Church Growth at Antioch; Peter’s Escape
Acts 11:19–12:24
This section relates a major transition in Acts from its earlier focus on the witness of the apostles, and particularly Peter, to a focus on Paul and his companions. It also illustrates the rise of an important second home base, after Jerusalem, for Christian missionaries: the church at Antioch in Syria. It introduces the last of the roughly four phases in the spread of the Word from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). The first phase focuses on the Twelve (Acts 2:1–6:7), the second on †Hellenists (6:8–8:40), the third on Peter (9:32–11:18), and the last on the Pauline missions (13:1–28:31).
However, the sections are interwoven to overlap each other, so that the transition from Peter to Paul in Acts 12–13 has already been partially anticipated. Luke recounts Saul’s conversion and initial preaching (9:1–31), then Peter’s ministry in Judea and to Cornelius (9:32–11:18). After describing Barnabas and Saul, that is, Paul, at Antioch (11:19–30), he reports Herod’s persecution of the apostles James and Peter, Peter’s rescue from prison, and Herod’s death (12:1–24). Finally Luke completes the transition to Paul and his companions in 12:25–13:52.
The Church at Antioch (11:19–26)
19Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that arose because of Stephen went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the word to no one but Jews. 20There were some Cypriots and Cyrenians among them, however, who came to Antioch and began to speak to the Greeks as well, proclaiming the Lord Jesus. 21The hand of the Lord was with them and a great number who believed turned to the Lord. 22The news about them reached the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas [to go] to Antioch. 23When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart, 24for he was a good man, filled with the holy Spirit and faith. And a large number of people was added to the Lord. 25Then he went to Tarsus to look for Saul, 26and when he had found him he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the church and taught a large number of people, and it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians.
OT: Josh 23:8
NT: Matt 8:11; Acts 8:1; 1 Cor 15:58; Eph 2:11–13; Col 3:11
Catechism: the gospel first announced to Jews, 543; significance of the name Christian, 1289
Lectionary: Acts 11:21b–26; 13:1–3: St. Barnabas
[11:19]
Luke recalls the persecution on account of Stephen that had scattered the disciples from Jerusalem (Acts 8:1–4). These fugitives, most of whom seem to be †Hellenistic Jews, went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch of Syria, that is, well beyond the borders of Judea. Phoenicia, on the Mediterranean coast, included Tyre and Sidon in present-day Lebanon, not far north of Caesarea, the city in which Peter evangelized Cornelius (Acts 10–11). The island of Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea was the home of Barnabas (introduced in Acts 4:36). The majority of those scattered were preaching the word to no one but Jews.
[11:20–21]
Most of the current action takes place at Antioch. Luke reports that there Cypriots and Cyrenians . . . began to speak to the Greeks as well, proclaiming the Lord Jesus. Thus at Antioch was an outreach not only to Greek-speaking Jews but also to Gentile Greeks, a mixed pattern that would be later seen in the ministry of Paul and his companions on their missionary journeys throughout most of Acts 13–28.
Luke does not indicate whether this preaching to Gentiles at Antioch preceded or followed the conversion of Cornelius’s Gentile household and the arrival of news about it in Antioch (Luke promised to write his narrative in an “orderly” but not necessarily chronological sequence; Luke 1:3). However, because Acts 10 reported the Cornelius event, it has prepared readers for this new development. As noticed above, the preaching to Jews emphasized that Jesus was Israel’s Messiah, but the preaching to Gentiles proclaimed Jesus in religious language more understandable to them, as the Lord who will judge all people (see Acts 17:31).
Luke emphasizes the outstanding success of the preaching to Greeks at Antioch, first by using an Old Testament expression, the hand of the Lord was with them, to indicate that the Lord Jesus himself had guided and blessed this outreach; and second, by reporting a great number of Greek converts, as earlier he had mentioned large numbers of Jewish believers (2:41; 4:4; 6:7). There are two aspects to their conversion: the listeners believed and they turned to the Lord Jesus. To “believe” means to accept in faith the message of the gospel. The verb for “turned” here signifies repentance: turning away from sin and toward God. These are the two necessary human responses called for by the proclamation of the gospel. The same two are mentioned in Jesus’ preaching at the beginning of his public ministry: “Repent, and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).
