Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 12:2
And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.
2. And he killed James the brother of John ] One of the two sons of Zebedee, who had been among the three specially favoured disciples of Jesus. It is therefore likely that he would take a leading part in the labours of the Church, and so Agrippa’s attention would be drawn to him as a proper person to be first struck down. All the accusations which had been laid against Stephen, that the Christian leader spake against the Temple and the Law, would be used with effect to such a zealous observer of Mosaic ritual as Herod Agrippa was.
with the sword ] This was the third in order of the modes of execution appointed among the Jews. These are stoning, burning, decapitation, and strangulation. In connection with the execution of James the words of the Mishna are interesting: “The manner of putting to death by the sword is as follows: the man’s head is cut off with the sword as is wont to be done by royal command.” See Surenhusius on Sanhedrin p. 238 (misprinted 248), where there is a discussion about the position of the prisoner, whether he should stand erect or have his head on a block.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And he killed … – He caused to be put to death with a sword, either by beheading, or piercing him through. The Roman procurators were entrusted with authority over life, though in the time of Pilate the Jews had not this authority.
James, the brother of John – This was the son of Zebedee, Mat 4:21. He is commonly called James the Greater, in contradistinction from James, the son of Alpheus, who is called James the Less, Mat 10:3. In this manner were the predictions of our Saviour respecting him fulfilled, Mat 20:23, Ye shall indeed drink of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 2. He killed James the brother of John with the sword.] This was James the greater, son of Zebedee, and must be distinguished from James the less, son of Alpheus. This latter was put to death by Ananias the high priest, during the reign of Nero. This James with his brother John were those who requested to sit on the right and left hand of our Lord, see Mt 20:23; and our Lord’s prediction was now fulfilled in one of them, who by his martyrdom drank of our Lord’s cup, and was baptized with his baptism. By the death of James, the number of the apostles was reduced to eleven; and we do not find that ever it was filled up. The apostles never had any successors: God has continued their doctrine, but not their order.
By killing with the sword we are to understand beheading. Among the Jews there were four kinds of deaths:
1. Stoning;
2. burning;
3. killing with the sword, or beheading; and,
4. strangling.
The third was a Roman as well as a Jewish mode of punishment. Killing with the sword was the punishment which, according to the Talmud, was inflicted on those who drew away the people to any strange worship, Sanhedr. fol. iii. James was probably accused of this, and hence the punishment mentioned in the text.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Who had especially the care of the church at Jerusalem: one eminent amongst the apostles, and one of the sons of thunder, (or Boanerges), for his zealous and earnest preaching, and therefore the more hated by Herod: so that which our Saviour had foretold him came now to pass, Mat 20:23, that he drank of the cup our Savionr did drink of. There was another James, who wrote the Epistle known by his name, and was called James the Less; because, as some think, he was brought to the knowledge of Christ after the other, of whom we read, Mar 15:40.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. killed James . . . with theswordbeheaded him; a most ignominious mode of punishment,according to the Jews. Blessed martyr! Thou hast indeed “drunkof thy Lord’s cup, and hast been baptized with his baptism.”(See on Mr 10:38-40.) A grievousloss this would be to the Church; for though nothing is known of himbeyond what we read in the Gospels, the place which he had as one ofthe three whom the Lord admitted to His closest intimacy would leadthe Church to look up to him with a reverence and affection whicheven their enemies would come to hear of. They could spring only uponone more prized victim; and flushed with their first success, theyprevail upon Herod to seize him also.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And he killed James the brother of John with the sword. This was James, the son of Zebedee, whom our Lord told, that he should be baptized with the baptism he was baptized with, Mt 20:22 meaning the baptism of martyrdom; and he was the first martyr among the apostles: the death he was put to was one of the four capital punishments among the Jews, and was reckoned by them the most disgraceful of them all, and was inflicted upon deceivers of the people; and such an one James was thought to be e.
e Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 7. sect. 1, 3. & 11. 4.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
James the brother of John ( ). He had been called by Jesus a son of thunder along with his brother John. Jesus had predicted a bloody death for both of them (Mark 10:38; Matt 20:23). James is the first of the apostles to die and John probably the last. He is not James the Lord’s brother (Ga 1:19). We do not know why Luke tells so little about the death of James and so much about the death of Stephen nor do we know why Herod selected him as a victim. Eusebius (H.E. ii. 9) quotes Clement of Alexandria as saying that a Jew made accusations against James and was converted and beheaded at the same time with him.
Killed with the sword ( ). The verb is a favourite one with Luke (Acts 2:33; Acts 5:33; Acts 5:36; Acts 7:28; Acts 9:23-29; Acts 10:39, etc.). Instrumental case and Ionic form of . The Jews considered beheading a shameful death as in the case of the Baptist (Mt 14:10).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Killed – with the sword. While the martyrdom of Stephen is described at length, that of James, the first martyr among the apostles, is related in two words.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And he killed James,” (aneilen de lakolon) “And he caused James to be killed,” or he killed James, directed that he be put to death. This is the elder brother of John who wrote the gospel of John, the three general epistles, 1, 2, 3 John, and book of Revelation. Our Lord referred to the death of this James when He spoke the words of Mat 20:20-23. James is the only one of the twelve apostles of whose death we have an inspired record.
2) “The brother of John with the sword,” (ton adelphon loannou machaire) “Who was the elder brother of John, the son of Zebedee, with a sword,” by beheading, Mat 4:21; Mat 10:2; Mar 1:19.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(2) He killed James the brother of John with the sword.Had the Apostle been tried by the Sanhedrin on a charge of blasphemy and heresy, the sentence would have been death by stoning. Decapitation showed, as in the case of John the Baptist, that the sentence was pronounced by a civil ruler, adopting Roman modes of punishment, and striking terror by them in proportion as they were hateful to the Jews. The death of James reminds us of his Lords prediction that he, too, should drink of His cup, and be baptised with His baptism (Mat. 20:23). The fulfilment of that prophecy was found for one brother in his being the proto-martyr of the apostolic company, as it was found for the other in his being the last survivor of it. What led to his being selected as the first victim we can only conjecture; but the prominent position which he occupies in the Gospels, in company with Peter and John, probably continued, and the natural vehemence indicated in the name of Son of Thunder may have marked him out as among the foremost teachers of the Church. The brevity of St. Lukes record presents a marked contrast to the fulness of later martyrologies. A tradition preserved by Eusebius (Hist. ii. 9) as coming from Clement of Alexandria, records that his accuser was converted by beholding his faith and patience, confessed his new faith, and was led to execution in company with the Apostle, who bestowed on him the parting benediction of Peace be with thee.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. James, the brother of John Son of Zebedee, “son of thunder,” first of apostolic martyrs, brother of an evangelist, one of the elect three of the elect twelve. His prominence, even though Peter was near, made him the first victim of the persecutor’s experiment.
Sword The instrument of his beheading, ordered summarily and without trial. Thus under a Roman procurator the Jews were restrained from taking Christian life; but the moment a native king ruled blood began to flow. (See note on Mat 10:3.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.’
To the horror of all Christians James, the brother of John, one of the select three of Peter, James and John, was put to death by being beheaded with a sword. In Jewish law death by the sword was the penalty for murder or apostasy (m. Sanhedrin Act 9:1; compare Deu 13:2-15). The Apostles were therefore being treated as apostates from Judaism. It was the first death of an Apostle that we know of and must have baffled the church. Why had God allowed this to happen to an Apostle? Previously the Apostles had been sacrosanct.
But as with Stephen, James was allowed to be martyred, as Jesus had strongly hinted might be the case (see Mar 10:39; compare Joh 16:2, literally fulfilled here). God did not intervene. He was ‘making up that which was behind of the sufferings of Christ’, for the principle of Scripture and the purpose of God is that righteousness advances through suffering (Col 1:24). The Servant is the suffering Servant. It is through much tribulation that we will enter under the Kingly Rule of God (Act 14:22). And the Apostles could not be excluded, now that the church was no longer so dependent on them. Note that James died at the same feast as his Lord. He followed in His steps.
