(prepositionally) down (in place or time) · preposition
that
ἐκεῖνονekeinon
G1565
that one (or (neuter) thing) · demonstrative pronoun — accusative singular masculine
time
καιρὸνkairon
G2540
an occasion · noun — accusative singular masculine
Herod
ἩρῴδηςHērōdēs
G2264
heroic · noun — nominative singular masculine, a proper name
king
βασιλεὺςbasileus
G935
a sovereign (abstractly · noun — nominative singular masculine
forth
ἐπέβαλενepebalen
G1911
to throw upon (literal or figurative · verb — second aorist active indicative, 3rd person singular
hands
χεῖραςcheiras
G5495
the hand (literally or figuratively (power) · noun — accusative plural feminine
vex
κακῶσαίkakōsai
G2559
to injure · verb — aorist active infinitive
certain
τιναςtinas
G5100
some or any person or object · indefinite pronoun — accusative plural masculine
of
ἀπὸapo
G575
"off · preposition
church
ἐκκλησίας.ekklēsias
G1577
a calling out · noun — genitive singular feminine
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Matthew 24:9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
John 15:20 Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you;…
Matthew 10:17-18 But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;
Luke 22:53 When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.
John 16:2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.
Acts 4:30 By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.
Acts 9:31 Then had the churches rest throughout all Judæa and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the c…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Acts 12:1-4
Ever since the conversion of Paul, we have heard no more of the agency of the priests in persecuting the saints at Jerusalem; perhaps that wonderful change wrought upon him, and the disappointment it gave to their design upon the Christians at Damascus, had somewhat mollified them, and brought them under the check of Gamaliel's advice - to let those men alone, and see what would be the issue; but here the storm arises from another point. The civil power, not now, as usual (for aught that appears) stirred up by the ecclesiastics, acts by itself in the persecution. But Herod, though originally of an Edomite family, yet seems to have been a proselyte to the Jewish religion; for Josephus says he…
Herod the king - This was Herod Agrippa, the son of Aristobulus, and grandson of Herod the Great; he was nephew to Herod Antipas, who beheaded John they Baptist, and brother to Herodias. He was made king by the Emperor Caligula, and was put in possession of all the territories formerly held by his uncle Philip and by Lysanias; viz. Iturea, Trachonitis, Abilene, with Gaulonitis, Batanaea, and Penias. To these the Emperor Claudius afterwards added Judea and Samaria; which were nearly all the dominions possessed by his grandfather, Herod the Great. See Luk 3:1; see also an account of the Herod family, in the note on Mat 2:1 (note).
To vex certain of the Church - That is, to destroy its chief or…
Now about that time,.... That the famine was in Judea, and Saul and Barnabas were sent thither 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…
The Church Fathers
Like a wild beast, he attacked all indiscriminately and without consideration. This is what Christ said: "My cup indeed ye shall drink, and with the baptism wherewith I am baptized, shall ye be baptized." And he killed James the brother of John. For there was also another James, the brother of the Lord: therefore to distinguish him, he says, "The brother of John." Do you mark that the sum of affairs rested in these three, especially Peter and James?
That period he says was under Claudius Caesar. Gaius, emperor of the Romans, established Agrippa as king of Judea, Herod being banished to Lugdunum in Gaul on account of the disgracefulness of his life, together with his wife Herodias. This is the one who reigned at the time of the Lord's passion, as Josephus writes in the eighteenth book of the Antiquities of History, and Eusebius in the second book of Ecclesiastical History. Therefore there is a discrepancy of the name in this passage, that Herod is put for Agrippa, and it happened by the writer's slip, as is likely, a scribal error, or was expressed by way of he having two names, since both the time and the actions point to Agrippa under the emperor Claudius, who became emperor after Gaius. [EUSEBIUS]
"At that time," of course meaning the time immediately following: for this is the custom of Scripture. And he well says that Herod "the king" (did this): this was not he of Christ's time. Lo, a different sort of trial - and mark what I said in the beginning, how things are blended, how rest and trouble alternate in the whole texture of the history - not now the Jews, nor the Sanhedrim, but the king. Greater the power, the warfare more severe, the more it was done to obtain favor with the Jews. And he slew James the brother of John with the sword: taking him at random and without selection. But, should any raise a question, why God permitted this, we shall say, that it was for the sake of these Jews themselves: thereby, first, convincing them, that even when slain the Apostles prevail, just as it was in the case of Stephen: secondly, giving them opportunity, after satiating their rage, to recover from their madness; thirdly, showing them that it was by His permission this was done.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Agrippa I. — The grandson of Herod the Great, and son of Aristobulus and Bernice. The Roman emperor Caligula made him governor first of the territories of Philip, then of the tetrarchy of Lysanias, with the title…
Bernice, Or Berenice — (bringing victory), the eldest daughter of Herod Agrippa I. (Acts 12:1) etc. She was first married to her uncle Herod, king of Chaleis, and after his death (A.D. 48) she lived under circumstances of…
Drusilla — Third and youngest daughter of Herod Agrippa I. (Acts 12:1-4, 20-23). Felix, the Roman procurator of Judea, induced her to leave her husband, Azizus, the king of Emesa, and become his wife. She was…
Herod — (hero-like). This family though of Idumean origin and thus alien by race, was Jewish in faith. I. HEROD THE GREAT was the second son of Antipater, an Idumean, who was appointed procurator of Judea by…
Herod Agrippa I. — Son of Aristobulus and Bernice, and grandson of Herod the Great. He was made tetrarch of the provinces formerly held by Lysanias II., and ultimately possessed the entire kingdom of his grandfather,…
James — (1.) The son of Zebedee and Salome; an elder brother of John the apostle. He was one of the twelve. He was by trade a fisherman, in partnership with Peter (Matt. 20:20; 27:56). With John and Peter he…
Prayer — Is converse with God; the intercourse of the soul with God, not in contemplation or meditation, but in direct address to him. Prayer may be oral or mental, occasional or constant, ejaculatory or…
Herod · 3. — 3.
Persecution · Spirit of — Exemplified: Herod — Spirit of — Exemplified: Herod
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Acts 12:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Acts 12:1-5
1. About that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to afflict certain of the Church. 2. And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. 3. And when he saw that this pleased the Jews, he proceeded to take Peter also. (Then were the days of sweet [unleavened] bread.) 4. When he had taken him also, he put him in prison, delivering him to four quaternions of soldiers to be kept; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people. 5. Therefore, Peter was kept in prison; but continual prayer was made for him of the Church of [to] God.
1. Here followeth new persecution raised by Herod. We see that the Church had some short truce, that it might, as it were, by a sho…
Jesus had clearly predicted persecution and hardship for his followers (Luke 11:49-51). For the first time since Jesus’ death, Roman authorities took direct violent action against the church. James, the brother of John, was one of the first called to be a disciple (Mark 1:16-20; Luke 5:1-11), and he was one of the first Christians to be martyred for his faith. • King Herod Agrippa attacked the church (cp. Acts 12:20-23), a move that he found to be politically helpful with the Jewish people. The letter of James, the brother of Jesus, was probably written after this persecution to the scattered Christians (see 8:1-4; James Book Introduction, “Date of Writing”).