[11:22–24]
Earlier Luke had reported that the mother church in Jerusalem confirmed and authenticated the conversion of Samaritans by sending the apostles Peter and John to Samaria (Acts 8:14). Here the apostles are no longer mentioned, but the Jerusalem church sent Barnabas to Antioch. The reaction of Barnabas, as representative of the Jerusalem church, to the situation in Antioch is described in very positive terms: he saw the grace of God. He recognizes this conversion of Greeks as resulting from God’s grace (charis) or free gift (see also Acts 5:31; 11:18). In reaction he rejoiced (chairō, a play on the similar sounding charis). True to his nickname “son of encouragement” (Acts 4:36), Barnabas encouraged them all to remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart.
Luke goes on to describe Barnabas as a good man, filled with the holy Spirit and faith. Earlier Stephen was described quite similarly as “a man filled with faith and the holy Spirit” (Acts 6:5). During Barnabas’s ministry at Antioch, a large number of people was added to the Lord in that church. The repeated mention of a large number converting to the Lord (vv. 21, 24, and 26) illustrates how the Church grows in stages. First, in verse 21 many Greeks were converted by those who had been scattered by the persecution after Stephen’s martyrdom. A second number were converted through the ministry of Barnabas (v. 24). Third, these new converts grew in faith as they were catechized by Barnabas and Paul together (v. 26). A similar growth in waves was seen in Acts 2:41 (three thousand souls) and 4:4 (five thousand men).
[11:25–26]
The last mention of Saul was his escape from persecution in Jerusalem and return home to Tarsus (Acts 9:30). Now Barnabas, recognizing Paul’s gifts for preaching and teaching, goes there to seek him and bring him to Antioch to help him minister to the growing church in that city. Together they met with the church and catechized a large number of people. Luke’s repeated references to large numbers (11:21, 24, and 26) accentuate the effectiveness and growth of the church’s ministry in Antioch, especially to the Greeks.
Verse 26 is the first mention of the new name given to believers in Jesus: here the disciples were first called Christians, that is, followers of the Christ, or Messiah. They were probably called this by outsiders to distinguish them from other Jews, perhaps because in Antioch there was a significant influx of Greeks as well as Jews into the church. This name first given by outsiders may have been intended as derogatory, but Christians soon recognized it as a perfectly apt description of who they are.
The Prophecy of Agabus (11:27–30)
27At that time some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, 28and one of them named Agabus stood up and predicted by the Spirit that there would be a severe famine all over the world, and it happened under Claudius. 29So the disciples determined that, according to ability, each should send relief to the brothers who lived in Judea. 30This they did, sending it to the presbyters in care of Barnabas and Saul.
OT: Gen 41:30–31; 2 Kings 8:1; Joel 3:1
NT: Luke 11:49; Acts 2:17; Rom 15:26; Gal 2:10
Catechism: gifts of the Holy Spirit, 1830–32; care for the poor, 2443–49
[11:27–28]
The continuing communication between mother and daughter churches is illustrated when some prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch. This is the first mention of prophets functioning as a distinct ministry group among the followers of Christ, although Jesus’ saying in Luke 11:49 seems to anticipate them: “The wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them prophets and apostles; some of them they will kill and persecute’” (see also Matt 7:22). Luke mentions Agabus as prominent among these Jerusalem prophets, as he will continue to be later (Acts 21:10–14). Agabus predicted by the Spirit that there would be a severe famine all over the world. The added statement, and it happened under Claudius, is Luke’s aside to readers, indicating that this prophecy was later fulfilled during the reign of Emperor Claudius (AD 41–54).
[11:29]
The response of the disciples was most generous. They determined that, according to ability, each should send relief to the brothers who lived in Judea. In the Antioch community, it was not only the wealthy who became benefactors of the disciples suffering from the famine in Jerusalem. They all gave “according to ability” to the mother church in Jerusalem and to those disciples living near that city (see Rom 15:26; Gal 2:10).
[11:30]
The Christians of Antioch sent their contributions to the Jerusalem †presbyters, a Church leadership group mentioned for the first time here, who play a regular role throughout the rest of Acts. The Greek term presbyteros literally means “elder,” and this term for Christian leaders gradually came to be understood as signifying a share in Christ’s priestly ministry (hence it is the origin of the English word “priest”). In Acts 14:23 Paul and Barnabas place local presbyters in charge of the communities they found, after the pattern of the mother church in Jerusalem, which is now led by apostles and presbyters.
