Acts 4:4

4 But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of believers now totaled about 5,000 men, not counting women and children.

Acts 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.

Acts 4:4 In-Context

2 These leaders were very disturbed that Peter and John were teaching the people that through Jesus there is a resurrection of the dead.

3 They arrested them and, since it was already evening, put them in jail until morning.

4 But many of the people who heard their message believed it, so the number of believers now totaled about 5,000 men, not counting women and children.

5 The next day the council of all the rulers and elders and teachers of religious law met in Jerusalem.

6 Annas the high priest was there, along with Caiaphas, John, Alexander, and other relatives of the high priest.

Footnotes

• [a] Greek 5,000 adult males.