It is not for us to ask why James was taken and Peter was spared. Some perish by the sword, others are saved from the sword (Heb 11:34; Heb 11:37). That is God’s pattern and it is He Who holds the reins. But it is interesting in the light of the great commission of Act 1:8 that both James and Peter were still in Jerusalem. Perhaps this was to be a strong hint to the Apostles that it was now time that they were moving on, in the same way as the martyrdom of Stephen had been a means of despatching the witnessing church out among the nations.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Act 12:2. And he killed James Thus was our Lord’s prediction, relating to them, fulfilled, Mat 20:23. I know not how far we areto depend upon the tradition which we find cited by Eusebius, from a book of Clemens Alexandrinus, now lost, in which he reported, “That the person who had accused James, observing the courage with which he bore his testimony to Christianity, was converted, and suffered martyrdom with him;” but it seems very beautifully observed by Clarius, who had a great deal of the true spirit of criticism, that this early execution of one of the apostles, after our Lord’s death, would illustrate the courage of the rest in going on with their ministry; as it would evidently shew, that even all their miraculous powers did not secure them from dying by the sword of their enemies. Hereby the number of apostles was reduced to eleven; but no other apostle was substituted in the stead of James, nor had the apostles any successors in their apostolic office, authority, and dignity
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
2 And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.
Ver. 2. And he killed James the brother ] So styled to distinguish him from the other James, called James the Less, kinsman to Christ, and bishop of Jerusalem, as the ancients style him. (Chrysost. Hom. xxxiii, in Act.) It was wonder that Herod killed no more, seeing this took so well with the people, whose favour he coveted. When Stephen the protomartyr of the Church was stoned, Dorotheus testifieth that two thousand other believers were put to death the same day; but God hath set bounds to that sea of malice that is in persecutors’ hearts, which they cannot go beyond: Psa 76:10 ; “The remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.”
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
2. ] Of him we know nothing besides what is related in the Gospels. He was the son of Zebedee, called ( Mat 4:21 ) together with John his brother: was one of the favoured Three admitted to the death-chamber of Jairus’s daughter ( Mar 5:37 ), to the mount of transfiguration ( Mat 17:1 ), and to the agony in the garden ( Mat 26:37 ). He, together with John his brother (named by our Lord ‘Boanerges,’ ‘sons of thunder’), wished to call down fire on the inhospitable Samaritans ( Luk 9:54 ), and prayed that his brother and himself might sit, one on the right hand and the other on the left, in the Lord’s kingdom ( Mat 20:20-24 ). It was then that He foretold to them their drinking of the cup of suffering and being baptized with the baptism which He was baptized with: a prophecy which James was the first to fulfil.
This is the only Apostle of whose death we have any certain record . With regard to all the rest, tradition varies, more or less, as to the place, or the manner, or the time of their deaths.
Eusebius, H. E. ii. 9, relates, from the Hypotyposes of Clemens, who had received it , that the accuser of James, struck by his confession, became a Christian, and was led away with him to martyrdom, , , . , , , . .
] Probably according to the Roman method of beheading, which became common among the later Jews. It was a punishment accounted extremely disgraceful by the Jews: see Lightf. in loc.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 12:2 . , characteristic word, see on v. Act 5:33 . . .: St. Chrysostom reminds us of our Lord’s prophecy in Mar 10:38 ff. (Mat 20:23 ), distinguished thus from the James of Act 1:13 . Possibly his prominent position, and his characteristic nature as a son of Thunder marked him out as an early victim. : so in the case of John the Baptist. This mode of death was regarded as very disgraceful among the Jews (J. Lightfoot, Wetstein), and as in the Baptist’s case so here, the mode of execution shows that the punishment was not for blasphemy, but that James was apprehended and killed by the political power. For the touching account of his martyrdom narrated by Clement of Alexandria, see Eus., H. E. , ii., 9. Whatever St. Luke’s reason for the brevity of the account, whether he knew no more, or whether he intended to write a third book giving an account of the other Apostles besides Peter and Paul, and so only mentioned here what concerned the following history (so Meyer, but see Wendt, p. 267 (1888)), his brief notice is at least in striking contrast ( , Chrys.) with the details of later martyrologies.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Acts
THE MARTYRDOM OF JAMES
Act 12:2
One might have expected more than a clause to be spared to tell the death of a chief man and the first martyr amongst the Apostles. James, as we know, was one of the group of the Apostles who were in especially close connection with Jesus Christ. He is associated in the Gospels with Peter and his brother John, and is always named before John, as if he were the more important of the two, by reason of age or of other circumstances unknown to us. But yet we know next to nothing about him. In the Acts of the Apostles he is a mere lay figure; his name is only mentioned in the catalogue at the beginning, and here again in the brief notice of his death. The reticent and merely incidental character of the notice of his martyrdom is sufficiently remarkable. I think the lessons of the fact, and of the, I was going to say, slight way in which the writer of this book refers to it, may perhaps be most pointedly brought out if we take four contrasts-James and Stephen, James and Peter, James and John, James and James. Now, if we take these four I think we shall learn something.
