King Herod causes trouble for believers
1 At that time, King Herod took hold of some of the group of believers in Jerusalem. He wanted to cause them to suffer. 2 He sent his soldiers to cut off James's head. James was John's brother.
3 King Herod saw that the Jews were happy because he had killed James. So he sent his soldiers to take hold of Peter too. This happened during the Festival of Flat Bread.
12:3During the week of the Passover Festival, Jews did not use any yeast to make their bread.
4 After the soldiers caught Peter, they put him in prison. While he was in prison, four different groups of soldiers guarded him. There were four soldiers in each group. Herod wanted to judge Peter in front of everybody. After the Passover Festival had finished, he would bring Peter out of the prison to do this.
5 So Herod kept Peter in prison. But during that time, the group of believers prayed that God would help Peter.
