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 Programming Quantum
Computers
Essential Algorithms and Code Samples

Eric R. Johnston, Nic Harrigan, and Mercedes

Gimeno-Segovia
Programming Quantum Computers
by Eric R. Johnston, Nic Harrigan, and Mercedes Gimeno-Segovia
Copyright © 2019 Eric R. Johnston, Nic Harrigan, and Mercedes
Gimeno-Segovia. All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North,
Sebastopol, CA 95472.
O’Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales
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[email protected].

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Illustrator: Rebecca Demarest

July 2019: First Edition

Revision History for the First Edition
2019-07-03: First Release

See http://oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=9781492039686 for

release details.
The O’Reilly logo is a registered trademark of O’Reilly Media, Inc.
Programming Quantum Computers, the cover image, and related
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The views expressed in this work are those of the authors, and do
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including without limitation responsibility for damages resulting from
the use of or reliance on this work. Use of the information and
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subject to open source licenses or the intellectual property rights of
others, it is your responsibility to ensure that your use thereof
complies with such licenses and/or rights.
978-1-492-03968-6
[LSI]
Preface

Quantum computers are no longer theoretical devices.

The authors of this book believe that the best uses for a new
technology are not necessarily discovered by its inventors, but by
domain experts experimenting with it as a new tool for their work.
With that in mind, this book is a hands-on programmer’s guide to
using quantum computing technology. In the chapters ahead, you’ll
become familiar with symbols and operations such as those in
Figure P-1, and learn how to apply them to problems you care
about.

Figure P-1. Quantum programs can look a bit like sheet music
How This Book Is Structured
A tried-and-tested approach for getting hands-on with new
programming paradigms is to learn a set of conceptual primitives.
For example, anyone learning Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)
programming should first focus on mastering the concept of
parallelism, rather than on syntax or hardware specifics.
The heart of this book focuses on building an intuition for a set of
quantum primitives—ideas forming a toolbox of building blocks for
problem-solving with a QPU. To prepare you for these primitives, we
first introduce the basic concepts of qubits (the rules of the game, if
you like). Then, after outlining a set of Quantum Processing Unit
(QPU) primitives, we show how they can be used as building blocks
within useful QPU applications.
Consequently, this book is divided into three parts. The reader is
encouraged to become familiar with Part I and gain some hands-on
experience before proceeding to the more advanced parts:
Part I: Programming a QPU
Here we introduce the core concepts required to program a QPU,
such as qubits, essential instructions, utilizing superposition, and
even quantum teleportation. Examples are provided, which can
be easily run using simulators or a physical QPU.

Part II: QPU Primitives

The second part of the book provides detail on some essential
algorithms and techniques at a higher level. These include
amplitude amplification, the Quantum Fourier Transform, and
phase estimation. These can be considered “library functions”
that programmers call to build applications. Understanding how
they work is essential to becoming a skilled QPU programmer. An
 active community of researchers is working on developing new
QPU primitives, so expect this library to grow in the future.

Part III: QPU Applications

The world of QPU applications—which combine the primitives
from Part II to perform useful real-world tasks—is evolving as
rapidly as QPUs themselves. Here we introduce examples of
existing applications.
By the end of the book we hope to provide the reader with an
understanding of what quantum applications can do, what makes
them powerful, and how to identify the kinds of problems that they
can solve.

Conventions Used in This Book

The following typographical conventions are used in this book:
Italic
Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, filenames, and file
extensions.

Constant width
Used for program listings, as well as within paragraphs to refer to
program elements such as variable or function names, databases,
data types, environment variables, statements, and keywords.

Constant width bold

Shows commands or other text that should be typed literally by
the user.

Constant width italic

Shows text that should be replaced with user-supplied values or
by values determined by context.
 TIP
This element signifies a tip or suggestion.

NOTE
This element signifies a general note.

WARNING
This element indicates a warning or caution.

Using Code Examples

Supplemental material (code examples, exercises, etc.) is available
for download at https://oreilly-qc.github.io.
This book is here to help you get your job done. In general, if
example code is offered with this book, you may use it in your
programs and documentation. You do not need to contact us for
permission unless you’re reproducing a significant portion of the
code. For example, writing a program that uses several chunks of
code from this book does not require permission. Selling or
distributing a CD-ROM of examples from O’Reilly books does require
permission. Answering a question by citing this book and quoting
example code does not require permission. Incorporating a
significant amount of example code from this book into your
product’s documentation does require permission.
We appreciate, but do not require, attribution. An attribution usually
includes the title, author, publisher, and ISBN. For example:
“Programming Quantum Computers by Eric R. Johnston, Nic
Harrigan, and Mercedes Gimeno-Segovia (O’Reilly). Copyright 2019
Eric R. Johnston, Nic Harrigan, and Mercedes Gimeno-Segovia, 978-
1-492-03968-6.”
If you feel your use of code examples falls outside fair use or the
permission given above, feel free to contact us at
[email protected].

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Acknowledgments
This book could not have been possible without a supporting team
of talented people passionate about quantum computing. The
authors would like to thank Michele, Mike, Kim, Rebecca, Chris, and
the technical team at O’Reilly for sharing and amplifying our
enthusiasm for the topic. Although the authors are responsible for all
errors and omissions, this book benefited immensely from the
invaluable feedback and inspiration of a number of technical
reviewers, including Konrad Kieling, Christian Sommeregger,
Mingsheng Ying, Rich Johnston, James Weaver, Mike Shapiro, Wyatt
Berlinic, and Isaac Kim.
EJ would like to thank Sue, his muse. Quantum computation started
to make sense to him on the week that they met. EJ also sends
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thanks to friends at the University of Bristol and at SolidAngle, for
encouraging him to color outside the lines.
Nic would like to thank Derek Harrigan for first teaching him to talk
binary, the other Harrigans for their love and support, and Shannon
Burns for her pending Harrigan application.
Mercedes would like to thank José María Gimeno Blay for igniting her
interest on computers early, and Mehdi Ahmadi for being a constant
source of support and inspiration.
But clichéd as it may be, most of all the authors would like to thank
you, the reader, for having the sense of adventure to pick up this
book and learn about something so different and new.
Chapter 1. Introduction

Whether you’re an expert in software engineering, computer

graphics, data science, or just a curious computerphile, this book is
designed to show how the power of quantum computing might be
relevant to you, by actually allowing you to start using it.
To facilitate this, the following chapters do not contain thorough
explanations of quantum physics (the laws underlying quantum
computing) or even quantum information theory (how those laws
determine our abilities to process information). Instead, they present
working examples providing insight into the capabilities of this
exciting new technology. Most importantly, the code we present for
these examples can be tweaked and adapted. This allows you to
learn from them in the most effective way possible: by getting
hands-on. Along the way, core concepts are explained as they are
used, and only insofar as they build an intuition for writing quantum
programs.
Our humble hope is that interested readers might be able to wield
these insights to apply and augment applications of quantum
computing in fields that physicists may not even have heard of.
Admittedly, hoping to help spark a quantum revolution isn’t that
humble, but it’s definitely exciting to be a pioneer.