I. First, then, James and Stephen.
I might suggest, too, in like manner, that there is another contrast which I have not included in my four, between the scale on which the death of Jesus Christ is told by Luke, and that on which this death is narrated. What is the reason why so disproportionate a space of the Gospel is concerned with the last two days of our Lord’s life on earth? What is the reason why years are leaped over in silence and moments are spread out in detail, but that the death of a man is only a death, but the death of the Christ is the life of the world? It is little needful that we should have poetical, emotional, picturesque descriptions of martyrdoms and the like in a book which is altogether devoted to tracking the footsteps of Christ in history; and which regards men as nothing more than the successive instruments of His purpose, and the depositories of His grace.
Another lesson which we may draw from the reticence in the case of the Apostle, and the expansiveness in the case of the protomartyr, is that of a wise indifference to the utterly insignificant accident of posthumous memory or oblivion of us and our deeds and sufferings. James sleeps none the less sweetly in his grave, or, rather, wakes none the less triumphantly in heaven, because his life and death are both so scantily narrated. If we ‘self-infold the large results’ of faithful service, we need not trouble ourselves about its record on earth.
But another lesson which may be learned from this cursory notice of the Apostle’s martyrdom is-how small a thing death really is! Looked at from beside the Lord of life and death, which is the point of view of the author of this narrative, ‘great death’ dwindles to a very little thing. We need to revise our notions if we would understand how trivial it really is. To us it frowns like a black cliff blocking the upper end of our valley, but there is a path round its base, and though the throat of the pass be narrow, it has room for us to get through and up to the sunny uplands beyond. From a mountain top the country below seems level plain, and what looked like an impassable precipice has dwindled to be indistinguishable. The triviality of death, to those who look upon it from the heights of eternity, is well represented by these brief words which tell of the first breach thereby in the circle of the Apostles.
II. There is another contrast, James and Peter.
So all these little explanations do not go down to the bottom of the matter, and we are obliged just to leave the whole question in the loving Hands that hold the keys of life and death for us all. Only we may be sure of this, that James was as dear to Christ as Peter was, and that there was no greater love shown in sending the angel that delivered the one out of the ‘hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews,’ than was shown in sending the angel that stood behind the headsman and directed the stroke of the fatal sword on the neck of the other.
The one was as dear to the Christ as the other-ay, and the one was as surely, and more blessedly, delivered ‘from the mouth of the lion’ as the other was, though the one seemed to be dragged from his teeth, and the other seemed to be crushed by his powerful jaws. James escaped from Herod when Herod slew him but could not make him unfaithful to his Master, and his deliverance was not less complete than the deliverance of his friend.
But let us remember, also, that if thus, to two equally beloved, there were dealt out these two different fates, it must be because that evil, which, as I said, is not so great as it looks, is also not so bitter as it tastes, and there is no real evil, for the loving heart, in the stroke that breaks its bands and knits it to Jesus Christ. If we are Christians, the deepest desire of our souls is fuller communion with our Lord. We realise that, in some stunted and scanty measure, by life; but oh! is it not strange that we should shrink from that change which will enable us to realise it fully and eternally? The contrast of James and Peter may teach us the equal love that presides over the life of the living and the death of the dying.
III. Another contrast is that of James and John.
Ah! may we not learn the lesson that we should recognise the mercy and wisdom of the ministry of Death the separator, and should tread with patience the lonely road, do calmly the day’s work, and tarry till He comes, though those that stood beside us be gone? We may look forward with the assurance that ‘God keeps a niche in heaven to hide our idols’; and ‘albeit He breaks them to our face,’ yet shall we find them again, like Memnon’s statue, vocal in the rising sunshine of the heavens.
The brothers, so closely knit, so soon parted, so long separated, were at last reunited. Even to us here, with the chronology of earth still ours, the few years between the early martyrdom of James and the death of the centenarian John seem but a span. The lapse of the centuries that have rolled away since then makes the difference of the dates of the two deaths seem very small, even to us. What a mere nothing it will have looked to them, joined together once more before God!
IV. Lastly, James and James. In his hot youth, when he deserved the name of a son of thunder-so energetic, boisterous, I suppose, destructive perhaps, he was-he and his brother, and their foolish mother, whose name is kindly not told us, go to Christ and say, ‘Grant that we may sit, the one on Thy right hand and the other on Thy left, in Thy kingdom.’ That was what he wished and hoped for, and what he got was years of service, and a taste of persecution, and finally the swish of the headsman’s sword.
And so our dreams get disappointed, and their disappointment is often the road to their fulfilment, for Jesus Christ was answering James’ prayer, ‘Grant that we may sit on Thy right hand in Thy kingdom,’ when He called him to Himself, by the brief and bloody passage of martyrdom. James said, when he did not know what he meant, and the vow was noble though it was ignorant, ‘we can drink of the cup that Thou drinkest.’ And all honour to him! he stuck to his vow; and when the cup was proffered to him he manfully, and like a Christian, took it and drank it to the dregs; and, I suppose, went silently to his grave. But the change between his ardent anticipations and his calm resignation, and between his foolish dream and the stern reality, may well teach us that, whether our wishes he fulfilled or disappointed, they all need to be purified, and that the disappointment of them on earth is often God’s way of fulfilling them for us in higher fashion than we dreamed or asked.
So, brethren, let us leave for ourselves, and for all dear ones, that question of living or dying, to His decision. Only let us be sure that whether our lives be long like John’s, or short like James’, ‘living or dying we are the Lord’s.’ And then, whatever be the length of life or the manner of death, both will bring us the fulfilment of our highest wishes, and will lead us to His side at whose right hand all those shall sit who have loved Him here, and, though long parted, shall be reunited in common enjoyment of the pleasures for evermore which bloom unfading there. ‘And so shall we ever be with the Lord.’
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
killed. Greek. anaireo. See note on Act 2:23.
James. App-141.
John. App-141. The last historical reference to John.
sword. Death by the sword was regarded by the Rabbis as particularly disgraceful.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
2. ] Of him we know nothing besides what is related in the Gospels. He was the son of Zebedee, called (Mat 4:21) together with John his brother: was one of the favoured Three admitted to the death-chamber of Jairuss daughter (Mar 5:37), to the mount of transfiguration (Mat 17:1), and to the agony in the garden (Mat 26:37). He, together with John his brother (named by our Lord Boanerges, sons of thunder), wished to call down fire on the inhospitable Samaritans (Luk 9:54),-and prayed that his brother and himself might sit, one on the right hand and the other on the left, in the Lords kingdom (Mat 20:20-24). It was then that He foretold to them their drinking of the cup of suffering and being baptized with the baptism which He was baptized with: a prophecy which James was the first to fulfil.
This is the only Apostle of whose death we have any certain record. With regard to all the rest, tradition varies, more or less, as to the place, or the manner, or the time of their deaths.
Eusebius, H. E. ii. 9, relates, from the Hypotyposes of Clemens, who had received it , that the accuser of James, struck by his confession, became a Christian, and was led away with him to martyrdom, , , . , , , . .
] Probably according to the Roman method of beheading, which became common among the later Jews. It was a punishment accounted extremely disgraceful by the Jews: see Lightf. in loc.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Act 12:2. , James the brother of John) The one of these two brothers left the world at the earliest time, the other at a time long subsequent. At the time that Luke wrote, John, who survived, was better known than James, who is designated from John.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
James: Mat 4:21, Mat 4:22, Mat 20:23, Mar 10:35, Mar 10:38
with: 1Ki 19:1, 1Ki 19:10, Jer 26:23, Heb 11:37
Reciprocal: 1Sa 17:36 – seeing Psa 37:14 – wicked Dan 11:33 – yet Mat 10:2 – James Mat 23:34 – ye Mat 24:9 – shall they Mar 1:19 – James Mar 6:21 – when Mar 10:39 – Ye Luk 6:14 – James Luk 11:49 – and some Luk 21:16 – and some Act 1:13 – Peter
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
A GREAT APOSTLE
James the brother of John.
Act 12:2
Within the broad circle of the Apostles characters, their lives, histories, examples, the follower of Christ finds experiences which he, to some extent at all events, walks amongst and shares in.
James and John, sons of Zebedee and Salome, known better as the sons of thunder, from their zeal and fiery faith, had been called by Christ from fishing on the blue waters of the Galilan lake to fish for the souls of men. And how close to the side of their beloved Lord were they on great occasions, admitted to see what prophets and kings had not beheld!
We think now chiefly of St. James.
I. He had to learn much about his hidden life.Partly ignorant yet of the new law of love, which taught men to bless their persecutors, the eager disciple was ready to ask for fire from above to consume the graceless Samaritans who refused hospitality to Jesus. But the patient and gracious Master bade His mistaken follower to suspend his erring zeal, perhaps reminding him that such ideas could only go to prove St. Jamess ignorance of his own heart. Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. (A.V.) How long does it take to convince us of the deceitfulness of our hearts! Much did the afterwards mighty Apostle need at that time the influence of the Holy Spirit, to add to his faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, to knowledge temperance, to temperance patience, crowned with godliness, and overshadowed by brotherly kindliness and charity.
II. St. James was to have his character formed bit by bit.Each circumstance, each temptation, each danger, each spiritual advantage was to be the means, under God, of raising up within him a complete structure of holiness.
(a) If he had not wished to call down fire from heaven, he would never have received the timely rebuke of his dear Lord; and if he had not received that he would not have learnt so well his own mistaken zeal. He had to learn that though the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent, the earnest, take it by force, yet the servant of God must not strive in violence with his fellow-men to their hurt or loss or pain.
(b) He had to grasp another lesson from the Saviours answer to Salome, when for her sons, James and John, she begged a very high place in Messiahs kingdom. St. James needed to learn that ambition is not a fruit of pleasant savour in a servant of Christ. Truly has it been said of the ambassadors of Jesus that ambition in their order is apostasy against their Lord.
III. History is constantly repeating itselfthe great and good taken away when they seem most wanted. Only the earnest faith and Divine support of the little Christian band could have prevented its utter collapse in such a crisis as the martyrdom of St. James. Yet, as we know, it grew and flourished, proving thereby that it had a strength which must be supernatural. He Who loved His Church and gave Himself for it, would thus develop out of its midst new ventures of courage, new launchings forth of faith.
Rev. C. G. H. Baskcomb.
Illustration
The Bible, as a rule, does not dwell so much upon the persons of those who worked with the Lord as upon the work which they were instrumental in bringing out. The author of the Acts of the Apostles reminds us that, in the former treatise which he wrote, he set forth all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day He was taken up; and surely this second book might be described as having for its theme all that Jesus intended to do and to teach after He was taken up. The theme of the remainder of the books of the New Testament is the life, and the work, and the personality of the eternal, the Incarnate Son of God, and so it matters not very much by whom or through whose instrumentality the work was carried on. James and the other ten Apostles appear, perhaps, every now and then, as elements and factors in that workthey are not really the persons by whom that work was accomplished. Oh, if we could only remember that we are, after all, but instruments of the Hand of God! If we could lose sight of individual human personality, and make much of that work which through human agents our Lord Jesus Christ continues to do!
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
2
Act 12:2. This James was one of the sons of Zebedee (Mat 4:21).
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Act 12:2. And he killed James the brother of John. After eleven years of patient noble work, the brother of John received one portion of the high reward which Salome had asked for her sons (Mat 20:21). He was the first of the Twelve to drink of the cup of which Christ drank, and to be baptized with the baptism with which He was baptized. James the Elder, the son of Zebedee the fisherman of Galilee, and of his wife Salome, the brother of John, was marked out by the Lord early in His ministry for a chief place among the future leaders of His Church. The chosen companions of Jesus, the two sons of Zebedee, with Peter, were alone permitted to witness the raising of the little daughter of Jairus from the dead,they only were present at the mysterious Transfiguration of the Lord,they were the solitary witnesses of the agony in Gethsemane.
