Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 5:15

"insomuch that they even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that, as Peter came by, at the least his shadow might overshadow some one of them." — Acts 5:15 (ASV)

Insomuch that they brought forth the sick...—The tense implies habitual action. For some days or weeks the sick were laid all along the streets—the broad open streets, as distinct from the lanes and alleys (see Note on Matthew 6:5)—by which the Apostle went back and forth between his home and the Temple.

That at the least the shadow of Peter...—It is implied in the next verse that the hope was not disappointed. Assuming that miracles are possible, and that the narratives of the Gospels indicate generally the laws that govern them, there is nothing in the present narrative that is not in harmony with those laws.

Christ healed sometimes directly by a word, without contact of any kind (Matthew 8:13; John 4:52); sometimes through material media—the fringe of His garment (Matthew 9:20), or the clay smeared over the blind man’s eyes (John 9:5) becoming channels through which the healing virtue passed.

All that was needed was the expectation of an intense faith, as the subjective condition on one side, the presence of an objective supernatural power on the other, and any medium upon which the imagination might happen to focus as a help to faith. So afterwards, the hand, kerchiefs and aprons from St. Paul’s skin do what the shadow of St. Peter does here (Acts 19:12). In the use of oil, as in Mark 6:13, James 5:14, we find a medium employed which had in itself a healing power, with which the prayer of faith was to co-operate.

On the beds and couches, see Note on Mark 2:4. The couches were the more portable pallets or mattresses of the poor.