly in Caesarea, the regional city of Roman rule, often appeared in the former capital of the Jewish kingdom as king of the whole Jewish land.

He did this especially at feasts, as though to maintain order when many people gathered.

The author of Acts does not say by what or in what manner the anger of the frivolous young king was aroused. And is it necessary to seek reasons for the cruelty and murders of one raised in Roman ways under Emperor Caligula?

In the hands of the powerful, cruelty, mockery of men, and even killing them were considered amusements. After wickedly amusing themselves with sufferers, they went to eat food prepared from fish fed on the corpses of earlier victims of cruel sport.

For this reason Saint John Chrysostom holds that Herod's mockery of some Christians, and even the killing of the Apostle James, brother of John the Theologian, was "without cause" and done "without distinction."

James was one of the Twelve chosen by Jesus Christ Himself.

"If anyone asks," says Chrysostom, "why God permitted this, we shall say: for their own sake. First, to convince them that believers conquer even when they are killed, as with Stephen.

Second, to allow the persecutors to satisfy their rage and then restrain themselves from frenzy. Third, to show that this happened by His permission."

There is a tradition that together with James his accuser was also martyred, having been converted to Christ on the spot (see the Lives of the Saints, April 30).

"The author of Acts does not explain in detail the motives that led to the martyrdom of the Apostle James. Yet his brief remark is very characteristic.

Herod killed James with the sword, and then seized the Apostle Peter, wishing thereby to please the Jews. This reveals the essence of Herod's policy toward Christians.

It precisely and fully indicates the cause of the martyrdom of the Apostle James and the arrest of the Apostle Peter.

The whole policy of Herod Agrippa was founded on his complete respect for the Law and for Pharisaism. It may be called 'Pharisaic-national' in the strict sense.

This same policy explains his hostility toward Christians. Thus, in these few words of Saint Luke, which give the motive for Herod's killing of Saint James and imprisoning of Peter, much is in fact said.

This is the distinctive feature of the sacred writer, and at the same time his great artistry."