Acts 5:17

Never did any good work go on with any hope of success, but it met with opposition; those that are bent to do mischief cannot be reconciled to those who make it their business to do good. Satan, the destroyer of mankind, ever was, and will be, an adversary to those who are the benefactors of mankind; and it would have been strange if the apostles had gone on thus teaching and healing and had had no check. In these verses we have the malice of hell and the grace of heaven struggling about them, the one to drive them off from this good work, the other to animate them in it,

I. The priests were enraged at them, and shut them up in prison, Act 5:17, Act 5:18. Observe, 1. Who their enemies and persecutors were. The high priest was the ringleader, Annas or Caiaphas, who saw their wealth and dignity, their power and tyranny, that is, their all, at stake, and inevitably lost, if the spiritual and heavenly doctrine of Christ should get ground and prevail among the people. Those that were most forward to join with the high priest herein were the sect of the Sadducees, who had a particularly enmity to the gospel of Christ, because it confirmed and established the doctrine of the invisible world, the resurrection of the dead, and the future state, which they denied. It is not strange if men of no religion be bigoted in their opposition to true and pure religion. 2. How they were affected towards them, ill affected, and exasperated to the last degree. When they heard and saw what flocking there was to the apostles, and how considerable they were become, they rose up in a passion, as men that could no longer bear it, and were resolved to make head against it, being filled with indignation at the apostles for preaching the doctrine of Christ, and curing the sick, - at the people for hearing them, and bringing the sick to them to be cured, - and at themselves and their own party for suffering this matter to go so far, and not knocking it on the head at first. Thus are the enemies of Christ and his gospel a torment to themselves. Envy slays the silly one. 3. How they proceeded against them (Act 5:18): They laid their hands on them, perhaps their own hands (so low did their malice make them stoop), or, rather, the hands of their officers, and put them in the common prison, among the worst of malefactors. Hereby they designed, (1.) To put a restraint upon them; though they could not lay any thing criminal to their charge worthy of death or of bonds, yet while they had them in prison they kept them from going on in their work, and this they reckoned a good point gained. Thus early were the ambassadors of Christ in bonds. (2.) To put a terror upon them, and so to drive them off from their work. The last time they had them before them, they only threatened them (Act 4:21); but now, finding that this did not do, they imprisoned them, to make them afraid of them. (3.) To put a disgrace upon them, and therefore they chose to clap them up in the common prison, that, being thus vilified, the people might not, as they had done, magnify them. Satan has carried on his design against the gospel very much by making the preachers and professors of it appear despicable.

II. God sent his angel to release them out of prison, and to renew their commission to preach the gospel. The powers of darkness fight against them, but the Father of lights fights for them, and sends an angel of light to plead their cause. The Lord will never desert his witnesses, his advocates, but will certainly stand by them, and bear them out.

1. The apostles are discharged, legally discharged, from their imprisonment (Act 5:19): The angel of the Lord by night, in spite of all the locks and bars that were upon them, opened the prison doors, and, in spite of all the vigilance and resolution of the keepers that stood without before the doors, brought forth the prisoners (see Act 5:23), gave them authority to go out without crime, and led them through all opposition. This deliverance is not so particularly related as that of Peter (Act 12:7, etc.); but the miracle here was the very same. Note, There is no prison so dark, so strong, but God can both visit his people in it, and, if he pleased, fetch them out of it. This discharge of the apostles out of prison by an angel was a resemblance of Christ's resurrection, and his discharge out of the prison of the grave, and would help to confirm the apostles' preaching of it.

2. They are charged, and legally charged, to go on with their work, so as thereby to be discharged from the prohibition which the high priest laid them under; the angel bade them, Go, stand, and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life, Act 5:20. When they were miraculously set at liberty, they must not think it was that they might save their lives by making their escape out of the hands of their enemies. No; it was that they might to on with their work with so much the more boldness. Recoveries from sickness, releases out of trouble, are granted us, and are to be looked upon by us as granted, not that we may enjoy the comforts of our life, but that God may be honoured with the services of our life. Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee, Psa 119:175. Bring my soul out of prison (as the apostles here), that I may praise thy name, Psa 143:7. See Isa 38:22. Now in this charge given them, observe, (1.) Where they must preach: Speak in the temple. One would think, though they might not quit their work, yet it had been prudent to go on with it in a more private place, where it would give less offence to the priests than in the temple, and so would the less expose them. No; "Speak in the temple, for this is the place of concourse, this is your Father's house, and it is not to be as yet quite left desolate." It is not for the preachers of Christ's gospel to retire into corners, as long as they can have any opportunity of preaching in the great congregation. (2.) To whom they must preach: "Speak to the people; not to the princes and rulers, for they will not hearken; but to the people, who are willing and desirous to be taught, and whose souls are as precious to Christ, and ought to be so to you, as the souls of the greatest. Speak to the people, to all in general, for all are concerned." (3.) How they must preach: Go, stand, and speak, which intimates, not only they must speak publicly, stand up and speak, that all may hear; but that they must speak boldly and resolutely: Stand and speak; that is, "Speak it as those that resolve to stand to it, to live and die by it." (4.) What they must speak: All the words of this life. This life which you have been speaking of among yourselves, referring perhaps to the conferences concerning heaven which they had among themselves for their own and one another's encouragement in prison: "Go, and preach the same to the world, that others may be comforted with the same comforts with which you yourselves are comforted of God." Or, "of this life which the Sadducees deny, and therefore persecute you; preach this, though you know it is this that they have indignation at." Or, "of this life emphatically; this heavenly, divine life, in comparison with which the present earthly life does not deserve the name." Or, "these words of life, the very same you have preached, these words which the Holy Ghost puts into your mouth." Note, The words of the gospel are the words of life, quickening words; they are spirit, and they are life; words whereby we may be saved - that is the same with this here, Act 11:14. The gospel is the word of this life, for it secures to us the privileges of our way as well as those of our home, and the promises of the life that now is as well as of that to come. And yet even spiritual and eternal life are brought so much to light in the gospel that they may be called this life; for the word is nigh thee. Note, The gospel is concerning matters of life and death, and ministers must preach it and people hear it accordingly. They must speak all the words of this life, and not conceal any for fear of offending, or in hope of ingratiating themselves with their rulers. Christ's witnesses are sworn to speak the whole truth.

III. They went on with their work (Act 5:21): When they heard this, when they heard that it was the will of God that they should continue to preach in the temple, they returned to Solomon's porch, Act 5:12. 1. It was a great satisfaction to them to have these fresh orders. Perhaps they began to question whether, if they had their liberty, they should preach as publicly in the temple as they had done, because they had been told, when they were persecuted in one city, to flee to another. But, now that the angel ordered them to go preach in the temple, their way was plain, and they ventured without any difficulty, entered into the temple, and feared not the face of man. Note, If we may but be satisfied concerning our duty, our business is to keep close to this, and then we may cheerfully trust God with our safety. (2.) They set themselves immediately to execute them, without dispute or delay. They entered into the temples early in the morning (as soon as the gates were opened, and people began to come together there), and taught them the gospel of the kingdom: and did not at all fear what man could do unto them. The case here was extraordinary: the whole treasure of the gospel is lodged in their hands; if they be silent now the springs are shut up, and the whole work falls to the ground and is made to cease, which is not the case of ordinary ministers, who therefore are not by this example bound to throw themselves into the mouth of danger; and yet when God gives opportunity of doing good, though we be under the restraint and terror of human powers, we should venture far rather than let go such an opportunity.

IV. The high priest and his party went on with their prosecution, Act 5:21. They, supposing they had the apostles sure enough, called the council together, a great and extraordinary council, for they summoned all the senate of the children of Israel. See here,

1. How they were prepared, and how big with expectation, to crush the gospel of Christ and the preachers of it, for they raised the whole posse. The last time they had the apostles in custody they convened them only before a committee of those that were of the kindred of the high priest, who were obliged to act cautiously; but now, that they might proceed further and with more assurance, they called together, pasan tēn gerousian - all the eldership, that is (says Dr. Lightfoot), all the three courts or benches of judges in Jerusalem, not only the great sanhedrim, consisting of seventy elders, but the other two judicatories that were erected one in the outer-court gate of the temple, the other in the inner or beautiful gate, consisting of twenty-three judges each; so that, if there was a full appearance, here were one hundred and sixteen judges. Thus God ordered it, that the confusion of the enemies, and the apostles' testimony against them, might be more public, and that those might hear the gospel who would not hear it otherwise than from the bar. Howbeit, the high priest meant not so, neither did his heart think so; but it was in his heart to rally all his forces against the apostles, and by a universal consent to cut them all off at once.

2. How they were disappointed, and had their faces filled with shame: He that sits in heaven laughs at them, and so may we too, to see how gravely the court is set; and we may suppose the high priest makes a solemn speech to them, setting forth the occasion of their coming together - that a very dangerous faction was now lately raised at Jerusalem, by the preaching of the doctrine of Jesus, which it was needful, for the preservation of their church (which never was in such danger as now), speedily and effectually to suppress - that it was now in the power of their hands to do it, for he had the ringleaders of the faction now in the common prison, to be proceeded against, if they would but agree to it, with the utmost severity. An officer is, in order hereunto, despatched immediately to fetch the prisoners to the bar. But see how they are baffled. (1.) The officers come, and tell them that they are not to be found in the prison, Act 5:22, Act 5:23. They last time they were forthcoming when they were called for, Act 4:7. But now they were gone, and the report which the officers make is, "The prison-doors truly found we shut with all safety" (nothing had been done to weaken them); "the keepers had not been wanting to their duty; we found them standing without before the doors, and knowing nothing to the contrary but that the prisoners were all safe: but when we went in we found no man therein, that is, none of the men we were sent to fetch." It is probable that they found the common prisoners there. Which way the angel fetched them, whether by some back way, or opening the door and fastening it closely again (the keepers all the while asleep), we are not told; however it was, they were gone. The Lord knows, though we do not, how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and how to loose those that are in bonds for his name's sake, and he will do it, as here, when he has occasion for them. Now think how confused the court looked, when the officers made this return upon their order (Act 5:24): When the high priest, and the captain of the temple, and the chief priests, heard these things, they were all at a plunge, and looked one upon another, doubting what this thing should be. They were extremely perplexed, were at their wits' end, having never been so disappointed in all their lives of any thing they were so sure of. It occasioned various speculations, some suggesting that they were conjured out of the prison, and made their escape by magic arts; others that the keepers had played tricks with them, knowing how many friends these prisoners had, that were so much the darlings of the people. Some feared that, having made such a wonderful escape, they would be the more followed; others that, though perhaps they had frightened them from Jerusalem, they should hear of them again in some part or other of the country, where they would do yet more mischief, and it would be yet more out of their power to stop the spreading of the infection; and now they begin to fear that instead of curing the ill they have made it worse. Note, Those often distress and embarrass themselves that think to distress and embarrass the cause of Christ. (2.) Their doubt is, in part, determined; and yet their vexation is increased by another messenger, who brings them word that their prisoners are preaching in the temple (Act 5:25): "Behold, the men whom you put in prison, and have sent for to your bar, are now hard by you here, standing in the temple, under your nose and in defiance of you, teaching the people." Prisoners, that have broken prison, usually abscond, for fear of being retaken; but these prisoners, that here made their escape, dare to show their faces even where their persecutors have the greatest influence. Now this confounded them more than any thing. Common malefactors may have art enough to break prison; but those are uncommon ones that have courage enough to avow it when they have so done.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Act_5:17-26

Then the high priest rose up.

Vain efforts to oppose the gospel

I. The effort in this case; by the imprisonment of the leaders of the gospel (Act_5:17-18). The whole Jewish authority was in opposition.

II. Its vanity.

1. Because God was on the side of the gospel (Act_5:19-24).

(1). Sending His angel to release.

(2) Infusing courage. If God be for us, who can be against us?

2. Because the people wanted and needed the gospel (Act_5:20-21; Act_5:25-28). The rulers were fighting against the deepest requirements of the human soul. The gospel is for the people.

3. Because Christ is a Prince as well as a Saviour (Act_5:29-32). (Christian Age.)

The priests and the preachers

I. The devil some times makes use of the best instruments for the basest of his purposes. The Sadducees the best sect: the high priest the pick of his nation.

II. Persecution must be reckoned as the cost of Christian courage. The age of martyrdom not yet closed.

III. Gods deliverances of His chosen often appear like miraculous interventions of His own hand (Psa_91:11-12).

IV. The true purpose of every Christian career is to go stand and speak to the people all the words of this life: by testimony or works.

V. The devils minions are usually the earliest to become frightened when the fight really begins.

VI. What satan fears most is good doctrinal teaching (Act_5:28).

VII. The grand principle of the gospel is unqualified obedience to God.

VIII. The entire gospel is contained in the story of Christs humiliation and exaltation.

IX. The limit of human responsibility is found in stating the truth and living up to it. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)

The Sanhedrin and the apostles

In considering the lessons to be drawn from this history we see--

I. How God overrules opposition for the good of His Church. It seemed indeed a dark hour for the cause of Christ when the apostles were shut up in the common prison, and left, apparently, in the power of their bitterest enemies. They were now beginning to realise the truth of their Lords words: They shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, etc. But they had no reason for despondency, for in that same prediction was also the promise of help: And it shall turn to you for a testimony. In the faith of this they waited on the Lord. Nor did they wait in vain. It was a triumphant answer to the teaching of the Sadducees, who denied the existence of angels, and it was also calculated to instruct and elevate the faith of the Church. Nor was the lesson lost. As mercies granted make us bold to ask for more, so, we may believe, this deliverance was remembered on a subsequent occasion, when the disciples met together to pray for the release of Peter. But more especially was this event blessed to the apostles themselves. The angel who delivered them said, Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. Their trial and deliverance, after all, increased their qualifications to preach. Satan defeated himself. So it has ever been in the experience of Gods faithful ministers. Many a sore trial or dark night of sorrow has fitted them to proclaim more clearly and positively the words of life. The apostles in prison, Paul in Neros dungeon, and John Bunyan in Bedford jail, are events which show how God can make the trials and persecutions of His servants advance His glory and turn to them for a testimony. We cannot but admire the prompt and faithful obedience of the apostles. To stand in that public place and teach in the name of Jesus was to expose themselves again to danger and death. Carnal prudence might say, You are now delivered; hide yourselves until this storm of indignation has swept by. But no; these were men who thought more of Christ than of their personal safety.

II. Rationalism confounded. The high priest and his council slept undisturbed by the visits of angels. On the morrow they were to pass sentence, But instead of their anticipated triumph came their discomfiture. Evil is never so near its defeat as when it seems to be in the hour of its triumph. The morrow came; the high priest, his council and the Sanhedrin were assembled, and officers were sent to bring in the prisoners. The officers return, with their faces proclaiming their amazement, saying, The prison truly found we shut with all safety, etc. (verse 23). Here was something that confounded all their plans and put a new phase on the matter before them. Just when rationalism thought to put down the supernatural, lo! it appears in a new manifestation before them. The perplexity of the council is further increased when one came saying, Behold, the men whom ye put into prison are standing in the temple, and teaching the people. When men escape from prison it is to hide themselves, but these prisoners go at once to repeat their offence. It was this conduct, as much as the strangeness of their deliverance, that impressed the senate. Then, as often since, men were made to see that there is a hidden spiritual force about the gospel which cannot be accounted for, save on the ground that the life of Christ is in it.

III. The enemies of the gospel made to fear and respect those who are fearless in proclaiming it. The high priest and his council have now heard where their former prisoners are, but how were they to arrest them? A short hour before they deemed it enough to send the ordinary officers to drag them to their tribunal. But now (verse 26) they were compelled to show special consideration to the apostles, and the latter are set before the Sanhedrin with something of honour and deference. The meeting is most significant: it presents one of those striking contrasts between the old and the new which history now and then furnishes. On one side are men of this world, who have no aims or hopes beyond the grave--men of policy and self-interest, controlled in their actions by fear of the people; on the other side, men who are living for eternity, and who through the risen Christ have seen the glorified life beyond the grave--men whose conduct is shaped only by the fear of God. The issue between them is the struggle of the ages; they represent the parties of to-day. Which side are you on? (S. J. Niccolls, D. D.)

Persecution renewed

I. The apostles in prison. The high priest and the Sadducees were filled with jealousy.

1. Because of the popularity and success of the apostles (verse 12-16). The rapid growth of the Church was a threat to them. It presented to them the uneasy suggestion of some day being called to account for having crucified the Head of the Church (verse 28).

