Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 4

The priests, and the captain of the temple.—For the first time in this book, we encounter the chief agents in the condemnation passed on our Lord by the Sanhedrin. A few weeks or months had passed, and they were congratulating themselves on having followed the advice of Caiaphas (John 11:48).

They knew that the body of Jesus had disappeared from the sepulchre, and they actively circulated the report that the disciples had stolen it (Matthew 28:13–15). They must have heard something of the Day of Pentecost—though there is no evidence of their having been present as spectators or listeners—and of the growth of the new society. Now the two chief members of the company of those disciples were teaching publicly in the very portico of the Temple. What were they to do?

The “captain of the Temple” (see Note on Luke 22:4) was the head of the band of Levite sentinels whose function it was to keep guard over the sacred precincts. He, as an inspector, made his rounds by night, visited all the gates, and roused the sleeping guards. His presence implied that the quiet order of the Temple was supposed to be endangered. In 2 Maccabees 3:4, however, we find a “captain,” or “governor of the Temple,” of the tribe of Benjamin.

The Sadducees.—The higher members of the priesthood, Annas and Caiaphas, were themselves of this sect (Acts 5:17). They had already been foremost in urging the condemnation of Christ in the meetings of the Sanhedrin. The shame of having been put to silence by Him (Matthew 22:34) added vindictiveness to the counsels of a calculating policy. Now they found His disciples preaching the truth which they denied, and proclaiming it as attested by the resurrection of Jesus. Throughout the Acts the Sadducees are foremost as persecutors. The Pharisees temporize, like Gamaliel, or profess themselves believers (Acts 15:5; Acts 23:7).

Being grieved.—The verb is one which expresses something like an intensity of trouble and vexation. (Compare to Acts 16:18.)

Preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead.—Literally, preached in Jesus—that is, in this as the crucial instance in which the resurrection of the dead had been made manifest. (Compare to the close union of Jesus and the resurrection in Acts 17:18.)

It was now eventide.—The narrative started, it will be remembered, from 3 P.M. (Acts 3:1). The “eventide” began at 6 P.M.

Put them in hold.—Literally, in custody. In Acts 5:18, the word is translated “prison.” The old noun survives in our modern word “strong-hold.”

The number of the men was about five thousand.—Better, became, or was made up to, about five thousand. It seems probable, though not certain, that Saint Luke meant this as a statement of the total number of disciples, not of those who were converted on that day. As in the narrative of the feeding of the five thousand (Matthew 14:21), women and children were not included.

The number was probably ascertained, as on that occasion, by grouping those who came to baptism and to the breaking of bread by hundreds and by fifties (Mark 6:40). The connection in which the number is given makes it probable that it represents those who, under the influence of the impression made by the healing of the cripple and by Saint Peter’s speech, attended the meetings of the Church that evening. The coincidence of the numbers in the two narratives could scarcely fail to lead the disciples to connect the one with the other, and to feel, as they broke the bread and blessed it, that they were also giving men the true bread from heaven.

And it came to pass on the next day . . .—Better, that there were gathered together the rulers, elders, and scribes in Jerusalem. The last two words are misplaced in the English version, as they were transferred to the end of the next verse. The later manuscripts give, however, to Jerusalem. The meeting was obviously summoned, like that of Matthew 26:5, to consider what course was necessary in the face of the new facts that had presented themselves, and was probably the first formal meeting of the Sanhedrin that had been held since the trial of our Lord. On its constitution, see Notes on Matthew 5:22; Matthew 26:57; Matthew 27:1. This meeting would, of course, include the Pharisee section of the scribes as well as the Sadducees.