Acts 12:2

"He had James the brother of John put to death with the sword" This was James the son of Zebedee, one of the original twelve apostles. Being executed with the sword either meant being beheaded or pierced through. It also indicated that the sentence had been pronounced by. civil ruler (compare with the case of John the Baptist). The death of James surely must have been. tremendous blow to the early Christians. McGarvey notes, "To an uninspired historian, it would have furnished matter for many pages of eloquent writing; what shall we think, then, of Luke as. writer, who disposes of it in. sentence of seven words in the Greek? Surely there is an indication here of some supernatural restraint upon the impulses of the writer, and it is accounted for only by his inspiration" (p. 232).