Acts 12:1 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

ACTS CHAPTER 12 Acts 12:1-19 King Herod persecutes the Christians, kills James, and imprisons Peter, who, upon the prayers of the church, is delivered by an angel. Acts 12:20-23 Herod, in his pride assuming the glory due to God, is smitten by an angel, and dieth miserably. Acts 12:24 After his death the word of God prospers. Acts 12:25 Barnabas and Saul return to Antioch. There were several Herods mentioned in Scripture, being all of the family of Herod the Great, (by whose name they were called), as Herod that killed the children in Bethlehem, called Hecolonita; another that beheaded St. John, and derided our Saviour, this Herod was surnamed Antipas: the Herod here spoken of was called Agrippa; the son, or, as others think, the nephew, of Aristobulus, and was the father of that Agrippa we read of, Acts 25:26, being viceroy, or king, under the Roman emperor. This Herod did not only kill some, but punished others with banishment and blows; and especially the governors of the church, knowing how much all suffer in them.