Acts 12:3

Pleased the Jews. This was Agrippa’s object. Josephus notices this. Comparing Agrippa with Antipas, he says that the latter “was more friendly to the Greeks than to the Jews,” but that Agrippa “was not at all like” Antipas (Antiquities xix. 7.3).

An incident is related in the Mishnah (Sotah 7.8; Soncino ed. of the Talmud, p. 202) that illustrates the sensitiveness of the king to popular praise or blame. At a Feast of Tabernacles in a sabbatical year, King Agrippa was reading the law. When he came to the words of Deut. 17:15: “Thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother,” his eyes overflowed with tears at the thought of his own Idumaean descent. The people saw him weeping, and thinking rather of his Hasmonaean ancestry, cried out, “Our brother art thou our brother art thou!” and the king’s heart was comforted.

Unless it was chiefly the Jewish leaders whom Agrippa wished to please, this story implies that a great change must have occurred from the earlier popular feeling in favor of the apostles, indicated so plainly in chs. 2:47; 5:26. Doubtless this change was caused by the rapid increase in the membership of the church.

Proceeded further to take. Literally, “added to take,” seizing Peter as well as James. The expression is a close translation of a common Hebrew idiom.

Peter also. Peter, being an outstanding figure among the Twelve, was a logical object of Herod’s attack.