2. Because the apostles were still giving, with great power, their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus (Act_4:33). They were tolling the knell of the Sadducees as a sect.

3. The apostles represented the vital energy of this new sect. If they only could be silenced, the propagating power of the new faith would be gone.

II. The apostles released. Observe--

1. Its manners By an angel in such a way that the prison guards were unaware of their going (verse 23).

2. Its suggestions.

(1) As to the power of God. Men had incarcerated His followers, but He took them out of their prison as easily as we take a fly out of the meshes of a cobweb.

(2) As to the vigilant care of God. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without His knowledge. It was not in His design to leave the apostles at the mercy of the Sanhedrin in this time of the genesis of His Church. By miraculously delivering them first, He would warn the rulers not to proceed too far.

(3) As to the ministry of angels. For illustrative instances, take the succouring of Elisha under the juniper tree (1Ki_19:5-7); the invisible celestial host round about Elisha at Dotham (2Ki_6:16-17); the delivery of Peter from prison (Act_12:1-11), etc. For the scriptural teachings relative to the mission of angels with regard to Gods servants refer them to Psa_14:7; Heb_1:14. But just here a caution is needed. Generally speaking, it is true that the Lord delivers those who fear and trust in Him, but it is not always so. He brought the apostles out of prison, but he suffered Stephen to be stoned. He delivered Peter, but He permitted James to be slain with the sword. There are circumstances where death is worth more than life. Whether He delivers or permits one to suffer, God acts towards His servants in the best, the wisest, and the tenderest way.

III. The apostles in the temple. Note--

1. That the apostles were not allowed to flee, they were released that they might return to the thick of the fray.

2. That with the release of the prisoners the mission of the angel ceased. They were to speak the words of eternal life. It is not by the eloquence of angels, but by the often faltering testimony of men, that the world is to be won to Christ.

3. That the apostles were to speak all the words, not a part merely--to speak without fear and favour--to speak just as freely as though no Sanhedrin or prisons or crosses were in existence.

4. That they must have spoken that morning with peculiar power. The circumstances suggest that they could not have done otherwise.

IV. The apostles on trial. Before they were brought to trial, the Sanhedrin were much perplexed, and were particularly concerned as to whereunto this would grow. They were in dread of miracles and of the influence of miracles. In the midst of their perplexity, the astounding information was brought that their late prisoners were doing openly what the Sanhedrin had forbidden them to do. But on account of the manifest favour of the people toward the apostles, the officers brought them without violence, fearing to be stoned if, in any way, they roughly treated them. When brought before the council the apostles--

1. Were reminded of the prohibition which they had just been disregarding--a prohibition which the apostles, at the time, intimated that they must disregard.

2. Were accused now of trying to bring this mans blood upon them. This mans blood, however, they had invoked upon themselves (Mat_27:25).

V. The apostles answer.

1. It was bold. It laid down the principle, We must obey God rather than men. That was like the reply of that heroic trio (Dan_3:16-17). So Socrates at Athens, I honour and love you, but I shall obey God rather than you.

2. It was faithful. In reciting the facts that impelled them to speak in spite of the prohibition of the Sanhedrin, Peter again pressed home the guilt of the rulers before whom he stood. God had raised up Jesus, whom they slew, and exalted Him with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour.

3. It was suggestive of mercy. Peter pointed out that God had exalted Jesus to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins. In this was an answer to the charge that the apostles were endeavouring to bring the blood of this man upon them. They were--but for their redemption! Peters address is short, but it contains the substance of the gospel. To the rulers as well as to the people in the temple, the apostles were enabled to speak all the words of this life.

4. It gave the reason why they must speak. They were witnesses of these things. They were chosen of Christ to speak. They were not alone in their witness. The Holy Spirit witnessed with them, and through them, and through others--thus Divinely confirming their testimony. And here was a hint to the rulers. If they would not accept the witness of the apostles, they should accept the higher witness of the Spirit. (M. G. Hazard.)

Persecution renewed

I. The apostles imprisoned and released.

1. Put in prison (Act_4:1; Act_13:45; Act_17:5; Luk_21:12).

2. Led out of prison (Act_12:7; Act_16:26; Heb_1:14).

3. Teaching in the temple.

(1) The command given (Mat_10:27; Joh_6:68; Act_20:20).

(2) The command obeyed (Pro_28:1; Isa_8:13; Mat_10:28).

4. Sent by the council.

(1) The sending.

(2) The report (Psa_124:7; Psa_91:3; Eze_34:22).

(3) The perplexity (Isa_9:7; Dan_2:44; Mar_4:32).

5. Lessons: Faithful witnesses for Christ--

(1) May count upon exciting the jealousy of those who are the enemies of Christ.

(2) May count upon some kind of hostile interference by the enemies of Christ.

(3) May count upon the ministries of angels in their behalf.

(4) May count upon Gods being alive to any dangers they may incur by witnessing for Christ.

(5) May count upon Gods delivering them when it is best for His cause that they should be delivered.

(6) Are called upon to speak to the people all the words of this life.

(7) Still cause the enemies of Christ to be perplexed with the question as to whereunto this gospel is to grow.

II. The apostles on trial.

1. The apostles brought (Mat_14:5; 1Pe_2:13).

2. The apostles examined.

(1) The reminder (Act_4:18; Dan_6:12; Dan_3:10).

(2) The accusation.

(a) Ye have filled Jerusalem with your teaching. Ye shall be My witnesses … in Jerusalem (Act_1:8). Shall go forth … the word of the Lord from Jerusalem (Isa_2:3). The earth shall be filled with knowledge … of the Lord (Hab_2:14).

(b) And intend to bring this Mans blood upon us (Mat_27:25; Act_2:36; Act_3:14).

3. Lessons: If the disciples of Christ are faithful--

(1) They will secure the respect and favour of the people.

(2) They will find that deliverance from one trouble will not secure them from further trial.

(3) They may some times be compelled to disobey the mandates of the authorities.

(4) They will yet fill the world with their teaching.

(5) They will bring the blood of Christ upon all men, either for their redemption or for their condemnation.

III. The apostles answer.

1. The declaration. We must obey God rather than men (chap. 4:19; Dan_3:18; Dan_6:10).

2. The reason for the declaration.

(1) The facts.

(a) The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew (Act_2:24; Act_3:26; 1Co_15:13).

(b) Him did God exalt … to give repentance to Israel (chap. 2:33; Php_2:9; Mat_1:21).

(2) Their relation to the facts. We are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Ghost (Luk_24:48; Act_1:8; Heb_2:4).

3. Lessons:

(1) The fundamental rule for Christians, We must obey God rather than men.

(2) Christians should obey God rather than men.

(a) Because of that which Jesus has done to purchase their perfect obedience.

(b) Because of the exaltation of the One whom they serve.

(c) Because they are witnesses for Christ, their witness being effective in proportion to their fidelity to God. (S. S. Times.)

The activity and bafflement of the persecutors

I. The apostles arrest and imprisonment. The new attack was occasioned by the things described in verses 12-16. Note--

1. The feeling of the persecutors--Indignation.

2. Their conduct. They laid hands upon the apostles and put them into the common prison, of all places the most revolting and disreputable. Thus, as ever, bigotry shows the weakness of its opinion and the malignity of its aims, by substituting force for argument, might for right.

II. Their deliverance and commission.

1. Their deliverance. On the former occasion they were released by the timid and apprehensive policy of their oppressors; here by a direct messenger from heaven. Prison walls, iron gates, massive chains are nothing to an angel.

2. Their commission.

(1) Its subject. The words of this life. The gospel is a record of words that generate, nurture, develop, and perfect the true life of humanity.

(2) Its sphere--the temple, the most public place, when the greatest numbers could be reached.

(3) Its expedition. They set themselves to work at once early in the morning.

3. This deliverance and commission had a twofold effect upon their enemies.

(1) It confounded them with disappointment. The wicked work in the dark, and Providence makes them the victims of their own plots.

(2) It filled them with apprehension. They doubted whereunto this would grow. Well might they fear.

III. Their arraignment and defence.

1. Their arraignment (verse 28). The language expresses--

(1) Their mortification at the disregard of their authority.

(2) An assumed contempt for Christ.

(3) Their reluctant testimony to the progress of Christianity.

(4) The foreboding of a terrible retribution.

To bring blood on the head is a Hebrew idiom for having to answer for the death of another. They had cried, His blood be upon us, now they deprecated that as the direst of judgments.

2. Their defence (verses 29-32). We have here--

(1) One of the grandest of principles (verse 29).

(2) One of the most wonderful of facts. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus.

(3) One of the most appalling of crimes. Whom ye slew, etc.

(4) One of the most glorious of communications (verse 31). Here observe--

(a) That Christ is exalted to the highest dignity--the right hand of God.

(b) That He is so exalted for the sublimest functions--to be a Prince and a Saviour.

(c) That in these functions He has to communicate to the world the greatest of blessings--repentance and forgiveness.

(5) The most exalted of missions (verse 32). They were fellow-workers with the great Spirit Himself.

(6) The most intense exasperation (verse 33). (D. Thomas, D. D.)

The imprisonment and deliverance of the apostles

I. The conflict of force.

1. On the side of the persecutors (verses 17, 18).

2. On the side of the persecuted (verses 19, 21).

II. The conflict of argument.

1. The Sanhedrin (verse 21).

2. The apostles (verses 29,32).

III. The conflict of policy.

1. The violent party (verse 33).

2. The moderate party (verses 34-42).

Lessons:

1. Mans extremity is Gods opportunity.

2. The moral cowardice of bravado. The Sanhedrin put the apostles in prison, but dared not ask how they got out.

3. We ought to obey God rather than men.

4. The inefficacy of force to crush the truth. (J. Bennett, D. D.)

The apostles persecuted

1. (verses 17, 18). There all evil power ends. The policy may admit of great variety in detail, but it is all summed up in that poor sentence. How differently it might have read remembering the dignity and culture of the Sanhedrim--Let us instantly dare them to controversy, and in the hearing of all the people put silence to their doctrine. No; their only resource was physical force. It is the same thing in all ages. No man can answer the truth; he can only lay hands on the truth-teller.

2. But having looked at the darkness, let us see if it be all darkness (verses 18, 19). So the affairs of men are not bounded by what we can see, and measure, and add up. There are invisible agencies over which we have no control. All the stars fight for God, all the angels of heaven assist the good man. They have always identified themselves with Christian effort. They were with Christ in all the crises of His life; and now they were with Christs servants in theirs. Men can shut us up; angels can deliver us. Men can do the destructive work upon our persons and ministry, whether in the pulpit, in the home, or in business; but God can do the constructive work, and set up again what has been shattered by violence. To know this is power, emancipation. The great difficulty is to realise the invisible. Lord, increase our faith! Give us those inward, all-piercing eyes that see angels everywhere, as the prophet saw them when the hosts of Samaria encamped round about him.

3. And when they heard that they entered into the temple early and taught. The apostles were always prepared, never better at one time than at another. They could preach early in the morning; they could study in prison; they could face the highest men in the nation; they could answer questions extemporaneously and completely; they could heal the sick and teach inquirers at once. Are we in the apostolic succession? Have we not to go to books of reference? But the Christian professor ought never to have to go away in order to find a word for his Master. The Church is losing power by not living in the atmosphere of Christian thought, service, love. The apostles received their commissions from the angels; but had a little child said, There are some poor people in the temple who want to hear about Jesus, the apostles would have accepted the call instantly. How can we teach Jesus if we do not know Him? But if He be our hearts delight and supreme love, then we shall always be prepared in the best sense to speak for Him, not artistically and in a literary sense, but with that all-piercing power that touches every man to the core.

4. No angel had called upon the Sanhedrin during the night. So they came in the morning to go about their days work. But the prisoners were not forthcoming. Think of a whole court being put hors de combat. God is always making fools of those who oppose Him. The officers return. Hear their statement (verse 23). This is an aspect of the terrible power of God. He lets things remain just as they are, to all human appearance, but sucks the life out of them. He leaves prisons great shells. God can work so secretly, so completely. Circumstances have been your prison, and bewilderment, and prejudice, but an angel has come in the night-time and delivered you.

5. What a message was that of verse 25! Your expostulation has come to nothing. God has not touched a key in the girdle of the prison keeper, but He has used His own. The men were brought before the senate, and they said, We ought to obey God. This was their strength. Not We had a vision, and were compelled to this act, otherwise we would have remained in prison and come. Be gentle with some men. Peter denied his Master, and some of us would have expelled him for ever from the Church. But Jesus recovered him, and here he is, a hero. Have any of us slipped? There is no reason why we should slip for ever. Give a man an opportunity of getting up again. Those who heard Peter were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay him. I would we had more such preaching. Whether it is the knife is too short or blunt, or the hand too cowardly, we never get down into the heart.

6. There was one wise man in the council--Gamaliel. He called them to common sense. He told them of two men of marvellous pretensions who subsided into oblivion, and his argument was, Give the men time. Time is the enemy of the bad--the friend of the good. If this be a nine-days wonder, do not let us be angry on the fourth day: five days more will show us what it is made of. He prevailed, and the council compounded with the occasion by simply beating the men they intended to slay.

7. When the apostles were dismissed, what think you they said? No more of this; we cannot endure being trampled on. We have done enough, now we will resume our ordinary tasks. Nay, read verse 41. Their wounds were medals. You could never have had a sentence like this from a mere artist. No literary man could have hit upon this expression. Have you ever suffered shame? Did they obey the prohibition? No: daily in the temple and in every house they ceased not to preach, teaching Jesus Christ. There was a new tone in their voices. Peters suffering developed that womanly element without which a man can never be complete in any great ministry. What examples we have to follow! We see from their history the worst that can be done to us. Fear not them that kill the body.

8. This history shows us whence true power comes. The power that bears affliction comes not out of our own hearts, but from heaven. (J. Parker, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 5:17-18. Then the high-priest rose up — Never did any good work go on with any hope of success, but it met with opposition; for they that are bent to do evil cannot be reconciled to them who make it their business to do good. Satan, the destroyer of mankind, ever was, and ever will be, an adversary to those who are men’s benefactors. And it would have been strange, if the apostles had been suffered to go on thus teaching and healing, and had received no check. In these and the following verses we have the malice of hell and the grace of Heaven struggling about them; the one to make them cease from this good work, the other to animate them in it. The high-priest, Annas or Caiaphas, was the ringleader in the opposition made to them: he rose up — As it were, with awakened and renewed fury; and all they that were with him — His friends and associates; for they saw their wealth and dignity, their power and tyranny, that is, their all at stake, and inevitably lost, if the spiritual and heavenly doctrine of Christ should gain ground and prevail among the people. Which is the sect of the Sadducees — A goodly company for the priest! The Sadducees were most forward to join with the high-priest in this persecution, having a particular enmity to the gospel of Christ, because it attested and confirmed the doctrine of the invisible and eternal world, the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and the future state, which they denied. And were filled with indignation — Greek, ζηλου, with zeal, rather; namely, bitter, persecuting zeal against the cause of Christ: for it is not strange, if men of no religion be bigoted in their opinions against true and pure religion. When they heard and saw how the people flocked to the apostles, and how reputable they were become, they were exasperated to the last degree, and rose up in a passion, as men who could no longer bear such proceedings, and were resolved to oppose them, being vexed at the apostles for preaching the doctrine of Christ, and curing the sick; at the people for hearing them, and bringing the sick to be cured; and at themselves and their own party for suffering this matter to go so far, and not suppressing it at its first rise. Thus are the enemies of Christ and his gospel a torment to themselves! And laid their hands on the apostles — Being determined to bring them to another trial before the sanhedrim; and put them in the common prison — Where the vilest malefactors were lodged.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

V. PENTECOSTAL CHURCH IN SECOND AND SEVERER PERSECUTION AND RESULTS, 17-42.

1. Imprisonment of Apostles and Arraignment, Act_5:17-32.

As our history grows, larger events open on us. In the first persecution (Act_3:1 to Act_4:22,) two apostles were arrested, and the Sanhedrin from fear or the people had dismissed them with a requirement of silence, which the apostles faithfully promised to disobey. So far from silence, the apostles persisted in miracles and preaching; and after the terrible phenomenon or Ananias and Sapphira they boldly ventured to hold assembly in Solomon’s Porch, to the awe of their adversaries, to the love of the people, and the rapid increase of the Church. The incensed Sadducean authorities now proceed to bolder measures. Spite of the people or of divine interference, and even of their want of authority to inflict capital punishment, they are ready to put the entire twelve apostles to death forthwith; and, even when cooled by the remonstrances of Gamaliel, heading the Pharisaic party, they cannot dismiss the apostles without inflicting upon them an ignominious chastisement.

