Bible Study Lesson for Acts 12:2-19: Peter's Miraculous Escape from Prison

When Herod Agrippa I arrests the believers, it is a political move, in hopes of pleasing the Jews in power. He had made a lot of friends amongst the orthodox Jews for his strict adherence to Jewish laws. Read Acts 12:2. James' death occurs about 10 years after Jesus' death and resurrection, around AD 43-44. James is the first apostle to be martyred. Read Matthew 4:21-22. According to tradition, James was beheaded, just like John the Baptist. I can not imagine what sort of pain his brother John went through - John, the author of Revelation, is the only one out of all the apostles who will die of old age.

When we read what happens next I would expect that many of the believers of that day couldn't help but wonder why Peter (as we will see) is rescued from death, while James was not. Read Acts 12:3. "The Feast of the Unleavened Bread" is the name for the week that follows the Passover meal, a time when no leaven is allowed. Read Exodus 12:15-20.

Herod obviously has a good information network in place: he knows where he can find Peter in Jerusalem, easily, and picks him up during this feast probably to cause the most emotional impact. His goal, remember, is to placate and please the Jews and to pick up this supposed heretic, this "evil leaven" as it were, during the feast made good political sense. As he will find, however, what is good for you politically, can damn you spiritually!

Read Acts 12:4. "four squads of four soldiers"; there are four watches during the night, so there would be four men that would be on duty at any one time, while the other 12 rested. By using four squads, Herod was making sure his guards would be well rested and alert, with no little chance of a rescue attempt succeeding.

Where was this prison? This was most likely the Fortress of Antonia, located on the northwest corner of the temple in Jerusalem. { Show picture from "Atlas of the Bible", pg. 184 }

Read Acts 12:5-6. So here we have a picture of how Peter was imprisoned, chained to two guards in a cell, with two more guards at the entrance of the cell. The fact that Peter was sleeping may be a sign he was at peace with his fate: either the Lord would save him from death, or he would be going home to be with the Lord in heaven. You don't get a picture of a man greatly afraid.

Read Acts 12:7-10. The most amazingly thing here, to me, isn't so much that the angel appeared (which of course is wonderful) but that the guards didn't see any of this happening. Peter was asleep between the two guards, but as they were on duty, they should have been awake, as should have been the two sentries at the door of the cell. Yet they noticed nothing, and in fact, as we will read in verse 18, they don't notice anything wrong until the morning! These four men are somehow entranced or hypnotized by God to see what isn't there (Peter still in his cell, chained between two men.)

Peter, bless him, is still groggy from sleep and doesn't even realize that what he is seeing is real! He thinks he is having a vision.

I would like to pause here and show another Sister Wendy clip in which she talks about a famous painting done by Raphael about this story. Look and listen carefully and see if you can pick out where Raphael deviated from Scripture (or at least took poetic license).

{ Show "Sister Wendy Story of Painting, Age of Genius" clip }

Read Acts 12:11-12. Just some notes of interest here - this may have been where the 'upper room' was (ie. where the Last Supper was held and where the believers had been meeting since.) Mary is Barnabas' aunt. We know this from Colossians 4:10. John, also called Mark, or "John Mark" is the author of the gospel of Mark and accompanied Saul and Barnabas on the first part of their first missionary journey, as we will see in Acts 12:25.

Read Acts 12:13-14. This is the only time Rhoda is mentioned. All we know here is that she is a servant, however it appears she is also a believer for not only does she recognize Peter's voice, she is overjoyed to learn he had escaped prison. The fact that Luke gives her name here tells me this story of her running off so excited without actually opening the door was probably told over and over, perhaps as a humorous anecdote in the church.

Read Acts 12:15. Reflects the belief that everyone has a personal angel who ministers to him, adding the idea that such an angel occasionally showed himself and that his appearance resembled the person under his care. Jesus did talk about each person having a personal angel in Matthew. Read Matthew 18:10. I would be very surprised, however, if these angels looked anything like the people they ministered to!

Read Acts 12:16-17. Peter, wisely, tells his friends to be quiet, rather than causing a commotion out there in the street. He had just escaped prison, remember! He tells them the good news of his rescue and tells them to share it with others. Remember that James the apostle had just been killed; Peter is talking about James, the brother of Jesus, who though not an apostle, was a leader in the church. Peter leaves to go to another, unknown, location. Obviously Mary's home was known in the city as a meeting place for believers and therefore not a safe place for Peter.

Read Acts 12:18-19. As I mentioned earlier, this verse shows us that the soldiers don't realize Peter has disappeared until the morning! You can imagine how terrified those 16 men would be: they had some how misplaced Herod Agrippa's prized prisoner! I think this reflects the "clamor and bickering" that Raphael described on the left-hand side of his painting. Herod does a "thorough search", which probably means he turns Jerusalem upside down. It is sad, but it appears that the only explanation Herod can come up with is that it is the guards' fault and has them executed. He should have known about a similar incident that had occurred about 10 years earlier, soon after Pentecost. Read Acts 5:17-24. Those guards were much luckier - no mention of them being killed for losing their prisoners!

To be continued...

Sources
Beckett, Sister Wendy. Sister Wendy's Story of Painting (DVD)
Editors. Compton's Interactive Bible (software)
Philip Yancey and Tim Stafford (notes). The Student Bible. NIV Version
Editors. Atlas of the Bible.