Acts 4:4

ἐγενήθη : “came to be” R.V., only here in St. Luke, except in the quotation in Acts 1:20 (see also Acts 7:13,., and Blass in [148] hellenistic, frequently in LXX; in N.T. cf. 1 Thessalonians 2:14; Colossians 4:11; also Jos., Ant., x., 10, 2, Winer-Schmiedel, p. 108, note). ἀνδρῶν. This word here appears to be used of men only (so Wetstein, Blass), cf. Matthew 14:21; Mark 6:40, for although we cannot argue with Weiss from Acts 5:14, that women in great numbers did not join the Church until a later period (cf. also Acts 2:41, where women may well have been included), yet it seems that St. Luke, by his use of one word, ἀνδρῶν, here refers to the additional number of men. St. Luke does not say that five thousand of St. Peter's hearers were converted, in addition to those already converted at Pentecost (although Dr. Hort, following Chrys., Aug [149], Jer [150], takes this view, Judaistic Christianity, p. 47), or that five thousand were added, but his words certainly mark the growing expansion of the Church in spite of threatening danger, as this is also evident on the view that five thousand represent the total number of believers. The instances above from the Gospels are generally quoted to confirm the view here taken, but Wendt, in loco, curiously quotes the same passages in proof that ἀνδρῶν here includes women. The numbers are regarded by him as by Weizsäcker as artificial, but see above on Acts 1:15.

[148] R(omana), in Blass, a first rough copy of St. Luke.

[149] Augustine.

[150] Jerome, Hieronymus.