Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 4:3
And they laid hands on them, and put [them] in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide.
3. and put them in hold ] i.e. in prison. The word means ward, safe keeping. And it is worth noticing on the use of it, that the Jews only employed imprisonment for this precautionary purpose. It was not a mode of punishment with them, and where we find mention of it so used in the Scripture records, the authorities who inflicted it were not Jewish.
unto the next day: for it was now eventide ] The Jews were not allowed to give judgment in the night, and their day ceased with the twelfth hour. It was already about the ninth hour when Peter and John were going up to the Temple (Act 3:1), so that before the address of Peter and the arrest of him and John was completed it would be too late to enter on a judicial enquiry. The Rabbis founded the prohibition on Jer 21:12, “O house of David, thus saith the Lord, Execute judgment in the morning.” In Mishna Sanhedrin iv. 1 it is said: “Judgments about money may be commenced in the day and concluded in the night, but judgments about life must be begun in the day and concluded in the day.” And even the rule about the declaration of the new moon, which was looked on as a judicial proceeding, is similarly regulated (Mishna Rosh ha-Shanah iii. 1), and it may not be declared unless the examination of the witnesses, and all other preliminaries enjoined before its proclamation, be completed before dark.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Put them in hold – That is, they took them into custody, or into safe keeping. Probably they committed them to the care of a guard.
Eventide – Evening. It was not convenient to assemble the council at night. This was, moreover, the time for the evening prayer or sacrifice, and it was not usual to assemble the Sanhedrin at that hour.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Act 4:3-4
And they laid hands upon them Howbeit many of them which heard the Word believed.
The impotence and benefit of persecution
1. Peter had boasted, I am ready to go with Thee to prison. He was not ready then, and hence the folly of his boast. He was ready now, and so did not boast, but doubtless reflected on his Masters words, Thou shalt follow Me afterwards.
2. The time-honoured method of the opponents of truth was here practised, No case; abuse defendants attorney. You cant refute the preacher; lock him up. The only answer that pagan Rome had for Christians was prison and death; the only answer that papal Rome has is the same.
3. But the policy does not answer. The preachers as cheerfully accept the prison as the pulpit when their Master bids them, and may take as theirs the crest–an ox with the plough on one side and the altar on the other, with the legend, Ready for either. Ready for work or for sacrifice, Nor does the policy answer in another sense. You may silence the teacher, but you cannot silence the truth. In the case before us many believed.
I. In spite of the apostles imprisonment. Gods work goes on whether His agents are bound or free, living or dead. It is independent of its best and worthiest supporters. Peter and John are in prison, but the fact that many believed shows that even the chief among the apostles are not indispensable. How foolish, then, the unbelieving anxiety expressed in the question about this or that distinguished minister, Who can take his place? Plenty, if God wills; if not the Holy Ghost will take his place.
1. The preacher is imprisoned or dead, but the Word which does the work is not. Fragments of the Bible left behind by the missionaries in Madagascar did more for Christianity than their vocal teaching.
2. The preacher is imprisoned or dead, but his teaching and example are not. They remain in the memory to influence the life. The stone sinks in the water, but the ripples on the lake extend till they reach either shore.
II. Because of the apostles imprisonment. Their endurance of persecution for the truth was a guarantee of their sincerity, and an exhibition of the power of the gospel on themselves. It is an easy thing to preach when Christianity is popular, but when unpopular, and when men notwithstanding are prepared to endure bonds or death rather than be silent about it–this shows that they believe in and enjoy the mighty power they preach. So in the milder forms of affliction. How many powerful sermons are silently preached from sick beds! (J. W. Burn.)
Persecution a stimulus
A certain amount of persecution rouses a mans defiance, stirs his blood for magnificent battle, and makes him fifty times more a man than he would have been without the persecution. So it was with the great reformer when he said, I will not be put down; I will be heard. And so it was with Millard, the preacher, in the time of Louis XI. When Louis XI. sent word to him that unless he stopped preaching in that style he would throw him into the river, he replied, Tell the king that I will reach heaven sooner by water than he will reach it by fast horses. (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)
Persecution for well-doing
Sad, that so good news should find so bad entertainment! but happy for some, that as it was raised for so good a Word (Mat 13:21), so occasioned by so good a deed done to an impotent man. Such may ever our sufferings be, that if a black shadow must needs follow us, it may be only because we walk in the light; and that if it prove our lot to hear and fare ill, it may be for doing well (1Pe 3:17; 1Pe 4:16; Joh 10:32). (A. Tuckney, D. D.)
