Acts 12:5-7

12:5 So Peter was kept in prison, but those in the church were earnestly ¹  praying to God for him. ²  12:6 On that very night before Herod was going to bring him out for trial, ³  Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, while ⁴  guards in front of the door were keeping watch ⁵  over the prison. 12:7 Suddenly ⁶  an angel of the Lord ⁷  appeared, and a light shone in the prison cell. He struck ⁸  Peter on the side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly!” And the chains fell off Peter’s ⁹  wrists. ¹⁰ 

Acts 12:12-17

12:12 When Peter ¹¹  realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark, ¹²  where many people had gathered together and were praying. 12:13 When he knocked at the door of the outer gate, a slave girl named Rhoda answered. ¹³  12:14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she did not open the gate, but ran back in and told ¹⁴  them ¹⁵  that Peter was standing at the gate. 12:15 But they said to her, “You’ve lost your mind!” ¹⁶  But she kept insisting that it was Peter, ¹⁷  and they kept saying, ¹⁸  “It is his angel!” ¹⁹  12:16 Now Peter continued knocking, and when they opened the door ²⁰  and saw him, they were greatly astonished. ²¹  12:17 He motioned to them ²²  with his hand to be quiet and then related ²³  how the Lord had brought ²⁴  him out of the prison. He said, “Tell James and the brothers these things,” and then he left and went to another place. ²⁵ 

[12:5]  ¹ tn Or “constantly.” This term also appears in Luke 22:14 and Acts 26:7.

[12:5]  ² tn Grk “but earnest prayer was being made by the church to God for him.” The order of the clauses has been rearranged to follow English style, and the somewhat awkward passive “prayer was being made” has been changed to the simpler active verb “were praying.” Luke portrays what follows as an answer to prayer.

[12:6]  ³ tn Grk “was going to bring him out,” but the upcoming trial is implied. See Acts 12:4.

[12:6]  ⁴ tn Grk “two chains, and.” Logically it makes better sense to translate this as a temporal clause, although technically it is a coordinate clause in Greek.

[12:6]  ⁵ tn Or “were guarding.”

[12:7]  ⁵ tn Grk “And behold.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here. The interjection ἰδού (idou), often difficult to translate into English, expresses the suddenness of the angel’s appearance.

[12:7]  ⁶ tn Or “the angel of the Lord.” See the note on the word “Lord” in 5:19.

[12:7]  ⁷ tn Grk “striking the side of Peter, he awoke him saying.” The term refers to a push or a light tap (BDAG 786 s.v. πατάσσω 1.a). The participle πατάξας (pataxa") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[12:7]  ⁸ tn Grk “his”; the referent (Peter) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:7]  ⁹ tn Grk “the hands,” but the wrist was considered a part of the hand.

[12:12]  ⁷ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Peter) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[12:12]  ⁸ tn Grk “John who was also called Mark.”

[12:13]  ⁹ tn Or “responded.”

[12:14]  ¹¹ tn Or “informed.”

[12:14]  ¹² tn The word “them” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the modern English reader.

[12:15]  ¹³ sn “You’ve lost your mind!” Such a response to the miraculous is not unusual in Luke-Acts. See Luke 24:11; Acts 26:25. The term μαίνομαι (mainomai) can have the idea of being “raving mad” or “totally irrational” (BDAG 610 s.v.). It is a strong expression.

[12:15]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “she kept insisting that the situation was thus” (cf. BDAG 422 s.v. ἔχω 10.a). Most translations supply a less awkward English phrase like “it was so”; the force of her insistence, however, is that “it was Peter,” which was the point under dispute.

[12:15]  ¹⁵ tn The two imperfect tense verbs, διϊσχυρίζετο (diiscurizeto) and ἔλεγον (elegon), are both taken iteratively. The picture is thus virtually a shouting match between Rhoda and the rest of the believers.

[12:15]  ¹⁶ sn The assumption made by those inside, “It is his angel,” seems to allude to the idea of an attending angel (cf. Gen 48:16 LXX; Matt 18:10; Test. Jacob 1:10).

[12:16]  ¹⁵ tn The words “the door” are not in the Greek text, but are implied (see Acts 12:13).

[12:16]  ¹⁶ sn That they were greatly astonished is a common response in Luke-Acts to God’s work (Luke 8:56; Acts 2:7, 12; 8:13; 9:21; 10:45).

[12:17]  ¹⁷ tn Or “He gave them a signal.” Grk “Giving them a signal…he related to them.” The participle κατασείσας (kataseisa") has been translated as a finite verb due to requirements of contemporary English style.

[12:17]  ¹⁸ tc ‡ Most mss, including some of the most important ones (B D E Ψ Ï sy), read αὐτοῖς (autoi", “to them”) here, while some excellent and early witnesses (Ì^45vid,74vid א A 33 81 945 1739 pc) lack the pronoun. Although it is possible that the pronoun was deleted because it was seen as superfluous, it is also possible that it was added as a natural expansion on the text, strengthening the connection between Peter and his listeners. Although a decision is difficult, the shorter reading is slightly preferred. NA²⁷ puts the pronoun in brackets, indicating some doubts as to its authenticity.

[12:17]  ¹⁹ tn Or “led.”

[12:17]  ²⁰ sn He…went to another place. This is Peter’s last appearance in Acts with the exception of the Jerusalem council in Acts 15.