John Gill Commentary Acts 4:6

"and Annas the high priest [was there], and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest." — Acts 4:6 (ASV)

And Annas the high priest
So called, either because he has been an high priest, though he was not now, but Caiaphas his son-in-law; or because he was the Sagan of the high priest, and has all the other priests under his government; and is mentioned first, because he was father-in-law to Caiaphas; (See Gill on Luke 3:2) he could not be called so, because he was (ayvn) , "prince", or president of the council; for not he, but Gamaliel, was president at this time. And

Caiaphas ;
who was properly high priest, and continued so for three years after the death of Christ:

and John ;
who is thought by Dr. Lightfoot to be the same with Jochanan, or John ben Zaccai; a famous Jewish Rabbi, who lived at this time, and until, and after the destruction of Jerusalem: this Rabbi was (Nhk) , "a priest" ^F20 , as this John was, of the kindred of the high priest; he lived also at Jerusalem; for it is said of him {u}, that he sat in the shadow of the temple, and expounded all the whole day; and a very remarkable story is told of him, which happened just about this time ^F23 ; which is, that ``forty years before the destruction of the temple--the doors of the temple opened of themselves, when Rabban Jochanan ben Zaccai reproved them, saying, O temple, temple, wherefore do you fright yourself? I know you, that your end shall be, to be destroyed; for so prophesied of you Zechariah, the son of Iddo, (Zechariah 11:1) . "Open your doors, O Lebanon"'' The chief objection to him, as that learned writer observes, is, that he lived and died a Pharisee, whereas this John seems to have been a Sadducee; see (Acts 5:17) .

This puts me in mind of John the high priest, who ministered in the high priesthood fourscore years, and at last became a Sadducee ^F24 :

Beza's ancient copy reads "Jonathan: and Alexander"; whose surname was Lysimachus, and has the title of "Alabarcha"; he was a very rich man ^F25 : after Alexander the great has been at Jerusalem, this name became frequent among the Jews; and it is said ^F26 to be promised him, and was fulfilled, that every son that was born to the priests that year he entered Jerusalem, should be called Alexander; and therefore it is no wonder to hear of an Alexander among the kindred of the high priest; frequent mention is made of (yrdnokla ybr) , "Rabbi Alexander", in the Jewish writings ^F1 :

and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest ;
by whose means they were become members of the sanhedrim:

were gathered together at Jerusalem ;
where the great council only sat, until the destruction of it; it seems by this, that some of the members of it lived in the country; it may be in some of the villages adjacent, where they might be easily and quickly sent for, upon any occasion, as they very likely now were; the Syriac version leaves out the words "at Jerusalem".

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FOOTNOTES:

• F20: Juchasin, fol. 20. 2.
• F23: T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 39. 2. & Hieros. Yoma, fol. 43. 3.
• F24: T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 29. 1.
• F25: Joseph Antiqu. l. 20. c. 4. sect. 2.
• F26: Juchasin, fol. 14. 1. & 159. 1. Ganz Tzemach David, par. 1. fol. 18. 2.
• F1: T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 53. 2. Chagiga, fol. 5. 1. Megilla, fol. 17. 2. Nedarim, fol. 41. 1. Sanhedrin, fol. 98. 1. & passim.