Acts 4:27

For of a truth Here the best MSS. insert the words in this city. The Apostle proceeds here to apply the language of the Psalmist to the events preceding the Crucifixion. The insertion of in this cityis very natural under such circumstances.

against thy holy child Jesus Read here, Servant Jesus, as Acts 3:13, for the original is the same though differently translated in the A.V.

whom thou hast anointed By the descent of the Holy Ghost at His Baptism. (Matthew 3:16.)

both Herod The representative of the rulers of the Jews. This Herod was Antipas the son of Herod the Great by his Samaritan wife Malthace. He was tetrarch of Galilee and Perea (Luke 3:19), and because our Lord belonged to Galilee Pilate took occasion to send Jesus to be examined by him, as Herod was in Jerusalem to keep the feast of the Passover.

and Pontius Pilate who was the Roman Governor, and so in his person were represented many nations at this time under the sway of Rome. His officials and soldiers would be drawn from all lands, and the mockery to which Jesus was exposed at their hands might well be described as the rage of the Gentiles.

Pontius Pilate was the sixth Roman procurator of Judæa; he was appointed a.d. 25 6 in the twelfth year of Tiberius, and he continued to hold the office till a.d. 36, when he was sent to Rome by Vitellius under an accusation brought against him by the Samaritans. Of his after life and his death there are many legends, but no history.