Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 4:4

"But many of them that heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand." — Acts 4:4 (ASV)

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.