17. High priest—Caiaphas, the same who arraigned the Saviour a few short months ago. Well might the apostles say to such men, (Act_5:30,) Jesus, whom ye slew.

Rose up—As if he could sit and see the bold proceedings of the apostles no longer.

With him… Sadducees—Whether Caiaphas was a Sadducee or not is not very clear; but that the Sadducees were in the present case his instigators is certain, and for reasons detailed in our notes on Act_4:1.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL REMARKS

Act_5:17. The high priest.—Annas, as in Act_4:6. Indignation.—Not envy or jealousy (R.V.), but hot, angry zeal.

Act_5:19. Not the but an Angel of the Lord; i.e., sent by the Lord, or the Exalted Christ.

Act_5:20. All the words of this life.—I.e., of this resurrection life which the Sadducees denied, or of this eternal life which the apostles preached, or of this blessed life which the angel himself enjoyed, or all of these together.

Act_5:21. All the senate, or eldership. Whether a special meeting of the presbyters (a wider conception than the Sanhedrim) was summoned to assist the Sanhedrim (Meyer, Wendt, Holtzmann), or only the Sanhedrim, called in the Old Testament Apocrypha, the senate (Schürer, ii. 149) was convened (Zöckler, Hackett), cannot be determined.

Act_5:24. They doubted of them.—Better, were much perplexed concerning them—i.e., the apostles (Alford), or the words reported about the apostles (Hackett). Whereunto this would grow.—What this would become, this incident of their escape from prison and this movement of which they were the leaders.

Act_5:26. Lest they should be stoned depends upon “not with violence” (Alford, Hackett), rather than upon “they feared” (Holtzmann).

Act_5:28. This man’s blood upon us recalls Mat_27:25.

Act_5:29. We ought to obey (πειθαρχεῖν, to obey or acknowledge as ruler, stronger than ἀκούειν, Act_4:19) God rather than man.—Compare Socrates to his judges, πείσομαι δὲ μᾶλλον τῷ Θεῷ ἤ ὕμιν (Plato, Apologia, xvii. D).

Act_5:31. With, or by, rather than “to.” See Act_2:33. Not to be, but (as) a prince (as in Act_3:15)—i.e., as theocratic Lord and King of His people, and a Saviour—i.e., as the originator of the Messianic salvation (Holtzmann).

HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Act_5:17-32

Annas upon the Move; or, the Bursting of the Storm

I. The high priest and the angel of the Lord.—The high priest’s action against the apostles was:

1. Dictated by evil motives.

(1) Indignation. If not grieved at the miraculous activity of the apostles in healing (which they probably were) he and his associates felt annoyed at the persistence of the apostles in teaching doctrines which they, the high priest and his colleagues, did not believe. Most men are intolerant of beliefs to which they cannot themselves subscribe. No matter how excellent in character and beneficent in action other people may be, unless these swear by their superiors’ Shibboleths, they are disliked, if not oppressed, for their non-conformity. The Christian Church, to the amazement of the world, has often followed in the steps of the Jewish Sanhedrim!

(2) Jealousy. The high priest and his associates were offended at the growing influence of the apostles and the cause they represented. Few things are harder to bear with equanimity than the popularity of rivals and much more of opponents. The increase of the apostles in public esteem meant the decline of the Sanhedrists in national favour.

2. Concurred in by his associates. “Those that were with him” were not his colleagues in the Sanhedrim afterwards mentioned as the council (Act_5:21), but his co-religionists, belonging to the sect of the Sadducees. Evil-doers never want allies. The difficulty has ever been to find fellow-helpers in good.

3. Observed by an unseen eye. The Lord noticed the angry feelings of the high priest, his rising indignation and jealousy, the secret confabulations between him and his associates, the order issued for the arrest of the apostles, the execution of that order by the officers of the Sanhedrim, and the consignment of the servants of Jesus to the public ward. “All things are naked and manifest unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Heb_4:13; compare Act_1:24; Rev_2:18; Rev_2:23).

4. Counterworked by an invisible agent. “An angel of the Lord,” celestial intelligences being all subject to the exalted Christ (1Pe_3:22; Rev_22:16), visited the prison by night at his King’s command (Heb_1:14), opened its doors, as he or another (Act_12:7) afterwards did to Peter, and having fetched them out commanded them to resume teaching in the temple. When Christ and His battalions take the field against confederacies of evil, whether human or angelic, these are sure to be overthrown and their projects scattered to the winds (Psa_2:4-5).

II. The high priest and the senate of Israel.—Having effected the arrest of the apostles, the high priest and his confederates convened a meeting of the Sanhedrim or High Ecclesiastical Council.

1. When? At daybreak, about 6 a.m., before which hour a meeting of the court could not be held,—about the time when the apostles had resumed their public exhortations in the temple.

2. Why? To try the prisoners who on the preceding night had been committed to the cells, and were now to be fetched from confinement and placed at the Baruch

3. In what spirit? With a firm determination to put down the nuisance of teaching in the temple porch about Jesus and the resurrection. Thousands of civic and ecclesiastical rulers since then have attempted to do the like, and with as little success. Upon the whole the world’s potentates (and sometimes also the Church’s rulers) do not relish preaching that talks about Jesus and the resurrection.

III. The high priest and his apparitors.—

1. The bootless errand. Commissioned to fetch the apostles, the officers of the Sanhedrim repaired to the prison house and found it shut, with the warders at their posts. Having opened its massive gates and penetrated to the interior, to their astonishment they discovered no man within. However they had escaped the prisoners were gone.

2. The perplexed judges. When the officers returned with their tale, the high priest, the captain of the temple, and the chief priests were filled with terror. “Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all.” They could not tell what to make of it. What the upshot of this incident might be they could not predict. Not for an instant dreamt they of treachery on the part of the gaolers; they discerned that it was a miracle by which they were confronted, and they feared.

3. The startling announcement. Whilst pondering the situation, they became further dismayed by the exciting news, reported by a messenger, that the men wanted had resumed their old work of preaching in the temple. This must have strongly confirmed the Sanhedrists’ suspicion that the escape from prison had been effected by supernatural means. Prisoners who had attained liberty by treachery would hardly have returned to their accustomed haunts. The fact that the apostles were again preaching in the temple indicated they had some superior authority at their backs.

4. The second apprehension. The captain of the temple and the officers of the Sanhedrim, having renewed endeavours to arrest the preachers, used no violence on this occasion because of secret alarms for their own safety, the people being on the side of the apostles. Nor was violence required, since the apostles offered no resistance—in this following both the teaching (Mat_5:39) and example (Joh_18:8) of their Muster.

IV. The high priest and the apostles.—1 The accusation. Set before the council, the apostles were charged by the president, in the name of his colleagues, with three crimes:

(1) With having disobeyed the instructions given by the court at a previous sederunt. A grave offence had the court’s orders been just, and dangerous considering the men who composed (Act_4:5-6) the court, and the temper in which these then were (Act_5:17).

(2) With having filled Jerusalem with their teaching, an indirect admission of, and unwilling testimony to, the growing popularity of the new religion, as well as of the unwearied assiduity of its teachers in promulgating their tenets.

(3) With seeking to fix on them, the Sanhedrists, the guilt of their Master’s murder. This was putting into words what the councillors’ own hearts kept whispering. Conscience is ill to silence even in the worst and most ignorant of men; how much more in men who are good (after a fashion) and enlightened?

2. The defence. Offered by Peter and the apostles, or by him on their behalf and with their concurrence.

(1) A great principle restated. That it was their (the apostles’ and every one’s) duty to obey God rather than man. Of this principle they had reminded the court on a former occasion (Act_4:19), and now satisfy themselves with its repetition. About the second and third charges, which, being true, needed no defence, they are silent, confining their remarks to the one which, though also true, required justification. And the justification they offered was short, simple, sufficient, and unanswerable.

(2) A great story rehearsed, in four parts. First, that they had slain Jesus by hanging Him on a tree—they, the Jewish nation in general, and the Sanhedrists in particular. Peter and his fellow-apostles had manifestly lost nothing of their boldness and plain-speaking since last they stood before their accusers. Second, that the God of their fathers had raised up Jesus from the dead (once more the obnoxious doctrine!), and exalted Him to the right hand of the Majesty on high (a claim for divine dignity to the man they had slain!). Third, that Christ had been exalted as Prince and Saviour, from which it could be gathered that they had totally misconceived His character and mistaken His person. Fourth, that the grand object contemplated by His exaltation was that He might give repentance unto Israel (them and the people) and remission of sins. A strong pressing home of guilt on His accusers.

(3) A great claim reasserted. That they, the accused, were witnesses of these facts and doctrines complained of—witnesses appointed and put forth by Him, and for Him, and therefore His witnesses responsible to Him alone. Yea, going beyond this, that the Holy Ghost jointly witnessed with them, since, having been given to them by God and dwelling in them, He spoke and acted through them in the words they uttered and the miracles they wrought.

Learn.—

1. That “the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them” (Psa_34:7).

2. That “He who sitteth in the heavens” laughs at His enemies and has them “in derision” (Psa_2:4).

3. That the doubts of the chief priests as to whereunto this (Christianity) would grow have been largely answered—the faith planted by the apostles intends to grow till it fills the whole earth (Luk_13:21).

4. That nothing can release from responsibility to God (Ecc_12:13).

5. That Christ will pardon even His greatest enemies if they repent.

HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS

Act_5:17. Misdirected Indignation.

I. Against the publication of the truth, rather than against the dissemination of error.

II. Against well doing, instead of against evil doing.

III. Against good men, and not against bad.

IV. Against other people’s supposed wickedness, and not against one’s own real sins.

Act_5:19. Ministering Spirits.—The angels of God are represented in Scripture, and in this instance appear—

I. As the friends of the righteous.—Shown by the service rendered to the apostles.

II. As watchers in the night.—Proved by the observation taken of the apostles’ incarceration.

III. As rescuers from trouble.—Seen in the opening of the prison doors, and liberation of the prisoners.

IV. As directors in the way of duty.—Exemplified by the order given to the liberated apostles.

V. As messengers of the heavenly life to the world.—Suggested by the commission put into the hands of the apostles.

VI. As conveyers to the heavenly life and eternal joy.—Evinced by the interest taken in the gospel of life.—Compiled from, Lange.

Act_5:20. The Preacher’s Commission.

I. His authority.—The divine commandment—“Go ye!”

II. His vocation.—To “speak,” not to write, but to proclaim with the voice.

III. His sphere.—The temple; or, in New Testament times the Christian Church.

IV. His theme.—All the words of this life—the gospel, the whole gospel, and nothing but the gospel.

V. His audience.—“The people,” to believers and unbelievers; to the former for edification, to the latter for conversion.

Act_5:23. The World’s Veto upon Preaching.

I. Unreasonable.—To expect men to keep silence who have been commanded by Christ to speak, who know what they speak to be true, and who feel themselves impelled to speak by the inner voice of conscience.

II. Unjust.—To command men to desist from preaching is to invade the domain of conscience which belongs alone to Christ, and is therefore in the highest degree culpable and reprehensible.

III. Unkind.—To impose silence upon men who offer mankind the highest conceivable blessing (repentance and remission of sins) on the easiest possible terms (faith in and obedience to Jesus Christ) is surely the opposite of benevolent.

IV. Unsuccessful.—Those who attempt to put down preaching never really succeed. So long as Christ lives and reigns they never will succeed. All interdicts upon the gospel break down. The more men are punished for preaching, the hotter grows their zeal to persist in the forbidden work.

Act_5:29. Obedience to God and Man.

I. It is possible to obey man rather than God—which is sin. Unfortunately this is often done, when inclination and supposed self-interest side with man’s orders rather than with God’s.

II. It is proper to obey God rather than man—which is duty. Proper in the sense of right, when God’s orders and man’s come into collision, man being a creature who is himself under authority to God.

III. It is practicable to obey man as well as God—which is both desirable and dutiful, when man’s orders are not countermanded by God’s.

The Power of the Civil Magistrate.

I. Its source.—God (Rom_13:1). Civil government a natural institution and divine ordinance.

II. Its sphere.—Civil affairs, or men considered solely as citizens. Things temporal and material, social and political.

III. Its limitations.—

1. Into the domain of conscience, and that signifies into the realm of religion it dare not intrude.

2. Even in its own sphere it is forbidden to enjoin anything which contravenes the law of God.

3. The power of the sword, or the infliction of pains and penalties, is permissible solely within its own specific province.

IV. Its guide.—

1. The light of the natural conscience.

2. The teachings of revelation so far as these bear on the duties of magistrates and citizens.

Act_5:32. Witness of the Holy Ghost.

I. The subject of His witness.—“These things.” The facts of Christ’s death, resurrection, and exaltation, and the doctrines founded on and connected with them.

II. The medium of His witness.—“Those who obey Him,” the Holy Ghost, by believing the gospel; whom He thereupon inhabits, and through whom He delivers His testimony.

III. The object of His witness.—The unbelieving world who, by beholding the faith of Christians and listening to their testimony, are frequently brought to believe.

The Gift of the Holy Ghost.

I. The Author of this gift.—God, the Father, from whom the Holy Ghost proceedeth. No contradiction to Act_2:33.

II. The recipients of this gift.—Those who obey God, who commands men to repent and believe upon His Son.

III. The nature of this gift.—An inhabitation of the repenting and believing heart by the gracious influences of the Divine Spirit.

IV. The object of this gift.—To enable those who receive it to witness for Jesus Christ.

Act_5:17-32. The Fortunes of the Twelve.

I. Incarcerated by the Sanhedrim.—A signal honour to suffer affliction for Christ’s sake.

II. Delivered by an angel.—“Are they not all ministering spirits?” etc.

III. Honoured by the people.—These at this time heard the apostles gladly. Popular favour not always a good sign. Here, however, it was.

IV. Supported by the Holy Spirit.—A proof that they were obeying His directions.

Act_5:17-32. The Sanhedrim and the College of the Apostles.

In considering the lessons to be drawn from this history we see—

I. How God overrules persecution and opposition for the good of His Church.—It seemed indeed a dark hour for the cause of Christ when all of the apostles were shut up in the common prison, and left, apparently, in the power of their bitterest enemies.

II. This history shows us rationalism confounded.—Just when rationalism thought to put down the supernatural, lo! it appears in a new manifestation before them. There was evidently a power working for these apostles which prison-walls, bolts, bars, and guards of soldiers could not restrain. The perplexity of the council is further increased when one came saying, “Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing in the temple, and teaching the people.” It was this conduct, as much as the strangeness of their deliverance, that impressed the senate. Then, as often since, men were made to see that there is a hidden, spiritual force about the gospel which cannot be accounted for, save on the ground that the life of Christ is in it.

III. We can also learn from this that the enemies of the gospel are made to fear and respect those who are fearless in proclaiming it.

IV. Finally, we have in this history Peter’s address to the Sanhedrim.—It is the jewel of which all of which all the rest is only the casket. As a defence nothing could be more admirable and to the point than the words of Peter. The specifications in the indictment against the apostles were two: first, that they had disobeyed the lawful authority in continuing to preach after they had been strictly charged to speak no more in the name of Jesus; second, that by their preaching they were stirring up the people to avenge the crucifixion of Jesus upon the Sanhedrim. To the first Peter replies, “We ought to obey God rather than men.” This was their justification for the disobedience charged. In answer to the second he fearlessly tells the Sanhedrim their guilt, and charges upon them the death of Jesus. It is most significant that in the defence which Peter makes, as indeed in all apostolic preaching, special prominence is given to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. The apostle well knew that the larger portion of the Sanhedrim was of the sect of the Sadducees, yet he does not hesitate in his testimony. There are three great indestructible facts that have remained all through the ages as witnesses to the reality of the resurrection. The first is the testimony of the apostles; the second is the Christian Church; the third is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. The proof which they furnish is conclusive, and we may rest assured that our holy faith, so glorious in the hopes which it inspires and so wonderful in the destiny which it opens for sinful men, is founded upon the ROCK.—S. J. Niccolls, D.D.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

SECTION III

ANOTHER AND A MORE VIOLENT ASSAULT, CONDUCTED BY THE SADDUCEAN PARTY, IS FOLLOWED BY THE IMPRISONMENT OF ALL THE APOSTLES; THE MIRACULOUS DELIVERANCE OF THE LATTER, THEIR BOLD DEFENCE BEFORE THE GREAT COUNCIL, AND THE INTERVENTION OF GAMALIEL, ULTIMATELY LED (AFTER THEY HAD SUFFERED SHAME FOR THE SAKE OF JESUS), TO THEIR RELEASE.

