And when he had apprehended him, he cast him into prison, delivering him to four files of soldiers, to be kept, intending, after the pasch, to bring him forth to the people.
ον και πιασας εθετο εις φυλακην παραδους τεσσαρσιν τετραδιοις στρατιωτων φυλασσειν αυτον βουλομενος μετα το πασχα αναγαγειν αυτον τω λαω
7 Church Fathers comment on this verse
This came from anger and fear. He feared that Peter, terrified by the killing of James, might hide himself. In order to have him more surely in his hands, he put him in prison.
The more careful the guard was, the more wondrous the event. This served Peter, making him still more glorious and showing his courage.
“And when he had seized him, he put him in prison.” Again the excessive scrupulousness of the Jews is revealed. They did not object to killing him, but they objected to doing it at such a time.
“He delivered him to four squads of soldiers to guard him.” This came both from anger and from fear.
In the year 44 a new persecution arose in Jerusalem against the Church, this time from the ruler of Judea, Herod Agrippa. Wishing to please the people, he had already put to death one of the first apostles, James the son of Zebedee, brother of John. He wished also to put Peter to death, and had already imprisoned him. But on the very night after which death awaited him, God freed him from prison through His angel. Soon afterward He also struck the persecutor. Perhaps from this very time we must date the activity outside Palestine, among Jews and Gentiles, of the apostles themselves. They were twelve, or more precisely, after the death of James, eleven. Their number was soon supplemented by their most zealous fellow-laborer, Paul.
In the Church there is an ancient tradition 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 the emperor Claudius entrusted the rule of Judea itself, wished to show his zeal for the strict observance of the Law. His conduct was not always consistent with this zeal. He also adapted himself to the Roman way of life in order to attract the favor of the Gentiles. Yet, so as not to arm the Jews against himself, he rose up against the preachers of the new teaching. He ordered the Apostle James, the elder son of Zebedee and brother of the Apostle John, to be put to death. During the feast of Pascha in the year 44, he also cast Peter into prison. His purpose was to deal with him after the feast as he had dealt with James. But Peter, by a special act of God’s help, was freed from prison. In answer to the Church’s prayer for him, an angel loosed his chains, led him out of the locked prison, and brought him into the city. Thus he saved from death the chief apostle, whose life was still needed for the Church. Soon afterward Herod himself died, struck by an angel as punishment for his acts 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 probably stayed there only a very short time, could do nothing of great importance, and soon returned to Antioch. The words καί έκείνον τόν καιρόν in Acts 12:1, however, do not define the time exactly.
While Barnabas and Saul, sent by the Church of Antioch with aid for the poor brethren in Judea (Acts 11:30), were there fulfilling the commission entrusted to them, the Church’s peace was disturbed. She had enjoyed this peace after the persecution that began with the killing of Stephen. Now persecution was raised against the believers in Jerusalem by Herod Agrippa I. Herod Agrippa I was the son of Aristobulus, grandson of Herod the Great (Mt 2:1), and nephew of Herod Antipas of Galilee (Mt 14:3 ff.). During the last three years of his life, like his grandfather, he ruled all Palestine with the title of king. Thus, as the Church of Christ increased in the number of her members and grew inwardly, opposition to her from the unbelieving Jewish world also intensified.
Until now the representatives of religious and ecclesiastical interests in Judaism had fought against her. This was the Sanhedrin, headed by its high priests. Now the Jewish ecclesiastical government entered into alliance against Christ and His Church with the civil government. In it, it found support for its oppression of the followers of Christ. Herod did not lay hands on certain members of the Church out of zeal for the Jewish Law, in order to harm them. This means that he bound them, subjected them to bodily torments, and killed them. Thus, 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 cherished implacable hatred for Christians. And so, seeing that this pleased the Jews, after murdering James he seized an even stronger preacher of the faith of Christ. He seized an even more influential shepherd of the Church, the Apostle Peter, intending to kill him. But since those were the days of Unleavened Bread, during which no one could be put on trial or condemned to death, Herod imprisoned the Apostle Peter until they ended. Among the Jews the feast of Pascha was called the feast of Unleavened Bread (see Lk 2:1). For this reason, probably, Herod was then in Jerusalem and not in Caesarea, which seems to have been his residence (v. 19). He ordered four squads of soldiers to guard Peter. Because the Romans divided the night into four watches, four shifts of soldiers were appointed to guard Peter in prison. Each shift consisted of four men. After Pascha, Herod intended to hold a public trial over him.
The general approval with which the Jews greeted this bloody deed became still more evident because of the great masses of people gathered in Jerusalem for Pascha. This stirred the king, who delighted in the voice of popular approval, to strike the Christians even more cruelly. He did this by arresting the most renowned of the apostles. For this purpose the Apostle Peter was seized. Yet before Pascha there was no time to finish his trial. The Jews themselves did not wish to put him to death during the feast. Therefore he was kept in prison until the seven sacred days had passed. Then he was to be put to death with the greatest possible solemnity, before an immense gathering of the people.
“To four squads of soldiers”: that is, to four shifts, with four men in each. Thus for each of the four night watches (see the note on Mt 14:25) there were four soldier-guards. The strengthened guard over Peter is explained by the importance of the supposed criminal. But “the more careful the guard was, the more wondrous was the manifestation of God’s power” (Theophylact). “Intending after Pascha” (cf. the note on Mt 26:7 and parallels): during the feast, and especially so great a feast as Pascha, it was not permitted to condemn anyone to execution. Therefore Herod Agrippa wished to condemn Peter after the feast ended. “To bring him out to the people”: that is, solemnly to try him before the people, condemn him, and pronounce the death sentence (cf. Chrysostom). The king, a lover of spectacles because he had been raised in Rome, wished to make the condemnation and execution of the chief of Christ’s apostles into a public spectacle.
The seizure of Peter and his imprisonment to please the Jews shows that king Herod carried out the killing of James and the tormenting of other Christians on religious grounds. This is why these very acts of torment against Christians pleased the Jews. If, for example, the Apostle James had been executed for some crime, there could have been nothing in this pleasing to the Jews. But if one tormented men for the faith to please the Jews, then it was necessary to seize the man most desired by them for this purpose. He had to be the most prominent of all the spreaders of Christianity at that time. Such a man, more than any other, was known to all as Peter. He had spoken for all on the day of Pentecost after the healing of the lame man.
He was so revered that the faithful laid the sick near his path, so that at least his grace-filled shadow might touch them. This greatest of Christians king Herod ordered to be seized and imprisoned, so as to please them completely. And since Herod himself, it seems, was not without belief in the apostle’s power, as his uncle was in the powers of the Forerunner of the Lord (cf. Mt 14:9), he ordered sixteen men to guard Peter. They were to alternate in four shifts. Wishing to please the whole Jewish people, Herod intended after Pascha to give him over to humiliation before the entire multitude then gathering in Jerusalem. Pascha was near, for the days of Unleavened Bread had already begun. On their second day the paschal lamb was eaten (see Mt 26:2; Mk 14:1). At that time, evidently, it was inconvenient even for Herod to put Peter to death. Blessed Theophylact remarks, “Again the Jews’ scrupulosity is revealed. They were not hindered from killing, but from doing it at such a time.” Concerning the numerous guard he remarks, “This came both from anger and from fear.”
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 20 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS