“Now about that time Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church.”
King James Version (KJV)
12:1 About that time - So wisely did God mix rest and persecution in due time and measure succeeding each other. Herod - Agrippa; the latter was his Roman, the former his Syrian name. He was the grandson of Herod the Great, nephew to Herod Antipas, who beheaded John the Baptist; brother to Herodias, and father to that Agrippa before whom St. Paul afterward made his defence. Caligula made him king of the tetrarchy of his uncle Philip, to which he afterward added the territories of Antipas. Claudius made him also king of Judea, and added thereto the dominions of Lysanias.
Ac 12:1 Persecutions in Judea SUMMARY OF ACTS 12: The First Apostolic Martyr. Peter Seized by Herod. The Prayers of the Church. Peter's Prison Opened by an Angel. His Appearance to the Praying Disciples. Herod Pronounced a God. His Pitiful Death. About that time. While Saul and Barnabas were at Antioch. Herod the king. Herod Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the Great. See PNT "Mt 2:1". In the year 41, the Emperor Claudius had added Judea and Samaria to his former dominions, so that, at this time, Herod ruled over all Palestine. While voluptuous, and exhibiting in life none of the restrains of religion, he was a strict observer of the Jewish ceremonies, and hostile to Christianity, because it was subversive to Judaism. To vex certain of the church. Some of its leaders.