Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 4:7

"And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, By what power, or in what name, have ye done this?" — Acts 4:7 (ASV)

And when they had set them in the midst.—The Sanhedrin sat in a semicircle, the president being in the middle of the arc, the accused standing in the center.

They asked.—Literally, were asking. They put the question repeatedly, in many varying forms.

By what power, or by what name, have you done this?—Literally, By what kind of power, or by what kind of name? apparently in a tone of contempt. They admit the fact that the lame man had been made to walk, as too evident to be denied. (Compare to Acts 4:16.) The question implied a suspicion that it was the effect of magic, or, as in the case of our Lord’s casting out devils, by the power of Beelzebub (Luke 11:15; John 8:48). There is a touch of scorn in the way in which they speak of the thing itself. They will not yet call it a “sign,” or “wonder,” but “have you done this?”