Bible Study series: Acts 12:6-19. He went to Mary’s house and knocked, and the servant girl Rhoda answered the door. She told those in the house praying for Peter that he was outside, but they did not believe her.
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At the link to the original post, next, I write more commentary and dig a little deeper into the Greek. I also offer a section titled Observations for Discipleship at the end. Check it out!
Let’s begin.
Scripture: Acts 12:6-19
6 When Herod was about bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, as guards kept the jail door guarding the jail. 7 Then look! An angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell. He hit Peter’s side and woke him up and said, “Get up, right now!” And his chains fell off his hands. 8 And the angel said to him, “Tie your belt around your tunic and get your sandals on!” He did so. “Wrap your cloak around and follow me!” 9 And he left and followed. He did not realize that what was really happening was by an angel, but he was thinking that he saw a vision.
10 They passed through the first and second guard. They came upon the iron gate facing the city, which opened by itself for them. They went out and headed down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. 11 And Peter came to himself and said, “Now I really know that the Lord sent forth his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and all the expectation of the Jewish people.” 12 He took stock of the situation and went to the house of Mary, the mother of John, also named Mark, where there were many gathered together praying.
13 While he knocked on the door of the gate, a servant girl named Rhoda went to answer. 14 But when she recognized Peter’s voice, from her joy she did not open the gate but ran inside and announced that Peter stood at the gate. 15 But they told her, “You’re crazy!” But she kept insisting even more that it was so. They kept telling her, “It’s his angel! 16 But Peter kept knocking. When they opened up and saw him, they were stunned. 17 Motioning to them with his hand to be quiet, he related to them how the Lord led him out of the jail. He told them, “Report this to James and the brothers.” And he left and went to another place.
18 At daybreak, there was no small disturbance among the soldiers. What became of Peter? 19 Herod searched for him and did not find him. He examined the guards and ordered them to be executed. Then he went down from Judea and remained in Caesarea for a while. (Acts 12:6-19)
Comments:
6:
Once again, Luke describes Peter’s imprisonment. It is remarkable that Peter was sleeping—so soundly, in fact, that he was groggy all the way through the escape. Was Peter confident that God would recue him, even though God allowed James to die by the sword? This is a remarkable amount of faith. Whether he died or escaped, he enjoyed a confident sleep; he was not restless. As to the grubby prison, we can have no doubt that James and the others were in this awful jail and were kept in similar confinement.
“guards guarded”: that’s a literal translation. To spruce it up a little we could say, “guards watched.”
That very night, before the public trial—Luke wants narrow escapes in his true narrative.
7:
“look!”: that’s an updated translation of the Greek (and Hebrew) term “Behold!”
Angels can do remarkable things. They can appear anywhere, shine a light in the cell, and the guards can be put fast asleep.
An angel, both in Hebrew and Greek, is really a messenger. Angels are created beings, while Jesus was the one who created all things, including angels (John 1:1-4). Renewalists believe that angels appear to people in their dreams or in person. It is God’s ongoing ministry through them to us.
Here is a multi-part study of angels in the area of systematic theology, but first, here is a summary list of the basics:
Angels:
(a) Are messengers (in Hebrew mal’ak and in Greek angelos);
(b) Are created spirit beings;
(c) Have a beginning at their creation (not eternal);
(d) Have a beginning, but they are immortal (deathless).
(e) Have moral judgment;
(f) Have a certain measure of free will;
(g) Have high intelligence;
(h) Do not have physical bodies;
(i) But can manifest with immortal bodies before humans;
(j) They can show the emotion of joy.
Angels: Their Duties and Missions
Angels: Their Names and Ranks and Heavenly Existence
Angels: Their Origins, Abilities, and Nature
“a light shone”: this is part of the glory of God they bring with them from heaven. But not all of the glory, or we would be blinded as Saul was when a fuller and brighter light shone (Acts 9:4-9).
1. The Glory of God in the Old Testament
2. What Is the Glory of God in the New Testament?
3. What Does the Glory of God Mean to Us?
Do I Really Know God? He Is Glorious
“He hit Peter’s side”: No doubt he was sleeping on his side, so of course he would hit him on the “non-floor” side or the side facing upward. But the hit did not injure him, but woke him up—or he was still sleepy. I smile when I read of the angel doing that to Peter. Every time Peter is mentioned throughout the four Gospels and Acts, I always think of him as tall and husky. A big man. But of course I haver no proof, other than a few hints here and there.
