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Acts 12:2

King James Version (KJV)

And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.

Translations

Acts 12:2 - Amplified Bible

And he killed James the brother of John with a sword;

Acts 12:2 - American Standard Version

And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.

Acts 12:2 - Bible in Basic English

And he put James, the brother of John, to death with the sword.

Acts 12:2 - Darby Bible

and slew James, the brother of John, with the sword.

Acts 12:2 - English Standard Version

He killed James the brother of John with the sword,

Acts 12:2 - King James Version

And he killed James the brother of John with the sword.

Acts 12:2 - La Biblia de las Americas

E hizo matar a espada a Jacobo (O, Santiago), el hermano de Juan.

Acts 12:2 - The Message

Acts 12:2 - New American Standard Bible

And he had James the brother of John put to death with a sword.

Acts 12:2 - Nueva Biblia Latinoamericana de Hoy

Hizo matar a espada a Jacobo (Santiago), el hermano de Juan.

Acts 12:2 - World English Bible

He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword.

Acts 12:2 - Young's Living Translation

and he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword,

Acts 12:2 - Additional Comments

This was James the apostle (Matt 10:2), as compared to James the brother of Jesus (Mark 6:3, Acts 12:17).
James was one of the apostles at the transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-2).
Jesus called James one of the Sons of Thunder (Mark 3:17), which may have indicated he was a fiery preacher. This may have led to his execution.
This fulfilled Jesus' prediction that he would be baptized with the same baptism with which Jesus was baptized (Matthew 20:23).
He was one of the 12 designated to disciple the nations, and his killing here was like when Abel was killed, ready to populate the world, but faced an early death. Yet, the blood of the saints is precious in His sight, so surely his blood was not shed without valuable consideration. See later in this chapter (vss 7-17) how God did intervene to likely save Peter's life. God always has the power to intervene and rescue or heal, but sometime chooses not to.
His death obviously was in God's perfect plan, possibly to disperse the disciples to other areas besides Jerusalem, possibly to show and prepare them what they may be facing.
He was probably killed in private, in prison, as was John the Baptist. James was slain as were many of God's saints before the time of Christ (Heb 11:37-39).
The first preachers of the gospel were so assured of the truth that they sealed it with their blood, which tells us that if we are called to do the same, we should react in the same way.
Persecution
* In the late 1990s an average of 160,000 Christians were killed because of their faith each year.
* "Martyr" literally means "witness", meaning one who bears witness by his death, or one who suffers death rather than renounce his religion. See Rev 2:13, 17:6.
How do people stand strong under persecution?
1. They realize that God has a specific purpose for their life.
2. Their ultimate goal is to fulfill that purpose
3. Everything else pales in comparison to that goal
4. Therefore, anything that happens to them as a result of performing that work is acceptable because they are doing the most important thing that they could possibly be doing in their life.

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