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The Acts of the Apostles 12

12 About this same time, King Herod Agrippa sent soldiers to arrest some of the leaders of the group of believers in Jerusalem. The soldiers put them in prison. The king did that because he wanted to hurt the believers and their community. 2 He commanded a soldier to cut off the head of the apostle James, the older brother of the apostle John. So the soldier did that. 3 When Herod realized that he had pleased the leaders of the Jewish people, he commanded soldiers to arrest Peter too. This happened during the festival when the Jewish people ate bread without yeast. 4 After the soldiers arrested Peter, they put him in prison. Herod assigned four groups of soldiers to guard Peter. Each group had four soldiers. Herod wanted to bring Peter out of prison and judge him in front of the Jewish people after the Passover Festival was finished. He then planned to execute Peter.

5 So for several days Peter stayed in prison. But the other believers in their group in Jerusalem were urgently praying to God, asking him to help Peter. 6 It was the night before Herod planned to bring Peter out of prison and have him executed publicly. Peter was sleeping in the prison between two soldiers. A soldier on one side of him had locked a chain onto Peter’s wrist and his own wrist. A soldier on the other side of Peter had done the same thing. Two more soldiers were guarding the prison doors. 7 Suddenly, an angel from the Lord God stood beside Peter. A bright light shone in his cell. But Peter was still sleeping so soundly that the angel poked him in the side to wake him up. The angel told him, “Get up quickly!” While Peter was getting up, the chains fell off from his wrists. However, the soldiers were not aware of what was happening. 8 Then the angel said to him, “Fasten your belt around you and tie your sandals onto your feet!” And Peter did what the angel told him to do. Then the angel told him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me!” 9 So Peter put on his cloak and sandals and followed the angel out of the prison cell. He had no idea that all this was really happening. He thought that he was dreaming. 10 Peter and the angel walked by the soldiers who were guarding the two doors, but the soldiers did not see them. Then they came to the iron gate that led into the city. The gate swung open for them, and Peter and the angel walked out of the prison. After they had walked some distance along one street, the angel suddenly disappeared. 11 Then Peter finally realized that this was not a vision, it was really happening. So he thought, “Now I know that the Lord God truly sent an angel to help me. He rescued me from what Herod planned to do to me and from all the things that the Jewish leaders expected would happen.”

12 When Peter realized that God had rescued him, he went to Mary’s house. She was the mother of John, whose other name was Mark. Many believers had assembled there, and they were praying that God would help Peter somehow. 13 When Peter knocked at the outer entrance, a servant girl whose name was Rhoda came to find out who was outside the door. 14 When Peter responded, she recognized his voice, but she was so happy and excited that she forgot to open the door! Instead, she ran back into the house. She told the other believers that Peter was standing outside the door. 15 But they said to her, “You must be crazy!” But she continued to say that it was really true. They kept responding, “No, it cannot be Peter. It is probably his angel.” 16 But Peter kept knocking the whole time those inside were talking. So when some of them finally opened the door, they saw that it was Peter, and they could hardly believe it! 17 Peter waved his hand to get them to be quiet. Then he told them exactly how the Lord God had let him out of the prison. He also said, “Tell James, the leader of our group, and our other fellow believers what has happened.” Then Peter left and went away somewhere else.

18 The next morning the soldiers who had been guarding Peter saw that he was gone. They wondered what had happened to him, and they became terribly upset. 19 Then Herod heard about it. So he commanded soldiers to search for Peter, but they did not find him. Then Herod questioned the soldiers who had been guarding Peter. But the soldiers had no good explanation for what had happened. So Herod commanded them to be executed, which was how the Romans punished guards whose prisoners escaped. Afterwards, Herod went from the province of Judea to the city of Caesarea, where he stayed for some time.

20 King Herod became very upset with the people who lived in the cities of Tyre and Sidon. He stopped them from trading with the people he ruled. But the people of Tyre and Sidon needed to buy food from those regions. So they sent representatives together to the city of Caesarea to meet with Herod. They persuaded Blastus, who was one of Herod’s important officials, to tell Herod that they wanted to live peacefully with him. 21 On the day that Herod had planned to meet with the representatives of Tyre and Sidon, he did some things to impress them. He put on very expensive clothes and he sat on his royal throne. Then he formally addressed all the people who had gathered there. 22 Those who were listening to him shouted repeatedly, “King Herod speaks so well that he must be a god, not a man!” 23 Herod accepted the praise of the people instead of telling them they should praise God. So while the people were still praising Herod, the Lord God sent an angel to punish him. That angel punished him severely: Worms ate him and he died.

24 The believers continued telling God’s message to people in many places, and the number of people who believed in Jesus was continually increasing.

25 Barnabas and Saul finished delivering the money to help the Jewish believers in the province of Judea. They returned to the city of Jerusalem. They brought John, whose other name was Mark, with them.

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