Peter and John before the council
I. The arrest was brought about–
1. While the service was being held (verse 1). The devil has a keen aversion to the proclaiming of the gospel, and will stop it if he can.
2. By ecclesiastical officials. In proportion as Christ is exalted, the Jewish idea of an official priesthood must lose its hold upon the minds of men.
3. By men who felt deeply–grieved. The preaching of the gospel causes heaven to rejoice, and it brings joy to those who receive it, but these men were grieved because of it. How thoroughly even religious men may be out of touch with sympathies that emanate from God! What a pity there should be so much deep feeling wrongly directed! There has been quite a Niagara of human emotion, which, during the Christian ages, has spent itself in win in dashing against the impregnable rock of Christian verities.
II. The detention. Tim apostles had started out to visit the temple at the hour of the evening sacrifice, but as that evening closed they themselves offered a sacrifice with which the Lord would be well pleased. The bars and bolts of the strong door might keep them in, but they could not keep Jesus out. Even on earth suffering saints have Often found what Thomas Cooper calls the paradise of martyrs.
III. The trial.
1. Christ was honoured.
2. There was a word for the rulers.
3. There was a word for everybody.
IV. The result.
1. The rulers were impressed.
2. The apostles were threatened.
3. The apostles were released.
4. God was glorified. To Peter and John this would be an all-sufficient recompense. (H. Thorne.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Put them in hold; some think this not to have been so strait a custody as that of a prison, but that rather the apostles were delivered to some who promised that they should be forthcoming. The prediction of our Saviour began now to be fulfilled, Luk 21:12.
They shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you. Howsoever, God was pleased to suffer persecution to come by degrees on his church; after the sun was down, (Christ was gone from them), it was not presently pitch darkness with them. God always remembers his peoples condition, and his own promise, and lays no more upon them than they are able to bear.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And they laid hands on them,…. The Arabic version renders it, “on both”; on Peter and John; seized them by force, and drew them out of the temple:
and put them in hold unto the next day; not in the common public prison, as in Ac 5:18 but they put them into the hands, and under the care and custody of a set of men, to keep and guard them; that they might not go away, until they had an opportunity of bringing them before the sanhedrim, to be examined and punished by them:
for it was now eventide; it was at the ninth hour, or about three o’clock in the afternoon, when Peter and John went up to the temple, where they healed the lame man; after which, both of them preached to the people; so that it must now be evening; at least, as the Syriac version renders it, “the evening was near”, or was drawing on.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In ward ( ). Probably in one of the chambers of the temple. In safe keeping (from , to guard). Old word, in the N.T. only here and Acts 5:18; 1Cor 7:19. So in papyri.
Now eventide ( ). Hence no trial could take place before the next day, a regulation violated in the case of Jesus.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
In hold [ ] . A somewhat antiquated rendering. Better, as Rev., in ward. See on 1Pe 1:4.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “And they laid hands on them,” (kai epebalon autois tas cheiras) “And they laid their hands on them,” the “they” who seized them refers to 1) priests, 2) captain of the temple, and 3) Sadducees, a trinity of an unholy alliance against Jesus Christ and His church, as Paul also did later, Luk 22:52-54, Act 22:4. Peter and John were here publicly arrested and then imprisoned for preaching the resurrection gospel of the Son of God, Mat 5:11-12.
2) “And put them in hold,” (kai ethento eis teresin) “And placed them in (the) guardhouse,” to hold in detained confinement as criminals, to hold them in custody to be held up as common criminals, objects of public shame, as in Jdg 9:46; Jdg 9:49; As Paul also persecuted the church later, Act 22:4.
3) “Unto the next day: (eis ten aurion) “Until the day following,” or until the next day, before deciding in collusion (as an unholy alliance), what to do with them. It was too late for a judicial hearing since eventime had come, or 6 p.m. had arrived and it was considered unlawful to hold a night time trial, Jer 21:12.
4) “For it was now eventide,” (hen gar espera ede) “For at the moment it was evening,” or six o’clock in the evening, three hours after Peter and John had come to enter into the temple to pray and teach the people and had healed the lame or paralytic man, Act 3:11; and public teaching and gatherings concluded at evening, Luk 24:29; Act 28:23.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(3) It was now eventide.The narrative started, it will be remembered, from 3 P.M. (Act. 3:1). The eventide began at 6 P.M.
Put them in hold.Literally, in custody. In Act. 5:18, the word is translated prison. The old noun survives in our modern word strong-hold.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. In hold Detention or imprisonment.
Eventide Evening time. The old word tide signified time. The Jews had a double eve; the one beginning at about three o’clock, prayer time, (see note on Act 3:1,) and the other at six o’clock or sundown. The proceeding at this time had just filled the interval between the two.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And they laid hands on them, and put them in ward until the morrow, for it was now nightfall.’
