So Peter followed him out, but he was unaware that what the angel was doing was real. He thought he was only seeing a vision.
Parallel translations
- WEB And he went out and followed him. He didn’t know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he saw a vision.
- KJV And he went out, and followed him; and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel; but thought he saw a vision.
- NKJV So he went out and followed him, and did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.
- NASB And he went out and continued to follow, and yet he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.
- NLT So Peter left the cell, following the angel. But all the time he thought it was a vision. He didn’t realize it was actually happening.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Peter follows the angel but cannot tell whether it is real or a vision. The miracle is so unexpected that even the one being rescued is slow to grasp it.
Overview
The deliverance comes in answer to the church's earnest prayer (12:5), yet Peter himself walks out half-believing. His confusion underscores that the rescue is wholly God's doing, not something Peter engineered. Scripture is honest about the gap between God's saving acts and our slow apprehension of them.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Ps 126:1A song of ascents. When the LORD restored the captives of Zion, we were like dreamers.
- Heb 11:8By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, without knowing where he was going.
- Gen 45:26“Joseph is still alive,” they said, “and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt!” But Jacob was stunned, for he did not believe them.
- Acts 10:3One day at about the ninth hour, he had a clear vision of an angel of God who came to him and said, “Cornelius!”
- Acts 26:19So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.
- Acts 9:10In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord spoke to him in a vision, “Ananias!” “Here I am, Lord,” he answered.
- John 2:5His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.”
- Acts 10:17While Peter was puzzling over the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found Simon’s house and approached the gate.
- 2 Cor 12:1–3I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to gain, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord.
- Acts 11:5“I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision of something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came right down to me.
- Gen 6:22So Noah did everything precisely as God had commanded him.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Acts is the risen Christ continuing his work by the Spirit through the church, as the apostles preach that there is salvation in no other name under heaven.
How Acts 12:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.