Acts 5 Study Notes

5:21a Once they were freed, we might expect the apostles to flee Jerusalem. Instead, they went to the temple at daybreak and began to do the very thing that had gotten them in trouble in the first place: teach about Jesus.

5:21b-24 The Sanhedrin convened in the morning, intent on taking decisive action to halt the growth of the Christian faith. That the servants found the jail securely locked and the guards standing duty proves that the jailbreak was both miraculous and secretive.

5:25-26 The temple police were afraid the people might stone them because Jerusalem was responding positively to the apostles. Meanwhile, the Jewish leaders saw their authority slipping away.

5:27-28 The Jewish leaders feared that the people would hold them responsible for Jesus’s death. They were more concerned about maintaining their authority than embracing the truth.

5:29 Christians should obey the law of the land, but when human law conflicts with God’s law, we must obey God rather than people.

5:30-32 If anything, Peter stepped up the pressure on the Sanhedrin (and endangered himself and the others more) by declaring that they had murdered Jesus, whom God exalted . . . to his right hand as ruler and Savior. Peter and the other apostles knew this to be true because they were witnesses of this, as was the Holy Spirit.

5:33-34 If the Jewish leaders had been willing to kill Jesus, much more were they prepared to kill the apostles, whose stubborn testimony was serving to prolong the Jesus controversy. But Gamaliel wisely cooled their rage. This was Gamaliel I, the teacher of Paul the apostle (22:3). It is uncertain whether he was the successor to the great rabbinic teacher Hillel or whether he founded his own school. In either case, he became a major rabbinic teacher. His conciliatory stance toward the apostles is consistent with what is known of his temperate attitude elsewhere.

5:35-36 Josephus, the Jewish historian, reported that many revolts against Roman rule occurred during the time of Jesus—some of them even having messianic overtones. He mentions a person named Theudas, who came after Judas the Galilean (v. 37). This is probably not the same person as the Theudas referred to here.

5:37 Judas the Galilean, or Judas of Gamala, rebelled against the census that Quirinius took in AD 6. He was mentioned by Josephus as teaching that the Israelites were not to give tribute to pagan rulers. His revolt ended in defeat.

5:38-39 Gamaliel’s advice reflected the Pharisees’ belief that if God has ordained something, it will come to pass. Thus Gamaliel felt it was prudent for the Sanhedrin to step back and see what God would do with the Christian movement.

5:40-42 Some people believe that suffering and hardships are signs that we are not in God’s will. Contrast this with the apostles, who, after being flogged, went out of the presence of the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to be treated shamefully on Christ’s behalf.