The Antioch collection for famine relief in Jerusalem was put in care of Barnabas and Saul. This famine relief collection for a sister church sets a precedent for interchurch sharing that will play an important part in Paul’s own letters, especially to the Corinthians, Galatians, and Romans. In Acts the collection was from Antioch only and was sent to Jerusalem via Barnabas and Saul, before the pair embarked on their missionary journeys. The later famine collection that Paul mentions in his letters came from the churches that he founded, with no mention of Antioch, and was delivered by Paul himself to Jerusalem much later, after his Letter to the Romans (1 Cor 16:1–3; Rom 15:25–29; see Gal 2:10).
Herod’s Persecution of the Church (12:1–19)
1About that time King Herod laid hands upon some members of the church to harm them. 2He had James, the brother of John, killed by the sword, 3and when he saw that this was pleasing to the Jews he proceeded to arrest Peter also. (It was [the] feast of Unleavened Bread.) 4He had him taken into custody and put in prison under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each. He intended to bring him before the people after Passover. 5Peter thus was being kept in prison, but prayer by the church was fervently being made to God on his behalf.
6On the very night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter, secured by double chains, was sleeping between two soldiers, while outside the door guards kept watch on the prison. 7Suddenly the angel of the Lord stood by him and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and awakened him, saying, “Get up quickly.” The chains fell from his wrists. 8The angel said to him, “Put on your belt and your sandals.” He did so. Then he said to him, “Put on your cloak and follow me.” 9So he followed him out, not realizing that what was happening through the angel was real; he thought he was seeing a vision. 10They passed the first guard, then the second, and came to the iron gate leading out to the city, which opened for them by itself. They emerged and made their way down an alley, and suddenly the angel left him. 11Then Peter recovered his senses and said, “Now I know for certain that [the] Lord sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people had been expecting.” 12When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who is called Mark, where there were many people gathered in prayer. 13When he knocked on the gateway door, a maid named Rhoda came to answer it. 14She was so overjoyed when she recognized Peter’s voice that, instead of opening the gate, she ran in and announced that Peter was standing at the gate. 15They told her, “You are out of your mind,” but she insisted that it was so. But they kept saying, “It is his angel.” 16But Peter continued to knock, and when they opened it, they saw him and were astounded. 17He motioned to them with his hand to be quiet and explained [to them] how the Lord had led him out of the prison, and said, “Report this to James and the brothers.” Then he left and went to another place. 18At daybreak there was no small commotion among the soldiers over what had become of Peter. 19Herod, after instituting a search but not finding him, ordered the guards tried and executed. Then he left Judea to spend some time in Caesarea.
OT: Exod 12:11–12; Isa 42:6–7
NT: Luke 22:1–2; 24:4–11; Acts 4:3; 5:18–19; 1 Pet 5:13
Catechism: intercessory prayer, 2634–36; help of angels, 334–36
Lectionary: Acts 12:1–11: Feast of Saints Peter and Paul (June 29)
[12:1–3]
Acts 11 ended with Barnabas and Saul working in the church at Antioch; now Acts 12 somewhat abruptly shifts focus back to the persecution of the apostles in Jerusalem by King Herod. With a vague time reference, about that time, Luke simply says that Herod laid hands upon some members of the church to harm them. Herod’s first victim, whom he had killed by the sword, was one of the Twelve, James, the brother of John and son of Zebedee. In the Gospel, James was one of Jesus’ three closest disciples, with Peter and John, present with him at key moments: the raising of Jairus’s daughter, the transfiguration, and the agony in the garden. With John, James expressed his willingness to “drink the cup” of Jesus and to be baptized with his baptism, that is, his passion (Mark 10:38–39). It was thus especially fitting that James became the first of the Twelve to be martyred. Again without any apparent justification, when Herod saw that this was pleasing to the Jews he proceeded to arrest Peter also.
Luke inserts a brief aside to readers, explaining that this was during the feast of Unleavened Bread, which by the first century was regarded as a weeklong setting for the celebration of Passover, like our liturgical octaves. Peter was thus following in the footsteps of Jesus, who was also arrested during the Passover.
[12:4]
Herod took Peter into custody and had him put in prison, placing an enormous guard of soldiers over him, four squads of four soldiers each. Just as the Jewish leaders had been concerned about arresting Jesus openly during the feast days, Herod held Peter in prison until he could bring him before the people after Passover.
