Daniel 3:22

3:22 But since the king’s command was so urgent, and the furnace was so excessively hot, the men who escorted ¹  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were killed ²  by the leaping flames. ³ 

Daniel 3:25

3:25 He answered, “But I see four men, untied and walking around in the midst of the fire! No harm has come to them! And the appearance of the fourth is like that of a god!” ⁴ 

Daniel 6:24

6:24 The king gave another order, ⁵  and those men who had maliciously accused ⁶  Daniel were brought and thrown ⁷  into the lions’ den – they, their children, and their wives. ⁸  They did not even reach the bottom of the den before the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.

Acts 12:19

12:19 When Herod ⁹  had searched ¹⁰  for him and did not find him, he questioned ¹¹  the guards and commanded that they be led away to execution. ¹²  Then ¹³  Herod ¹⁴  went down from Judea to Caesarea ¹⁵  and stayed there.

¹ tn Aram “caused to go up.”

² tn The Aramaic verb is active.

³ tn Aram “the flame of the fire” (so KJV, ASV, NASB); NRSV “the raging flames.”

⁴ sn The phrase like that of a god is in Aramaic “like that of a son of the gods.” Many patristic writers understood this phrase in a christological sense (i.e., “the Son of God”). But it should be remembered that these are words spoken by a pagan who is seeking to explain things from his own polytheistic frame of reference; for him the phrase “like a son of the gods” is equivalent to “like a divine being.”

⁵ tn Aram “said.”

⁶ tn Aram “had eaten the pieces of.” The Aramaic expression is ironic, in that the accusers who had figuratively “eaten the pieces of Daniel” are themselves literally devoured by the lions.

⁷ tn The Aramaic active impersonal verb is often used as a substitute for the passive.

⁸ tc The LXX specifies only the two overseers, together with their families, as those who were cast into the lions’ den.

⁹ sn King Herod was Herod Agrippa I, the grandson of Herod I (Herod the Great).

¹⁰ tn Or “had instigated a search” (Herod would have ordered the search rather than conducting it himself).

¹¹ tn “Questioned” is used to translate ἀνακρίνας (anakrina") here because a possible translation offered by BDAG 66 s.v. ἀνακρίνω for this verse is “examined,” which could be understood to mean Herod inspected the guards rather than questioned them. The translation used by the NIV, “cross-examined,” also avoids this possible misunderstanding.

¹² tn The meaning “led away to execution” for ἀπαχθῆναι (apacqhnai) in this verse is given by BDAG 95 s.v. ἀπάγω 2.c. Although an explicit reference to execution is lacking here, it is what would usually occur in such a case (Acts 16:27; 27:42; Code of Justinian 9.4.4). “Led away to torture” is a less likely option (Pliny the Younger, Letters 10, 96, 8).

¹³ tn Grk “and,” but the sequence of events is better expressed in English by “then.” A new sentence is begun in the translation because of the length of the sentence in Greek, which exceeds normal English sentence length.

¹⁴ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Herod) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Since Herod has been the subject of the preceding material, and the circumstances of his death are the subject of the following verses (20-23), it is best to understand Herod as the subject here. This is especially true since according to Josephus, Ant. 19.8.2 [19.343-352], Herod Agrippa I died at Caesarea in a.d. 44, and vv. 20-23 here describe his death. Thus the end of v. 19 provides Luke’s transition to explain how Herod got from Jerusalem to Caesarea where he died. In spite of all this evidence, the NRSV translates this phrase “Then Peter went down from Judea to Caesarea and stayed there,” understanding the referent to be Peter rather than Herod Agrippa I.

¹⁵ sn Caesarea was a city on the coast of Palestine south of Mount Carmel (not Caesarea Philippi). See the note on Caesarea in Acts 10:1.