Now as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers over what had become of Peter.
All Commentaries on Acts 12:18 Go To Acts 12
John Chrysostom
AD 407
For if the Angel had brought out the soldiers also, along with Peter, it would have been thought a case of flight. Then why, you may ask, was it not otherwise managed? Why, where is the harm? Now, if we see that they who have suffered unjustly, take no harm, we shall not raise these questions. For why do you not say the same of James? Why did not (God) rescue him? There was no small stir among the soldiers. So (clearly) had they perceived nothing (of what had happened). Lo, I take up the plea in their defence. The chains were there, and the keepers within, and the prison shut, nowhere a wall broken through, all told the same tale: the man had been carried off: why do you condemn them? Had they wished to let him off, they would have done it before, or would have gone out with him. But he gave them money? Acts 3:6 And how should he, who had not to give even to a poor man, have the means to give to these? And then neither had the chains been broken, nor were they loosed. He ought to have seen, that the thing was of God, and no work of man. And he went down from Judea to Cæsarea, and there abode. And Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon, etc.
