Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 4:13

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

13 22. The Apostles are dismissed unpunished

13. the boldness ] The word implies freedom and readiness of speech such as would not be expected from the unlearned.

of Peter and John ] Here we have evidence that not all the speeches which were made are reported by St Luke, for we have no record of any word spoken by John, yet his boldness of speech, no less than St Peter’s, is observed by the council. Christ’s speeches had produced a like effect (Joh 7:15).

ignorant men ] The Greek signifies plebeian, as opposed to noble men. Render, common.

they took knowledge of them ] These words have been interpreted as though they meant that the members of the Sanhedrin now for the first time discovered the relation in which the two Apostles stood to Jesus. Those who press such a rendering must overlook the force of the very same verb as used in Act 3:10, “They knew that it was he which sat for alms.” The men of whom this is said had known the cripple for years, but now observed in addition that he was a cripple no longer, though still the same man whom they had so long seen begging. Just so with the Jewish authorities; they could hardly fail to have known the connection of the preachers with Jesus after the sermon on the day of Pentecost and the events which followed it, and now they further ( ) notice that as the Master’s words had been powerful, so there was like power in the language of those who had been with Him. We are told (Joh 18:15) of one disciple, taken always to be St John himself, who was known to the high-priest before the Crucifixion.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Boldness – This word properly denotes openness or confidence in speaking. It stands opposed to hesitancy, and to equivocation in declaring our sentiments. Here it means that, in spite of danger and opposition, they avowed their doctrines without any attempt to conceal or disguise them.

Peter and John – It was they only who had been concerned in the healing of the lame man, Act 3:1.

And perceived – When they knew that they were unlearned. This might have been ascertained either by report or by the manner of their speaking.

Unlearned – This word properly denotes those who were not acquainted with letters, or who had not had the benefit of an education.

Ignorant men – idiotai. This word properly denotes those who live in private, in contradistinction from those who are engaged in public life or in office. As this class of persons is commonly also supposed to be less learned, talented, and refined than those in office, it comes to denote those who are rude and illiterate. The idea intended to be conveyed here is, that these men had not had opportunities of education (compare Mat 4:18-21), and had not been accustomed to public speaking, and hence, they were surprised at their boldness. This same character is uniformly attributed to the early preachers of Christianity. Compare 1Co 1:27; Mat 11:25. The Galileans were regarded by the Jews as particularly rude and uncultivated, Mat 26:73; Mar 14:17.

They marvelled – They wondered that men who had not been educated in the schools of the rabbis, and accustomed to speak in public, should declare their sentiments with so much boldness.

And they took knowledge – This expression means simply that riley knew, or that they obtained evidence that they had been with Jesus. It is not said in what way they obtained this evidence, but the connection leads us to suppose it was by the miracle which they had performed, by their firm and bold declaration of the doctrines of Jesus, and perhaps by the irresistible conviction that none would be thus bold who had not been personally with him, and who had not the firmest conviction that he was the Messiah. They had not been trained in their schools, and their boldness could not be attributed to the arts of rhetoric, but was the native, ingenuous, and manly exhibition of a deep conviction of the truth of what they spoke, and that conviction could have been obtained only by their having been with him, and having been satisfied that he was the Messiah. Such conviction is of far more value in preaching than all the mere teachings of the schools; and without such a conviction, all preaching will be frigid, hypocritical, and useless.

Had been with Jesus – Had been his followers, and had attended person ally on his ministry. They gave evidence that they had seen him, been with him, heard him, and were convinced that he was the Messiah. We may learn here:

(1) That if men wish to be successful in preaching, it must be based on deep and thorough conviction of the truth of what they deliver.

(2) They who preach should give evidence that they are acquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ; that they have imbibed his spirit, pondered his instructions, studied the evidences of his divine mission, and are thoroughly convinced that he was from God.

(3) Boldness and success in the ministry, as well as in everything else, will depend far more on honest, genuine, thorough conviction of the truth than on the endowments of talent and learning, and the arts and skill of eloquence. No man should attempt to preach without such a thorough conviction of truth; and no man who has it will preach in vain.