Act_5:17-42

______

A.—The Arrest of all the Apostles, who are, however, Miraculously Delivered by the Angel of the Lord; they are then Summoned to Appear before the Great Council, and Voluntarily Present themselves

Act_5:17-26

17Then [But] the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) [om. parenthetical marks] and were filled with indignation,9 18And laid their10 [om. their] hands on the apostles, and put them in the [a] common [public] prison. 19But the [an] angel of the Lord by [during the] night opened the prison doors, and brought them, forth, and said, 20Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. 21And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning [temple about daybreak], and taught. But the high priest came, and they that were with him, and called the council together, and all the senate [all the elders] of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. 22But when the officers came, and found them not in the prison, they returned and told, 23Saying, The prison truly [om. truly, μὲν] found we shut with all safety, and the keepers standing without11 before [standing at] the doors: but when we had opened, we found no man [no one] within. 24Now when the high priest12 [the priest] and the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these things, they doubted of [were in doubt concerning] them whereunto this would grow [what this would become]. 25Then came one and told them, saying13, Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing in the temple, and teaching [are in the temple, standing and teaching] the people. 26Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without [not with] violence: for they feared the people, lest14 they should have been stoned [in order that they might not be stoned (the words: “for they feared the people”, viewed as a parenthetical remark)].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Act_5:17-18. Then the high priest rose up … prison.—This second interference of the highest Jewish tribunal with respect to the affairs of the Church, is marked by increased bitterness of feeling, and may be distinctly traced to the influence of the Sadducean party. The high priest rose up, ἀναστάς, that is, proceeded to employ active measures; Annas is, no doubt, the individual meant, according to Act_4:6, although his son-in-law Caiaphas was, at that time [Joh_11:49; Joh_18:13], actually the high priest. Those who lent him their aid, πάντες οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ, were, preëminently, the sect of the Sadducees. Luke does not say that the high priest himself belonged to that sect (and no evidence of his connection with it exists elsewhere), but simply informs us that the Sadducees coöperated with him on this occasion. If Annas was a Pharisee, it is quite possible that the public appearance of the Christians as a distinct body, temporarily influenced the party feelings of the Pharisees and Sadducees, in so far at least, that the distrust with which they regarded each other, was forgotten in the presence of a common enemy. When, therefore, the Sadducean party unequivocally assumed a hostile attitude toward the apostles, the high priest was easily persuaded to become the ally of the former. As the resurrection of Jesus was the central fact to which the preaching of the apostles continually referred, the most violent opposition which they encountered, naturally proceeded precisely from the sect of the Sadducees.

Act_5:19. But the [an] angel of the Lord.—In the course of the night which followed the arrest of the apostles, they were liberated by an angel who opened the doors of the prison. Interpreters who have deemed it necessary to trace this deliverance to natural causes, have suggested various agents, such as a flash of lightning, or an earthquake, or the keeper of the prison himself, or a resolute Christian. But all these explanations contradict the Scriptural narrative in direct and absolute terms; it might with equal propriety be asserted that the original facts had received legendary additions (Meyer), or that the whole narrative bore an unhistorical character (Baur; Zeller). Unless we concede the point that angels do not exist, and that, consequently, no miracles are wrought by them, the present narrative affords no grounds for the doubts of these interpreters. There are only two circumstances in the narrative which might, at first view, suggest doubts: first, when the apostles are subsequently examined in the presence of the Sanhedrin, Act_5:27 ff., no mention whatever is made of the mode in which they had been delivered from the prison. This circumstance certainly demonstrates that the account which Luke gives, is a mere summary of events, in which full details are omitted, but not that it is itself untrustworthy. Secondly, the liberation of the apostles appears to have been without a definite purpose, since they were, nevertheless, brought before the tribunal, after their escape, ver 27, and shamefully beaten, Act_5:40-41. This latter fact, however, by no means authorizes us to conclude that their deliverance had been effected without an object in view, for Luke expressly refers, Act_5:24, to the perplexity and confusion of mind which prevailed among the enemies of the apostles, when the event, occurred; with respect to them at least, the object of the miracle was attained. Further, it may be easily conceived that such a wonderful interposition of God, must have added new power to the faith of the apostles, and this effect is plainly seen in Act_5:20 ff. Lastly, when the apostles voluntarily appear before the great Council, Act_5:26-27, they occupy a very different position from that of prisoners who are carried from a place of confinement to the presence of the judges. Hence the alleged absence of an object, when the apostles were liberated during that night, is only apparent; the effects which it produced, indicate its object.

Act_5:20. Go, stand and speak.—The angel directs the apostles to stand forth with freedom and boldness (σταθέντες), and preach publicly in the temple [ἱερῷ, the sacred enclosure, as distinguished from the edifice itself, called ναός], in the presence of the people; τὰ ῥήματα τῆς ζωῆς ταυτῆς are the words that refer to this life, this blessed life in Christ and through Christ. If an hypallage should be assumed to occur here [so that the true meaning would be thus expressed: τὰ ῥήμ. ταῦτα τῆς ζ.], (an assumption, which, however, is by no means necessary), the meaning would be: life-words: such a conception would scarcely have been expressed by Luke, or have originated in those primitive times.

Act_5:21-23. But the high priest came.—While the apostles were teaching in the temple, the high priest and his followers called a meeting of the whole Sanhedrin, for the purpose of instituting legal proceedings against the apostles. The expression πᾶσα ἡ γερουσία τ. υἱῶυ Ἰσρ., cannot, however, be reasonably understood as designating any others than the πρεσβύτεροι mentioned in Act_4:5. Meyer and Stier, it is true; assign the utmost latitude of meaning to the words, and suppose that the entire college or body of the elders is here meant. The sense would then be, that an extraordinary session of the Sanhedrin was held, at which even those elders of the people, who were not regular members of it, also assisted. Such additions to the actual members of the Council, are not recorded elsewhere, and the Sanhedrin uniformly bears the name of γερουσία in the Second Book of the Maccabees. That a tautology occurs in the present passage must be admitted, but the cause may be readily found in the purpose of the writer to indicate distinctly that the whole number of the members was present at the meeting [i.e. the council and all the senate, equivalent to: the council, including all the elders who were members of it.].

Act_5:24-25. Now when … heard these things.—The title ὁ ἱερεύς doubtless designates the high priest himself, and οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς are high priests in the wider sense of the term [that is, predecessors of the high priest, who retained the title, and also the heads of the twenty-four sacerdotal classes, or courses, 1Ch_24:1-19; 2Ch_8:14; Luk_1:5.—Tr.]. The captain of the temple-guard, who was, no doubt, himself a priest, may have been personally engaged in effecting the arrest of the apostles; comp. Act_4:1 ff.

Act_5:26. Then went the captain.—The captain of the temple now conducted the apostles to the place in which the Sanhedrin was assembled, but without offering personal constraint; his motive in avoiding violent measures is indicated in the words: ἵνα μὴ λιθασθ. These words are much more naturally connected with ἤγαγεν—βίας. than with ἐφοβοῦντο. Even if instances can be produced from Greek writers who employed the Attic dialect, in which φοβεῖσθαι is connected with ὅπως μή, ἵνα μή, the passive verb λιθασθῶσιν seems to indicate that the former construction was really intended; the words ἐφοβ. γὰρ τ. λα. may, without any difficulty be regarded as parenthetical.—The popular feeling which was manifested on this occasion, is truly remarkable. The guard must have considered it a possible event, that they would be stoned by the people, if they resorted to violence in their treatment of the apostles. The popular favor which the apostles enjoyed, had undoubtedly reached its culminating point at this time. The sources from which it proceeded, are readily ascertained: many benefits had been conferred, not simply on individuals, but on entire families whose sick relatives had been healed; and then, the apostles had been imprisoned on the previous day, but had been liberated, not by human aid, but by a direct interposition of God. We may conjecture that the latter circumstance inspired the apostles with unusual confidence, and augmented the power of their language when they addressed the people.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Christ is our Redeemer, preëminently as the Crucified One, [1Co_2:2], and the cross is the mark by which the Gospel is recognized; so, too, the history of the apostles and of the primitive church exhibits a development which proceeded under the sign of the cross. Every blessing was succeeded by a trial, either originating in the bosom of the church [Act_5:1 ff.], or produced by external causes. But the richest and most glorious consolations which the devout receive from heaven, are also imparted to them only under the cross.

2. The angel of the Lord here acts as a minister, not only of God the Father in his government of the world, but also of the exalted Son of God; he exerts an influence on occurrences in civil and daily life, but, at the same time, also on the progress of the kingdom of God, that is, the development of the church of Christ.

3. The angel encourages the apostles to speak all the “words of this life.” He belongs to the celestial world, in which death is not known; he neither manifests an interest, nor does he actively participate, in aught else, save that which is called life, and which possesses life. Hence the angels appeared in large numbers at the birth of the Redeemer, who is the life of the world, and at his resurrection, which was the most glorious manifestation of his life, and of his victory over death. The angels rejoice over one sinner that repenteth [Luk_15:7; Luk_15:10]; they take pleasure only in those words which refer to the life that was manifested [1Jn_1:2], and that imparts life to the world; such words alone claim their active and efficient aid.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Act_5:17. Then the high priest rose up.—When the Lord arises to build up Zion [Psa_102:16] through the instrumentality of his servants, the enemy also arises, in order to employ his servants in hindering the work, (Ap. Past.).—The sect of the Sadducees.—The carnal and sinful life of the Sadducees, both of ancient and of modern times, is sluggish, as long as the Spirit of God, and his warning messages, are withheld. But when the disciples of Christ, filled with the Holy Ghost, bear witness against that carnal life by their words and their deeds, it is at once aroused, openly avows its hostility, and manifests a Satanic zeal in its opposition to God and his Gospel. “How often, since that day, the Sadducean Annas, who lives after the flesh even when he assumes the Christian name, has attempted to bind believers and their faith with chains!” (Leonh. and Sp.).—And were filled with indignation.—The servants of Christ are filled with the Holy Ghost; his enemies with a hellish zeal [ζήλου; Germ. version: Eifer]!—A holy zeal, and a wicked zeal: I. The objects of each; II. The manifestation of each. [Gal_4:17-18].

Act_5:18. Put them in the common prison.—The bonds and chains by which men are confined for Christ’s sake, are truly honorable badges. (Quesn.).

Act_5:19. But the angel of the Lord.—There is a divine “But,” which often disconcerts the plans of men. When the latter have matured their evil counsels, this “But” defeats them all. Joseph says to his brethren; “Ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good.” David complains in the second Psalm: “The rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against his anointed; but He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision.” (Ahlfeld.)—By night opened the prison doors.—Affliction is not of long continuance; be not dismayed, thou sorrowing soul! “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy Cometh in the morning.” Psa_30:5.—No bars nor bolts are so strong, that the Lord cannot open a passage for his servants. There are no sorrows so profound, no burdens so heavy, that the Lord cannot, in his own appointed time, give relief to the soul.—But He who holds the key which opens the prison doors of his servants, holds also the key of hell and death, yea, the key of heaven and eternal life. (Ap. Past.).—The angels of God, ministering unto our salvation, [Heb_1:14]: as, I. Friends of the devout; II. Guardians at night; III. Deliverers from danger; IV. Leaders in the path of duty, Act_5:20; V. Messengers of heavenly life in the world, Act_5:20; VI. Guides to heavenly life and eternal joy.—How precious man is in the sight of God, since an entire invisible world is at hand, and ready to afford him aid in seeking salvation! How full of comfort the assurance is, that they that be with us, are more than they that be against us [2Ki_6:16]. (Fr. Arndt.)—Brought them forth.—A strange beginning, but a glorious end! Thou sayest: The course of events is wonderful; what will the issue be? We reply: Unquestionably, it is wonderful, but is not God He who doeth wonders? (H. Müller).

Act_5:20. Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people.—The angel does not say: Go, seek concealment!—but—Go, and stand forth! He does not say: Speak to your own company!—but—Speak in the temple to the people! Such a commission is suited, not to men who confer with flesh and blood [Gal_1:16], but to those, who, at all times, promptly respond: Lord, at thy word! (Luk_5:5). These are the men through whom God accomplishes his great designs. (Williger).—All the words of this life.—The word of Christ, demonstrated in the history of the apostles as a word of life: by the power of that word, they, I. Were endowed with a divine life in the soul; II. Communicated a new life to the world; III. Joyfully ventured their temporal life; IV. Triumphantly gained eternal life.

Act_5:23. We found no man within.—Every persecution which believers endure for Christ’s sake, ultimately glorifies Him in them: I. Where Christ appears, the power of his life is speedily manifested, Act_5:16; II. The enemy, to whom that life is invisible (Act_5:17), attempts to fetter it, Act_5:18; III. But it is ultimately revealed in all its glorious freedom and power, Act_5:19-23. (Ahlfeld.).—Praise thy God, O Zion! I. Out of Zion God hath shined, [Psa_50:2,] Act_5:16; II. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their king, [Psa_149:2] Act_5:17-18; III. The Redeemer shall come to Zion, [Isa_59:20] Act_5:19 ff. (Leupold).

Act_5:24. They doubted of them where-unto this would grow.—How salutary this alarm of the enemies of the Lord might have been, if they had been willing to recognize the mighty hand of God, and bow in submission before his majesty and power! (Ap. Past.).

Act_5:25. Then came one and told them.—When an injury is to be inflicted on Christ and his people, a Judas can always be found.

Act_5:26. They feared the people.—Godliness converts men into heroes; ungodliness, into cowards. (Starke).—The Lord glorified alike in the joys and the sorrows of his servants: I. In the blessing which attends their labors; II. In the trials which accompany that blessing; III. In the protection which he grants to his suffering servants. (Langbein).—How the Lord builds up his church by his protecting care in seasons of persecution: I. He permits its enemies to rage, so that their unholy passions may demonstrate the innocence of his persecuted people; II. He opens a pathway for his messengers, so that their successful labors may reveal the helplessness of its enemies. (Lisco).

Footnotes:

[9]Act_5:17. [For indignation (Tyndale; Cranmer; Geneva), the margin offers (as in Wiclif) the word envy. “The word (ζήλου) necessarily suggests the ideas of zeal, party spirit; and indignant jealousy or envy, etc.” (J. A. Alex.); Hackett, who refers to Act_13:45, where the same word is translated envy, here prefers indignation.—Tr.]

[10]Act_5:18. αὑτῶν is wanting in important MSS. and versions [A. B. D., Cod. Sin., Syr., Vulg., etc.,], and is, without doubt, an addition made by a copyist. [Found in E; omitted by Lach., Tisch., Alf.—Tr.]

[11]Act_5:23. ἔξω is undoubtedly an interpolation, and was suggested by ἔσω, which afterwards occurs, in the same verse. It is not found in any of the more important MSS.; [omitted in A. B. D. E., Cod. Sin., Vulg., and by Alf. as a “gloss”].—ἐπί [before τῶν θ.] is supported by the authority of the most important MSS. [by A. B. D. Cod. Sin.]; πρό [of the text, rec., and found in E.] is a later correction, and was substituted as a more descriptive word.

[12]Act_5:24. ὅ τε ἱερεύς [of the text. rec.] is wanting in many MSS. and versions, among which are some of the more important [A. B. D. Cod. Sin., Vulg., etc.]; but it was unquestionably cancelled [by copyists] simply for the reason that its presence in connection with οἱ ἀρχιερεῖς in the same clause was not comprehended. If it had not been originally employed in the text, it would certainly never have been inserted by a later hand. [No uncial MS. exhibits it; E reads οἱ ἱερεῖς; it is omitted by Lach. and Tisch., but retained by Alf., and advocated by Meyer and de Wette, on the ground that the great variety of readings, intended as corrections, indicates its original presence.—Tr.]

[13]Act_5:25. [λέγων after αὐτοῖς, inserted in the text. rec. is omitted in A. D. E. Cod. Sin. Vulg., and cancelled by recent editors, including Stier.—Tr.]