Required Background
The physics underlying quantum computing is full of dense
mathematics. But then so is the physics behind the transistor, and
yet learning C++ need not involve a single physics equation. In this
book we take a similarly programmer-centric approach,
circumventing any significant mathematical background. That said,
here is a short list of knowledge that may be helpful in digesting the
concepts we introduce:

Familiarity with programming control structures (if, while,

etc.). JavaScript is used in this book to provide lightweight
access to samples that can be run online. If you’re new to
JavaScript but have some prior programming experience, the
level of background you need could likely be picked up in
less than an hour. For a more thorough introduction to
JavaScript, see Learning JavaScript by Todd Brown (O’Reilly).
Some relevant programmer-level mathematics,
necessitating:

An understanding of using mathematical functions

Familiarity with trigonometric functions
Comfort manipulating binary numbers and
converting between binary and decimal
representations
A comprehension of the basic meaning of complex
numbers

A very elementary understanding of how to assess the

computational complexity of an algorithm (i.e., big-o
notation).
One part of the book that reaches beyond these requirements is
Chapter 13, where we survey a number of applications of quantum
computing to machine learning. Due to space constraints our survey
gives only very cursory introductions to each machine-learning
application before showing how a quantum computer can provide an
advantage. Although we intend the content to be understandable to
a general reader, those wishing to really experiment with these
applications will benefit from a bit more of a machine-learning
background.
This book is about programming (not building, nor researching)
quantum computers, which is why we can do without advanced
mathematics and quantum theory. However, for those interested in
exploring the more academic literature on the topic, Chapter 14
provides some good initial references and links the concepts we
introduce to mathematical notations commonly used by the quantum
computing research community.

What Is a QPU?
Despite its ubiquity, the term “quantum computer” can be a bit
misleading. It conjures images of an entirely new and alien kind of
machine—one that supplants all existing computing software with a
futuristic alternative.
At the time of writing this is a common, albeit huge, misconception.
The promise of quantum computers stems not from them being a
conventional computer killer, but rather from their ability to
dramatically extend the kinds of problems that are tractable within
computing. There are important computational problems that are
easily calculable on a quantum computer, but that would quite
literally be impossible on any conceivable standard computing device
that we could ever hope to build.1
But crucially, these kinds of speedups have only been seen for
certain problems (many of which we later elucidate on), and
although it is anticipated that more will be discovered, it’s highly
unlikely that it would ever make sense to run all computations on a
quantum computer. For most of the tasks taking up your laptop’s
clock cycles, a quantum computer performs no better.
In other words—from the programmer’s point of view—a quantum
computer is really a co-processor. In the past, computers have used
a wide variety of co-processors, each suited to their own specialties,
such as floating-point arithmetic, signal processing, and real-time
graphics. With this in mind, we will use the term QPU (Quantum
Processing Unit) to refer to the device on which our code samples
run. We feel this reinforces the important context within which
quantum computing should be placed.
As with other co-processors such as the GPU (Graphics Processing
Unit), programming for a QPU involves the programmer writing code
that will primarily run on the CPU (Central Processing Unit) of a
normal computer. The CPU issues the QPU co-processor commands
only to initiate tasks suited to its capabilities.

A Hands-on Approach
Hands-on samples form the backbone of this book. But at the time
of writing, a full-blown, general-purpose QPU does not exist—so how
can you hope to ever run our code? Fortunately (and excitingly),
even at the time of writing a few prototype QPUs are currently
available, and can be accessed on the cloud. Furthermore, for
smaller problems it’s possible to simulate the behavior of a QPU on
conventional computing hardware. Although simulating larger QPU
programs becomes impossible, for smaller code snippets it’s a
convenient way to learn how to control an actual QPU. The code
samples in this book are compatible with both of these scenarios,
and will remain both usable and pedagogical even as more
sophisticated QPUs become available.
There are many QPU simulators, libraries, and systems available.
You can find a list of links to several well-supported systems at
http://oreilly-qc.github.io. On that page, we provide the code
samples from this book, whenever possible, in a variety of
languages. However, to prevent code samples from overwhelming
the text, we provide samples only in JavaScript for QCEngine.
QCEngine is a free online quantum computation simulator, allowing
users to run samples in a browser, with no software installation at
all. This simulator was developed by the authors, initially for their
own use and now as a companion for this book. QCEngine is
especially useful for us, both because it can be run without the need
to download any software and because it incorporates the circle
notation that we use as a visualization tool throughout the book.

A QCEngine Primer
Since we’ll rely heavily on QCEngine, it’s worth spending a little time
to see how to navigate the simulator, which you can find at
http://oreilly-qc.github.io.

Running code
The QCEngine web interface, shown in Figure 1-1, allows you to
easily produce the various visualizations that we’ll rely on. You can
create these visualizations by simply entering code into the
QCEngine code editor.

Figure 1-1. The QCEngine UI

To run one of the code samples from the book, select it from the
drop-down list at the top of the editor and click the Run Program
button. Some new interactive UI elements will appear for visualizing
the results of running your code (see Figure 1-2).
Quantum circuit visualizer
This element presents a visual representation of the circuit
representing your code. We introduce the symbols used in these
circuits in Chapters 2 and 3. This view can also be used to
interactively step through the program (see Figure 1-2).

Circle-notation visualizer
This displays the so-called circle-notation visualization of the QPU
(or simulator) register. We explain how to read and use this
notation in Chapter 2.

QCEngine output console

This is where any text appears that may have been printed from
within your code (i.e., for debugging) using the qc.print()
command. Anything printed with the standard JavaScript
console.log() function will still go to your web browser’s
JavaScript console.
 Figure 1-2. QCEngine UI elements for visualizing QPU results

Debugging code
Debugging QPU programs can be tough. Quite often the easiest way
to understand what a program is doing is to slowly step through it,
inspecting the visualizations at each step. Hovering your mouse over
the circuit visualizer, you should see a vertical orange line appear at
a fixed position and a gray vertical line wherever in the circuit your
cursor happens to be. The orange line shows which position in the
circuit (and therefore the program) the circle-notation visualizer
currently represents. By default this is the end of the program, but
by clicking other parts of the circuit, you can have the circle-notation
visualizer show the configuration of the QPU at that point in the
program. For example, Figure 1-3 shows how the circle-notation
visualizer changes as we switch between two different steps in the
default QCEngine program.
 Figure 1-3. Stepping through a QCEngine program using the circuit and circle-
notation visualizers

Having access to a QPU simulator, you’re probably keen to start

tinkering. Don’t let us stop you! In Chapter 2 we’ll walk through
code for increasingly complex QPU programs.