(4) God often employs the ignorant and unlearned to confound the wise, 1Co 1:27-28. But it is not by their ignorance. It was not the ignorance of Peter and John that convinced the Sanhedrin. It was done in spite of their ignorance. It was their boldness and their honest conviction of truth. Besides, though not learned in the schools of the Jews, they had been under a far more important training, under the personal direction of Christ himself, for three years; I and now they were directly endowed by the Holy Spirit with the power of speaking with tongues. Though not taught in the schools, yet there was an important sense in which they were not unlearned and ignorant men. Their example should not, therefore, be pled in favor of an unlearned ministry. Christ himself expressed his opposition to an unlearned ministry by teaching them himself, and then by bestowing on them miraculous endowments which no learning at present can furnish. It may be remarked, further, that in the single selection which he made of an apostle after his ascension to heaven, when he came to choose one who had not been under his personal teaching, he chose a learned man, the apostle Paul, and thus evinced his purpose that there should be training or education in those who are invested with the sacred office.

(5) Yet in the case before us there is a striking proof of the truth and power of religion. These men had not acquired their boldness in the schools; they were not trained for argument among the Jews; they did not meet them by cunning sophistry; but they came with the honest conviction that what they were saying was true. Were they deceived? Were they not competent to bear witness? Did they have any motive to attempt to palm a falsehood onto people? Infidelity must answer many such questions as these before the apostles can be convicted of imposture.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Act 4:13

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John.

St. Peter; or, true courage

The grace of God, which St. Peters character and story specially forces on our notice, is the true courage which comes by faith. There is a courage which does not come by faith, but from hardness of heart, obstinacy, anger, or stupidity, which does not see danger or feel pain. That is the courage of the brute. One does not blame it. It is good in its place, as all things are which God has made. It is good enough for the brute; but it is not good enough for man. You cannot trust it in man. And the more a man is what a man should be, the less he can trust it. The more mind a man has, so as to be able to foresee danger and measure it, the more chance there is of his brute courage giving way. The more feeling a man has the more chance there is of his brute courage breaking down, just when he wants it more to keep him up, and leaving him to play the coward and come to shame. Yes; to go through with a difficult or dangerous undertaking a man wants more than brute courage. He needs to have faith in what he is doing to be certain that he is in the right. Look at the class of men who in times of peace undergo the most fearful dangers. Not a week passes without one or more of them, in trying to save life and property, doing things which are altogether heroic. What keeps them up to their work? High pay? The amusement and excitement of the fires? The vanity of being praised for their courage? Those are motives which would not keep a mans heart calm and his head clear under such responsibility and danger as theirs. No; it is the sense of duty. The knowledge that they are doing a good and noble work, that they are in Gods hands, and that no evil can happen to him who is doing right. Yes; it is the courage which comes by faith which makes men like St. Peter and St. John. I will not fear, said David, though the earth be moved, and the mountains carried into the midst of the sea. The just man who holds firm to his duty will not, says a wise old writer, be shaken from his solid mind by the rage of the mob bidding him do base things, or the frown of the tyrant who persecutes him. Though the world were to crumble to pieces round him, its ruins would strike him without making him tremble. Such courage has made men, shut up in prison for long weary years for doing what was right, endure manfully for the sake of some great cause, and say–

Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.

There is but one thing you have to fear in heaven or earth–being untrue to your better selves, and therefore untrue to God. If you will not do the thing you know to be right, and say the thing you know to be true, then indeed you are weak. You are a coward, and sin against God. And you will suffer the penalty of your cowardice. You desert God, and therefore you cannot expect Him to stand by you. But who will harm you if you be followers of that which is right? (Psa 15:1-5.) There is a tabernacle of God in which, even in this life, He will hide us from strife. There is a hill of God in which, even in the midst of danger, and labour, and anxiety, we may rest both day and night–even Jesus Christ, the Rock of Ages–He who is the righteousness itself, the truth itself. And whosoever does righteousness and speaks truth, dwells in Christ in this life, as well as in the life to come. And Christ will give him courage to strengthen him by His Holy Spirit, to stand in the evil day, the day of danger, and having done all to stand. (C. Kingsley, M. A.)