[14]Act_5:26. Lachmann [but not Tisch.] omits ἵνα, following the authority of several MSS., and assuming that μή is connected with ἐφοβοῦντο, in which case, ἵςα would be inaccurate. [If ἵνα is retained, the phrase: ἵνα μὴ λιθ. depends upon οὐ μετὰ βίας; it is omitted in B. D. E. Cod. Sin., but found in A., and retained by Alf.—Tr.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Acts

WHOM TO OBEY,-ANNAS OR ANGEL?

Act 5:17 - Act 5:32.

The Jewish ecclesiastics had been beaten in the first round of the fight, and their attempt to put out the fire had only stirred the blaze. Popular sympathy is fickle, and if the crowd does not shout with the persecutors, it will make heroes and idols of the persecuted. So the Apostles had gained favour by the attempt to silence them, and that led to the second round, part of which is described in this passage.

The first point to note is the mean motives which influenced the high-priest and his adherents. As before, the Sadducees were at the bottom of the assault; for talk about a resurrection was gall and wormwood to them. But Luke alleges a much more contemptible emotion than zeal for supposed truth as the motive for action. The word rendered in the Authorised Version ‘indignation,’ is indeed literally ‘zeal,’ but it here means, as the Revised Version has it, nothing nobler than ‘jealousy.’ ‘Who are those ignorant Galileans that they should encroach on the office of us dignified teachers? and what fools the populace must be to listen to them! Our prestige is threatened. If we don’t bestir ourselves, our authority will be gone.’ A lofty spirit in which to deal with grave movements of opinion, and likely to lead its possessors to discern truth!

The Sanhedrin, no doubt, talked solemnly about the progress of error, and the duty of firmly putting it down, and, like Jehu, said, ‘Come, and see our zeal for the Lord’; but it was zeal for greetings in the marketplace, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and the other advantages of their position. So it has often been since. The instruments which zeal for truth uses are argument, Scripture, and persuasion. That zeal which betakes itself to threats and force is, at the best, much mingled with the wrath and jealousy of man.

The arrest of the Apostles and their committal to prison was simply for detention, not punishment. The rulers cast their net wider this time, and secured all the Apostles, and, having them safe under lock and key, they went home triumphant, and expecting to deal a decisive blow to-morrow. Then comes one of the great ‘buts’ of Scripture. Annas and Caiaphas thought that they had scored a success, but an angel upset their calculations. To try to explain the miracle away is hopeless. It is wiser to try to understand it.

The very fact that it did not lead to the Apostles’ deliverance, but that the trial and scourging followed next day, just as if it had not happened, which has been alleged as a proof of its uselessness, and inferentially of its falsehood, puts us on the right track. It was not meant for their deliverance, but for their heartening, and for the bracing of all generations of Christians, by showing, at the first conflict with the civil power, that the Lord was with His Church. His strengthening power is operative when no miracle is wrought. If His servants are not delivered, it is not that He lacks angels, but that it is better for them and the Church that they should lie in prison or die at the stake.

The miracle was a transient revelation of a perpetual truth, and has shed light on many a dark dungeon where God’s servants have lain rotting. It breathed heroic constancy into the Twelve. How striking and noble was their prompt obedience to the command to resume the perilous work of preaching! As soon as the dawn began to glimmer over Olivet, and the priests were preparing for the morning sacrifice, there were these irrepressible disturbers, whom the officials thought they had shut up safely last night, lifting up their voices again as if nothing had happened. What a picture of dauntless persistence, and what a lesson for us! The moment the pressure is off, we should spring back to our work of witnessing for Christ.

The bewilderment of the Council comes in strong contrast with the unhesitating action of the Apostles. There is a half ludicrous side to it, which Luke does not try to hide. There was the pompous assembling of all the great men at early morning, and their dignified waiting till their underlings brought in the culprits. No doubt, Annas put on his severest air of majesty, and all were prepared to look their sternest for the confusion of the prisoners. The prison, the Temple, and the judgment hall, were all near each other. So there was not long to wait. But, behold! the officers come back alone, and their report shakes the assembly out of its dignity. One sees the astonished underlings coming up to the prison, and finding all in order, the sentries patrolling, the doors fast {so the angel had shut them as well as opened them}, and then entering ready to drag out the prisoners, and-finding all silent. Such elaborate guard kept over an empty cage!

It was not the officers’ business to offer explanations, and it does not seem that any were asked. One would have thought that the sentries would have been questioned. Herod went the natural way to work, when he had Peter’s guards examined and put to death. But Annas and his fellows do not seem to have cared to inquire how the escape had been made. Possibly they suspected a miracle, or perhaps feared that inquiry might reveal sympathisers with the prisoners among their own officials. At any rate, they were bewildered, and lost their heads, wondering what was to come next, and how this thing was to end.

The further news that these obstinate fanatics were at their old work in the Temple again, must have greatly added to the rulers’ perplexity, and they must have waited the return of the officers sent off for the second time to fetch the prisoners, with somewhat less dignity than before. The officers felt the pulse of the crowd, and did not venture on force, from wholesome fear for their own skins. An excited mob in the Temple court was not to be trifled with, so persuasion was adopted. The brave Twelve went willingly, for the Sanhedrin had no terrors for them, and by going they secured another opportunity of ringing out their Lord’s salvation. Wherever a Christian can witness for Christ, he should be ready to go.

The high-priest discreetly said nothing about the escape. Possibly he had no suspicion of a miracle, but, even if he had, Act 4:16 shows that that would not have led to any modification of his hostility. Persecutors, clothed with a little brief authority, are strangely blind to the plainest indications of the truth spoken by their victims. Annas did not know what a question about the escape might bring out, so he took the safer course of charging the Twelve with disobedience to the Sanhedrin’s prohibition. How characteristic of all his kind that is! Never mind whether what the martyr says is true or not. He has broken our law, and defied our authority; that is enough. Are we to be chopping logic, and arguing with every ignorant upstart who chooses to vent his heresies? Gag him,-that is easier and more dignified.

A world of self-consequence peeps out in that ‘we straitly charged you,’ and a world of contempt peeps out in the avoidance of naming Jesus. ‘This name’ and ‘this man’ is the nearest that the proud priest will come to soiling his lips by mentioning Him. He bears unconscious testimony to the Apostles’ diligence, and to the popular inclination to them, by charging them with having filled the city with what he contemptuously calls ‘your teaching,’ as if it had no other source than their own ignorant notions.

Then the deepest reason for the Sanhedrin’s bitterness leaks out in the charge of inciting the mob to take vengeance on them for the death of Jesus. It was true that the Apostles had charged that guilt home on them, but not on them only, but on the whole nation, so that no incitement to revenge lay in the charge. It was true that they had brought ‘this man’s blood’ on the rulers, but only to draw them to repentance, not to hound at them their sharers in the guilt. Had Annas forgot ‘His blood be on us, and on our children’? But, when an evil deed is complete, the doers try to shuffle off the responsibility which they were ready to take in the excitement of hurrying to do it. Annas did not trouble himself about divine vengeance; it was the populace whom he feared.

So, in its attempt to browbeat the accused, in its empty airs of authority, in its utter indifference to the truth involved, in its contempt for the preachers and their message, in its brazen denial of responsibility, its dread of the mob, and its disregard of the far-off divine judgment, his bullying speech is a type of how persecutors, from Roman governors down, have hectored their victims.

And Peter’s brave answer is, thank God! the type of what thousands of trembling women and meek men have answered. His tone is severer now than on his former appearance. Now he has no courteous recognition of the court’s authority. Now he brushes aside all Annas’s attempts to impose on him the sanctity of its decrees, and flatly denies that the Council has any more right to command than any other ‘men.’ They claimed to be depositaries of God’s judgments. This revolutionary fisherman sees nothing in them but ‘men,’ whose commands point one way, while God’s point the other. The angel bade them ‘speak’; the Council had bid them be dumb. To state the opposition was to determine their duty. Formerly Peter had said ‘judge ye’ which command it is right to obey. Now, he wraps his refusal in no folds of courtesy, but thrusts the naked ‘We must obey God’ in the Council’s face. That was a great moment in the history of the world and the Church. How much lay in it, as in a seed,-Luther’s ‘Here I stand, I can do none other. God help me! Amen’; Plymouth Rock, and many a glorious and blood-stained page in the records of martyrdom.

Peter goes on to vindicate his assumption that in disobeying Annas they are obeying God, by reiterating the facts which since Pentecost he had pressed on the national conscience. Israel had slain, and God had exalted, Jesus to His right hand. That was God’s verdict on Israel’s action. But it was also the ground of hope for Israel; for the exaltatior of Jesus was that He might be ‘Prince [or Leader] and Saviour,’ and from His exalted hand were shed the gifts of ‘repentance and remission of sins,’ even of the great sin of slaying Him. These things being so, how could the Apostles be silent? Had not God bid them speak, by their very knowledge of these? They were Christ’s witnesses, constituted as such by their personal acquaintance with Him and their having seen Him raised and ascending, and appointed to be such by His own lips, and inspired for their witnessing by the Holy Spirit shed on them at Pentecost. Peter all but reproduces the never-to-be-forgotten words heard by them all in the upper room, ‘He shall bear witness of Me: and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning.’ Silence would be treason. So it is still. What were Annas and his bluster to men whom Christ had bidden to speak, and to whom He had given the Spirit of the Father to speak in them?

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5:17-40 The success of the apostles’ ministry again aroused strong opposition (cp. 4:1-3). The wealthy and powerful Sadducees controlled the Temple establishment and had a Temple police force at their disposal. They opposed belief in the resurrection and were determined not to allow the apostles to proclaim their message about the resurrection of Jesus unchallenged. They also sensed that their hold on the Jewish people was loosening, so, filled with jealousy, they attacked the apostles.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Act 5:17. Ἀναστὰς, having risen up) He thought that he ought not to remain quiet.—τῶν Σαδδουκαίων, of the Sadducees) Many gathered themselves together to these, so as that they might the more assail the resurrection of Jesus Christ.—ζήλου, with indignation or angry zeal) The impotence of this feeling is made apparent by their whole proceeding.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act_5:17-18. Ἀναστάς] The high priest stood up; he raised himself: a graphic trait serving to illustrate his present interference. Comp. Act_6:9, Act_23:9; Luk_15:18, al. Non sibi quiescendum ratus est, Bengel. The ἀρχιερεύς, is according to Act_4:6, Annas, not Caiaphas, although the latter was so really.

καὶ πάντες οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ, ἡ οὖσα αἵρεσις τῶν Σαδδουκ.] and all his associates (his whole adherents, Act_5:21; Xen. Anab. iii. 2.11, al.), which were the sect of the Sadducees. This sect had allied itself with Annas, because the preaching of Christ as the Risen One was a grievous offence to them. See Act_4:1-2. The participle ἡ οὖσα (not οἱ ὄντες is put) adjusts itself to the substantive belonging to the predicate, as is often the case in the classical writers. See Kühner, § 429; Stallb. ad Plat. Rep. p. 333 E, 392 D. Luke does not affirm that the high priest himself was a Sadducee, as Olshausen, Ewald, and others assert. This remark also applies in opposition to Zeller, who adduces it as an objection to the historical character of the narrator, that Luke makes Annas a Sadducee. In the Gospels also there is no trace of the Sadducaeism of Annas. According to Josephus, Antt. xx. 9. 1, he had a son who belonged to that sect.

ἐν τηρήσει δημοσ.] τήρησ. as in Act_4:3. The public prison is called in Thuc. 5:18. 6 also merely τὸ δημόσιον; and in Xen. Hist. vii. 36, οἰκία δημόσια.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 5:17 . ἀναστὰς , see on Act 1:15 , cf. Act 6:9 : it may denote a hostile intention (but need not force this), Mar 3:26 , Luk 10:35 , Mat 12:41 , in LXX, Job 16:8 ; see Overbeck, Blass, Weiss; ὁ ἀρχ ., i.e. , Annas not Caiaphas, Act 4:6 . πάντες οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ : the context seems to imply that more are included than referred to in Act 4:6 . ἡ οὖσα αἴρεσις (= οἵ εἰσιν αἵρεσις ), a rare employment of the relative in the N.T., but found in Luke and Paul, most of all in the latter; cf. Act 16:12 , 1Co 3:17 , Gal 3:16 , Eph 3:13 , Act 6:2 , Phi 1:28 , etc. ( cf. Rev 4:5 ; Rev 5:9 ); Viteau, Le Grec du N. T. , p. 192 (1896). αἵρεσις : (1) a choosing, choice, so in classical writers, cf. also LXX, Lev 22:18 ; Lev 22:21 , 1Ma 8:30 ; (2) that which is chosen, a chosen method of thought and action; (3) later, a philosophic principle; those who have chosen certain principles, a school, a sect, so six times in Acts. It is used thrice elsewhere in N.T., 1Co 11:29 , Gal 5:20 , 2Pe 2:1 in the plural, of factions or parties within the Church; in its later ecclesiastical use, applied to doctrines, “heresies,” which tended to cause separation from the Church. The word need not therefore be used in a bad sense, although it is so used of the Nazarenes, cf. Act 24:5 ; Act 24:14 , Act 28:22 , whilst on the other hand St. Paul uses it of the Pharisees, Act 26:5 ( cf. Act 15:5 ), in no depreciatory sense ( cf. its use by Josephus of the Sadducees, Ant. , xx., 9, 1). Lumby gives a disparaging use of the word in Apocr. Act. Phil. in Hellad. , 10, see his note. It is not expressly said by St. Luke that Annas was a Sadducee, although he seems to imply it. But this is not in itself inconceivable (see Act 4:1 ) in spite of the strictures of Zeller and Overbeck; Josephus distinctly says, u. s. , that the son of Annas who bore his father’s name was of the sect of the Sadducees, and if he mentions this as something peculiar, and as showing why the younger Annas was so bold and insolent (Zeller, cf. Nösgen’s note, in loco ), yet there is no difficulty in supposing that the elder Annas was at least associated with the Sadducees if only for political reasons. ζήλου : jealousy, R.V., so rightly A.V in Act 13:45 ; Wycliffe “envy,” cf. Rom 13:13 , 1Co 3:3 , 2Co 11:2 , Gal 5:20 , Jas 3:14 ; Jas 3:16 , Clem. Rom., Cor [177] , iii. 4 and iv vi ( cf. Num 25:10-11 , 1Ma 8:16 , οὔκ ἐστι φθόνος οὐδὲ ζῆλος ἐν αὐτοῖς , and 2:54, 58, Psal ms of Solomon 2:27) , and in some places of the jealousy which God has, as in 2Co 11:2 , Num 25:10-11 , and cf. Psalms of Solomon Act 2:27 , Act 4:2 , 1Ma 2:54 . But φθόνος is capable only of an evil signification. By Aristotle ζῆλος is used in its nobler sense ( Rhet. , ii., 11), as opposed to τὸ φθονεῖν , but it seems to be used by other writers as = φθόνος or coupled with it. The meaning is defined by the context. Trench, N. T. Synonyms , i., 99. Here the envy and jealousy of the Sanhedrim was provoked by the popular favour shown to the disciples, and hence to their doctrine of the resurrection.

[177] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The more that the Church increaseth, the more increaseth the rage of Satan, and therefore they proceed from threatenings, to prisoning.