“Get up, right now!” Or “quickly!” Peter obeyed this time without arguing.
His chains fell off his hands. Angels can do that. Never fear if you are in prison, whether a physical prison building or a prison inside your mind. God can set you free, and the chains can fall right off, whether those chains are around your mind or your hands.
8-9
Prepare yourself by putting on your clothes and sandals. Wrap yourself. It was chilly outside at that time of night. Sandals helped him run down the street at night. It is good to know that sometimes God’s commands are practical.
“angel”: see v. 7 for more comments.
Is this really an angel, or is it another vision? Peter was still groggy. The imperfect tense “was thinking” communicates that it took a while for him to get out of his grogginess.
“vision”: It is mostly translated as “vision,” or it could be a supernatural sight (Matt. 17:19; Acts 10:3, 17, 19; 18:9). You’ll know it when you see it, with no room for misinterpretation. And Renewalists believe that visions still happen today. They get them all the time. It’s biblical. But our visions must be submitted to the written Word because our vision may not be right, but self-serving. In contrast, Scripture has stood the test of time. Your dream or vision has not.
Dreams and Visions: How to Interpret Them
10:
The angel made Peter invisible. I have heard of this in the Islamic world. A young woman was stripped and beaten in a would-be honor killing by her father and brother because she had converted to Christ. But she escaped and was covered with the presence of the Lord, so no one saw her nakedness as she ran out in public for safety.
“which opened by itself for them”: it is where we get our word automatic. Angels are remarkable beings. They are God’s messengers and are powerful. There are many and numerous stories about angels leading people to safety, even today. One missionary in Africa was left alone in a fragile house. A band of armed men showed up at night and were going to rob, rape, beat, and kill her and her family, while her husband was away. But try as they might, the satanic drug addicts could not break down the flimsy door. They struggled for a long time—hours?—to break it down. Clearly an angel or a squad of them were protecting the defenseless family. The bandits eventually gave up and left.
Please see the post:
11:
Peter came to himself and proclaimed his rescue. God will deliver you too. Please read Psalm 91. It is all about God’s protection over you. Herod did not have the last word.
“Expectation”: it can be said that the Jews of Jerusalem were mentally “leaning in” or “leaning towards” Peter’s conviction or guilty verdict.
It is a pity that the people turned against Peter, but that’s the price he had to pay for an open mind towards Gentiles’ receiving salvation and the gift of the Holy Spirit. But he will return to Jerusalem (Acts 15:6-11).
12:
“took stock”: Peter looked around and became aware of the preceding events and where he was in the quiet streets of Jerusalem. That’s is, he finally came to himself and looked around and realized that he was out of the jail cell and an angel did this for him. It was real.
Notice that the verse does not say that the house belonged to Mary’s son John Mark. She owned and ran it. Owning a large house in Jerusalem indicates that Mary was rich. It turns out that John Mark and Barnabas were cousins (Col. 4:10), and Barnabas also owned land on the island of Cyprus, so he too was a landowner, probably wealthy. He sold a field (not his whole estate) and gave away the proceeds (Acts 4:36-37). So the Mary-Barnabas-John Mark family were wealthy landowners. Church history says that John Mark listened to Peter’s preaching and put together the second Gospel (the Gospel of Mark). Now it is clear why John Mark knew enough Greek to write his Gospel. He was wealthy enough to get a full and rounded education. He might have had a private tutor or a tutor who taught others boys with him. An example is Saul. Growing up in Tarsus, he knew Greek fluently. He could have been tutored with other rich Jewish boys in Greek. In any case, Mark must have written down Peter’s stories about Jesus when Peter preached them—or else he remembered them clearly later one. History also says that Mark and Peter worked together in Italy and more specifically in Rome to secure the gospel stories.
“praying”: see v. 5 for a closer look.
Many were gathered there, in Mary’s house. She was the hostess for a local church in Jerusalem. Was she an elder or pastor of sorts? Probably not officially, but it is easy to picture her caring for the needs of people in a leadership capacity. Pastors shepherd people, and elders lead by godly experience that comes with God dealing with them over a long time. Mary was probably carrying out both the role of a shepherd and elder, on some level and to some degree.
See v. 1 for a more formal definition of a church.