[12:5]
While Peter was a prisoner, prayer by the church was fervently being made to God on his behalf. Luke has set the stage for the miraculous events to follow, which illustrate the power of united and fervent intercession. On the opponent’s side, Luke has emphasized the extraordinary lengths to which Herod went to keep Peter securely under guard in prison until he could be tried. Humanly speaking, Peter’s situation was hopeless. On the Christian side, Luke stresses the church’s fervent prayer to God for Peter. God’s power is now poised to bring to naught all human efforts to destroy Peter and prevent the further spread of the gospel.
[12:6–9]
The miraculous nature of Peter’s rescue is heightened by the timing of the rescue—on the very night before Herod was to bring him to trial—by the double chains with which the prisoner was secured, by the fact that he was sleeping between two soldiers, and by the presence of the door guards who kept watch on the prison. Despite these apparently insurmountable obstacles, suddenly the angel of the Lord appeared by him, and a light shone in the cell. The angel awakened Peter by tapping him and ordered, “Get up quickly.” Immediately the chains fell from his wrists. The angel instructed Peter to get dressed and follow him, which Peter did. In this dramatic scene, Luke adds a touch of humor, which will continue through the account of Peter’s meeting with the church: even as he was being rescued, Peter did not realize that what was happening through the angel was real; he thought he was seeing a vision or dream.
Luke narrates the scene of Peter’s rescue with strong echoes of both God’s deliverance of his people from slavery in Egypt and Jesus’ death and resurrection. The community prays “fervently” (ektenōs) for Peter’s release (Acts 12:5), as Jesus had prayed “so fervently” (ektenesteron) as he was suffering in the garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:44). Peter is awakened, literally, “raised,” from sleep (a common biblical metaphor for death) and commanded to “get up,” literally, “arise,” by an angel appearing in light, which recalls the dazzling clothes of the angels at Jesus’ tomb (Luke 24:4). Peter’s liberation anticipates our own resurrection, our rescue from death on the last day.
Like the exodus from Egypt (Exod 12:12), Peter’s rescue occurs “on the very night,” and Peter, like the Israelites, is to move quickly and be clothed for departure (Exod 12:11). As God delivered his people from the wrath of Pharaoh, he now delivers a member of his new covenant people from government persecution. Stephen’s speech asserted that the purpose of the exodus was not only to free God’s people from bondage but also to enable them to worship God (Acts 7:7; see Exod 3:12). Here Peter is rescued from bondage to be able to rejoin the worshiping community (Acts 12:12).
From Isaiah, Luke draws many allusions to freedom from bondage in darkness. For instance, Paul’s mission to the Gentiles, “that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18), alludes to the mission of the Servant of the Lord, “to lead out . . . from their fetters those who are bound, and out of the prison house . . . those who sit in darkness” (Isa 42:7 LXX). Here Peter’s release from prison is an image of God’s rescue of all his people from the power of sin, Satan, and death.
[12:10–11]
Peter and the angel passed both the first guard and the second, arriving at the iron gate leading out to the city, which opened for them by itself. Once they were free and down an alley, the angel disappeared. Only at this point did Peter recover his senses and realize that the Lord sent his angel to deliver him from the Gentile and Jewish persecutors who had planned his execution. As the Lord God had liberated his people by his angel from the hand of Pharaoh (Num 20:16), so the Lord Jesus liberated Peter by his angel from the hand of Herod.
[12:12–14]
After narrating Peter’s miraculous escape, Luke focuses again on the community that was praying for him at the house of Mary, the mother of John who is called Mark. Mary must have been a well-to-do Christian who had a house large enough for the Jerusalem Christians to gather in. When Peter realized that God had rescued him from prison, he went there and knocked on the gateway door. The servant girl Rhoda came to answer it. To emphasize the community’s shock and joy at Peter’s rescue, Luke relates the humorous behavior of Rhoda, who recognized Peter’s voice but left him standing outside the locked gate, while she, overjoyed, ran in to announce to the praying Christians that Peter was outside.
[12:15]
Just as the church had earlier refused to believe the women who witnessed Jesus’ empty tomb, for “their story seemed like nonsense” (Luke 24:11), here the church in disbelief accused Rhoda, “You are out of your mind.” When she insisted that it was so, they countered, “It is his angel.” This idea may stem from a belief that sometimes a person’s guardian angel can stand in for the individual or act on that one’s behalf.
