Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 4:1

"And as they spake unto the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them," — Acts 4:1 (ASV)

In vv.1–4 Luke both concludes the narrative of the crippled beggar’s healing (by the phrase “while they were speaking”) and introduces the first appearance of Peter and John before the Sanhedrin (cf. “the next day” in vv.3, 5).

Luke shows that the early opposition against preaching the Gospel arose chiefly from priestly and Sadducean ranks—i.e., “the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees.” “The captain of the temple guard” was the commanding officer of the temple police force. He was considered inferior in rank only to the high priest and had the responsibility of maintaining order in the temple precincts (cf. 5:24, 26). The “Sadducees” (GK 4881) were descendants of the Hasmoneans, who looked to Mattathias, Judas, Jonathan, and Simon Maccabeus (168–134 B. C.) as having inaugurated the Messianic Age and saw themselves as perpetuating what their fathers had begun. As priests from the tribe of Levi, they claimed to represent ancient orthodoxy and were uninterested in innovations. Thus they opposed any developments in biblical law (i.e., the “Oral Law”), speculations about angels or demons, and the doctrine of the resurrection (cf. 23:8; Mark 12:18, 11). Likewise, they rejected what they considered to be vain hopes for God’s heavenly intervention into the life of the nation and for a coming Messiah, since, as they believed, the age of God’s promise had begun with the Maccabean heroes and was continuing on under their supervision. For them, the Messiah was an ideal, not a person, and the Messianic Age was a process, not a cataclysmic or even datable event. Furthermore, as political rulers and dominant landlords, to whom a grateful nation had turned over all political and economic powers during the time of the Maccabean supremacy, for entirely practical reasons they stressed cooperation with Rome and maintenance of the status quo. Most of the priests were of Sadducean persuasion; the temple police force was composed entirely of Levites; the captain of the temple guard was always a high-caste Sadducee, and so were each of the high priests.