Acts 4:13

θεωροῦντες. This is not the common verb for seeing, but implies that they beheld with some astonishment.

παρρησίαν, a freedom and readiness of speech not to be expected in unlearned men. This it was which made them wonder.

τοῦ Πέτρου … καὶ Ἰωάννου. It appears then, though St Luke has not recorded a word of his, that St John had also shewn boldness of speech on this occasion. Another evidence that St Luke has not aimed to report complete speeches of those about whom he writes.

ἰδιῶται. Render, common men. The word signifies plebeian, as opposed to men of noble birth.

ἐπεγίνωσκόν τε αὐτούς. These words have been interpreted as though they meant that the members of the Sanhedrin now for the first time discovered the relation in which the two Apostles stood to Jesus. Those who press such a rendering must overlook the force of the very same verb as used in Acts 3:10, ‘They knew that it was he which sat for alms.’ The men of whom this is said had known the cripple for years, but now observed in addition that he was a cripple no longer, though still the same man whom they had so long seen begging. Just so with the Jewish authorities; they could hardly fail to have known the connexion of the preachers with Jesus after the sermon on the Day of Pentecost and the events which followed it, and now they further (ἐπὶ) notice that as the Master’s words had been powerful, so there was like power in the language of those who had been with Him. We are told (John 18:15) of one disciple, taken always to be St John himself, that he was known to the high-priest before the Crucifixion.