The Rescue of Peter

While the church prays fervently, Peter sleeps chained between soldiers on the night before Herod means to bring him out. An angel appears, wakes him, causes his chains to fall, leads him past the guards and through the gate, and Peter finally realizes the Lord has truly rescued him from Herod's grasp and from what the people expected.

S⁵o Peter was kept in prison, but the church was fervently praying to God for him. ⁶On the night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, with sentries standing guard at the entrance to the prison. ⁷Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He tapped Peter on the side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly.” And the chains fell off his wrists. ⁸“Get dressed and put on your sandals,” said the angel. Peter did so, and the angel told him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” ⁹So Peter followed him out, but he was unaware that what the angel was doing was real. He thought he was only seeing a vision. ¹⁰They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city, which opened for them by itself. When they had gone outside and walked the length of one block, the angel suddenly left him. ¹¹Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent His angel and rescued me from Herod’s grasp and from everything the Jewish people were anticipating.”

Peter goes to the house of Mary the mother of John Mark, where many are gathered in prayer. Rhoda recognizes his voice and runs inside without opening the gate, the group can hardly believe her, and when they finally see Peter he tells them how the Lord brought him out and asks that James and the brothers be told before leaving for another place.

¹²And when he had realized this, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered together and were praying. ¹³He knocked at the outer gate, and a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer it. ¹⁴When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed that she forgot to open the gate, but ran inside and announced, “Peter is standing at the gate!” ¹⁵“You are out of your mind,” they told her. But when she kept insisting it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.” ¹⁶But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astounded. ¹⁷Peter motioned with his hand for silence, and he described how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. “Send word to James and to the brothers,” he said, and he left for another place.

At daybreak the soldiers are thrown into confusion over Peter's absence, and Herod's search comes to nothing. He examines the guards, orders their execution, and then goes down from Judea to Caesarea and stays there.

¹⁸At daybreak there was no small commotion among the soldiers as to what had become of Peter. ¹⁹After Herod had searched for him unsuccessfully, he examined the guards and ordered that they be executed. Then he went down from Judea to Caesarea and spent some time there.