Acts 4:13-22

Dilemma of the Rulers: their Verdict. The promise of Luke 21:15 is at once literally fulfilled, and the reasoning is given by which the judges felt themselves overborne. It is that Peter and John are certain of their case, and show no hesitation though they possess no literary training and are generally uncultured, and that the man they cured stood beside them, a living corroboration. The recognition of the apostles as having been with Jesus is regarded by many as irrelevant. but if Jesus was still active, He would act most naturally through His former intimates. The apostles are ordered to withdraw while the members of the court deliberate; yet we have a full account of their discussion, an account which has an appearance of probability. It is not based on the discussion of the Sanhedrists on John the Baptist (Mark 11:27); the matter is different. The priests and elders know nothing about faith healing; if a beneficent act has been done of which no agent is visible, it shows to their thinking that a power or a name has been at work which it only remains to identify. The apostles attribute it to the agency of Jesus, but this was to the court an intolerable thought. The name of Jesus must be suppressed; the apostles must be forbidden to base any claim upon it. They are therefore enjoined not to make any declaration nor teach any doctrine in connexion with Jesus (Acts 4:18). It was natural that the Jews should aim at the suppression of that memory and that cause. Peter and John reply (Acts 4:19) by appealing to what is a commonplace in ancient philosophy. Socrates, e.g., says to his judges, I shall obey God rather than you (Apology, 29); the judges are to decide if the opposite course can be right for the apostles. They cannot be silent about what they have seen and heard. Nothing follows on this declaration, and conflicting reasons are given for this; that no ground appeared for punishing them, and that the rulers were afraid of the people, though the arrest had taken place in their presence (Acts 4:2).