And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. And when she knew Peter’s voice,* she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before the gate.* And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. Then said they, It is his angel.*
But Peter continued knocking: and when they had opened the door, and saw him, they were astonished. But he, beckoning unto them with the hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison.* And he said, Go shew these things unto James, and to the brethren.* And he departed, and went into another place.
Now as soon as it was day, there was no small stir among the soldiers, what was become of Peter. And when Herod had sought for him, and found him not, he examined the keepers, and commanded that they should be put to death.* And he went down from Judaea to Caesarea, and there abode.
Taken from [getkjvref:Acts 12].
From The Acts of the Apostles, Chapter 12, by St Luke (1st century AD), as translated in the Authorised Version of the Bible, published under the authority of King James VI and I in 1611.
* We recall that these events took place at night, so Rhoda had only a voice in the dark to judge by. The house seems to have been set back from the street.
* St John Chrysostom (?347-407), Archbishop of Constantinople, felt that Rhoda’s reaction confirmed that from the very first, Christianity had downplayed distinctions of caste. “And mark” he said, when commenting on Rhoda’s unabashed joy at hearing Peter’s voice, “how the very servant-girls were henceforth upon an equality with them”.
* Much debate has surrounded this ‘angel’ from ancient times; commenting on this passage, John Chrysostom remarked non-committally that “This is a truth, that each man has an Angel”. By far the simplest explanation, however, lies in the fact that ‘messenger’ in Greek is ἄγγελος, the same word as ‘angel’: perhaps the suggestion was simply that Rhoda had mistaken some errand-runner carrying a message from Peter for Peter himself. The AV translates ἄγγελος as ‘messenger’ in e.g. Luke 7:24 and James 2:25.
* John Chrysostom was much impressed by this. Peter did not care about the hue and cry that must already have been underway. To lose no time in telling his amazing story, he stood recklessly on the street in the cool night air, in full public view and surrounded by lamp-bearing friends.
* This was not James the brother of John, who had been executed, but James ‘the brother of the Lord’, i.e. a close kinsman of Jesus (who of course had no true brothers or sisters), at that time governing the community in Jerusalem as their first Bishop.
* John Chrysostom speculated as to why God let this happen. He recalled that Herod the Great had slain the innocent children of Bethlehem in maniacal revenge for the deception of the Magi, so why did Peter’s gaolers stay to be interrogated by Herod’s notoriously peevish grandson? They must have seen the chains, and seen too how Peter eluded sixteen professional soldiers in passing through two prison wards. They had, Chrysostom felt, been given opportunity enough; when St Paul later escaped from prison under similar circumstances, his gaolers were wiser, and prudently lost themselves among the Christians. See Acts 16.