Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 5:17

"But the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees), and they were filled with jealousy," — Acts 5:17 (ASV)

As in 4:1–31, Luke has the early opposition to Christianity arising principally from the Sadducees. Pharisees were undoubtedly present in the Sanhedrin (cf. comments on “the full assembly of the elders of Israel,” v.21), but their presence in these earliest days of the church’s existence (at least until ch. 7) is depicted as exerting a moderating influence on the antagonism of the Sadducees. Thus the high priest and members of the party of the Sadducees take official action a second time against the apostles by arresting them and putting them “in the public jail.”