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Acts 12:18-20
New Catholic Bible
Acts 12:18-20
New Catholic Bible
18 At daybreak, there was a great deal of commotion among the soldiers about what had become of Peter. 19 After instituting a search for him and being unable to find him, Herod interrogated the guards and ordered their execution. Then he left Judea to reside for a while in Caesarea.
20 Death of Herod Agrippa I.[a] For a long time, Herod had been very angry with the people of Tyre and Sidon, who now came to him in a body. After gaining the support of Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, they asked for peace because their country depended on the king’s territory for their food supplies.
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- Acts 12:20 This time again, in the manner of the Old Testament, the intervention of the hand of God is emphasized. The account poses the problem of war: it is a scourge in which the economy is tied to the will for power. Here the war against Tyre and Sidon is put off thanks to a compromise. But the political pride of a leader who takes himself for God is dissipated by a mortal sickness, which popular tradition interprets as a punishment.
The episode accords with the chronology of the time. It inserts Acts into universal history. Herod died, after a great feast, eaten by worms, in A.D. 44.