12 also, having considered, he came unto the house of Mary, the mother of John, who is surnamed Mark, where there were many thronged together and praying.
Peter, therefore, indeed, was kept in the prison, and fervent prayer was being made by the assembly unto God for him,
and Barnabas and Saul did turn back out of Jerusalem, having fulfilled the ministration, having taken also with `them' John, who was surnamed Mark.
Markus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lukas, my fellow-workmen!
and having come unto Salamis, they declared the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews, and they had also John `as' a ministrant;
Lukas only is with me; Markus having taken, bring with thyself, for he is profitable to me for ministration;
And it hath come to pass, They do not yet call, and I answer, They are yet speaking, and I hear.
`Again, I say to you, that, if two of you may agree on the earth concerning anything, whatever they may ask -- it shall be done to them from my Father who is in the heavens, for where there are two or three gathered together -- to my name, there am I in the midst of them.'
Salute you doth the `assembly' in Babylon jointly elected, and Markus my son.
And this is the boldness that we have toward Him, that if anything we may ask according to his will, He doth hear us, and if we have known that He doth hear us, whatever we may ask, we have known that we have the requests that we have requested from Him.
And Barnabas counseled to take with `them' John called Mark, and Paul was not thinking it good to take him with them who withdrew from them from Pamphylia, and did not go with them to the work; there came, therefore, a sharp contention, so that they were parted from one another, and Barnabas having taken Mark, did sail to Cyprus,
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Acts 12
Commentary on Acts 12 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 12
In this chapter we have the story,
Act 12:1-4
Ever since the conversion of Paul, we have heard no more of the agency of the priests in persecuting the saints at Jerusalem; perhaps that wonderful change wrought upon him, and the disappointment it gave to their design upon the Christians at Damascus, had somewhat mollified them, and brought them under the check of Gamaliel's advice-to let those men alone, and see what would be the issue; but here the storm arises from another point. The civil power, not now, as usual (for aught that appears) stirred up by the ecclesiastics, acts by itself in the persecution. But Herod, though originally of an Edomite family, yet seems to have been a proselyte to the Jewish religion; for Josephus says he was zealous for the Mosaic rites, a bigot for the ceremonies. He was not only (as Herod Antipas was) tetrarch of Galilee, but had also the government of Judea committed to him by Claudius the emperor, and resided most at Jerusalem, where he was at this time. Three things we are here told he did-
Act 12:5-19
We have here an account of Peter's deliverance out of prison, by which the design of Herod against him was defeated, and his life preserved for further service, and a stop given to this bloody torrent. Now,
Act 12:20-25
In these verses we have,