Later text
Acts 12:4BSB
He arrested him and put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out to the people after the Passover.
Intertextuality Pair
Acts 12:4 → 1 Kings 19:5
Echo
Earlier text
1 Kings 19:5BSB
Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”
+ 3 more earlier texts
Earlier text
1 Kings 19:5BSB
Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.”
Earlier text
Daniel 3:25BSB
“Look!” he exclaimed. “I see four men, unbound and unharmed, walking around in the fire—and the fourth looks like a son of the gods!”
Earlier text
Daniel 6:23BSB
The king was overjoyed and gave orders to lift Daniel out of the den, and when Daniel was lifted out of the den, no wounds whatsoever were found on him, because he had trusted in his God.
Significance
Peter, chained between soldiers and asleep, is roused by an angel and led to freedom (Acts 12:4-8) — a scene that echoes the fugitive Elijah, who lay down and slept until "an angel touched him and said, 'Get up and eat'" (1 Kings 19:5), and the faithful preserved amid deadly danger like Daniel among the lions and his friends in the fire (Daniel 3:25; 6:23). The angel's ministry to God's endangered servant is a recurring mercy in Scripture. By analogy, Peter joins that company of the divinely-attended: the Lord sends His angel to sustain and rescue His own in the hour of extremity. The connection assures the church that the God of Elijah and Daniel is the God of the apostles, and it points to the greater deliverance in which the ministering spirits are sent to serve those who will inherit salvation in Christ (Hebrews 1:14).
- Found via
- Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
- Reference Type
- Echo
- Connection Method(s)
- Analogy