Christian heroism

The Church was born and nursed amid storms. The advocates of Christianity have frequently met with unexpected opposition and cruel persecution. Men whose office it was to promote the progress of truth have striven to impede its course. Persecution intimidates the weak, but ennobles and purifies the true. The text teaches us three things about the genuine disciple.

I. That Christian men are inspired with Divine courage in times of persecution. They saw the boldness of Peter and John. There is a wide difference between a Christian and a worldly man in times of trouble. The worldly man is timid, irritable, and restless; the Christian man is calm, courageous, and hopeful. Nothing can calm and strengthen a man more than a full assurance of Gods protection. Three things show that the disciples were endowed with Divine fortitude.

1. Look at their noble defence. Peter speaks courageously and eloquently for Christ.

2. Look at their bold attack. Peter charged his accusers with ignorance, they had rejected Christ; he charged them with sin, they had crucified Christ.

3. Look at their undaunted spirit. They were commanded to cease from preaching; but they remained steadfast to the truth. God can inspire His children with courage to meet the fiercest conflicts of life–to endure pain, to suffer poverty, to bear bereavement, to meet persecution.

II. That Christian men are inspired with Divine wisdom in times of persecution. And perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men. Christ had promised to impart wisdom to His disciples in times of danger. When they deliver you up, take no thought how and what ye shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. I will give you a mouth and wisdom that all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay and resist. Three things show that the disciples were Divinely instructed.

1. They were enabled to make a special declaration of the power of Christ. The examination was particular–by what name they had performed the miracle. The answer was particular–by the name of Jesus. It was a merciful work, a successful work, a Divine work.

2. They were enabled to make a suitable declaration of salvation in Christ: neither is there salvation in any other.

3. They were enabled to make a public declaration of their faith in Christ: there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. They believed in the supremacy of Christ. They knew He was both the Sou and the Sent of God. His word was true. His work was complete. If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God. Christian men ought to speak boldly in defence of the truth. Speak for Christ anywhere and everywhere, in the shop and in the market, at fasts and at feasts. Speak of His life, His atonement, His resurrection, His intercession.

III. That Christian men are inspired with a Divine influence in times of persecution. And they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. The man who has frequent intercourse with Jesus will reflect his Masters spirit. Communion with Christ makes a man gentle, patient, courageous, devout, and zealous. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai his face shone with such a Divine lustre that the children of Israel were afraid to come nigh him. The influence the disciples possessed is noticeable for three things.

1. It was a visible influence. They saw, perceived, took knowledge of them. There is something in the conduct, disposition, and countenance of a good man that reports itself; his influence is felt in the world, the Church, the family circle. A Divine life cannot be concealed; the light must shine.

2. It was a mighty influence. They silenced their accusers, they convinced their hearers, they converted five thousand men.

3. It was a spiritual influence. The miracle only excited attention, the word produced conversion. (Joseph Woodhouse.)

Christian heroism

We sometimes hear it stated that courage is a quality that is decreasing; that men are wise, enterprising, and refined, but not courageous. That opinion is not true even of physical bravery. It also ignores the altered conditions of life. If we look into life and see what is necessary to realise any great purpose in it, we shall conclude that opportunities are not wanting for the display of high heroism. The old bravery is not extinct, it is transformed and directed to better ends. It is the fortitude that comes from faith, love, and duty that is needed in these times. Christianity is the religion of heroism, as opposed to the creeds of expediency and prudence. It begets in us that temper of mind from which high achievements naturally flow. It reveals a universal conflict between truth and error in which true chivalry must be shown. The boldness of the mariner or the adventurer we may not all be called to rival, but the boldness of Peter and John we must all possess, if we are to fight our battle faithfully and attain the crown of life. Peter and John are examples of the new courage–the heroism of hearts inspired by love, and living for the benefit of others. Christianity had to fight. How did it bear itself in the conflict? Did it take counsel of safety, compromise, policy? No! what one is struck by in the action of the apostles is an audacity that is caution, a calmness that is power, and a love that impressed friends and foes. Peter declares that it is by the power of the risen Christ the healed man stood before them. That is the true explanation of all progress. The confidence, the contempt of suffering, the holy elevation of soul with which Peter uttered that statement filled all with surprise; they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. That was the result of Peters boldness. R turned judges into criminals, and apostles into judges. It brought about their acquittal, and the still greater progress of their cause. If Peter had wavered, all had been lost. Similar devotion do we need to-day, not only for the conflict of Christian truth with error, but for the destruction of evil in laws, institutions, and habits, and for the every-day battle of life.

