Persecution continues (Acts 12)

Meanwhile, King Herod starts arresting believers.  He has the Apostle James, the brother of John, executed.  James was quietly a stand out Apostle.  He joined Jesus' ministry early on and witnessed the transfiguration of Jesus, but quietly took a back to seat in the text to Peter and John.  

This fairly early execution date for James also makes it difficult to attribute the Epistle of James to him.  However, there is another James among the original Apostles, plus one of Jesus' (half-)brothers is named James.

Meanwhile, the Jews were pleased with Herod killing James.  So, Herod arrested Peter right before Passover with the intent on having him have a public trial.  This sounds a lot like what happened to Jesus and the similarity was probably not lost on those involved.  

Herod has Peter imprisoned and guarded by 16 soldiers.  Peter is sleeping in a jail cell and chained to several soldiers.  Late at night, an angel wakes him up.  The chains fall off his wrist.  Peter follows the angel out of the jail, thinking the whole thing is a vision or a dream.  Finally, Peter ends up on the street and the angel leaves him.  He then understands that he has been set free.

Peter goes to the house of Mary, mother of John-Mark.  This is the first time that John-Mark is specifically mentioned and people believe that he is the author of the Gospel of Mark.  Later in this chapter, John-Mark starts traveling with Saul and Barnabas,.

Peter meets with other believers, tells them what happened, and they go to another place.  This time, he probably remained in hiding.  The first time that an angel released him from prison, he went back to the temple courts and preached he next day.  Here, people are actively looking to kill him.

The next day, Herod hears of the escape and has the guards executed.

Later, Herod goes to Caesarea where a crowd declares that he is a god.  At this moment, God strikes Herod dead.  It seems that for the Gospel to continue, certain enemies had to go.  Herod die and the church continues to grow.

The chapter concludes with the trip of Barnabas and Saul to Antioch from Jerusalem, bringing with them John-Mark.  This also suggests that John-Mark was present in his mother's house when Peter showed up after his escape.