Acts 5:17

ἀναστὰς δέ. The ‘rising up’ is due to the indignation caused by the spread of the Christian teaching. The word ἀναστάς has this sense of movement in opposition. See below, of the insurrections of Theudas and Judas (Acts 5:36-37) and in Acts 6:9 of the disputants with Stephen.

The rendering should be, but the high-priest rose up. While the multitudes thronged to be healed, the effect on the authorities was to rouse them to opposition.

πάντες οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ. A phrase more comprehensive than that used in Acts 4:6, ‘as many as were of the kindred of the high-priest.’ The opposition has had time to gather its forces, and now represents not only the family of Annas, but the heads of the party of the Sadducees.

αἵρεσις, the sect. It is the word from which our English heresy comes. But St Paul uses it of his own mode of worship (though there shewing that the Jews attached an ill meaning to it), in his defence (Acts 24:14) before Felix, ‘after the way which they call a sect.’ But he employs it without any sense of blame (Acts 26:5) about the Pharisees, and it is used of them also Acts 15:5. With a bad sense it is applied to the Nazarenes (Acts 24:5), and similarly Acts 28:22.

It is used disparagingly in Apocr. Act. Phil. in Hellad. 10, Ἰησοῦς … ὃς ἐδίδαξεν τὴν αἵρεσιν ταύτην. The words are in the mouth of the Jewish high-priest.

τῶν Σαδδουκαίων. From Acts 5:21 it will be seen that the statement of Josephus concerning the influence of this sect is fully borne out (Ant. XIII. 11.6), that they had the rich on their side. We have no certain evidence in Scripture that Annas was a Sadducee, but Josephus (Ant. xx. 9. 1) tells us that his son Ananus [or Annas] was of this sect.

ζήλου, jealousy. This is rather the sense of the word than ‘indignation’ as A.V. Of course the one was bred of the other. But what is here described is an outbreak of party feeling in a body who were jealous of the spread of this teaching about a resurrection.