The name of these chosen brothers, Sons of Thunder, gives us the clue to the reason of the Masters choice. This singular name bears witness to the burning and impetuous spirit which later in John found vent in his Gospel, and still more in the thunder-voices of his Apocalypse; and with James in those bold vigorous words in which, so often during his eleven years of ministry to the churches of the Holy Land, he had caused the thunder of the Divine displeasure against hypocrisy, formalism, and darker sins than these to be heard. His burning words, backed up by the noble testimony of a saintly life, no doubt won him the proud honour among the Twelve of the first martyr crown. Chrysostom tells us that Herod, wishful to gratify the Jews, could think of no gift likely to be so acceptable to the people as the life of one so honoured and yet so dreaded. The very few words with which the writer of the Acts relates the fate of this distinguished Christian leader have been supplemented by a great mass of legendary stories, which connect the martyred apostle with Spain. These legends relate how the remains of James were translated to Compostella, and explain how it came to pass that he was adopted as the favourite saint, the hero of romance, and the protector of the chivalry of Spain. One tradition only is well supported, and we may accept it as most probably historically true. Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 195) relates it, and expressly states that the account was giver him by those who went before him. Clement relates how the prosecutor of St. James was so moved by witnessing his bold confession that he declared himself a Christian on the spot; accused and accuser were therefore hurried off together, and on the road the latter begged St. James to grant him forgiveness. The apostle after a moments hesitation kissed him, saying, Peace be to thee, and they were both beheaded together.
With the sword. This mode of punishment was regarded among the Jews as a disgraceful death. Various reasons have been given for the extreme brevity of the account of the martyrdom of one so eminent in the early Church. Meyer suggests that in the original plan of the writer of the Acts a third book was contemplated. The first, the Gospel of St. Luke: an Account of the Life and Teaching of the Lord; the second, the Acts: the History of the Working of Peter and Paul; the third, which was never undertaken, was to be the relation of the Acts of the other apostles. But this, though an ingenious, is a purely arbitrary supposition. Wordsworths note here is very striking: It was no part of St. Lukes plan to write a martyrology. His work is the book of their acts in life, not of their sufferings by death. He does not describe deathbeds,the martyrdom of life is what he teaches; he fixes the readers attention on that, and thus leads us to conclude that they who live as martyrs will die as martyrs, and that the true way to die well is to live well. . . . Having described one martyrdom, that of St. Stephen, … he leaves his readers to infer that the same Spirit who encouraged and animated the first martyr in his death, was with the whole of the noble army of martyrs who followed him on the road of suffering to glory; he therefore will not describe the martyrdom of St. James . . . nor even of St. Paul.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
Note here, 1. The person slain by the sword of Herod, James the brother of John. We read in the gospel that he was one of the sons of Zebedee, that desired of Christ the pre-eminence to sit at his right hand in his kingdom: and now he is the first of the apostles that suffered matrydom who drank of Christ’s cup, and was baptized with his baptism. He was called Boanerges, or a son of thunder, for his zealous and earnest preaching: No wonder then that Herod and the enraged Jews hated him, and were stirred up by Satan to destroy him. For such as are most useful to, and most eminent in the church, are always the objects of Satan’s wrath and anger, and of the persecutor’s rage and fury: “He killed James the brother of John with the sword.”
Observe, 2. James being slain, Peter is to follow; “He proceeded further to take Peter also.” The rage of persecutors is not easily satisfied, and the blood which they shed, is but oil to feed the flames of their revenge.
But mark the over-ruling power and goodness of God, though St. James was murdered, St. Peter shall be but imprisoned: The husbandman doth not permit all his corn to the oven, but saves some for seed.
Persecutors cannot do all the mischief they would, and they shall not do all they can.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
See notes one verse 1
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
12:2 And he {b} killed James the brother of John with the sword.
(b) Violently, his cause not being heard at all.