The word which is used here, is Heresy, which signifieth a choice, and so is taken for a right form of learning, or faction, or study and course of life, which the Latins call a sect: at the first this word was indifferently used, but at length, it came to be taken only in evil part, whereupon came the name of Heretic, which is taken for one that goeth astray from sound and wholesome doctrine after such sort, that he setteth light by the judgment of God and his Church, and continueth in his opinion, and breaketh the peace of the Church.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

sect of the Sadducees--See on Act 4:1 for the reason why this is specified.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 17. The high priest - and - the sect of the Sadducees] αιρεσις των σαδδουκαιων, The heresy of the Sadducees. In this place, as well as in several others, the word αιρεσις, heresy, has no evil meaning in itself; it is a word of distinction, and may receive either a good or bad colouring from the persons or opinions designated by it. It signifies a sect or party, whether good or bad, distinguished from any other sect. αιρεσις, heresy, comes from αιρεω, I choose, and was anciently applied to the different sects of the heathen philosophers, the members of each sect having chosen their own in preference to all the others. It has been applied among ecclesiastical writers in the same way - when a man chooses one party of Christians, in preference to others, to be his companions in the way of salvation; and he chooses them and their creed and Christian discipline, because he believes the whole to be more consistent with the oracles of God than any of the rest. The Church of Rome has thought proper to attach a very bad meaning to this innocent word, and then apply it to all those who can neither credit her transubstantiation, depend on her purgatory, nor worship her relics. A heretic, in her acceptation, is one who is not a papist, and, because not a papist, utterly out of the way and out of the possibility of being saved. These persons should recollect that, by a then persecuting brother, St. Paul, all the apostles, and the whole Church of Christ, were termed ναζωραιων αιρεσις, the heresy of the Nazarenes, Ac 24:5; and it was after the way which the persecuting Jews called heresy that St. Paul and the rest of the apostles worshipped the God of their fathers, Ac 24:14; and it was according to the strictest HERESY in the Jewish Church, ακιριβεστατην αιρεσιν, that St. Paul lived before his conversion, Ac 26:5; and we find, from Ac 28:22, that the whole Church of Christ was termed this heresy, ταυτης αιρεσεως, and this by persons who intended no reproach, but wished simply to distinguish the Christians from scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, c. Heresy therefore, in its first acceptation, signifies simply a choice: afterwards it was applied to designate all those persons who made the same choice and hence the word sect and it became synonymous: in process of time it was applied to those professing Christianity who made, in some cases, a different choice as to some article of faith, or form of worship, from those which had obtained in that part of the Church with which they had been before connected. The majority, from whom they became thus separated, spoke evil of them, and treated them ill, because they presumed to choose for themselves on the foundation of the Holy Scriptures; and because they would take nothing for the truth of God that was not accredited from heaven. Thus, when the people now called Protestants, began to examine their creed according to the Holy Scriptures, and, in consequence of this examination, left out auricular confession, indulgences, the priests' power to forgive sins, adoration of saints, angels, and relics, purgatory, and the doctrine of transubstantiation, because they could not find them in the word of God, the papists called them heretics, by which they meant, in opposition to the meaning of the word, persons holding damnable errors; and, as such, they persecuted, burnt, and destroyed them wherever they had power. Now be it known to these persecutors, that the Protestants still choose to reject opinions and practices which they know to be unscriptural, absurd, and superstitious; and which they have a thousand times demonstrated to be such: and, on this ground, may they still be HERETICS!

Were filled with indignation.] ζηλου, With zeal. ζηλος, from ζεω, to be hot, and λα or λιαν, very much, signifies a vehement affection or disposition of the mind, which, according to its object, is either good or bad, laudable or blamable. Its meaning in this place is easily discerned; and not improperly translated indignation, in our version. We need not be surprised that the Sadducees were filled with indignation, because the apostles proclaimed the resurrection of Christ, and, through that, the general resurrection, which was diametrically opposed to their doctrine; for they denied the possibility of a resurrection, and believed not in the being of either angel or spirit; nor did they allow of the existence of a spiritual world. See Clarke on Ac 4:2.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

17. Luke hath hitherto declared that the Church was wonderfully increased, that it was furnished with divers gifts, that it excelled in miracles; finally, that the kingdom of Christ did flourish there by all means. Now he beginneth to show that the fury of the wicked was kindled with these things, so that they raged sorer afresh. Whence we may gather with what blind fury and rage Satan driveth them forward, when as they are so little terrified with such evident power of God, that they run headlong more boldly, and with greater force, and bend all their force, as it were, to overthrow the very heaven. As this so great blindness is a horrible punishment of Almighty God, so ought it to teach all men to submit themselves betimes to God, lest that they themselves, being taken with the spirit of giddiness, (whilst they run against the hand of God,) be broken in pieces with the same. Nevertheless, let us know that God will so increase his Church with spiritual good things, that yet, notwithstanding, he suffereth the same to be vexed of the wicked. Therefore we must alway be ready for the combat; for our estate at this day is not unlike to theirs. Especially the knowledge of the gifts of God, whereby he testifieth that he is present with us, ought to encourage us, lest the fury and boldness of the wicked do terrify and dismay us. For this is no small comfort, when we know that God is present with us.

Which were with him. He meaneth those which were most familiar, and the highest linked in friendship with the chief priest, whose counsel he was wont to use, and whom he had, being, as it were, gathered and culled out of the whole order, not for judgment, or discretion, but for the love of his faction; as they did then contend among themselves shamelessly, like mortal enemies. Furthermore, Luke saith again, that the Sadducees did bear the greatest swing at that day; to the end we may know that the government was then confused with horrible wasteness; when as such a sect could bear rule. But God suffered the synagogue to be drowned in such extreme reproach, after that he had separated his Church from it, to the end they might have the less excuse, who despising the gospel, did continue in such a sink of filthiness. In the mean season, what did enforce and drive forward those swine, who were touched with no care of the life to come, save only mere ambition, and desire to keep that lordship and pre-eminence which they had gotten?

They were filled with zeal. I had liefer keep the Greek word still (especially seeing it is common enough otherwise) than to translate it emulation (or indignation;) for he speaketh generally of the perverse and violent force wherewith hypocrites are carried and inflamed to maintain their superstitions; whereby it appeareth what account God maketh of zeal, and what praise it deserveth, when as it is not governed by reason and wisdom, that is, when it is not led and guided by the Spirit of God. We see at this day those men moved and stirred with devilish fury, who will be counted the most devout of all men, who rage horribly to shed innocent blood. Nevertheless, let us note that he speaketh not in this place of an unadvised or blind zeal, which was in many of the Jews, as Paul affirmeth, but we understand rather a hot and unbridled violence; for although the wicked be accused of their own consciences, because they wittingly resist godliness, yet do they deceive themselves with a false show of zeal, because it is lawful to prevent new things. So at this day almost in all Popery they boast only of zeal, whereas notwithstanding they are zealous for their belly. But admit we grant that that is true which they pretend, how can this excuse the heat of their cruelty whereunto they are enforced by their blindness? as if this were a chief virtue to grant liberty to their wrath, to be avenged of that which displeaseth them; but this was former in order, to make a difference between good and evil, lest any thing be dissolved unadvisedly.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(17) Then the high priest rose up. . . . Probably, as before, Annas or Caiaphas.

Which is the sect of the Sadducees.—The fact, of which this is the only distinct record, is of immense importance as throwing light on the course of action taken by the upper class of priests, both during our Lord’s ministry and in the history of this book. From the time of the teaching of Joh_5:25-29, they must have felt that His doctrine was diametrically opposed to theirs. They made one attempt to turn that doctrine, on which, and almost on which alone, He and the Pharisees were in accord, into ridicule, and were baffled (Mat_22:23-33). The raising of Lazarus mingled a dogmatic antagonism with the counsels of political expediency (Joh_11:49-50). The prominence of the Resurrection of Jesus in the teaching of the Apostles now made the Sadducean high priests their most determined opponents. The Pharisees, on the other hand, less exposed now than they had been before to the condemnation passed by our Lord on their unreality and perverted casuistry, were drawing off from those with whom they had for a time coalesced, into a position at first of declared neutrality; then of secret sympathy; then, in many cases, of professed adherence (Act_15:5).

Filled with indignation.—The word is that elsewhere rendered “zeal,” or “envy.” Both meanings of the word were probably applicable here. There was “zeal” against the doctrine, “envy” of the popularity of the Apostles.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17–32. Arrest of the Twelve. Their miraculous deliverance and their Defence before the Sanhedrin

17. Then the high priest rose up] The conjunction at the beginning of the sentence should be But. While the multitudes thronged to be healed, the effect on the authorities was to provoke them to opposition.

rose up] The Greek word is used in this chapter of the insurrections of Theudas and Judas (Act_5:36-37) and in the next chapter (Act_6:9) of the disputants with Stephen. It is often found without the sense of opposition which it has here and in those verses.

and all they that were with him] A phrase more comprehensive than that used in Act_4:6, “as many as were of the kindred of the high priest.” The opposition has had time to gather its forces and now represents not only the family of Annas, but the heads of the party of the Sadducees.

which is the sect] The word is that which St Paul uses in his defence (Act_24:14) before Felix, “after the way which they call heresy.” But he employs it without any sense of blame (Act_26:5) about the Pharisees, and it is used of them also Act_15:5. With a bad sense it is applied to the Nazarenes (Act_24:5), and similarly Act_28:22.

of the Sadducees] From Act_5:21 it will be seen that the statement of Josephus concerning the influence of this sect is fully borne out (Antiq. xiii. 11. 6), for they had the rich on their side. We have no certain evidence in Scripture that Annas was a Sadducee, but Josephus (Antiq. xx. 9. 1) tells us that his son Ananus [or Annas] was of this sect.

and were filled with indignation] The word used to express their feeling might better be rendered jealousy. What the historian is describing is an outbreak of party-feeling. The whole influence of the Sadducean party is called forth by their antagonism to the doctrine of the resurrection and their envy of the growth of the new movement.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And laid their hands on the apostles,.... That is, laid hold on them, and took them, and carried them away; at least their servants did so, by their orders:

and put them in the common prison; where malefactors were put; and this both for greater security, and for greater disgrace.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

17 Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation,

Ver. 17. With indignation] Gr. With zeal: but it was that bitter zeal, Jas 3:14, that grows not but in Satan’s gardens.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Then the high priest - Probably “Caiaphas.” Compare Joh 11:49. It seems from this place that he belonged to the sect of the Sadducees. It is certain that he had signalized himself by opposition to the Lord Jesus and to his cause constantly.

Rose up - This expression is sometimes “redundant,” and at others it means simply to “begin” to do a thing, or to resolve to do it. Compare Luk 15:18.

And all they that were with him - That is, all they that coincided with him in doctrine or opinion; or, in other words, that portion of the Sanhedrin that was composed of “Sadducees.” There was a strong party of Sadducees in the Sanhedrin; and perhaps at this time it was so strong a majority as to be able to control its decisions. Compare Act 23:6.

Which is the sect - The word translated “sect” here is that from which we have derived our word “heresy.” It means simply “sect” or “party,” and is not used in a bad sense as implying reproach, or even error. The idea which “we” attach to it of error, and of denying fundamental doctrines in religion, is one that does not occur in the New Testament.

Sadducees - See the notes on Mat 3:7. The main doctrine of this sect was the denial of the resurrection of the dead. The reason why “they” were particularly opposed to the apostles rather than the Pharisees was that the apostles dwelt much on the “resurrection of the Lord Jesus,” which, if true, completely overthrew their doctrine. All the converts, therefore, that were made to Christianity, tended to diminish their numbers and influence, and also to establish the belief of the “Pharisees” in the doctrine of the resurrection. So long, therefore, as the effect of the labors of the apostles was to establish one of the main doctrines of the “Pharisees,” and to confute the “Sadducees,” so long we may suppose that the “Pharisees” would either favor them or be silent; and so long the “Sadducees” would be opposed to them, and enraged against them. One sect will often see with composure the progress of another that it really hates, if it will humble a rival. Even opposition to the gospel will sometimes be silent provided the spread of religion will tend to humble and mortify those against whom we may be opposed.

Were filled with indignation - Greek: “zeal.” The word denotes any kind of “fervor” or “warmth,” and may be applied to any warm or violent affection of the mind, either “envy, wrath, zeal,” or “love,” Act 13:45; Joh 2:17; Rom 10:2; 2Co 7:7; 2Co 11:2. Here it probably “includes envy” and “wrath.” They were “envious” at the success of the apostles - at the number of converts that were made to a doctrine that they hated, and they were envious that the “Pharisees” were deriving such an accession of strength to their doctrine of the resurrection; and they were “indignant” that the apostles regarded so little their authority, and disobeyed the solemn injunction of the Sanhedrin. Compare Act 4:18-21.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Then the high priest rose up; moved at the report of these things, went out of the council to observe what was done.

And all they that were with him; there were both Pharisees and Sadducees in their sanhedrim or great council, as appears Act 23:6; but the high priest and a great part were at this time Sadducees.

Indignation, or zeal, which is the best when kindled (as the fire on the altar) from heaven, regularly acting for God’s truth and word; and the worst when inflamed by carnal affections, and set upon wrong objects for self-ends. The pique these Sadducees had against the apostles and their doctrine, was, because they taught the resurrection, which the Sadducees denied.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

But for then, A.V.; they were filled for were filled, A.V.; jealousy for indignation, A.V. The high priest rose up. It was high time for him and his friends the Sadducees to be up and doing, if they wished to stop the spreading of the faith of Jesus Christ and the Resurrection. Which is the sect of the Sadducees. (Act_4:1, Act_4:2, note) It does not appear that Annas himself was a Sadducee, but his son was, and hence it is highly probable that the Sadducees should have attached themselves to Annas, and made a tool of him for suppressing the doctrine of the Resurrection. The sect; airesiv. (see Act_15:5 Act_24:5, 14 26:4 28:22) The word was applied first by Jews to Christians, anti then by Christians to sects (1Co_11:19; Gal_5:20; 2Pe_2:1) Jealousy scarcely so well expresses the idea of zhlov here as indignation does. In the First Epistle of Clement, zhlov is applied to the anger of Cain, of Joseph"s brethren, of the Israelites against Moses, of the persecution of St. Peter and St. Paul (iv., 5.). It is only occasionally that it means that kind of anger which we call jealousy. The high priest and his party were indignant at the defiance of their authority, and at the success of the doctrine which they had made it a special object to put down.

Vers. 17-29. Three things Divine.

The success of the Christian cause had the effect which might have been anticipated; it aroused the intense hostility of the enemies of the Lord, and their bitter opposition found vent in a speedy arrest and imprisonment of the apostles (vers. 17, 18). But man"s adversity was God"s opportunity, and we have:

I DIVINE INTERPOSITION. (Ver. 19.) How vain all bolts and bars to shut out those whom God would have to enter, to shut in those whom he would have escape! The hour had come for his interposing hand, and all the contrivances of man"s wrath were broken through as if they were but "the spider"s most attenuated thread." We often wish for the direct interposition of God now; we often ask for it; we often wonder that it does not come, thinking that the hour for Divine manifestation must have arrived. The duty and the wisdom of true piety are

(1) to ask God to deliver in his own time and way;

(2) to expect his delivering hand at some time and in some way;

(3) to wait in patient endurance till his time has come;

(4) to recognize his gracious hand in whatever ways he may be pleased to act.

II A DIVINE INSTRUCTION. "Go, stand and speak all the words of this life" (ver. 20). Doubtless the apostles well understood what was the tenor of their commission. They were to speak all those words which would enlighten their fellow-citizens on the great subject of the new spiritual life which they had begun to live. They who stand now in the relation of religious teachers to the men of their own time, may take these words of the heavenly messenger as a Divine instruction to themselves. They are to "speak all the words of this life;" i.e.

(1) to explain and enforce the truth, that beneath and beyond the life which is material and temporal is the life which is spiritual and eternal;

(2) to make known the conditions on which that life is to be entered upon repentance toward God, and faith in a crucified and risen Savior;

(3) to make clear the way by which that life is to be sustained by "abiding in him;

(4) to assure all disciples that "this life" is to be perpetuated in the other world.

III THE DIVINE DEMAND. "We ought to obey God rather than man" (ver. 29). God demands our first obedience that is the teaching of his Word; it is also the response of our own conscience. We agree, when we consider it, that God has a claim, transcendently and immeasurably superior to all others, on our allegiance. That Divine One who called us ourselves into existence; by whom we have been endowed with all our faculties; in whom "we live, and move, and have our being;" from whom we have received every single blessing we have known; who is the righteous and holy Sovereign of all souls throughout the universe of being; on whose will absolutely depends our future destiny; to him we owe our allegiance in such degree, that any claims man may have upon us are "as nothing, and less than nothing." There are many reasons why we should yield ourselves to his service the example of the worthiest and the best of our kind; the excellency, dignity, exaltation of that service; the present and future advantages we gain thereby; the awful issues of disloyalty and persistent rejection, etc. But there is one thought which should weigh the most, and be of itself sufficientwe ought to obey God." We cannot decline to do so without violating the plain teaching of our moral judgment. When we do yield ourselves to him, we put ourselves in the right and have the strong and blessed sanction of our conscience. We should hear the voice within, saying daily, hourly, in tones which will not be silenced, "You ought to obey God. C.

Vers. 17-26. Arrest of the apostles.