[12:16–17]
Meanwhile, during this debate about whether Peter could be at the door, Luke comically shows that Peter continued to knock, followed by the disciples’ astonishment at seeing him after they finally unlock the door. Peter signaled them with his hand to listen quietly while he explained how the Lord Jesus had saved him from prison. He instructed them, “Report this to James”—not James the son of Zebedee, who had been martyred (12:2), but James the relative of Jesus who became the second leader of the Jerusalem church—“and to the brothers.” The last group seems to refer to the whole Jerusalem community.
Then he left and went to another place, apparently leaving town and getting away from Herod. Neither the church at Mary’s house nor the readers of Acts needed to know where Peter went. What the church did not know, they could not be forced to tell Herod, whose ruthlessness Luke will illustrate vividly by his treatment of the guards from whom Peter escaped (Acts 12:19). Where Peter went was less significant than the fact that he left Jerusalem with James in charge of the church. Peter appears in Acts and other New Testament texts as spreading the gospel in other parts of the Roman Empire, and he was eventually martyred in Rome. By the time of the †Jerusalem Council (Acts 15), James had apparently become the leader of the Jerusalem church.
[12:18–19]
At daybreak the soldiers were alarmed over what had become of Peter, for whose captivity they were responsible. Their fears were fully justified, for Herod, after a fruitless search for Peter, tyrannically ordered the guards tried and executed. Then Herod returned to Caesarea, his home base, where he is at the center of the next events to be narrated (vv. 20–24).
Herod’s Death (12:20–24)
20He had long been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, who now came to him in a body. After winning over Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, they sued for peace because their country was supplied with food from the king’s territory. 21On an appointed day, Herod, attired in royal robes, [and] seated on the rostrum, addressed them publicly. 22The assembled crowd cried out, “This is the voice of a god, not of a man.” 23At once the angel of the Lord struck him down because he did not ascribe the honor to God, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. 24But the word of God continued to spread and grow.
OT: 2 Macc 9:4–12; Ezek 28:2–10; Dan 4:27–30
NT: Acts 12:1
[12:20–23]
This story about Herod’s anger with the people of Tyre and Sidon seems a digression from the story of Peter’s rescue. Its function in Acts is to bring closure to the story of Herod by relating his later death and thus taking him off the stage. However, this story also has significant biblical and theological meaning.
The petition for peace by the people of those cities, because they were dependent on food from the king’s territory, led to Herod’s blasphemy and then to his death. The apparently desperate crowd resort to flattery in their efforts to win over Herod: “This is the voice of a god, not of a man,” as the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus similarly reports. In response to these blasphemous accolades, Herod does not ascribe the honor to God (in contrast to what Paul and Barnabas will do in similar circumstances; 14:11–18). Because of this blasphemy, the angel of the Lord struck him down immediately, and he was eaten by worms and breathed his last. God cast down Herod from his arrogant acceptance of divine acclamation, as he had cast down the blasphemous king of Tyre from his pretensions to divine glory, when that king said “I am a god” (Ezek 28:2–10). The death of this impious tyrant Herod, who had ordered the execution of James, is also portrayed in a fashion similar to the death of the earlier sacrilegious despot and persecutor, Antiochus IV Epiphanes (2 Macc 9:5–28).
[12:24]
After the tyrant was disposed of, the word of God continued to spread and grow. Once again Luke brings closure and transition from one focus to another—here from Peter in Acts 12 to Paul’s ministries from Acts 13 onward—by repeating his thematic refrain about the spread of the word of God (Acts 6:7; 12:24; 19:20). The marvelous spread of the word of God is one of the main themes in Acts. The word has its own intrinsic dynamism and power to convince the hearts of those who hear it. In all circumstances and against all opposition, through various human instruments, the word of God spreads unstoppably from Jerusalem “to the ends of the earth” (1:8).
Reflection and Application (12:20–24)
Despite Luke’s lightly humorous telling of these incidents, they retain a theological depth grounded in the biblical pattern of the all-powerful God bringing to naught the seemingly invincible efforts of tyrants against his people. Today, martyrdom for one’s Christian faith is a real possibility in various places around the world. Even in democracies Christians find themselves subject to political and social pressures against the public exercise of our faith. When God wills, however, he can rescue us even from humanly impossible predicaments just as he freed Peter from prison. James and Peter are models of trusting in God’s providence, whatever the personal outcome may be. No matter how bleak our situation may look, God is infinitely more powerful than any human or demonic adversary. With confidence in God, no one can stop us from witnessing to the message of God’s love and the lordship of Jesus Christ.
