Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 5:19-27

"But an angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them out, and said, Go ye, and stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this Life. And when they heard [this], they entered into the temple about daybreak, and taught. But the high priest came, and they that were with him, and called the council together, and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison-house to have them brought. But the officers that came found them not in the prison; and they returned, and told, saying, The prison-house we found shut in all safety, and the keepers standing at the doors: but when we had opened, we found no man within. Now when the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these words, they were much perplexed concerning them whereunto this would grow. And there came one and told them, Behold, the men whom ye put in the prison are in the temple standing and teaching the people. Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them, [but] without violence; for they feared the people, lest they should be stoned. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them," — Acts 5:19-27 (ASV)

(19–21a) This is one of three “opening of the prison doors” stories in the book of Acts (cf. 12:6–11; 16:26–29). The “angel of the Lord” is the NT term for the OT “Angel of the LORD,” which denotes God himself in his dealings with humans (cf. Exodus 3:2, 4, 7; at al.). Here “angel” (GK 34) denotes the presence or agency of God himself (cf. 8:26; 12:7, 23; cf. also Mt 1:20, 24; 2:13, 19; 28:2; 2:9). By divine intervention, then, the apostles were released from the public jail and told by God to go back to the temple and persist in preaching the message of new life to “the people” (i.e., the nation of Israel), in spite of the Sanhedrin’s attempt to silence it. The focus of their message is on “this new life”—with “life” (GK 2437) and “salvation” (GK 5401) understood in the NT as synonymous. And since the apostles had been miraculously released and divinely commissioned, that is exactly what they began to do.

(21b–27) Having (as they thought) confined the apostles in the public jail for the night, “the high priest and his associates” called together the members of the Sanhedrin in the morning in order to make some judgment and take some action about the disturbances the Christians were causing. Luke adds “the full assembly of the elders of Israel” here, probably to make clear that the Pharisees were well represented in the council at this time; though they may not have been at the first trial, they did become vocal through Gamaliel at the second one (cf. vv.34–40). So the Sanhedrin sent for their prisoners—but did not find them. “The captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were puzzled,” probably concluding that the escape was aided by members of the temple guard. But when they heard that the apostles were teaching the people in the temple courts, “the captain” took command of his temple police and brought the apostles in before the council to be interrogated (v.26a). No violence was used in the arrest because the captain and his guard feared the reaction of the people (v.26b). This says something about the early Christians’ response to Jesus’ example of nonviolence and nonretaliation during his own arrest (cf. Mark 14:43–50), for they might have begun a riot and thus extricated themselves. It also continues the theme of “the favor of all the people” in 2:42–47.