So Peter and John were arrested and locked up overnight so that they could be dealt with the next day. For Temple affairs like this were a matter for the Sanhedrin, and the Sanhedrin (the overall Jewish authoritative council) had by law to meet in daylight.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Act 4:3. For it was now even-tide. Or, evening. As Peter and John went up to the temple at three in the afternoon, this expression makes it probable that some hours might be spent in preaching to the people; and consequently, that what we have in the former chapter, is only an abstract, or brief heads of the discourses that they made on this occasion, which probably is the case in general with the speeches recorded by the sacred historians, as well as by others.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Act 4:3 . ] into custody, i.e. into prison. Comp. Thuc. vii. 86. 1; Act 5:18 .
] as they had gone to the temple at the ninth hour, and so at the beginning of the first evening (Act 3:1 ), the second evening, which commenced at the twelfth hour, had probably already begun. See on Mat 14:15 .
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
3 And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide.
Ver. 3. Put them in hold ] In the sergeant’s ward, , not in the jail or dungeon. God doth by degrees inure his to suffer hardship. Pauciores (saith Cajuto in an epistle to the brethren of Basilea) vobiscum perimuntur, quod ita Domino visum est, ut stabiliantur seu lenibus pluviis, et sementis mollioribus plantulae in arbores maximas proditurae. God tempteth not his above what they are able, 1Co 10:13 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
3. ] , perhaps, from their adjourning the case till the next day, the second evening, beginning with the twelfth hour: see Mat 14:15 , and note.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 4:3 . : the verb is always as here joined with the same noun in Acts, and twice in the Gospel; the phrase is found once in Matthew and Mark, and twice in John; see Luk 20:19 ; Luk 21:12 , Act 4:3 ; Act 5:18 ; Act 12:1 ; Act 21:27 , cf. in LXX, Gen 22:12 , 2Sa 18:12 ; Est 6:2 , so also in Polybius. , cf. Act 5:18 , only used elsewhere in N.T. by St. Paul, 1Co 7:19 ; in Thuc., vii., 86 (Wendt), it denotes not only the act of guarding, but also a place of custody. Five times in LXX, but in the former sense. For another instance of its meaning as a place of custody (see Deissmann, Neue Bibelstudien , p. 55), on papyrus in Egypt, second or third century after Christ. , cf. Act 3:1 , the judicial examination must therefore be postponed until the next day, see Jer 21:12 , on which it appears that the Rabbis founded this prohibition against giving judgment in the night (Lumby and Felten, in loco ). : only in St. Luke in the N.T., Luk 24:29 , Act 4:3 (Act 20:15 , W.H [147] margin) and Act 28:23 .
[147] Westcott and Hort’s The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
in. App-104.
hold = ward. Greek. teresis Only here, Act 5:18, and 1Co 7:19.
now = already.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
3.] , perhaps, from their adjourning the case till the next day, the second evening, beginning with the twelfth hour: see Mat 14:15, and note.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Act 4:3. , in confinement, custody) So Peter and John were sharpened (exercised) in faith.-, the morrow, the next day) The morrow is here put for the next day, by Mimesis (i.e. using the words which were probably used by the persons committing the apostles to prison: Append.). [On that night what great things we may suppose occurred (passed) in the souls of those great apostles!-V. g.]-, evening) of that day, the morning of which is in ch. Act 3:1.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
laid: Act 5:18, Act 6:12, Act 8:3, Act 9:2, Act 12:1-3, Act 16:19-24, Mat 10:16, Mat 10:17, Luk 22:52, Luk 22:54, Joh 18:12
Reciprocal: Gen 42:17 – ward Jer 20:2 – smote Mat 24:9 – shall they Luk 21:12 – before Act 12:4 – he put Act 21:27 – and laid Heb 11:36 – bonds
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
3
Act 4:3. Laid hands on them means they arrested the apostles. Hold is another word for “prison,” but they were put there and held “without charge” for the time, because it was too late in the day to have any hearing on the case.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Act 4:3. It was now eventide. When Peter and John went up into the Temple to pray, it was three in the afternoon. It was about six oclock when the captain of the Temple arrested them.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
See notes on verse 1
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 3
In hold; in confinement.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
It was too late in the day to begin a hearing to examine Peter and John formally, though this had not stopped the Sanhedrin from abusing Jesus (cf. Luk 22:63-66). Therefore the temple officials arrested them and put them in jail, probably the Antonia Fortress. Thus the Sadducees became the first opponents of Christianity (cf. Act 2:47).