Acts 5:21

Acts 5:21. They entered into the temple early in the morning, and taught. During many months of the year in the Holy Land the heat becomes too oppressive for the ordinary labour of the day soon after sunrise. In the early dawn (see John 20:1) the work of the day would begin, and the worshippers and the many traders and others connected with the busy life of the great Temple of Jerusalem would have arrived, and crowds would be already thronging the courts when Peter and the others who had been brought out of the public prison by the angel arrived at Solomon's Porch.

But the high priest, and they that were with him. The ordinary session chamber for the San hedrim was on the south side of the temple, at some considerable distance from Solomon's Porch, where the apostles no doubt were speaking to the people. The high priest and his friends in the council assembled in the early morning without being aware of the escape of Peter and the others.

And called all the council together, and all the senate of the children of Israel. Meyer, Alford, and Stier understand by the words πα ͂ σαν τη ̀ ν γερουσι ́ αν, which are translated all the senate, that a special meeting of elders was summoned to assist the Sanhedrim in this difficult matter of suppressing the teaching respecting the resurrection of the crucified Jesus; but the same word γερουσι ́ αν , senate, which occurs only here in the New Testament, in the second book of the Maccabees is constantly used for the Sanhedrim. The meaning here seems to be that on this occasion there was a meeting of the whole council, including all the elders who were members of it.