Native QPU Instructions

QCEngine is one of several tools allowing us to run and inspect QPU
code, but what does QPU code actually look like? Conventional high-
level languages are commonly used to control lower-level QPU
instructions (as we’ve already seen with the JavaScript-based
QCEngine). In this book we’ll regularly cross between these levels.
Describing the programming of a QPU with distinctly quantum
machine-level operations helps us get to grips with the fundamental
novel logic of a QPU, while seeing how to manipulate these
operations from higher-level conventional languages like JavaScript,
Python, or C++ gives us a more pragmatic paradigm for actually
writing code. The definition of new, bespoke, quantum programming
languages is an active area of development. We won’t highlight
these in this book, but references for the interested reader are
offered in Chapter 14.
To whet your appetite, we list some of the fundamental QPU
instructions in Table 1-1, each of which will be explained in more
detail within the chapters ahead.
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Table 1-1. Essential QPU instruction set
Symbol Name Usage Description

Logical bitwise
NOT (also X) qc.not(t)
NOT

Controlled NOT: if
CNOT qc.cnot(t,c)
(c) then NOT(t)

CCNOT if (c1 AND c2)

qc.cnot(t,c1|c2)
(Toffoli) then NOT(t)

HAD
qc.had(t) Hadamard gate
(Hadamard)

Relative phase
PHASE qc.phase(angle,c)
rotation
Symbol Name Usage Description

Relative phase
Z qc.phase(180,c)
rotation by 180 °

Relative phase
S qc.phase(90,c)
rotation by 90 °

Relative phase
T qc.phase(45,c)
rotation by 45 °

Conditional phase
CPHASE qc.cphase(angle,c1|c2)
rotation

Conditional phase
CZ qc.cphase(180,c1|c2)
rotation by 180 °

READ val = qc.read(t) Read qubits,

returning digital
data
Symbol Name Usage Description

Write
WRITE qc.write(t,val) conventional data
to qubits

Root-of-NOT
ROOTNOT qc.rootnot(t)
operation

SWAP Exchange two

qc.exchange(t1|t2)
(EXCHANGE) qubits

Conditional
CSWAP qc.exchange(t1|t2, c) exchange: if (c)
then SWAP(t1,t2)

With each of these operations, the specific instructions and timing

will depend on the QPU brand and architecture. However, this is an
essential set of basic operations expected to be available on all
machines, and these operations form the basis of our QPU
programming, just as instructions like MOV and ADD do for CPU
programmers.
Simulator Limitations
Although simulators offer a fantastic opportunity to prototype small
QPU programs, when compared to real QPUs they are hopelessly
underpowered. One measure of the power of a QPU is the number
of qubits it has available to operate on2 (the quantum equivalent of
bits, on which we’ll have much more to say shortly).
At the time of this book’s publication, the world record for the largest
simulation of a QPU stands at 51 qubits. In practice, the simulators
and hardware available to most readers of this book will typically be
able to handle 26 or so qubits before grinding to a halt.
The examples in this book have been written with these limitations
in mind. They make a great starting point, but each qubit added to
them will double the memory required to run the simulation, cutting
its speed in half.

Hardware Limitations
Conversely, the largest actual QPU hardware available at the time of
writing has around 70 physical qubits, while the largest QPU
available to the public, through the Qiskit open source software
development kit, contains 16 physical qubits.3 By physical, as
opposed to logical, we mean that these 70 qubits have no error
correction, making them noisy and unstable. Qubits are much more
fragile than their conventional counterparts; the slightest interaction
with their surroundings can derail the computation.
Dealing with logical qubits allows a programmer to be agnostic about
the QPU hardware and implement any textbook algorithm without
having to worry about specific hardware constraints. In this book,
we focus solely on programming with logical qubits, and while the
examples we provide are small enough to be run on smaller QPUs
(such as the ones available at the time of publication), abstracting
away physical hardware details means that the skills and intuitions
you develop will remain invaluable as future hardware develops.

QPU Versus GPU: Some Common

Characteristics
The idea of programming an entirely new kind of processor can be
intimidating, even if it does already have its own Stack Exchange
community. Here’s a list of pertinent facts about what it’s like to
program a QPU:
It is very rare that a program will run entirely on a QPU.
Usually, a program running on a CPU will issue QPU
instructions, and later retrieve the results.
Some tasks are very well suited to the QPU, and others are
not.
The QPU runs on a separate clock from the CPU, and usually
has its own dedicated hardware interfaces to external
devices (such as optical outputs).
A typical QPU has its own special RAM, which the CPU
cannot efficiently access.
A simple QPU will be one chip accessed by a laptop, or even
perhaps eventually an area within another chip. A more
advanced QPU is a large and expensive add-on, and always
requires special cooling.
Early QPUs, even simple ones, are the size of refrigerators
and require special high-amperage power outlets.
When a computation is done, a projection of the result is
returned to the CPU, and most of the QPU’s internal working
data is discarded.
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conspiring circumstances, to prince or people, against the awful
majesty of divine truth, or the pure, simple energy of human
devotion? Within the obscurer corners of his vast territories, creeping
for room under the outermost colonnades of that mighty temple
whose glories he had pledged himself to renew,――wandering like
outcasts from place to place,――seeking supporters only among the
unintellectual mass of the people,――were a set of men of whom he
probably had not heard until he entered his own dominions. They
were now suggested to his notice for the first time, by the decided
voice of censure from the devout and learned guardians of the purity
of the law of God, who invoked the aid of his sovran power, to check
and utterly uproot this heresy, which the unseasonable tolerance of
Roman government had too long shielded from the just visitations of
judicial vengeance. Nor did the royal Agrippa hesitate to gratify, in
this slight and reasonable matter, the express wishes of the reverend
heads of the Jewish faith and law. Ah! how little did he think, that in
that trifling movement was bound up the destiny of ages, and that its
results would send his name――though then so loved and
honored――like Pharaoh’s, down to all time, a theme of religious
horror and holy hatred, to the unnumbered millions of a thousand
races, and lands then unknown;――an awful doom, from which one
act of benign protection, or of prudent kindness, to that feeble band
of hated, outcast innovators, might have retrieved his fame, and
canonized it in the faithful memory of the just, till the glory of the old
patriarchs and prophets should grow dim. But, without one thought of
consequences, a prophetic revelation of which would so have
appalled him, he unhesitatingly stretched out his arm in vindictive
cruelty over the church of Christ, for the gratification of those whose
praise was to him more than the favor of God. Singling out first the
person whom momentary circumstances might render most
prominent or obnoxious to censure, he at once doomed to a bloody
death the elder son of Zebedee, the second of the great apostolic
three. No sooner was this cruel sentence executed, than, with a
most remarkable steadiness in the execution of his bloody plan, he
followed up this action, so pleasing to the Jews, by another similar
movement. Peter, the active leader of the heretical host, ever
foremost in braving the authority of the constituted teachers of the
law, and in exciting commotion and dissatisfaction among the
commonalty, was now seized by a military force, too strong to fear
any resistance from popular movements, which had so much
deterred the Sanhedrim. This occurred during the week of the
passover; and such was king Agrippa’s profound regard for all things
connected with his national religion, that he would not violate the
sanctity of this holy festival by the execution of a criminal, however
deserving of vengeance he might seem in that instance. The fate of
Peter being thus delayed, he was therefore committed to prison,
(probably in castle Antonia,) and to prevent all possibility of his
finding means to escape prepared ruin again, he was confined to the
charge of sixteen Roman soldiers, divided into four sets, of four men
each, who were to keep him under constant supervision day and
night, by taking turns, each set an equal time; and according to the
established principles of the Roman military discipline, with the
perfect understanding that if, on the conclusion of the passover, the
prisoner was not forthcoming, the guards should answer the failure
with their lives. These decided and careful arrangements being
made, the king, with his gratified friends in the Sanhedrim and
among the rabble, gave themselves up to the enjoyment of the great
national festival, with a peculiar zest, hightened by the near prospect
of the utter overthrow of the advancing heresy, by the sweeping blow
that robbed them of their two great leaders, and more especially of
him who had been so active in mischievous attempts to perpetuate
the memory of the original founder of the sect, and to frustrate the
good effect of his bloody execution, by giving out that the crucified
Jesus still lived, and would yet come in vengeance on his murderers.
While such triumphant reflections swelled the festal enjoyments of
the powerful foes of Christ, the unhappy company of his persecuted
disciples passed through this anniversary-week with the most
mournful reminiscences and anticipations. Ten years before, in
unutterable agony and despair, they had parted, as they then
supposed forever, with their beloved Lord; and now, after years of
devotion to the work for which he had commissioned them, they
were called to renew the deep sorrows of that parting, in the removal
of those who had been foremost among them in the great work,
cheering them and leading them on through toil and peril, with a
spirit truly holy, and with a fearless energy, kindred with that of their
divine Lord. Of these two divinely appointed chiefs, one had already
poured out his blood beneath the executioner’s sword, and the other,
their great leader, the Rock of the church, was now only waiting the
speedy close of the festal week, to crown his glorious course, and
his enemies’ cruel policy, by the same bloody doom; meanwhile held
in the safe keeping of an ever-watchful Roman guard, forbidding
even the wildest hope of escape. Yet why should they wholly
despair? On that passover, ten years before, how far more gloomy
and hopeless the glance they threw on the cross of their Lord! Yet
from that doubly hopeless darkness, what glorious light sprang up to
them? And was the hand that then broke through the bands of death
and the gates of Hades, now so shortened that it could not sever the
vile chains of paltry tyranny which confined this faithful apostle, nor
open wide the guarded gates of his castle prison? Surely there was
still hope for faith which had been taught such lessons of undoubting
trust in God. Nor were they thoughtless of the firm support and high
consolations which their experience afforded. In prayer intense and
unceasing, they poured out their souls in sympathetic grief and
supplication, for the relief of their great elder brother from his deadly
peril; and in sorrowful entreaty the whole church continued day and
night, for the safety of Peter.

