_Imprisonment of Peter and John, 1-4._ The ever-increasing crowd (see Acts 4:4) seems to have called the attention of the temple authorities to the miracle and the subsequent teaching of Peter and John. THE PRIESTS. The particular course on duty at the Temple during that week. The original divisi... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:2. BEING GRIEVED THAT THEY TAUGHT THE PEOPLE. The anger of the priests and captain of the Temple, whose duty it was to preserve a reverential order among the crowds who worshipped in the great sanctuary of Israel, was easily aroused by the Sadducees against these unauthorized teachers who wer... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:3. IT WAS NOW EVENTIDE. When Peter and John went up into the Temple to pray, it was three in the afternoon. It was about six o'clock when the captain of the Temple arrested them.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:4. MANY OF THORN WHICH HEARD THE WORD BELIEVED. In sharp contrast to the arrest and persecution of the two leaders by the influential party in the state, the compiler of the ‘Acts' notices, that though the rulers refused to hear, yet many of those who looked on the strange scene that afternoo... [ Continue Reading ]
_Arraignment before the Sanhedrim,_ 5-7. Acts 4:5. THEIR RULERS. ‘Their' refers not to the apostles, but to the Jewish people; ‘rulers,' to the Sanhedrists in general. The Sanhedrim is then further described as consisting of three orders: (1.) _Elders._ Heads of families who had a seat in the grea... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:6. AND ANNAS THE HIGH PRIEST. The Rabbis maintain that the Sanhedrim existed in the time of Moses, and refer to the incidents related in Numbers 11 for its origin. Seventy elders were appointed in the wilderness to assist Moses in his task of judging the people. Tradition relates how this cou... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:7. IN THE MIDST. Tradition relates how the Sanhedrim sat in a circle or semicircle. BY WHAT POWER. The Sanhedrists ask first, By what physical power or influence was this miracle wrought? BY WHAT NAME. They go on to inquire, In virtue of what uttered name have ye done this? The judges well... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:8. BEING FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST. In accordance with the Saviour's promise (see St. Luke 21:14-15).... [ Continue Reading ]
_St. Peter's Defence,_ 8-12. ‘Compare Peter a few days since in the palace of the high priest, thrice denying his Master from fear of prison and death, and now brought forth from prison, and confessing Christ before the same high priest and Sanhedrim which had delivered Christ up to Pilate for cruc... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:9-10. IF WE THIS DAY BE EXAMINED, etc. Ironical surprise runs through St. Peter's reply, which may be paraphrased thus: ‘If we _really_ are arraigned, which seems hardly credible, on account of the good deed done to this poor man (pointing to the healed cripple), know all of you, the miracle... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:11. THIS IS THE STONE, etc. The accusation of awful mistake with which he charges the judges of Israel, of dishonouring what God had so highly honoured, St. Peter repeats by boldly applying to them the well-known words of Psalms 118:22. His meaning, which they quickly understood, was that the... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:12. NONE OTHER NAME UNDER HEAVEN. The apostle has ceased altogether referring to the case of the lame man made whole, and is here proclaiming before the assembled Sanhedrim his Master's name, not only as a name in the strength of which the diseases of the poor body might be healed, that was a... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:13. UNLEARNED. Observing from the language and arguments used that Peter and John were untaught in the rabbinical learning of the Jewish schools. AND OBSCURE, or common. Men of no mark. THEY MARVELLED. The rulers were evidently astonished that one so unlearned and undistinguished should a... [ Continue Reading ]
_Judgment of the Sanhedrim_, 13-18. Astonishment of Sanhedrists at the ability of Peter's reply. They remember the two apostles were companions of Jesus, and then consult privately together. They see that any punishment they might inflict would be ill received by the people, so they determine to di... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:14. STANDING WITH THEM. The attitude of the healed one is mentioned with emphasis. No longer the cripple who had never walked or stood, and who by compassionate friends had been carried daily and laid as a suffering object to ask alms at the beautiful gate, he now _stands_ near his deliverers... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:15. THEY CONFERRED AMONG THEMSELVES. It has been asked, How were these apparently private deliberations known to St. Luke? Several probable answers have been given. Some of the priests who afterwards joined the little church (see chap. Acts 6:7) were doubtless present at the council. St. Pau... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:17. LET US STRAITLY THREATEN THEM, THAT THEY SPEAK HENCEFORTH TO NO MAN IN THIS NAME. The council could find no pretext for punishing them. The people, with the memory of the words and works of the Master of Peter and John vividly recalled to them by the work of mercy just done to the poor la... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:19. IN THE SIGHT OF GOD. The Eternal is appealed to as the ever-present Judge, as sitting invisible in that august council before whom they were then pleading. WHETHER IT BE RIGHT TO HEARKEN UNTO YOU RATHER THAN UNTO GOD, JUDGE YE. ACTS 4:20. FOR WE CANNOT BUT SPEAK THE THINGS WHICH WE HAVE... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Answer of Peter and John to the Threats of the Sanhedrim,_ 19-22. They say obedience must be shown to God rather than to men; as for them, they were only witnesses. After being again threatened, they are freed from custody.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:21. FINDING NOTHING HOW THEY MIGHT PUNISH THEM, BECAUSE OF THE PEOPLE. The evident good-will of the people no doubt procured the dismissal of the apostles this time without punishment. FOR ALL GLORIFIED GOD FOR THAT WHICH WAS DONE. No penalty, such as scourging or imprisonment, would then h... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:23. THEY WENT TO THEIR OWN PEOPLE. The Greek word here translated ‘their own people' has been understood by some to signify ‘their brother apostles,' by others ‘the church in the apostles' house, or ‘those with whom the apostles were accustomed to unite in prayer.' The term, however, is a far... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Apostles with their own People after their Release,_ 23-31. The prayer of the Church of Jerusalem to God to support and defend the threatened and persecuted followers of His Son, and the answer from heaven.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:24. THEY LIFTED UP THEIR VOICE TO GOD WITH ONE ACCORD. In what manner now are we to conclude that this primitive congregation of Christ's followers poured forth their earnest supplications to the Most High? Some would prefer to understand the prayer to have been an utterance of one of the apo... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:25. WHO BY THE MOUTH OF THY SERVANT DAVID HAST SAID. The quotation which follows is from Psalms 2:1-2. The words are taken verbatim from the Septuagint. There is no superscription either in the Hebrew or the Septuagint version; but the older interpreters, especially the Jewish, referred it to... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:26. THE KINGS OF THE EARTH STOOD UP, AND THE RULERS WERE GATHERED TOGETHER AGAINST THE LORD, AND AGAINST HIS ANOINTED. The 2d Psalm, the first two verses of which are woven into the earliest fragment we possess of Christian public worship, was interpreted originally by the Jews as referring t... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:27. IN THIS CITY. These words answer to the statement of Psalms 2:6: ‘ _Upon my holy hill of Zion,_ I have set my King.'... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:28. TO DO WHATSOEVER THY HAND AND THY COUNSEL DETERMINED BEFORE TO BE DONE. These important words must be connected closely with the foregoing clause, thus: ‘Herod and Pontius Pilate, etc., were gathered together to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined before to be done.' Meyer w... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:29. AND NOW, LORD, GRANT THAT WITH ALL BOLDNESS THEY MAY SPEAK THY WORD. It is well worthy of notice in this first great public prayer of the Church, how the Spirit of their Master had sunk into the disciples hearts. No fire from heaven is called down on the guilty heads of the enemies of Chr... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:30-31. BY STRETCHING FORTH THINE HAND TO HEAL. And the solitary special sign of almighty power which they pray for, is to be able to relieve such suffering among men as they had often seen their Master remove, the power to be able to work such works as Peter and John had performed the afterno... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:32. AND THE MULTITUDE OF THEM THAT BELIEVED. From the personal details connected with the leading followers of Jesus of Nazareth, related in the third and fourth Chapter s, from recounting their words, their great miracle, and the persecution which followed, the historian of the first days of... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Inner Life of the Church, Acts 4:32 to Acts 5:11_. The characteristic feature is concord among the believers. The great topic of preaching among them is the Lord's resurrection. The favour they were held in among the people. Their community of goods. Two notable examples of this generosity in... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:33. AND WITH GREAT POWER GAVE THE APOSTLES WITNESS OF THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD JESUS. These words speak of the relations of the Church with the outer world; the powerful and effective eloquence of the apostolic preaching was not, as some have suggested, merely working within the comparati... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:34-35. AND BROUGHT THE PRICES OF THE THINGS THAT WERE SOLD, AND LAID THEM AT THE APOSTLES' FEET. We have here one of the few expressions in the New Testament where the personal dignity and rank which the apostles held in the community of the believers is directly mentioned (comp. Cicero, _Pro... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 4:36-37. AND JOSEPH, WHO BY THE APOSTLES WAS SURNAMED BARNABAS. This is given as one of the more famous instances of this giving up houses and lands for the Lord's sake. Clement of Alexandria tells us this Barnabas, a Levite of Cyprus, was one of the Lord's seventy disciples. This eloquent and... [ Continue Reading ]