Atti 4:4

4 Or molti di coloro che aveano udita la parola credettero; e il numero degli uomini divenne intorno a cinquemila.

Atti 4:4 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 4:4

Howbeit, many of them which heard the word
The doctrine of the Gospel, preached by Peter and John:

believed;
the report of it, and in Christ, as risen from the dead, which was the sum and substance of it: and this they did, notwithstanding the opposition made by the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducces, and the violence they used to the apostles; for though they kept their persons in hold, they could not stop the free course of the word, which ran and was glorified:

and the number of the men was about five thousand;
or "was five thousand", as the Alexandrian copy, the Vulgate Latin, and Ethiopic versions read; that is the number, not of the hearers, but "of them that believed", was so many; and so read the Arabic and Ethiopic versions: there were so many persons converted at this time; for this number does not include the three thousand that were converted under the first sermon, but regards those who now became true believers, and were added to the church; so that there were now eight thousand persons added to it; a great increase indeed! now had Christ the dew of his youth, and now were these fishermen fishers of men indeed: that our Lord's feeding five thousand men with five barley loaves and two fishes, should have any regard to the conversion of these five thousand men, is but a conceit.

Atti 4:4 In-Context

2 essendo molto crucciosi, perchè ammaestravano il popolo, ed annunziavano in Gesù la risurrezione de’ morti.

3 E misero loro le mani addosso, e li posero in prigione, fino al giorno seguente, perciocchè già era sera.

4 Or molti di coloro che aveano udita la parola credettero; e il numero degli uomini divenne intorno a cinquemila.

5 E il dì seguente, i rettori, anziani, e Scribi, si raunarono in Gerusalemme;

6 insieme con Anna, sommo sacerdote; e Caiafa, e Giovanni, ed Alessandro, e tutti quelli che erano del legnaggio sacerdotale.