Castle Antonia.――For Josephus’s account of the position and erection of this work, see
my note on page 95, (section 8.) There has been much speculation about the place of the
prison to which Peter was committed. The sacred text (Acts xii. 10,) makes it plain that it
was without the city itself, since after leaving the prison it was still necessary to enter the
city by “the iron gate.” Walch, Kuinoel and Bloomfield adopt the view that it was in one of the
towers or castles that fortified the walls. Wolf and others object to the view that it was
without the walls; because, as Wolf says, it was not customary to have public prisons
outside of the cities, since the prisoners might in that case be sometimes rescued by a bold
assault from some hardy band of comrades, &c. But this objection is worth nothing against
castle Antonia, which, though it stood entirely separated from the rest of the city, was vastly
strong, and by its position as well as fortification, impregnable to any common force;――a
circumstance which would at once suggest and recommend it as a secure place for one
who, like Peter, had escaped once from the common prison. There was always a Roman
garrison in Antonia. (Josephus, Jewish War, V. v. 8.)

In the steady contemplation of the nearness of his bloody doom,

the great apostle remained throughout the passover, shut off from all
the consolations of fraternal sympathy, and awaiting the end of the
few hours which were still allotted by the religious scruples of his
mighty sovran. In his high and towering prison in Castle Antonia,
parted only by a deep, broad rift in the precipitous rocks, from the
great terraces of the temple itself, from whose thronged courts now
rung the thanksgiving songs of a rejoicing nation, he heard them,
sending up in thousands of voices the praise of their fathers’ God,
who still remembered Israel in mercy, renewing their ancient glories
under the bright and peaceful dominion of their new-crowned king.
And with the anthems of praise to God which sounded along the
courts and porches of the temple, were no doubt heard, too, the
thanks of many a grateful Hebrew for the goodness of the generous
king, who had pledged his royal word to complete the noble plan of
that holy pile, as suited the splendid conceptions of the founder. And
this was the king whose decree had doomed that lonely and
desolate prisoner in the castle, to a bloody and shameful
death,――as a crowning offering at the close of the great festival;
and how few among that vast throng, before whose eyes he was to
yield his life, would repine at the sentence that dealt exterminating
vengeance on the obstinately heretical preacher of the crucified
Nazarene’s faith! Well might such dark visions of threatening ruin
appal a heart whose enthusiasm had caught its flame from the
unholy fires of worldly ambition, or devoted its energies to the low
purpose of human ascendency. And truly sad would have been the
lonely thoughts of this very apostle, if this doom had found him in the
spirit which first moved him to devote himself to the cause which now
required the sacrifice of life. But higher hopes and feelings had
inspired his devoted exertions for ten years, and higher far, the
consolations which now sustained him in his friendless desolation.
This very fate, he had long been accustomed to regard as the earthly
meed of his labors; and he had too often been threatened with it, to
be overwhelmed by its near prospect. Vain, then, were all solemn
details of that awful sentence, to strike terror into his fixed
soul,――vain the dark sureties of the high, steep rock, the massive,
lofty walls, the iron gates, the ever-watchful Roman guards, the
fetters and manacles, to control or check the
 “Eternal spirit of the chainless mind!――

Brightest in dungeons, Liberty! thou art,

For there thy habitation is the heart.”

