'  This  we  conolude  from  the  expression  in  verse  17.  But  if  John  (Gal  ii  9)  or
others  had  remained,  this  wonld  not  have  interfered  with  the  position  of  James  as
explained  below.  >  Gp.  xv  19,  xxi  18,  Gal  i  19,  ii  9, 12.  ^  xi  30 :  cp.  zv  4,

6,  22,  xxi  18,  Jas  v  14.  •  vi  1-6.
XII  «0  THE  DEATH  OF  HEROD  181

with  a  more  definite  authority,  and  such  a  body  we  now  find  in  James
and  the  presbyters.
§  3    The  judgement  of  Herod

It  had  been  a  '  day  of  visitation '  for  the  church.  James  was  slain  :
but  sorrow  had  been  turned  into  joy  by  the  deliverance — abnost  a
resurrection — of  S.  Peter.  And  now  'the  judgement  which  had
begun  at  the  house  of  God*'  is  going  to  pass  over  to  the  adversaries,
and  the  first  part  of  the  Acts  will  close  with  a  *  day  of  the  Lord,'  a
scene  of  judgement.  The  angel  of  the  Lord  who  had  delivered  Peter
was  now  to  smite  Herod  the  persecutor.  He  had  *  smitten'  Peter*,  and
we  see  that  the  same  divine  visitation  may  be  for  life  or  for  death.
Herod  Agrippa  is  the  NT  antit3rpe  of  Pharaoh  and  Sennacherib,  the
oppressor  smitten  by  the  angel  of  the  Lord*.