13-17:
I love this section of Scripture! It is humorous and so human. I get the impression that Luke interviewed Rhoda or someone else in the house who retold this true story. (We will learn in Acts 21:17 that “we,” that is Paul, Luke and others, arrived in Jerusalem. That’s when Luke must have surely gathered much information for double writings, Luke-Acts.)
“Rhoda”: Her name means “rose” or “little rosebud.” Let’s not overlook the fact that she was probably a slave girl, but she worked in the household, and slavery back then was not anything like slavery in the New World. Rhoda was like a servant, which is why I translated it with this term.
Slavery and Freedom in the Bible
2. Torah and Slavery: Israelite Indentured Servants
Rhoda rushes away because of her joy and excitement. Luke records another incident when joy and excitement clouded clear judgment of the disciples: “And saying this, he [Jesus] showed them his hands and feet. 41 While they were still not believing from joy and were astonished, he said to them, ‘Do you have food in this place here?’” (Luke 24:40-41)
Jesus asking for something to eat brought them back down to earth.
Wonderful. The fact that they were not expecting Peter may indicate that their prayers were too small. They had just experienced the death of James, so would Peter be rescued? How could that be? Still, the brief scene is charming and humorous.
In v. 15, “you’re crazy!” the Greek verb means to be mad (crazy) or out of one’s mind.
“It is his angel”: It is humorously odd that the Messianic believers could more easily believe in an angelic visitation than Peter’s deliverance. Maybe the shock of James’s death still hung heavy over them and clouded or dragged down their faith and expectations of God’s deliverance.
Polhill on the angel comment: “This response reflects the Jewish belief that each person has a guardian angel as his or her spiritual counterpart. It was believed that one’s angel often appeared immediately after the person’s death, and that idea may lurk behind the response to Rhoda. ‘You’ve seen his ghost,’ we would say” (comment on vv. 15-16). In other words, don’t build an elaborate theology about angels on their confusion and doubts.
“stunned”: the Greek verb can be translated literally as “they were standing beside themselves” Or “they were beside themselves.” Most translations go with “stunned” or “astonished” or “amazed.”
Reporting this to James and the brothers probably means the elders. James was a pillar of the church (Gal. 1:19; see Mark 6:3 and 1 Cor. 15:7). He played a key role in the Jerusalem Council, being openminded towards the Gentiles and not placing too heavy a burden on them (Acts 15:13-21). Longenecker reminds us what church father Hegesippus (a second-century Christian who lived in Jerusalem, then renamed Aelia) said about James, the Lord’s brother: he was nicknamed “camel knees” because he spent so much time in prayer on his knees, so they got calloused (comment on v. 17).
“another place”: scholars do not know where it was. Did he go back up to Galilee, not to give up, but to do a tactical retreat? Somewhere in Judea? Back to the coast, like Caesarea? Eastward across the Jordan River? Antioch? Rome? (The least likely—too far). Corinth? Bock suggests an iterant ministry tour (comments on vv. 16-17). Wherever he went, he eventually returned to Jerusalem (Acts 15:6-11).
18-19:
“to be executed”: that clause is not in Greek, but it is implied. It could be that they were simply led off to prison and not executed. They were in Jerusalem and may have been Jewish, so maybe some powerful Jewish leaders protected them. However, it is most likely that they were probably Romans. Guards who allowed a prisoner to escape were liable to the same punishment as their escaped prisoner was. Whatever happened to them, no wonder there was “no small disturbance” because of Peter’s escape. Keener suggests that out of the sixteen guards total, only the four who were watching when Peter’s escape would be executed (p. 322).
This phrasing (“no small”) is known as a litotes (pronounced lih-toh-tees), or an understatement that expresses the affirmative by a negative! Luke likes litotes: here, and in Acts 14:17, 28; 15:2; 17:4, 12, 27; 19:11, 23; 20:12; 21:39; 26:19; 27:20; 28:2.
GrowApp for Acts 12:6-19
1. Heb. 11:34 says that some escaped the sword, while v. 37 says others were killed by the sword. James was executed; Peter escaped miraculously. How do you respond to disappointment when a mixed report of good and bad news hits home?
1. How mature are you when faced with these puzzling, unanswerable situations? Would you walk away from your life with God or remain trustful of him?
RELATED
The Historical Reliability of the Book of Acts
Book of Acts and Paul’s Epistles: Match Made in Heaven?
SOURCES
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