Thus sublimely calm, sat Peter in his prison, waiting for death.
Day after day, all day long, the joyous feast went on beneath
him:――the offering, the prayer and the hymn varying the mighty
course, from the earliest morning supplication to the great evening
sacrifice. Up rolled the glorious symphony of the Levites’ thousand
horns, and the choral harmony of their chanting voices,――up rolled
the clouds of precious incense to the skiey throne of Israel’s
God,――and with this music and fragrance, up rolled the prayers of
Israel’s worshiping children; but though the glorious sound and odor
fell delightfully on the senses of the lonely captive, as they passed
upwards by his high prison-tower, no voice of mercy came from
below, to cheer him in his desolation. But from above, from the
heaven to which all these prayer-bearing floods of incense and
harmony ascended, came down divine consolation and miraculous
delivery to this poor, despised prisoner, with a power and a witness
that not all the solemn pomp of the passover ceremony could
summon in reply to its costly offerings. The feeble band of sorrowing
Nazarenes, from their little chamber, were lifting unceasing voices of
supplication for their brother, in his desperate prospects, which
entered with his solitary prayer into the ears of the God of Hosts,
while the ostentatious worship of king Agrippa and his reverend
supporters, only brought back shame and woful ruin on their impious
supplications for the divine sanction to their bloody plans of
persecution. At last the solemn passover-rites of “the last great day
of the feast” were ended;――the sacrifice, the incense and the song,
rose no more from the sanctuary,――the fires on the altars went out,
the hum and the roar of worshiping voices was hushed, and the
departing throngs poured through the “eternal” and the “beautiful”
gates, till at last the courts and porches of the temple were empty
through all their vast extent, and hushed in a silence, deep as the
ruinous oblivion to which the voice of their God had doomed them
shortly to pass; and all was still, save where the footfall of the
passing priest echoed along the empty colonnades, as he hurried
over the vast pavements into the dormitories of the inner temple; or
where the mighty gates thundered awfully as they swung heavily
together under the strong hands of the weary Levites, and sent their
long reverberations among the walls. Even these closing sounds
soon ceased also; the Levite watchmen took their stand on the
towers of the temple, and paced their nightly rounds along the flat
roofs, guarding with careful eyes their holy shrine, lest the impious
should, under cover of night, again profane it, (as the Samaritans
had secretly done a few years before.) And on the neighboring castle
of Antonia, the Roman garrison, too, had set their nightly watch, and
the iron warriors slumbered, each in his turn, till the round of duty
should summon him to relieve guard. Within the dungeon keep of the
castle, was still safely held the weighty trust that was to be answered
for, on peril of life; and all arrangements were made which so great a
responsibility seemed to require. The prisoner already somewhat
notorious for making unaccountable escapes from guarded
dungeons, was secured with a particularity, quite complimentary to
his dexterity as a jail-breaker. The quaternion on duty was divided
into two portions; each half being so disposed and posted as to
effect the most complete supervision of which the place was
capable,――two men keeping watch outside of the well-bolted door
of the cell, and two within, who, not limited to the charge of merely
keeping their eyes on the prisoner, had him fastened to their bodies,
by a chain on each side. In this neighborly proximity to his rough
companions, Peter was in the habit of passing the night; but in the
day-time was freed from one of these chains, remaining attached to
only one soldier. (This arrangement was in accordance with the
standard mode of guarding important state-prisoners among the
Romans.) Matters being thus accommodated, and the watch being
set for the next three hours, Peter’s two fast companions, finding him
but indifferent company, no doubt, notwithstanding his sociable
position, soon grew quite dull in the very tame employment of seeing
that he did not run away with them; for as to getting away from them,
the idea could have no place at all in the supposition. These sturdy
old veterans had probably, though Gentiles, conformed so far to
Judaical rituals as to share in the comfortable festivities of this great
religious occasion, and could not have suffered any heathenish
prejudices to prevent them from a hearty participation in the joyous
draughts of the wine, which as usual did its part to enliven the hearts
and countenances of all those who passed the feast-day in
Jerusalem. The passover coming so many months after the vintage
too, the fermentation of a long season must have considerably
energized “the pure juice of the grape,” so that its exhilarant and
narcotic powers could have been by no means feeble; and if the
change thus wrought by time and its own inherent powers, at all
corresponds to that which takes places in cider in this country under
the same circumstances, the latter power must have so far
predominated, as to leave them rather below than above the
ordinary standard of vivacity, and induce that sort of apathetic
indifference to consequences, which is far from appropriate in a
soldier on duty over an important trust. Be that as it may, Peter’s two
room-mates soon gave themselves quietly up to slumber. If any
scruple arose in their heavy heads as to the risk they ran in case of
his escape, that was soon soothed by the consideration of the vast
number of impassable securities upon the prisoner. They might well
reason with themselves, “If this sharp Galilean can manage to break
his chains without waking us, and burst open this stout door in spite
of bars, without rousing the sentinels who are posted against it on
the outside, and make his way unseen and unchecked through all
the gates and guards of Castle Antonia――why, let him. But there’s
no use in our losing a night’s rest by any uneasiness about such a
chance.” So stretching themselves out, they soon fell into a sound
sleep, none the less pleasant for their lying in such close quarters;
for it is natural to imagine, that in a chilly March night in Jerusalem,
stowing three in a bed was no uncomfortable arrangement.
Circumstanced as he was, Peter had nothing to do but conform to
their example, for the nature of his attachment to them was such,
that he had no room for the indulgence of his own fancies about his
position; and he also lay down to repose. He slept. The sickening
and feverish confinement of his close dungeon had not yet so broken
his firm and vigorous frame, nor so drained its energies, as to hinder
the placid enjoyment of repose; nor did the certainty of a cruel and
shameful death, to which he was within a few hours to be dragged,
before the eyes of a scoffing rabble, move his high spirit from its self-
possession:――

“And still he slumbered

While in ‘decree, his hours’ were numbered.”

He slept. And from that dark prison-bed what visions could beguile
his slumbering thoughts? Did fancy bear them back against the tide
of time, to the humble, peaceful home of his early days,――to the
varied scenes of the lake whereon he loved to dwell, and along
whose changeful waters he had learned so many lessons of
immortal faith and untrembling hope in his Lord? Amid the stormy
roar of its dark waters, the voice of that Lord once called him to
tempt the raging deep with his steady foot, and when his feeble faith,
before untried, failed him in the terrors of the effort, His supporting
hand recalled him to strength and safety. And had that lesson of faith
and hope been so poorly learned, that in this dark hour he could
draw no consolation from such remembrances? No. He could even
now find that consolation, and he did. In the midst of this “sea of
troubles,” he felt the same mighty arm now upholding him, that bore
him above the waters, “when the blue wave rolled nightly on deep
Galilee.” Again he had stood by those waters, swelling brightly in the
fresh morning breeze, with his risen Lord beside him, and received
the solemn commission, oft-renewed, to feed the flock that was so
soon to lose the earthly presence of its great Shepherd. In the
steady and dauntless execution of that parting commission, he had
in the course of long years gone on in the face of death,――“feeding
the lambs” of Christ’s gathering, and calling vast numbers to the fold;
and for the faithful adherence to that command, he now sat waiting
the fulfilment of the doom that was to cut him down in the midst of
life and in the fullness of his vigor. Yet the nearness of this sad
reward of his labors, seemingly offering so dreadful an interpretation
of the mystical prophecy that accompanied that charge, moved him
to no desperation or distress, and still he calmly slept, with as little
agitation and dread as at the transfiguration, and at the agony of the
crucifixion eve; nor did that compunction for heedless inattention,
that then hung upon his slumbering senses, now disturb him in the
least. It is really worth noticing, in justice to Peter, that his
sleepiness, of which so many curious instances are presented in the
sacred narrative, was not of the criminally selfish kind that might be
supposed on a partial view. If he slept during his Master’s prayers on
Mount Hermon, and in Gethsemane, he slept too in his own
condemned cell; and if in his bodily infirmity he had forgotten to
watch and pray when death threatened his Lord, he was now equally
indifferent to his own impending destruction. He was, evidently, a
man of independent and regular habits. Brought up a hard-working
man, he had all his life been accustomed to repose whenever he
was at leisure, if he needed it; and now too, though the “heathen
might rage, and the people imagine a vain thing,――though the
kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers took counsel
together” against him, and doomed him to a cruel death,――in spite
of all these, Peter would sleep when he was sleepy. Not the royal
Agrippa could sleep sounder on his pavilioned couch of purple. In
the calm confidence of one steadily fixed in a high course, and
perfectly prepared for every and any result, the chained apostle gave
himself coolly to his natural rest, without borrowing any trouble from
the thought, that in the morning the bloody sword was to lay him in
“the sleep that knows no earthly waking.” So slept the Athenian
sage, on the eve of his martyrdom to the cause of clearly and boldly
spoken truth,――a sleep that so moved the wonder of his agonizing
disciples, at the power of a good conscience and a practical
philosophy to sustain the soul against the horrors of such distress;
but a sleep not sounder nor sweeter than that of the poor Galilean
outcast, who, though not knowing even the name of philosophy, had
a consolation far higher, in the faith that his martyred Lord had taught
him in so many experimental instructions. That faith, learned by the
painful conviction of his own weakness, and implanted in him by
many a fall when over confident in his own strength, was now his
stay and comfort, so that he might say to his soul, “Hope thou in
God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the help of my countenance
and my God.” Nor did that hope prove groundless. From him in
whom he trusted, came a messenger of deliverance; and from the
depths of a danger the most appalling and threatening, he was soon
brought, to serve that helping-God through many faithful years,
feeding the flock till, in his old age, “another should gird him, and
carry him whither he would not.” He who had prayed for him in the
revelation of his peculiar glories on Mount Hermon, and had so
highly consecrated him to the great cause, had yet greater things for
him to do; and to new works of love and glory he now called him,
from the castle-prison of his royal persecutor.