I THE TEMPER OF THE RULING POWERS

1. Zeal. It is good or evil in its effects, according to the objects to which it is directed. There is no mood of which more opposite descriptions have been and may not be with justice given. In the excitement of feeling, the fire and fervor which zeal implies, egotism may be so easily mistaken for public spirit. Our self-passions may and must mix with those of a purer kind. Resentment against injury to our interests or indignity to our party, or contempt for our opinions, is constantly mistaken for pure zeal for the kingdom of God and the cause of goofiness.

2. Whenever anger and violence break out it is a proof that the dangerous force of zeal is at work. The only way to correct its mischief is by denying any personal interest which is apart from that of the truth. It is the clear calm gaze at truth which cools the undue heat of zeal, or gives the force its true direction. Here violence showed that egotism was the principle of priestly zeal, and passionate interest, divorced from truth. The apostles are seized and put in prison. Zeal is blundering, thinks that force is a remedy for moral feebleness, believes that truth and spirit can be put down.

II THEIR VIOLENCE DIVINELY REBUKED. The angel of the Lord comes as an emissary of freedom, for the Word of God cannot be bound. And freedom means new scope for duty. God does not give liberty to tongue and hand for nothing. "If our virtues go not forth from us, "Tis all as one as though we had them not." Freedom imposes duties. If God sets us free front the fear of man, which muzzles the tongue, then let us go and publicly speak to the people all the words of this life." Again, with freedom courage is given. The apostles go at daybreak to the temple, and in the teeth of ecclesiastical prohibition proceed to teach. How truly is courage the gift and grace of God! Too often we think of it as a mere pagan virtue founded on pride. Far otherwise with the true courage of the Christian soldier. "It was a great instruction," said Mrs. Hutchinson, in her "Memoirs, that the best and highest courages were beams of the Almighty." As every passion and energy of the soul contains its opposite, so moral courage contains fear of God, moral cowardice contains the false courage to be untrue to God. The apostles, having chosen the fear of God and obedience for their guide, knew no other fear.

III RENEWAL OF OPPOSITION. (Vers. 22, etc.) Here is another study of the human heart. When men are blinded by passion, the strongest arguments and warnings of God seem only obstacles on which wrath breaks with the greater vehemence. The news conies that the prison is empty, and under significant circumstances. The guard stands as before at the door, unconscious of the prisoners" escape. The tidings are confirmed from another source. The prisoners have escaped and are again in the temple, teaching. Was not this the finger of God? Would not men in their senses, free from the madness of passion, have argued that they did wrong to offer violence to a power so majestical and so contemptuous of the fetters of force and the ordinary laws of nature? Yet once more the foiled attempt of human force against the will of God is renewed, and the apostles are brought with a gentleness due to the fear of their captors before the tribunal.

IV THE CONTEST OF WORLDLY AUTHORITY WITH SPIRITUAL. The Sanhedrim are at the outset again baffled and defied.

1. Authority weak without moral support. The judges can only helplessly repeat themselves. They refer to their former command and ask why it had not been obeyed. As if the apostles had not warned them it should not be obeyed. Might without right can only repeat its experiments and its failures; is no match for right which rests upon eternal might.

2. Physical weakness mighty is moral support. Here were but a few unarmed men, without armed following, only temporarily backed up by the uncertain sympathy of the crowd. What is the secret of their immovable bearing? It is moral. Obedience to the higher law is the secret of all command over the minds of others. Here again is the coincidence of opposites. The servant of self-interest is weak, though he sits on a throne and is surrounded by guards; while one moral will, one divinely determined personality, suffices to set a city in com- motion and to overturn established order.

3. Truth irresistible. The truth of the place, time, persons, circumstances, launched from firm lips, is certain to go home. This is infallible. If we fail with the truth, it is because of want of respect to some of these conditions.

(1) The act of God in raising Jesus is again insisted on. Fearful fact in its grandeur, disquieting in its stubbornness, illustrated now by the events of every hour.

(2) The guilt of the crucifiers again emphasized. Their own dark passions are reflected in the cross of wood, and at the same time God"s rebuke of them and disappointment of them.

(3)the exaltation and dominion of Jesus again set forth. At the fight hand of God; at the apex of the moral universe, he now draws men unto him, changing their hearts and pardoning their sins.

(4) The living evidence again appealed to. We, living, acting men, working works that by the confession of one of your number (Nicodemus) no man can do unless God be with him; we, not in our independent name and personality, but as vehicles and agents of a holy power, are the evidence that these things are so. And if they are so, then is the power of the Sanhedrim, with all its sup- port in Roman arms, the mere shadow and ghost of authority. It is superseded by that of Jesus the true King of Israel. Well may the priests and rulers be cut to the heart by a conviction, all the more penetrating because it is in the minds of all, yet adored by none.

(1) The root of courage, energy, moral influence, and command lies in conscience, or obedience to God.

(2) Where men combine against conscience and conspire against truth, they undermine the foundations of authority and prepare their own ruin. J.

Vers. 17-42. Second persecution of the Church.

Notice:

1. It was the result of marvelous success. We must expect such opposition when God gives us power among the people. The proud and formal have no liking for that which can be set in contrast with their own inefficiency.

2. It proceeded from the sect of the Sadducees, i.e. the heretical school. The league between the high priest and the scoffers was a sad sign of religious degeneracy. So it is. When religion decays it becomes the food of unbelief. The latitudinarians hate spiritual earnestness.

3. It was weak and timid, evidently because there was a reproaching conscience and a growing apprehension in the background. The apostles were put into the public ward or prison, but probably not very jealously guarded.

4. The empty form of justice and wisdom was maintained the council was summoned, that the weight of ecclesiastical authority might be used to crush the feeble apostles, that the people might be awed by the fear of great dignitaries. They often are, but the Spirit of God can overcome such fear.

5. Divine wisdom is more than human craft. The public trial or examination of the apostles was a public proclamation of the weakness of their enemies and the heavenly sanction given to their cause. The angelic deliverance of the prisoners became a notorious fact through all Jerusalem. The effect on the council, on the captain of the temple, on the populace, must have been immense. Evidently there was great excitement. "They feared the people, lest they should be stoned.

6. The two weak apostles in the presence of the council, boldly challenging the contradiction of facts and appealing from man to God a striking manifestation of spiritual power. "We are witnesses, so is the Holy Ghost.

7. The division in the council between the furious fanatical party and the temperate Gamaliel party, reminding us of the division in the nation itself; some dead to the voice of God, others ready to follow it though not recognizing it. The influence of Gamaliel a sign of hope; there was a remnant still according to the election of grace, and it promised a future restoration of Israel.

8. The whole occurrence a great help to the Church, to feel its power, to deepen its devotion, to rejoice in hope of victory, to trust in the gracious providence of God. R.

Vers. 17-40. A grand victory for the truth along the whole line; all the positions of the enemy taken.

The few hours that were covered by this portion of the history must have been hours charged with confirmation of the faith for the apostles. It is not merely that they are again attacked and again get in the end the victory, but that every position is carried for them by some strong arm invisible. It is not altogether the force of the truth, at least of the truth as spoken and spoken by them; still less is it their own force that gains this glorious and memorable day, although doubtless both of these are involved in the day"s achievements. But there was a "fighting from heaven" for them," and the stars in their courses fought against" their enemies. And as nothing so much daunts an enemy as the impression of this latter, so nothing can be conceived more reinforcing to the faith and courage of the army or the general who have evidence of the former. While, then, the bold and faithful utterance of "all the words of this life" was now the loving care of the apostles, God"s watchful providence and the living Spirit whom Christ sent made the "heaven that fought for" them. We may view the present portion of the Church"s history under this light. It is the history of a succession of incidents, every one of which shows the foe as the party signally discomfited. The apostles are still the representatives of the Church. They sustain the brunt of any attack. And it is noteworthy, that at present, so far as we read, no private member of the Church is exposed to any similar treatment. Notice, then

I THE INCIDENT OF A NEW TRIAL OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF IMPRISONMENT. The high priest and those who were acting with him had not, it appears, learned the lesson which their former failure might well have taught them. It had been attended by circumstances and followed by a sequel which should have made a lasting impression on their memory. But memory"s good offices were scorned, and wisdom"s lessons set at naught and lost. The experiment is to be tried again, whether certain facts to which the word of the apostles gives great notoriety, with certain comments upon them and explanations of them, can be hushed up, and a prison"s doors be mightier than miracles. This very point was soon settled, and in the shape that should have carried conviction and reproof in equal proportions. It is to be remembered that the imprisonment policy stands condemned, not altogether necessarily in itself, but emphatically, in this case, because the facts to which the apostles gave the notoriety so unwelcome to the authorities were facts within the knowledge of those same, and because the whole action of the apostles had the abundant attestation of surpassing miracles. Mouths can be stopped by imprisonment, no doubt. And the method may, no doubt, be a legitimate method, even though there be allowed to be prima facie a likely moral danger attaching to it. That danger has shown itself so repeatedly and so malignantly in matters of religion to the oppressing of the conscience, in matters of science to the clouding of the prospects of truth and the growth of knowledge. But the point of interest and at the same time the hopelessness of the present conflict turned on the fact that the method of imprisonment attempted to stop the mouth of God"s Word and truth. The enemy was confounded signally. An "abundant door" of exit from the prison for the apostles made a more than ever abundant door of entrance" for the truth, and it occasioned "great boldness" of utterance of "all the words of this life" in the temple of temples, and before the enemy was so much as awake.

II THE INCIDENT OF A SECOND TRIAL OF ARRAIGNMENT BEFORE THE COUNCIL.

1. In this proceeding embarrassment awaited the council; they stumble upon the very threshold. The prisoners are duly sent for, but they are not to be found. The prison is there; the keepers are there; the doors were shut with all appearance of safety, and if they had been opened, there is not a sign of it nor of any violence that might have effected it; the keys are neither lost nor injured; and the locks are not disobedient to their own keys, as though they had been tampered with. Yet to what all this, when the prison itself proves as empty as ever place was? The officers return with tale and face, no doubt, equally blank; but blankest of all was the astonishment of those in authority under these new circumstances. That "they were in doubt concerning them" (so the apostles) was no unnatural, no unlikely account of the case in which "the high priest, and the captain of the temple, and the chief priests" found themselves. And perhaps it might have suited them and their reputation about as well if all had ended here. But this was not to be. They had meddled with strife, nay, had not "forborne them meddling with God"; (2Ch_35:21) and they shall not "leave off contention" before it has worsted them signally, decisively. For:

2. A sudden relief from undignified bewilderment leaves them no choice but to go on with a prosecution, hazardous much more to those who prosecute than to those who are prosecuted. That by this time they began to feel this there are not wanting certain indications.

(1) Though the narrative is very concise, very condensed, it does not omit to describe the tender handling of the prisoners found speaking in the temple a tender handling the more notable because they were escaped prisoners. "The captain and officers went and brought them without violence; for they feared the people, lest themselves should be stoned an unfavorable predicament, all things considered, certainly.

(2) Presumably because the narrative is very condensed it asks a second thought on our part as to what is the precise meaning when it is said, "The high priest, and the captain of the temple, and the chief priests, doubted concerning them i.e. the apostles, whereunto this would grow." We take it that their innermost darkness began to be harassed with dawning day; their innermost mind with dawning convictions that they had a very new sort of men to deal with; their conscience with dawning of a fear very unfamiliar to their hitherto manner of bearing themselves toward that same conscience. Possibly, more than possibly afterwards, the same messenger who brought word as to where the apostles were and what they were doing stated also the apostles" account of how they had got out of the prison. He would have ample time to do this while the captain and the officers went to bring them. That awkward interval must have been filled up somehow by the dismayed court. Nor can there be a doubt that it was filled up with abundant talk and question and discussion. This or some such view is, it appears to us, essentially corroborated by the apparent silence of the court, when the apostles were at last ushered into its presence, as to their escape, and by its sedulous abstinence from any interrogations upon the matter. Silence absolute on that subject were certainly their best wisdom when they had heard the real facts, and, hearing, had seen them with eyes forced open. The silence of the narrative is one thing, and is a token of historic accuracy and fidelity. The silence of the court is another thing, and is a touch true enough to nature, in fact, a great demonstration of nature, which sometimes, in the supreme effort to cover defeat, then most convicts itself of defeat. What, therefore, with a certain underswell and muttering of conscience first, and then with the unease wrought by the plain discovery of how things had been, it may be reasonably imagined that the high priest and those associated with him wished already that they were well clear of the whole matter.

3. But the moment has come for the arraignment itself. It is at all events plain, its meaning and. its implications not obscure. "You have disobeyed our strict command, have filled Jerusalem with the doctrine we disapprove, and are going far to fix on us the responsibility and possibly the vengeance of the blood of this man." Probably a spirit of contempt and an intention to express it thinly veiled growing fear, when they use the words, "this name," and "your doctrine," and "this man"s blood," instead of naming the Name that was already "above every name" and naming the doctrine which was certainly not "the doctrine nor after the commandments, of men", (Col_2:22) and naming "the blood which speaketh better things than that of Abel.

4. But the challenge is at once accepted by the apostolic band. They admit their disobedience to human command. They assert their obedience to Divine command, and assert the necessity of it its moral ought. They at once honor, by a firm and repeated utterance of it, the Name which had just been sorrily flouted, but which, in very deed, designated One who had known the unprecedented transitions of resurrection and ascension, and who owned to the titles of Prince and Savior of mankind. His princely gift is the power of" repentance," his saving gift is the remission of sins." Occupying a position of vast moral purchase over their judges, the apostles do not propose to shield these from an iota of their responsibility. They had declined to name the Name of Jesus; the apostles do not shrink at all from naming the name of their sin and guilt, nor forbear to describe them as the persons answerable for the blood of Jesus. "Whom ye slew, and hanged on a tree." And so they make out their text. We "ought to obey God." And as God, the God of our fathers, was he who "raised" Jesus, and who "exalted" him, we are his "witnesses," in these glorious wonders, of the history of his Son Jesus. And Peter adds, in one of the most pronounced of the claims of inspiration peculiar to revelation, that, in saying so much, he means that "the Holy Ghost" in them is the real Witness, that Holy Ghost whom God gives to those who obey him. That God is to be obeyed, probably the now judges of the apostles would not presume to deny. Peter and the apostles have made out their case when they have proved that this is all to which their censured and imprisoned conduct amounts. So the close of their defense clenches the opening of it.

III THE INCIDENT OF A FRESH EXPERIENCE OF HELPLESS INCAPACITY IN THE COUNCIL. This experience was ushered in, indeed, by one of a far more pronounced character. In a word which itself expresses an intensity of suffering, we are told that they of the council "were cut" to the quick, and in the first paroxysm of agony saw no option but to slay their prisoners. The apostles were again called upon to retire from the court (Act_4:15) while the state of things was deliberated. And "in the multitude of counselors was found safety" of some sort at least, and of some brief duration, thanks to the sage prudence that dwelt in one of them, and apparently only one. Note here to what different issue men have been cut to the heart.

1. Some to deep penitence, contrition, conversion; so Peter, (Luk_22:61, Luk_22:62) and the first converts. (Act_2:6-7)

2. But other some to deeper condemnation, and suicide either actual or moral; so Judas, (Mat_27:4, Mat_27:5) and those here described, with many an ancestor, many a descendant. The blindness of intense anger and the malignant action of intense chagrin may be ranked among the certain precursors of incapacity, but here they reveal it too. And that we read under these conditions, "they take counsel to slay them," serves little more than to make assurance doubly sure that helpless floundering is the present order of things at the ostensible seat of justice.

IV THE INCIDENT OF A FRESH UNDIGNIFIED ESCAPE FROM AN UNDIGNIFIED POSITION. A Pharisee save the mark! leads the way out. And the way out leads just back by the way they came in. That the members of the council put themselves as far as possible just where they were before they stirred at all in the matter is the policy which Gamaliel propounds. It comes to this, that he forcibly argues it were by far the best thing to eat their own, both words and deeds. The conservative shrewdness and blandness of this advice, and of the courteous way in which it is advanced, are equally unmistakable and in a sort admirable. It were uncharitable, however, to deny that it is open to intrinsic commendation also.

