Word Pictures in the New Testament - David Cox

Word Pictures in the NT [Acts: Chapter 12]
He will preside over the Jerusalem Conference (Ac 15:13). {To
another place} (\eis heteron topon\). Probably Luke did not know
the place and certainly it was prudent for Peter to conceal it
from Herod Agrippa. Probably Peter left the city. He is back in
Jerusalem at the Conference a few years later (Ac 15:7) and
after the death of Herod Agrippa. Whether Peter went to Rome
during these years we do not know. He was recognized later as the
apostle to the circumcision (Gal 2:7; 1Pe 1:1) and apparently
was in Rome with John Mark when he wrote the First Epistle (1Pe
5:13), unless it is the real Babylon. But, even if Peter went to
Rome during this early period, there is no evidence that he
founded the church there. If he had done so, in the light of 2Co
10:16 it would be strange that Paul had not mentioned it in
writing to Rome, for he was anxious not to build on another man's
foundation (Ro 15:20). Paul felt sure that he himself had a
work to do in Rome. Unfortunately Luke has not followed the
ministry of Peter after this period as he does Paul (appearing
again only in chapter Ac 15). If Peter really left Jerusalem at
this time instead of hiding in the city, he probably did some
mission work as Paul says that he did (1Co 9:5).
12:18 {As soon as it was day} (\Genomen•s h•meras\). Genitive
absolute, day having come. {No small stir} (\tarachos ouk
oligos\). Litotes (\ouk oligos\), occurs eight times in the Acts
as in 15:2, and nowhere else in the N.T. \Tarachos\ (stir) is
an old word from \tarass•\, to agitate. In the N.T only here and
19:23. Probably all sixteen soldiers were agitated over this
remarkable escape. They were responsible for the prisoner with
their lives (cf. Ac 16:27; 27:42). Furneaux suggests that
Manaen, the king's foster-brother and a Christian (13:1), was
the "angel" who rescued Peter from the prison. That is not the
way that Peter looked at it. {What was become of Peter} (\ti ara
ho Petros egeneto\). An indirect question with the aorist
indicative retained. \Ara\ adds a syllogism (therefore) to the
problem as in Lu 1:66. The use of the neuter \ti\ (as in Ac
13:25) is different from \tis\, though nominative like \Petros\,
literally, "what then Peter had become," "what had happened to
Peter" (in one idiom). See the same idiom in Joh 21:21 (\houtos
de ti\). {But this one what} (verb \gen•setai\ not used).
12:19 {He examined} (\anakrinas\). First aorist active participle
of \anakrin•\, old verb to sift up and down, to question
thoroughly, in a forensic sense (Lu 23:14; Ac 4:9; 12:19;
http://www.ccel.org/r/robertson_at/wordpictures/htm/AC12.RWP.html (9 of 12) [28/08/2004 09:06:46 a.m.]