Eighth Day of Christmas

Jesus was never in prison. The Apostles are imprisoned a lot. Today we return to our Acts Bible Study. Please read Acts 12:1-11. Week before last I had a blog on Herods and Jameses. There are just too many Herods in the NT. The NT texts simply say Herod without distinguishing one from another. I identified the Herod of this story as Herod Antipas, son of Herod the Great, and dated the story to 39 A.D. We're in the OBX now. My commentaries and reference works are in Chapel Hill. I have read a couple of things here (internet and one commentary I have here) that indicate the Herod in question was not Herod Antipas but Herod Agrippa I, grandson of Herod the Great. That would put the date of this jailbreak event likely in 44 AD, the year of Herod Agrippa's death. 

Lest you think this problem was unique to Biblical times, may I remind you that we have had it in the US fairly recently. I have read numerous references to President George Bush without being sure of which President George Bush was being referred to. Is it George H.W. Bush or George W. Bush? The problem was more or less resolved when someone thought of referring to them as Bush 41 and Bush 43, (although I can imagine someone from another country reading some U.S. history with these references and wondering who Bush 42 might have been).

We are not told why Herod "laid violent hands upon some who belonged to the church." Over the course of this study we will see actions like this happening numerous times. Why do Romans, Greeks, and Jews feel threatened by this peaceful, unarmed, religious movement? We'll be working on that question.

I find this particular story fascinating because of the relationship between dreams, angels, and realities. Peter is heavily guarded. He is asleep. He is awakened by an angel, who removes Peter's chains and leads him out of the prison, unbeknownst to the guards. The angel vanishes (or moves out of the three or four dimensional human realm into the heavenly realm. Peter wonders whether this is all a dream. Even after its over, what has happened seems surreal to Peter. 

After I had a childhood nightmare, my mother assured me that dreams weren't real. Our understanding of dreams is more complex now. Dreams are a different form of reality. Psychologists seem less sure about visions. Although I've never had one, I've read the visions of many who have. John who wrote Revelation certainly had them. I've been reading Julian of Norwich's Showings (15th century). Her visions are things I never could have imagined.

Angels, if we accept their existence (and I do),  move in and out of  these different realms of human reality with ease. Peter's guards may have fallen asleep or just had their minds wandering (another different form of reality). When they awoke, Peter gone without a trace, chains left behind, I suspect they tried to figure out what happened and how they were going to explain this to the jail warden. There was no good explanation. Even Peter himself was puzzled. But he was free. 

Faithfully,

Christian