I. Christian heroism results from fellowship with Christ. The sense of the heroic is in all men; the disposition to admire the great and exceptional in the lives and acts of men. Life would be very monotonous if all men occupied one level of power. The sameness of nature is broken up by mountains, torrents, cataracts, and by crises. So the torpor of social life is broken up, and a new sense of power reached, by the presence of heroes, and of the heroic. The hero is one whose faculties are raised to a higher plane of power than ordinary men reach. Before Christ came there had been such characters. In various countries and at different times they had appeared: military heroes like Alexander; political heroes like Pericles; intellectual heroes like Plato and Socrates; artistic heroes like Phidias; reforming heroes like Elijah, Buddha, Confucius; patriotic heroes like Moses and David. But, wonderful as were the doings of these men, they do not fully satisfy the sense of the heroic. Their mastery over nature was not complete; their knowledge was limited; their sympathies were not universal; their greatness was measurable. The world needed the expression of a higher enthusiasm. Jesus Christ realised and transcended all these conditions. The special qualities of all other heroes meet in Him. Consider His personality, His knowledge, His labours, His conflicts, His sufferings and triumphs. And now that He is exalted to the throne of the universe, and praised and adored as the glorified Son of God, what is His purpose towards His disciples? To impart unto them His own enthusiasm, courage, power, and glory. How does Jesus Christ infuse His spirit into His disciples?

1. He reveals to them the high possibilities of their nature. The unheroic mind sees the actual as the measure of the possible. The heroic mind says, All things are possible. Jesus Christ is the measure of human possibility. He sees and awakens the capabilities of men. He saw the possibilities of Peter, of Paul, of Augustine, of Luther, of John Howard, of Carey, and educated their faculties to realise them.

2. Jesus Christ gives absolute certainty about the truth He teaches. If Peter had doubted, boldness would have fled.

3. Jesus gives courage by demanding the surrender of self. All cowardice results from self-consciousness. Let self be devoted to a worthy end, fear dies.

4. Jesus Christ teaches us that heroism is the universal law of heaven. The heroisms of earth are the commonplaces of heaven.

5. Jesus Christ concentrates our powers on one great aim. Distraction destroys heroism. The balloon must be steered.

6. Jesus Christ sustains His followers by His presence. Peter denied Jesus when he was charged. The Master does not disown the servant, but stands by him.

II. Christian heroism should be manifested in various spheres.

1. In witnessing to Christ in common life.

2. In faithfulness in temptation.

3. In new methods of Christian service.

4. In loyalty to personal conviction.

5. In responses to special calls to duty.

6. By the boldness of our prayers.

III. Christian heroism produces great results.

IV. Christian heroism is possible to all. Peter the denier transformed into Peter the heroic witness. Be not discouraged, cleave to Jesus, and in Him be strong. (J. Matthews.)

The boldness of apostolic preaching

I. The position and character of these men who were grieved at the apostles teaching of the resurrection. Most of them were Sadducees, rich, courtly, influential, holding the Pharisees in contempt as did the Pharisees the common people. A crisis was now impending. The impress of the Great Teacher was too great to be denied. Tone, look, manner, put the apostles training above suspicion. All had admitted the originality of Jesus as a teacher, and had opposed Him on this account. Lo! this originality has reappeared. The old controversy had suddenly returned. Jerusalem was in a moral upheaval. In this Gods hand strikingly appears. To confront the Sadducees was the initial work of Christianity. The question of Jesus and the resurrection must be settled at once. Other questions might be postponed till Sadduceeism received its deathblow. So the risen Christ confronted them everywhere and sore troubled them.