Ten years.――This piece of chronology is thus settled. Jesus Christ, according to all
common calculation, was crucified as early as the twentieth year of the reign of Tiberius.
Irenaeus maintains that it was in the fifteenth of that reign. Eusebius and Epiphanius fix it in
the eighteenth, or, according to Petavius’s explanation of their meaning, in the seventeenth
of his actual reign. Tertullian, Julius Africanus, Jerome, and Augustin, put it in the sixteenth.
Roger Bacon, Paulus Burgensis, and Tostatus, also support this date, on the ground of an
astronomical calculation of the course of the moon, fixing the time when the passover must
have occurred, so as to accord with the requirement of the Mosaic law, that it should be
celebrated on a new moon. But Kepler has abundantly shown the fallacy of this calculation.
Antony Pagus, also, though rejecting this astronomical basis, adheres to the opinion of
Tertullian, Jerome, &c. Baronius fixes it in the nineteenth of Tiberius. Pearson, L. Cappel,
Spanheim, and Witsius, with the majority of the moderns, in the twentieth of Tiberius. So
that the unanimous result of all these great authorities, places it as early as this last
mentioned year. A full and highly satisfactory view of all these chronological points and
opinions, is given by the deeply learned Antony Pagus, in his great “Critical Historico-
Chronological Review of Baronii.” Saecul. I. Ann. Per. Gr.‒Rom. 5525. ¶ 3‒13.

Now, from Josephus it is perfectly evident that Agrippa did not leave Rome until some
time after the beginning of the reign of Claudius, and it is probable not before the close of
the first year. Counting backwards through the four years of Caligula, this makes five years
after the death of Tiberius, and eight on the latest calculation from the death of Christ; while
according to the higher and earlier authority, it amounts to nine, ten, eleven, or to twelve
years from the crucifixion to Agrippa’s arrival in Judea. And moreover, it is not probable that
the persecution referred to occurred immediately on his arrival. Indeed, from the close way
in which Luke connects Agrippa’s death with the preceding events, it would seem as if he
would fix his “going down from Jerusalem to Caesarea,” and his death at the latter place,
very soon after the escape of Peter. This of course being in the end of Claudius’s third year,
brings the events above, down to the eleventh or twelfth from the crucifixion, even
according to the latest conjecture as to the date of that event. Probably, however, the
connection of the two events was not as close as a common reading of the Acts would lead
one to suppose.

So also Lardner, in his Life of Peter, says, “The death of Herod Agrippa happened before
the end of that year,” in which he escaped. (Lardner’s Works 4to. Vol. III. p. 402, bottom.)

Natalis Alexander fixes Peter’s escape in the second year of Claudius, and the forty-
fourth from Christ’s birth, which is, according to his computation, the tenth from his death.
(Church History, Saec. I. Cap. vi.)

A chain on each side.――That this was a common mode of fastening such prisoners
among the Romans, appears from the authorities referred to by Wolf, (Cur. Philology in Acts
xii. 6,) Kuinoel and Rosenmueller, (quoting from Walch,) and Bloomfield, all in loc.

Quaternion.――That is, a band of four. See Bloomfield in defense of my mode of

disposing them about the prison,――also Rosenmueller, &c. Wolf quotes appositely from
Polybius; but Kuinoel is richest of all in quotations and illustrations. (Acts xii. 4, 5.)

the deliverance.

