Rhoda

A name ever - memorable from Peter’s history, in the angel delivering him from prison. The name in the original means rose. (Acts x2: 13, 14.)

Rho´da (Rose), a servant maid mentioned in Act 12:13.

Rose, a young damsel in the household of Mary mother of John Mark, when Peter was miraculously released from prison, Mal 12:13 .\par

Rho’da. (rose). The name of a maid, who announced Peter’s arrival at the door of Mary’s house, after his miraculous release from prison. Act 12:13. (A.D. 44).

The maid who announced Peter’s arrival at Mary’s door after his release from prison (Act 12:13-14).

[Rho’da]

A maid in the house of Mary when Peter was delivered from prison. Act 12:13.

RHODA.—The name of the maid-servant in the house of Mary, John Mark’s mother, when St. Peter came there on his release from prison by the angel (Act 12:13).

A. J. Maclean.

rō´da (Ῥόδη, Rhódē, “rose”): A maid in the house of Mary the mother of John Mark. She came to answer when Peter knocked at Mary’s door after his miraculous release from prison. On recognizing his voice, she so forgot herself with joy that she neglected to open the door, but ran in to tell the others the glad news. They would not believe her, thinking she was mad; and when she persisted in her statement they said it must be his angel. The Jewish belief was that each man had a guardian angel assigned to him. Peter continued knocking, and was ultimately admitted (Act 12:12 ff).

(Ῥüäç ‘rose’)

After St. Peter’s miraculous deliverance from Herod’s prison he went to the house of Mary the mother of Mark. When he had knocked, a young girl called Rhoda came to listen. In her joy at the sound of St. Peter’s voice, she forgot to open the door, and, returning to report his presence, she was accused of being mad, but persisted in her declaration (Act_12:13-15). Nothing further is known of her. The name was a common slave name, and she may have been a Christian slave in the home where we find her.

Literature.-W. M. Ramsay, The Bearing of Recent Discovery on the Trustworthiness of the NT, London, 1915, p. 209 ff.; Lady Ramsay, ‘Her that kept the Door,’ Expository Times xxvii. (1915-16) 217 ff., 314 ff.

W. F. Boyd