Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Acts 12:1-25, Herod Agrippa, the prison and the king struck down
King Herod Agrippa kills James and jails Peter at Passover, but an angel leads Peter out. Later, in Caesarea, the king accepts the crowd's cry that he speaks with a god's voice and is struck down.
Acts 12:1-25, in every translation this tool compares.
King Herod Agrippa executes the apostle James and, seeing it wins him favor, jails Peter during the Passover season, planning a public trial. On the eve of it an angel frees Peter from chains and guards, and he goes to the house where believers are praying, though at first they do not believe the servant girl who hears him at the door. Later, at Caesarea, Herod lets a crowd hail him as divine and is struck down for taking God's glory. Luke sets the persecutor's fall against the steady spread of the word.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/later-herods\/","n":"Agrippa I and the later Herods","s":"Herod the Great's grandson Agrippa I was made king of all Judea by Claudius and ruled from AD 41 to 44, courting his Jewish subjects. His son Agrippa II later ruled smaller territories and heard Paul's defense.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/passover-pilgrims\/","n":"Passover and the pilgrim crowds","s":"The spring festival that retold God's rescue of Israel from Egypt. Jerusalem filled with pilgrims, and hopes of freedom ran high.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/angels\/","n":"Angels","s":"God's messengers and his heavenly army. Jews of Jesus' day spoke of guardian angels, of the greatest angels standing before God's face, and of angels coming with God at the judgment.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/house-churches\/","n":"House churches","s":"For their first three centuries Christians met in homes, the way some Jewish groups and private clubs did. A host with a large house gave the church its room, its table and often its protection.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/imperial-cult\/","n":"Caesar worshiped as savior and lord","s":"Augustus and the emperors after him were hailed as savior, lord and son of a god, and in the eastern provinces they were worshiped. The titles the Gospels give Jesus were already being used for Caesar.","r":""}
As king, Agrippa held the power of life and death, and beheading was the more merciful death (Keener and his notes). Four squads of four soldiers covered the four watches of the night (Keener; the ESV Study Bible), and Romans punished a guard with the penalty due to the prisoner who escaped (Keener and his notes). Tyre and Sidon depended on grain from Agrippa's lands (Keener and his notes). Josephus tells how, at shows for Caesar, Agrippa's silver robe shone in the morning sun and "presently his flatterers cried out, one from one place, and another from another, [though not for his good,] that he was a god"; he did not rebuke them, was seized with pain in his belly, and said, "I, whom you call a god, am commanded presently to depart this life." Under Rome even Caesar expected others to refuse such flattery (Keener and his notes), and death from worms was counted fit for tyrants (the cultural backgrounds notes). Agrippa died in 44, before the famine visit, so Luke places his death here by theme rather than date (Carson, Moo and Morris).
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Acts 12:2, 12:3, 12:4, 12:12, 12:13, 12:19, 12:20, 12:22 and 12:23
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Acts 12:2, 12:4, 12:5-6, 12:12-13, 12:18-19, 12:20, 12:21 and 12:22-24
- ESV Study Bible, study note on Acts 12:4
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 19.8.2, trans. William Whiston
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 7, Paul, section Chronology