Peter was now quietly sleeping between his two guards, when his
rest was suddenly broken by a smart blow on the side, too
energetically given to be mistaken for an accidental knock from the
elbow of one of his heavy bed-fellows. Rousing his senses, and
opening his eyes, he was startled by a most remarkable light shining
throughout his dungeon, which his last waking glance had left in utter
darkness. In this unaccountable illumination, he saw standing before
him and bending over him, a form in which he could recognize only
the divine messenger of deliverance. The shock of such a surprise
must have been overwhelming;――to be waked from a sound sleep
by an appearance so utterly unearthly, might have struck horror into
the stoutest heart; but Peter seems to have suffered no such
emotion to hinder his attendance to the heavenly call. The
apparition, before he could exercise thought enough to sit up of
himself, had raised him up from his bed, and that without the
slightest alarm to his still slumbering keepers,――for “immediately
the chains fell from his hands,”――a motion which by the rattling of
the falling irons should have aroused the sleepers if any sound could
have impressed their senses. The impulse of the now unmanacled
captive might have been to spring forth his dungeon without the
slightest delay, but his deliverer’s next command forbade any such
unnecessary haste. His first words were, “Gird thyself; and tie on thy
sandals.” Before laying himself down, he had, as usual, thrown off
his outer garments and loosened his girdle, so that his under dress
need not so much confine him in sleep as to prevent that perfect
relaxation which is necessary for comfortable repose. Just as now-a-
days, a man in taking up such a lodging as often falls to a traveler’s
lot, will seldom do more than pull off his coat and boots, as Peter did,
and perhaps unbutton his waist-band and suspenders, so that on a
sudden alarm from his rest, the first direction would very properly be,
to “gird himself,” (button his trowsers,) “and tie on his sandals,” (put
on his shoes or boots.) The next direction given to Peter, also, “Cast
thy garment about thee,” (put on thy coat,) would be equally
appropriate. The meaning of all this particularity and deliberation
was, no doubt, that there was no need whatever of hurry or slyness
about the escape. It was not to be considered a mere smart trick of
jail-breaking, by which Peter was to crawl out of his dungeon in such
a hurry as to leave his coat and shoes behind him, but a truly
miraculous providence insuring his deliverance with a completeness
and certainty that allowed him to take every thing that belonged to
him. Having now perfectly accoutred himself in his ordinary style,
Peter immediately obeyed the next order of his deliverer,――“Follow
me.” Leaving his two bed-fellows and room-mates sleeping hard,
without the slightest idea of the evacuation of the premises which
was so deliberately going on, to their great detriment, Peter now
passed out through the open door, following the divine messenger in
a state of mind altogether indescribable, but still with just sense
enough to obey the directions which thus led him on to blissful
freedom. The whole scene bore so perfectly the character of one of
those enchanting dreams of liberty with which painful hope often
cheats the willing senses of the poor captive in slumber, that he
might well and wisely doubt the reality of an appearance so
tempting, and which his wishes would so readily suggest to his
forgetful spirit. But passing on with his conductor, he moved between
the sentinels posted at the doors, who were also equally unaware of
the movement going on so boldly under their noses, or rather over
them, for they, too, were faster bound in slumber than their prisoner
had been in his chains; and he now stepped over their outstretched
bodies as they lay before the entrances. These soldiers, too,
evidently looked upon their duty as a sort of sinecure, rationally
concluding that their two stout comrades on the inside were rather
more than a match for the fettered and manacled captive, and that if
he should be at all obstreperous, or even uneasy, the noise would
soon enough awake them from their nap. And thus excessive
precaution is very apt to overshoot itself, each part of the
arrangement relying too much on the security of all the rest. The two
passengers soon reached the great iron gate of the castle, through
which they must pass in order to enter the city. But all the seeming
difficulties of this passage vanished as soon as they approached it.
The gate swung its enormous mass of metal self-moving through the
air, and the half-entranced Peter went on beneath the vacant portal,
and now stood without the castle, once more a free man in the fresh,
pure air. The difficulties and dangers were not all over yet, however.
During all the great feast-days, when large assemblies of people
were gathered at Jerusalem from various quarters, to guard against
the danger of riots and insurrection in these motley throngs,――the
armed Roman force on duty, as Josephus relates, was doubled and
tripled, occupying several new posts around the temple, and, as the
same historian particularly mentions, on the approaches of castle
Antonia, where its foundations descended towards the terraces of
the temple, and gave access to the colonnades of the temple. On all
these places the guard must have been under arms during this
passover, and even at night the sentries would be stationed at all the
important posts, as a reasonable security against the numerous
strangers of a dubious character, who now thronged the city
throughout. Yet all these peculiar precautions, which, at this time,
presented so many additional difficulties to the escaping apostle,
hindered him not in the least. Entering the city, he followed the
footsteps of his blessed guide, unchecked, till they had passed on
through the first street, when all at once, without sign or word of
farewell, the mysterious deliverer vanished, leaving Peter alone in
the silent city, but free and safe. Then flashed upon his mind the
conviction of the true character of the apparition. The departure of
his guide leaving him to seek his own way, his senses were, by the
necessity of this self-direction, recalled from the state of
stupefaction, in which he had mechanically followed on from the
prison. With the first burst of reflection, he broke out in the
exclamation, “Now I know of a truth, that the Lord has sent forth his
messenger, and has rescued me out of the hand of Herod, in spite of
all the expectation of the Jewish people.” Refreshed and encouraged
by this impression, he now used his thoroughly awakened senses to
find his exact situation, and after looking about him, he made his way
through the dark streets to a place where he knew he should find
those whose despairing hearts would be inexpressibly rejoiced by
the news of his deliverance. This was the house of Mary, the mother
of John Mark, where the disciples were accustomed to assemble.
Going up to the gate-way, he rapped on the door, and at once
aroused those within; for in their sleepless distress for the
imprisoned apostle, several of the brethren had given up all thoughts
of sleep, and, as Peter had suspected, were now watching in prayer
within this house. The noise of a visitant at this unseasonable hour of
the night, immediately brought to the door a lively damsel, named
Rhoda; who, according to the Jewish custom of employing females
in this capacity, acted as portress of the mansion of Mary. Prudently
requiring some account of the person who made this late call, before
she opened the door of the persecuted Christians to an unknown
and perhaps an ill-disposed character, she was struck with almost
frantic joy at hearing the well-known voice of the much mourned
Peter, craving admittance. In the highth of her thoughtless gladness,
she ran off at once to make known the delightful fact to the disciples
in the house, without even seeming to think of the desirableness of
admitting the apostle, perhaps because she very naturally wanted to
tell such pleasant news first herself. Bursting into the room where the
disciples were at prayer for their lamented leader, whom they
supposed to be then fast bound for death in the dungeon of Antonia,
she communicated the joyful fact, that “Peter was before the gate.” A
declaration so extravagantly improbable, at once suggested the idea
of her having lost her wits through her affectionate sorrow for the
sufferings and anticipated death of the great apostle, and they
therefore replied, “Thou art crazy.” Rhoda, somewhat excited by
such a provoking expression of incredulity, loudly repeated her
slighted piece of good news, and so gravely maintained the truth of
it, that some of the more superstitious at last began to think there
must be something in it, and seriously suggested, that it must be a
supernatural messenger come to give them notice of his certain
doom,――“It is his guardian angel.” Peter, however, was all this
while standing outside during this grave debate about his real entity,
and shivering with the cold of a chilly March night, grew quite
impatient at the girl’s inconsiderate folly, and knocked away with
might and main, making a noise of most unspiritual character, till at
last the disciples determined to cut short the debate by an actual
observation; so opening the door to the shivering apostle, the light
brought his material existence to a certainty beyond all doubt. Their
amazement and joy was bursting forth with a vivacity which quite
made up for their previous incredulity; when the apostle, making a
hushing sign with his hand,――and with a reasonable fear, too, no
doubt, that their obstreperous congratulations might be heard in
other houses around, so as to alarm the neighbors and bring out
some spiteful Jews, who would procure his detection and
recapture,――having obtained silence, went on to give them a full
account of his being brought out of prison by the Lord, and after
finishing his wonderful story, said to them, “Tell these things to
James and the brethren.” From this it would seem that the apostles
were all somewhere else, probably having found that a temporary
concealment was expedient for their safety, but were still not far from
the city. His own personal danger was of so imminent a character,
however, that Jerusalem could not be a safe place for him during the
search that would be immediately instituted after him by his
disappointed and enraged persecutors. It was quite worth while,
therefore, for him to use the remaining darkness of the night to
complete his escape; and without staying to enjoy their outflowing
sympathies, he bade them a hasty farewell, and, as the historian
briefly says, went to another place. Where this “other place” was,
he does not pretend to tell or know, and the only certain inference to
be drawn from the circumstance is, that it was beyond the reach or
knowledge of the mighty and far-ruling king, who had taken such
particular pains to secure Peter’s death. The probabilities as to the
real place of his retirement will, however, be given, as soon as the
sequel of events in Jerusalem has been narrated, as far as concerns
the discovery of his escape.

Bright light.――Some commentators have attempted to make out an explanation of this

phenomenon, by referring the whole affair to the effects of a sudden flash and stroke of
lightning, falling on the castle, and striking all the keepers senseless,――melting Peter’s
chains, and illuminating the place, so that Peter, unhurt amid the general crash, saw this
opportunity for escaping, and stepping over their prostrate bodies, made his way out of the
prison, and was out of sight before they came to. The most important objection to this
ingenious speculation is, that it directly contradicts every verse in Luke’s account of the
escape, as well as the general spirit of the narrative. Another weighty reason is, that the
whole series of natural causes and effects, proposed as a substitute for the simple
meaning, is brought together in such forced and uncommon coincidences, as to require a
much greater effort of faith and credulity for its belief, than the miraculous view, which it
quite transcends in incredibility. The introduction of explanations of miracles by natural
phenomena, is justifiable only so far as these may illustrate the accompaniments of the
event, by showing the mode in which those things which are actually mentioned as physical
results, operated in producing the impressions described. Thus, when thunder and lightning
are mentioned in connection with miraculous events, they are to be considered as real
electrical discharges, made to accompany and manifest the presence of God; and where
lambent flames are described as appearing in a storm, they, like the corpos santos, are
plainly also results of electrical discharges. So too, when mighty winds are mentioned, they
are most honestly taken to be real winds, and not deceptive sounds or impressions; and
when a cloud is mentioned, it is but fair to consider it a real cloud, made up, like all other
clouds, of vapor, and not a mere non-entity, or a delusion existing only in the minds of those
who are mentioned as beholding it. But where nothing of this kind is spoken of, and where a
distinct personal presence is plainly declared, the attempt to substitute a physical accident
for such an apparition, is a direct attack on the honesty of the statement. Such attempts,
too, are devoid of the benefits of such illustrations as I have alluded to as desirable; they
bring in a new set of difficulties with them, without removing any of those previously
obstructing the interpretation of the facts. In this case, the only circumstance which could be
reasonably made to agree with the idea of lightning, is the mention of the bright light; while
throughout the whole account, the presence of a supernaturally mysterious person, acting
and speaking, is perfectly unquestionable. The violation of all probability, shown in this
forced explanation, will serve as a fair instance of the mode in which many modern German
critics are in the habit of distorting the simple, manifest sense of the sacred writers, for the
sake of dispensing with all supernatural occurrences. (See Kuinoel for an enlarged view and
discussion of this opinion. Other views of the nature of the phenomenon are also given by
him, and by Rosenmueller, on Acts xii. 7.)

