Acts 12:1-2

"About that time" probably harks back to the famine visit of Barnabas and Saul mentioned in Acts 11:30. If this took place in A.D. 46, and Herod died in A.D. 44, then the event Luke related in chapter 12 antedated the famine visit, and probably all of Acts 11:27-30, by about two years.

". . . Luke seems to have wanted to close his portrayals of the Christian mission within the Jewish world (Acts 2:42 to Acts 12:24) with two vignettes having to do with God’s continued activity on behalf of the Jerusalem church." [Note: Longenecker, p. 407.]

"Herod the king" was Herod Agrippa I whom the Roman emperor Gaius appointed king over Palestine in A.D. 37. He ruled Judea for three years, A.D. 41-44 [Note: Josephus, Antiquities of . . ., 19:8:2; idem, The Wars . . ., 2:11:6; Bruce, "Chronological Questions . . .," pp. 276-78.] (cf. Acts 12:23), and moved his headquarters to Jerusalem. Herod Agrippa I had Jewish blood in his veins and consistently sought to maintain favor with and the support of the Jews over whom he ruled, which he did effectively. [Note: See Longenecker, pp. 407-8, for a brief biography of Herod Agrippa I.] As the Christian Jews became increasingly offensive to their racial brethren (cf. Acts 11:18), Herod took advantage of an opportunity to please his subjects by mistreating some believers and by executing the Apostle James, the brother of John (cf. Matthew 20:23). This is the only apostle’s death that the New Testament recorded. James was the second Christian martyr whom Luke identified (cf. Acts 7:54-60). Persecution of the Christians now swung from religious to include political motivation.

It is noteworthy that the Christians evidently did not seek to perpetuate the apostalate by selecting a replacement for James as they had for Judas (ch. 1). They probably believed that God would reestablish The Twelve in the resurrestion. [Note: Bock, Acts, p. 422.]