About that time, King Herod reached out to harm some who belonged to the church.
1. Here followeth new persecution raised by Herod. We see that the Church had some short truce, that it might, as it were, by a short breathing, recover some courage against the time to come, and that it might then fight afresh. So at this day there is no cause why the faithful, having borne the brunts of one or two conflicts, should promise themselves rest, “Perpetuam. quietem,” perpetual rest.
Ever since the conversion of Paul, we have heard no more of the agency of the priests in persecuting the saints at Jerusalem; perhaps that wonderful change wrought upon him, and the disappointment it gave to their design upon the Christians at Damascus, had somewhat mollified them, and brought them under the check of Gamaliel's advice - to let those men alone, and see what...
Commenting on Acts 12:1-4
CHAPTER 12 Verse 1. Now about that time. That is, during the time that the famine existed; or the time when Barnabas and Saul went up to Jerusalem. This was probably about the fifth or sixth year of the reign of Claudius, not far from A.D. 47. Herod the king. This was Herod Agrippa. The Syriac so renders it expressly, and the chronology requires us so to understand it.