Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Acts 12:4 - 12:4
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
4. ἔθετο εἰς φυλακήν, he put him in prison, to be kept a prisoner till the termination of the feast, when he might be brought to trial.
παραδοὺς τέσσαρσιν τετραδίοις κ.τ.λ., having delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to guard him. A quaternion was a set of four men, which was the number at one time occupied in the work of the guard, two soldiers being chained to the prisoner, and two keeping guard outside. These latter are called (Act 12:10) ‘the first and second ward.’ There were four such sets appointed to have charge of Peter, one company for each of the four watches by day and by night.
A similar arrangement for keeping guard, though not over a prisoner, is mentioned Philo in Flaccum 13, where an officer is sent to arrest Flaccus, and it is said στρατιώτην δέ τινα τῶν ἐν τοῖς τετραδίοις φυλακῶν καθ' ὁδὸν εὑρὼν κελεύει δεικνύναι τὴν οἰκίαν στρατάρχου.
βουλόμενος μετὰ τὸ πάσχα, intending after the Passover. The A.V. renders πάσχα by ‘Easter,’ meaning thereby to shew that the whole feast, and not the day of the sacrifice only, is spoken of. That this meaning, and not the single day of the Paschal feast is intended by the Greek, seems clear from the elaborate preparation made, as for a longer imprisonment than was the rule among the Jews. Peter was arrested at the commencement of the Passover feast (14th of Nisan), and the king’s intention was to proceed to sentence and punish him when the feast was at an end on the 21st of Nisan.
ἀναγαγεῖν αὐτὸν τῷ λαῷ, to bring him forth to the people. That they might see his zeal for Judaism by the sentence which he should pass upon Peter. The same verb is used (Luk 22:66) of bringing Jesus before the council, ἀνήγαγον αὐτὸν εἰς τὸ συνέδριον.