15 and they said unto her, `Thou art mad;' and she was confidently affirming `it' to be so, and they said, `It is his messenger;'
`Beware! -- ye may not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you, that their messengers in the heavens do always behold the face of my Father who is in the heavens,
the Messenger who is redeeming me from all evil doth bless the youths, and my name is called upon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and they increase into a multitude in the midst of the land.'
and they, having heard that he is alive, and was seen by her, did not believe.
Afterwards, as they are reclining (at meat), he was manifested to the eleven, and did reproach their unbelief and stiffness of heart, because they believed not those having seen him being raised;
and being amazed, and becoming affrighted, they were thinking themselves to see a spirit. And he said to them, `Why are ye troubled? and wherefore do reasonings come up in your hearts?
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,