Acts 4:17

17 But that it be not further spread among the people, let us threaten them severely no longer to speak to any man in this name.

Acts 4:17 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 4:17

But that it spread no further among the people
Meaning not in Jerusalem; for the fame of this miracle was spread among all the inhabitants of that city; but in other parts of the nation: let us straitly threaten them;
or "in threatening threaten them"; that is, severely threaten them with imprisonment, or with the scourging of forty stripes save one, or with death itself. That they speak henceforth to no man in this name;
which through indignation and contempt they do not mention, but mean the name of Jesus: and their sense is, that the apostles, from this time forward, should not teach, or preach the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, or any other doctrine of the Gospel, in the name of Jesus, to any man, Jew or Gentile; or perform any miracle in his name, or call upon his name, and make use of it, for the healing of any person, or doing any miraculous work. The Ethiopic version is a very odd one, and quite contrary to the sense of the sanhedrim, "that they should not speak any more but in the name of the man Jesus".

Acts 4:17 In-Context

15 but having commanded them to go out of the council they conferred with one another,

16 saying, What shall we do to these men? for that indeed an evident sign has come to pass through their means is manifest to all that inhabit Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.

17 But that it be not further spread among the people, let us threaten them severely no longer to speak to any man in this name.

18 And having called them, they charged [them] not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.

19 But Peter and John answering said to them, If it be righteous before God to listen to you rather than to God, judge ye;

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit. 'with threat.'