18 And day having come, there was not a little stir among the soldiers what then was become of Peter,
and the officers having come, did not find them in the prison, and having turned back, they told, saying -- `The prison indeed we found shut in all safety, and the keepers standing without before the doors, and having opened -- within we found no one.' And as the priest, and the magistrate of the temple, and the chief priests, heard these words, they were doubting concerning them to what this would come; and coming near, a certain one told them, saying -- `Lo, the men whom ye did put in the prison are in the temple standing and teaching the people;'
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Commentary on Acts 12 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 12
In this chapter we have the story,
Act 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 was zealous for the Mosaic rites, a bigot for the ceremonies. He was not only (as Herod Antipas was) tetrarch of Galilee, but had also the government of Judea committed to him by Claudius the emperor, and resided most at Jerusalem, where he was at this time. Three things we are here told he did-
Act 12:5-19
We have here an account of Peter's deliverance out of prison, by which the design of Herod against him was defeated, and his life preserved for further service, and a stop given to this bloody torrent. Now,
Act 12:20-25
In these verses we have,