Acts 4

SUMMARY.--The Arrest. The Trial Before the Sanhedrim. Peter's Reply. The Counsel of the Sanhedrists. Their Charge to Peter and John. The Appeal of Peter and John to the Higher Law. The Meeting of the Church for Prayer. The Divine Blessing.

      1. As they spake. Peter and John were both speaking, to separate groups probably. The priests. Those of the course then on duty in the temple. See notes on Luke 1:5. The captain of the temple. The head of the temple police, who were composed of Levites, and whose duty it was to guard the sacred precincts. See Luke 22:4 . And the Sadducees. See notes on Matt. 3:7 and Matt. 22:23. They were rationalists, and denied the resurrection of the dead. Annas and Caiaphas, the ex-high priest and the acting high priest, were of the sect, and hence, though the sect was not numerous, it was now very powerful.

      2. Being grieved. There were three classes of assailants: priests, military, and Sadducees. They had three grounds for action: that Peter and John taught the people, that they taught in the name of Christ, and that they bore witness of the resurrection. The last doctrine, of the resurrection, uprooted the creed of the Sadducees. While Jesus lived, his assailants were chiefly Pharisees; when his apostles began to preach his resurrection the Sadducees came to the front as his chief opposers. This will be noted throughout Acts.

      3. Put them in hold. In prison until the next day, for it was now late in the evening.

      4. Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed. Became converts. This (believed) is a usual scriptural expression for the whole change wrought by belief. "Faith comes by hearing . . . the word of God" ( Rom. 10:17 ), and faith leads to obedience. The number of the men was about five thousand. It is probable that the meaning is that the number of men was now increased to five thousand. The term in the Greek (andres) does not properly include women, so that this is the number of male believers. It is probable that most of the converts of Pentecost and of this occasion were men. Oriental women were not likely to attend in large numbers on such public occasions.

      5. Their rulers, and elders, and scribes. A meeting of the Sanhedrim, the great council of seventy, is meant. These classes, with the priests named in the next verse , constituted it. The members of the Sanhedrim were usually called rulers; the elders were old men, selected for the place on account of wisdom; the scribes were the lawyers, or theologians.

      6. Annas the high priest. Still so called, though deposed ten years before by the Romans. The Jews held him still as high priest by right. Caiaphas. Son-in-law of Annas, and the high priest now in office by Roman appointment. John and Alexander. No doubt great men at the time, but we know nothing of them. Kindred of the high priest. Of the family of Annas, all of priestly rank, and many of them holding high offices. The Sanhedrim usually met in a hall of the temple.

      7. Set them in the midst. The high priest acted as president, and the members were arranged in a semi-circle around him, with the prisoners in front. By what power? They could not deny the miracle, but they thought that it had been done by some incantation. They ask an explanation.

      8. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit. They had been promised the Divine help when put on trial ( Matthew 10:19 Matthew 10:20 ). It was now given. Here was an opportunity to preach Christ to the very body that had sent him to death.

      9. If we this day be examined of the good deed. Observe Peter's point, that they are prisoners on trial for a good deed.

      10. By the name of Jesus Christ. It was the power of that one whom that very court had condemned which had wrought the miracle. Whom ye crucified. Peter becomes the accuser. They, his accusers, have been guilty of crucifying the Messiah. They crucified him, but God raised him from the dead.

      11. This is the stone which was set at nought. Quoted from Psa. 118 . A figure drawn from a building where a rejected, despised stone is the most important and indispensable stone of the structure. Christ quoted the same passage, applied to himself ( Matt. 21:42 ).