Morning dawned at last upon the towers and temple-columns of

the Holy City. On the gold-sheeted roofs and snowy-pillared
colonnades of the house of God, the sunlight poured with a splendor
hardly more glorious than the insupportable brilliancy that was sent
back from their dazzling surfaces, streaming like a new morning
upon the objects around, whose nearer sides would otherwise have
been left in shade by the eastern rays. Castle Antonia shared in this
general illumination, and at the first blaze of sunrise, the order of
Roman service announced the moment for relieving guard. The
bustle of the movement of the new sentries towards their stands,
must at last have reached the ears of Peter’s forsaken companions.
Their first waking thoughts would of course be on their responsible
charge, and they now became for the first time aware of the
important deficiency. In vain did their heavy eyes, at first winking with
sleepiness, but now wide open with amazement, search the dim
vacancy for their eloped bed-fellow. The most inquisitive glance fell
only on the blank space between them, scarcely blanker than the
forlorn visages of the poor keepers, who saw in this disappearance
the seal of their certain death, for having let the prisoner escape. But
they had not much time to consider their misfortune, or condole upon
it; for the change of sentries now brought to the door the quaternion
whose turn on duty came next. With a miserable grace did the
unhappy occupants of the cell show themselves at the open door,
with the empty chains and fetters dangling at their sides, from which
their late companion had so curiously slipped. Most uncomfortable
must have been the aspect of things to the two sentinels who had
been keeping their steady watch outside of the door, and who shared
equally with the inside keepers, in the undesirable responsibilities of
this accident. There stood their comrades with the useless chains
displayed in their original attachments; but, amazing! what in the
world had they done with the prisoner? The ludicrous distress and
commotion resulting from this unpleasant revelation, was evidently
well appreciated even by the sacred historian, whose brief but pithy
expression is not without a latent comic force. “There was no small
stir among the soldiers to know what was become of Peter.” A
general search into all the holes and corners of the dungeon, of
course, ensued; and the castle was no doubt ransacked from top to
bottom for the runaway, whose escape from its massive gates
seemed still impossible. But not even his cloak and sandals, which
he had laid beside him at the last change of guards,――not a shred,
not a thread had been left to hint at the mode of his abstraction. Yet
this was so bad a story for the ears of the royal Agrippa, that it would
not do to give up the search while any chance whatever remained.
But all rummaging was perfectly fruitless; and with sorrowful hearts,
they now went with their report to the vindictive king, to acknowledge
that most unpardonable crime in Roman soldiers,――to have slept
on their posts, so that a prisoner of state had escaped on the eve of
execution.

Baronius, (Church Annuals, 44, § 8,) speaking of Peter’s escape from his chains, favors
us with a solemn statement of the important and interesting circumstance, deriving the
proofs from Metaphrastes, (that prince of papistical liars, and grand source of Romish
apostolical fables,) that these very chains of Peter are still preserved at Rome, among other
venerable relics of equal authenticity; having been faithfully preserved, and at last found
after the lapse of four hundred years. The veritable history of this miraculous preservation,
as given by the inventive Metaphrastes, is, that the said chains happened to fall into the
hands of one of Agrippa’s servants who was a believer in Christ, and so were handed down
for four centuries, and at last brought to light. It is lamentable that the list of the various
persons through whose hands they passed, is not given, though second in importance only
to the authentic record of the papal succession. This impudent and paltry falsehood will
serve as a fair specimen of a vast quantity of such stuff, which litters up the pages of even
the sober ecclesiastical histories of many papistical writers. The only wonderful thing to me
about this story is, that Cave has not given it a place in his Lives of the Apostles, which are
made up with so great a portion of similar trash.

Baronius, in connection with this passage, suggests the castle of Antonia as the most
probable place of Peter’s confinement. “Juxta templum fortasse in ea munitissima turri quae
dicebatur Antonia.” (Baronius, Church Annuals, C. 44, § 5.) A conjecture which certainly
adds some weight to my own supposition to that effect; although I did not discover the
coincidence in time to mention it in my note on page 194.

Meanwhile, with the early day, up rose the royal Agrippa from his
purple couch, to seize the first moment after the close of the
passover for the consummation of the doom of the wretched
Galilean, who, by the royal decree, must now yield the life already
too many days spared, out of delicate scruple about the inviolate
purity of that holy week. Up rose also the saintly princes of the
Judaic law, coming forth in their solemn trains and broad
phylacteries, to grace this most religious occasion with their reverend
presence, out of respectful gratitude to their great sovran for his
considerate disposition to accord the sanction of his absolute secular
power to their religious sentence. Expectation stood on tiptoe for the
comfortable spectacle of the streaming life-blood of this stubborn
leader of the Nazarene heresy, and nothing was wanting to the
completion of the ceremony, but the criminal himself. That
“desideratum, so much to be desired,” was, however, not so easily
supplied; for the entrance of the delinquent sentinels now presented
the non-est-inventus return to the solemn summons for the body of
their prisoner. Confusion thrice confounded now fell on the faces that
were just shining with anticipated triumph over their hated foe, while
secret, scornful joy illuminated the countenances of the oppressed
friends of Jesus. But on the devoted minions of the baffled king, did
his disappointed vengeance fall most cruelly; in his paroxysm of
vexation, and for an event wholly beyond their control they now
suffered an undeserved death; making so tragical a catastrophe to a
story otherwise decidedly comical, that the reader can only comfort
himself with the belief that they were a set of insolent reprobates
who had insulted the distresses of their frequent victims, and would
have rejoiced in the bloody execution of the apostle.

King Herod Agrippa, after this miserable failure in his attempt to

“please the Jews,” does not seem to have made a very long stay in
Jerusalem. Before his departure, however, to secure his own solid
glory and his kingdom’s safety, as well as the favor of his subjects,
he not only continued the repairs of the temple, but instituted such
improvements in the fortifications of the city, as, if ever completed,
would have made it utterly impregnable even to a Roman force; so
that the emperor’s jealousy soon compelled him to abandon this
work; and soon after he left Jerusalem, and went down to Caesarea
Augusta, on the sea-coast, long the seat of government of Palestine,
and a more agreeable place for the operations of a Gentile court and
administration, (for such Agrippa’s must have been from his Roman
residence,) than the punctilious religious capital of Judea. But he
was not allowed to remain much longer on the earth, to hinder the
progress of the truth, by acts of tyranny in subservience to the base
purposes of winning the favor of his more powerful subjects. The
hand of God was laid destroyingly on him, in the midst of what