Acts 4:9

εἰ : chosen not without oratorical nicety, if, as is the case = ἐπεὶ ἡμεῖς, expressing at the same time the righteous indignation of the Apostles in contrast to the contemptuous ὑμεῖς of Acts 4:7, and their surprise at the object of the present inquiry; so too in ἐπʼ εὐεργεσίᾳ St. Peter again indicates the unfairness of such inquisitorial treatment (“cum alias dijudicari debeant, qui malum fecerunt,” Bengel). ἀνακρινόμεθα : used here of a judicial examination, see Acts 12:19 and Luke 23:14, and cf. Acts 24:8; Acts 28:18, and 1 Corinthians 9:3, although the strictly technical sense of ἀνάκρισις as a preliminary investigation cannot be pressed here. ἐπʼ εὐεργ. ἀ. ἀσθενοῦς : “concerning a good deal done to an impotent man” the omission of the articles in both nouns adds to St. Peter's irony; “he hits them hard in that they are always making a crime of such acts, finding fault with works of beneficence,” Chrys., Hom., x.; ἀνθρώπου on the objective genitive, Winer-Schmiedel, pp. 260 and 267. ἐν τίνι : “by what means,” R.V.; “in whom,” margin. The neuter instrumental dative, cf. Matthew 5:13, is supported by Blass, Weiss, Holtzmann, and others, as if the expression embraced the two questions of Acts 4:7. Rendall, following the older commentators, regards the expression as masculine. οὗτος : the healed man is thought of as present, although nothing is said of his summons; “this man,” R.V. σέσωσται : the word familiar to us in the Gospels, Luke 7:50; Mark 10:52, with the pregnant meaning of health for body and soul alike.