Acts 4:17

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 lame man, were clearly on the side of the accused apostles; so, with mere threats and a stern charge to bring no more before the people the name of that One they had condemned and murdered, but whose look and words haunted them with a nameless terror, they dismissed their prisoners. The expectation that the apostles would have been convicted under the statutes of the law based on Deuteronomy 13 (see note on Acts 4:7), was frustrated by the strong feeling shown by the people in favour of the apostles. This the Sanhedrim fairly confessed by their dread lest the knowledge of the new miracle done by the followers of Jesus should spread any farther. The same charge in former days had been made against the Lord, when He was accused of performing miracles by the power of Beelzebub; but then, as now, it fell, owing to the good sense of the people generally, who never for a moment could really bear such a supposition either in the case of Christ or His disciples.