1. Gamaliel has noted and treasured and now uses well the lessons of history.

2. Evidently he is before his time, and has a largo and open eye for the principles of even civil liberty.

3. More remarkably still, he seems to have grasped the principle and the very basis of the principle of religious liberty. "These men" (ver. 35) are to be looked at, as some possibly sacred thing should be looked at. These men" (ver. 38) are to be "let alone," as men possibly doing "the work of God." And their present would-be judges are to "refrain from" them, because they ought themselves to shrink, for their own sake, from incurring even the distant responsibility of "fighting against God." The principle of religious liberty always postulates these two aspects-one presenting the view of the harm that may be done to others by hampering their moral convictions or nature; the other the harm that may be done to self in challenging the most solemn and critical responsibilities which even "angels might fear.

4. It is difficult to resist the impression that Gamaliel was one of those who were" not far from the kingdom of God." The narrative scarcely warrants our saying that he had a leaning to "these men "himself. But this "doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people" (ver. 34), does seem to have had this of religion in him, that" he feared God," and that he dared to say it in connection with taking a very unpopular side. To the advice of Gamaliel his fellow-councilors "agreed," glad to escape the position in which they again found themselves. They retreated from it for reasons which Gamaliel takes the credit of putting before them, but which should have been before them long before, and should have saved them from being where they now were. They do retreat, they know they are in the wrong, they are morally again beaten; but the only thing which would have taken from their retreat the description undignified is withheld, for they do not confess their error. On the contrary, we notice

V LASTLY, THE INCIDENT OF A GRATUITOUS BEATING OF THE APOSTLES AND A BARREN COMMAND LAID UPON THEM. Whatever may be thought or charitably hoped of Gamaliel, the adviser in this crisis, very clear it is that those whom he had influenced had no deeper sympathies with the grounds of his advice. Against these they now as much sin in principle as if they had laid violent hands on the apostles, according to the first dictates of their rage. And so again do these men drop awhile from our sight. They drop into the ignominious shade, while it fares far otherwise with their beaten, commanded, but withal released prisoners. Cruelty is the covering with which cowardice now chooses to take its unavailing chance of concealing defeat already too shameful, but which rather adds to it and to the revealing of it. They disappear from view, "beating" the apostles, and "commanding them not to speak in the Name of Jesus." But it is a token of the literal fact that they themselves have been ignominiously beaten along the whole line of battle, the apostles and the truth and "the Name of Jesus" winning the day. B.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The high priest - and the sect of the Sadducees - A goodly company for the priest! He, and these deniers of any angel or resurrection, were filled with zeal - Angry, bitter, persecuting zeal.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The Imprisonment, Deliverance, and Defense of the Apostles.

Arrest and deliverance:

v. 17. Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation,

v. 18. and laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison.

v. 19. But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison-doors, and brought them forth, and said,

v. 20. Go, stand and speak in the Temple to the people all the words of this life.

v. 21. And when they heard that, they entered into the Temple early in the morning and taught.

One storm had been safely weathered, chap. 4, but a second one was coming on which would prove a little severer than the previous one. The constant growth of the congregation and the enthusiastic praise which was given to the apostles on all sides was too much for the rulers of the Jews, especially for the Sadducees with their denial of the resurrection. To them it was an abomination that the entire preaching of the Gospel was based upon the miraculous rising of Jesus from the dead. And so their party, with the high priest at its head, who most likely also belonged to this school or party, made another formal descent upon the portico of Solomon. They were not merely filled with indignation because the disciples dared to continue their preaching in the name of Jesus, but they were literally filled with angry jealousy on account of the fact that the apostles were gaining in popular favor, that the people were giving them great awe and relevance. So these leaders laid angry, forcible hands upon the apostles and placed them into the public prison with the idea of publicly defaming and degrading them. But their triumph was of short duration. For during that very night an angel of the Lord, probably one of the highest order, like Gabriel, not only opened the doors of the Temple, but also led them forth and gave them the command to go to the Temple, to stand before the people, and to speak all the words of this life, to preach the Gospel of eternal salvation. Far from being discouraged by the treatment accorded them, the apostles were to proclaim the message entrusted to them not only boldly, but also in the most public spot in all Jerusalem. He who Himself is the Resurrection and the Life wanted the Word of this life to extend its influence not only in Jerusalem, but throughout Judea and to the end of the world. So about the time of daybreak, just as soon as the Temple-doors were opened for the bringing of the morning sacrifice, the apostles went to the Temple and resumed their teaching. The more the Word of God extends its power, the more the wrath of the world and of the prince of this world is enkindled. Many a disciple of Christ has been thrown into prison on account of the name which he believed in and confessed. But the Lord was with them and helped them according to His promise. And never in the history of the Church have the true confessors permitted themselves to be deterred, either by persecution or by imprisonment, from preaching the Word which God entrusted to them.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Note here, 1. How the persecution of the holy apostles did gradually advance and increase. In the former chapters the apostles were only secured, kept in hold for a night and dismissed with a threatening next day; but now being filled a second time with the Holy Spirit, they are better enabled to grapple with sufferings, and to glorify God under them: and accordingly here they are committed to the common prison amongst malefactors, and afterwards beaten and exposed to public shame, Act 5:40.

O the tenderness of God towards his tender servants! While these apostles were striplings, their faith feeble, and their grace weak, God stayeth the rough wind, keeps off the storm of persecution from them. God will evermore suit the stroke to his peoples strength, proportion their burden to their back, and never suffer them to be tempted above what they are able.

Note, 2. The apostles being prisoners for Christ and his Gospel, they have an angel for their keeper and deliverer, who opens the prison door, and overpowers and puts out the devil. God could otherwise have delivered them, but he makes use of the ministry of angels for the confirming of their faith, and to let them see by experience that he had given his angels charge over them. Since the establishment of the gospel, God will have us live more by faith, and to walk less by sense, and therefore we must not now (ordinarily) see those ministering and beneficent spirits: but although their visible operations for the heirs of salvation shall never cease, Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? Heb 1:14

Note, 3. The apostles being thus brought out of prison by an angel, are commanded to preach, and they have their text given them by the angel that opened both the prison and the pulpit door for them. The angel said unto them, Go, and speak unto the people all the words of this life, Act 5:20. That is, of this life for which you were imprisoned, this life which the Sadducees, who imprisoned you, deny; namely, the resurrection of the body, and eternal life.

Learn, That not the things of this life, but the things of eternity and the to come, the unseen things of another world, ar the things which all the ministers of Christ ought to preach, and press their people to the pursuit of; Go, and speak unto the people all the words of this life: That is, the gospel, which is the word of life, and directs them how to attain eternal life and salvation by Jesus Christ.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

HIGH PRIEST AND OFFICIAL BOARD

17, 18. “And the high priest and all those with him, being of the sect of the Sadducees, were filled with envy, jealousy and prejudice, and laid hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison.” Tell me not that the high priest did not, in all good conscience, sign the death-warrant of Jesus Christ, believing that he was doing God service. We have no right to impeach the honesty of these leading preachers and official members at Jerusalem. You have nothing to do but look at their successors at the present day. Their name is legion. They doubtless feel it to be their duty to crush out the Holiness Movement, whose votaries are preaching the Incarnation of the Holy Ghost, the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire, Entire sanctification, Divine Healing, and the Coming of the Lord. We are preaching precisely the doctrines which the apostles preached in Jerusalem. This can not be denied. We prove it constantly with an open Bible. Why do they oppose and interdict us, forbidding us to preach in their jurisdiction? While we have no right to impeach the candor of the high priest and his coadjutors, we know they did the work of Satan, believing they were obeying God. We have the same phenomena throughout Christendom this day. The logical sequence is irresistible. Just as the leaders of Judaism blindly resisted the Holy Ghost, so the leaders of fallen Christianity at the present day ostracize and interdict the holiness people, who are preaching just what the apostles preached. I am willing to preach in any of their churches, with the understanding that I am to be put out the moment I deflect from the New Testament. We challenge all of the anti-holiness preachers and officers to convict us of departure from the Word of God. But they do not charge us with antagonism to God’s Word, but simply forbid us to preach in their territory, when God has commanded us to “preach the gospel to every creature.” Of course, we are not going into their houses uninvited; but how dare they mark off a certain territory, and let drunkards; harlots, thieves, murderers and the devil into it, and then order God’s gospel herald out of it! We come to wage war with the devil and sin, and nothing else. Why forbid us thus, protecting the devil and sin in said territory, while they drag the people into hell by the wholesale? No doubt but these very preachers and church officers who antagonized the apostles at Jerusalem are down in hell. Look out! The Judgment Day is coming, when God will call the holiness evangelist to stand on the witness block and testify that he went, responsive to Jehovah’s bidding, to that wicked town to preach the gospel and warn those wicked people to flee from the wrath to come, and a certain clergyman ran him away. Will not that man be guilty of the blood of those souls? Better for him that he had never been born. Remember, there will be no dignitaries at the Judgment bar, but every tub will stand on its own bottom.

THE PEOPLE TRUER THAN THE PREACHERS

The preachers in charge of the orthodox Jewish Church at Jerusalem, availing themselves of the acquiescent civil arm, imprison the apostles. God sends His angel to open the prison and let them out. Having convened the Sanhedrin in the judgment hall on Mt. Zion and failed to find them in the jail, upon notification that they are standing in the temple and teaching the people,

25, 26 . “The captain of the temple guards along with officers, goes and brings them out by force, because they feared the people, lest they may be stoned.” When the church is in the kingdom of God, the leaders as a rule are better than the people, living nearer God, and thus leading the people on to grander achievements in the divine life. Et, vice versa, when the church is fallen and preachers and people out of the heavenly road and on a downward trend, as is true in case of apostasy, then the preachers are worse than the people. During all the martyr ages the preachers led the bloody persecutions. From Stephen, the first, when Saul of Tarsus, the top of the clergy, led the mob that stoned him, to the anti-holiness rally of the present day, the preachers have opposed and persecuted the holy people. Here doubtless they would have killed the apostles if they had not feared the people.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17, 18. The excitement which now prevailed throughout Jerusalem and the neighboring villages, and found utterance in the most enthusiastic praise of the apostles, was too much for the equanimity of the dignitaries who had so strictly forbidden them to preach or teach in the name of Jesus. (17) " Then the high priest rose up, and all who were with him, being the sect of the Sadducees, and were filled with zeal, (18) and laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the public prison. " Here we have the same Sadducees at work who had arrested and threatened Peter and John. They were "filled with zeal;" but it was a zeal inspired less by love for their own cause, than by hatred for that which was triumphing over it. The advocates of error will generally appear quite easy, and sometimes, even generous, when their cause is merely standing still; but their zeal is always kindled when the truth begins to make inroads upon them. The zeal of these Sadducees was fanned to its fiercest heat by recent events, and they determined to execute the threats with which they had recently dismissed two of the apostles, making all the twelve their present victims.

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

17. Then the high priest rose up. Was stirred to action. Annas is, no doubt, meant. See note on 4:6. His sect, the Sadducees, co-operated with him. They were determined to stop the preaching of the resurrection. See note on 4:1.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

The religious leaders began to persecute the believers.

But

This begins a contrasting story. You may translate this in the way that your language introduces a contrasting narrative.

the high priest rose up

Here the phrase "rose up" means that the high priest decided to take action, not that he stood up from a seated position. AT: "the high priest took action" (See: Idiom)

they were filled with jealousy

The abstract noun "jealousy" can be translated as an adjective. This could be stated in active form. AT: "they became very jealous" (See: Active or Passive and Abstract Nouns)

laid hands on the apostles

This means that they seized the apostles by force. They would have ordered guards to do this. AT: "had the guards arrest the apostles" (See: Idiom and Metonymy)

translationWords

high priest

raise

Sadducee

jealous

hand

apostle

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

17–32. ARREST OF THE TWELVE. THEIR MIRACULOUS DELIVERANCE AND THEIR DEFENCE BEFORE THE SANHEDRIN

17. ἀναστὰς δέ. The ‘rising up’ is due to the indignation caused by the spread of the Christian teaching. The word ἀναστάς has this sense of movement in opposition. See below, of the insurrections of Theudas and Judas (Act 5:36-37) and in Act 6:9 of the disputants with Stephen.

The rendering should be, but the high-priest rose up. While the multitudes thronged to be healed, the effect on the authorities was to rouse them to opposition.

πάντες οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ. A phrase more comprehensive than that used in Act 4:6, ‘as many as were of the kindred of the high-priest.’ The opposition has had time to gather its forces, and now represents not only the family of Annas, but the heads of the party of the Sadducees.

αἵρεσις, the sect. It is the word from which our English heresy comes. But St Paul uses it of his own mode of worship (though there shewing that the Jews attached an ill meaning to it), in his defence (Act 24:14) before Felix, ‘after the way which they call a sect.’ But he employs it without any sense of blame (Act 26:5) about the Pharisees, and it is used of them also Act 15:5. With a bad sense it is applied to the Nazarenes (Act 24:5), and similarly Act 28:22.

It is used disparagingly in Apocr. Act. Phil. in Hellad. 10, Ἰησοῦς … ὃς ἐδίδαξεν τὴν αἵρεσιν ταύτην. The words are in the mouth of the Jewish high-priest.

τῶν Σαδδουκαίων. From Act 5:21 it will be seen that the statement of Josephus concerning the influence of this sect is fully borne out (Ant. XIII. 11.6), that they had the rich on their side. We have no certain evidence in Scripture that Annas was a Sadducee, but Josephus (Ant. xx. 9. 1) tells us that his son Ananus [or Annas] was of this sect.

ζήλου, jealousy. This is rather the sense of the word than ‘indignation’ as A.V. Of course the one was bred of the other. But what is here described is an outbreak of party feeling in a body who were jealous of the spread of this teaching about a resurrection.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17-42.] Imprisonment, miraculous liberation, examination before the Sanhedrim, and scourging of the Apostles.

17.] ἀναστάς is not redundant, but implies being excited by the popularity of the Apostles, and on that account commencing a course of action hostile to them: see reff. (‘Non sibi quiescendum ratus est.’ Beng. διηγέρθη κινηθεὶς ἐπὶ τοῖς γενομένοις, Chrys.) To suppose that the H. P. ‘rose up’ after a council held (Meyer) is far-fetched, and against the ἐπλήσθησαν ζήλου, which points to the kindling zeal of men first stirred up to action.

ὁ ἀρχ.] Annas,—ch. 4:6, and note on Luk 3:2.

οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ] those who were with him (see ch. 4:13; 19:38; 22:9). Not the members of the Sanhedrim: but the friends and kindred (ch. 4:6) of the H. P.: see ver. 21: Kuinoel’s ‘qui a partibus ejus stabaut’ is too definite (De W.): it was so, but this meaning is not in the words.

ἡ οὖσα] attr., but implying more than οἱ ὄντες ἐξ αἱρέσεως τ. Σ.:—the movement extended through the whole sect. On αἵρ. τ. Σ., see Mat 3:7, note. The passage of Josephus, Antiq. xx. 9. 1, is worth transcribing: πέμπει δὲ Καῖσαρ (Nero) Ἀλβῖνον εἰς. τὴν Ἰονδαίαν ἔπαρχον, Φήστου τὴν τελευτὴν πυθόμενος. ὁ δὲ βασιλεὺς ἀφείλετο μὲν τὸν Ἰώσηπον τὴν ἀρχιερωσύνην, τῷ δὲ Ἀνάνου παιδί, καὶ αυτῷ Ἀνάνῳ λεγομένῳ, τὴν διαδοχὴν τῆς ἀρχῆς ἔδωκε. τοῦτον δέ φασι τὸν πρεσβύτατον Ἄνανον εὐτυχέστατον γενέσθαι· πέντε γὰρ ἔσχε παῖδας, καὶ τούτους πάντας συνέβη ἀρχιερατεῦσαι τῷ θεῷ, αὐτὸς καὶ πρότερον τῆς τιμῆς ἐπὶ πλεῖστον ἀπολαύσας, ὅπερ οὐδενὶ συνέβη τῶν παρʼ ἡμῖν ἀρχιερέων. ὁ δὲ νεώτερος Ἄνανος … θρασὺς ἦν τὸν τρόπον, καὶ τολμητὴς διαφερόντως· αἵρεσιν δὲ μετῄει τῶν Σαδδουκαίων, οἵπερ εἰσὶ περὶ τὰς κρίσεις ὠμοὶ παρὰ πάντας τοὺς Ἰουδαίους, καθὼς ἤδη δεδηλώκαμεν. This shews that the family of Annas, if not he himself, were connected with the sect of the Sadducees. They (see ch. 4:1, note) were the chief enemies of the Apostles, for teaching the resurrection.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.