II. The consciousness of the Sadducees as to the power of Christianity. We cannot deny it. If the miracle is undeniable, then the source, in the risen Christ, is undeniable. Only one resource remains–silence the preachers! But can they be silenced? The leader of the hour was lately a weak man, who quailed before a servant-maid. Now he stands, with John unflinchingly before the most formidable tribunal of the country. How is it? The secret escapes their own lips. The boldness astonishes them, and they put it down to the fact that they had been with Jesus. Was this conscience? No. There was no sense of guilt here. It was fear. In the boldness of Peter and John they saw the answer to His blood be upon us and our children.

III. No one can have been with Jesus as a disciple and not show it thereafter in his spirit and action. The human heart was made for Him, and when renewed receives His fulness. This is the secret of Christian influence. (A. A. Lipscomb, LL. D.)

Courage comes from faith

Courage comes from faith! Faith always leads us out of self and teaches us to believe in the possibilities of others. No nature can be strong that is not enthusiastic, and no nature can be enthusiastic that has not faith. The man who has faith in other men and other things, and other manifestations of life and character than his own, will always have courage. And this faith of which we hear so much in the matter of religion is not only a Bible quality; it is a quality which is found in the busiest market-places of life and among the most successful of earthly heroes. Columbus bound in his prison was, after all, a stronger nature than the crowned Ferdinand upon his throne, for his faith realised an undiscovered continent. It was said of William Pitt, the younger, the Prime Minister of England at twenty-three years of age, that no one ever entered his closet, if it was for only five minutes, who did not come out of it a stronger and braver man than he was when he went in. Count Cavour, when he made Italy the free kingdom that it is, was once asked how he came to be so trusted by everyone, and said, in reply, that it was simply because he believed in men, and trusted them. There can be no courage without faith; for it is faith which bears our trembling natures away from their earthly moorings to some unknown, unseen reality, which exists because the soul believes in its existence.

Serving God with boldness

Mr. Moody told of a young man who attended his meetings at the Hippodrome in New York. He was long before he would confess to this belief in Christ, and when at length he did so, Mr. Moody asked him what had kept him back. He replied that he knew he had to make a clean breast of his profession to his room-mate, and he was deterred by the fear of being laughed at. Eventually he summoned up courage. He sat in his room reading the Bible, and presently he heard his mate coming up the stair. His first impulse was to shut the Bible and put it away in his trunk. His second thought restrained him, however, and he continued his reading. His bed-fellow came in and saw him with the Bible before him, and going up to him, said, Are you interested in such things? Yes, I am. How long have you been so? Since Mr. Moody preached on such and such a text at the Hippodrome. Well now, that is strange, I was impressed with the same address, and all these nights I have been trying to screw up my courage to read my Bible before you. And I have only succeeded to-night in getting my courage up to read mine before you. Mr. Moody remarked, We want men who have got boldness and courage. If it is right to serve God, then let them serve Him with boldness, without regard to what man will think.

And perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled.—

True religion the wonder of men

This astonishment was the natural effect of the appearance of a true Christianity differing so greatly from all its surroundings, of an effect disproportionate to the apparent cause. Strange coincidence that in the moment of their amazement the rulers should give the true explanation, They have been with Jesus. This should remind us, in the face of those powers now leagued against us, that we too possess a supernatural power, ever-victorious, be the combat what it may. This amazement–

I. Was the manifestation of the spirit of the world which relieves only in the visible, whether as to power, riches, or science.

1. None of these characteristics were found in these men, therefore when the power of the invisible and Divine appears in them, it is beyond the comprehension of the world which ignores that the visible is the Son of the invisible, and lives by its inspiration.

2. It is remarkable that this amazement was felt by the representatives of a holy religion. One could understand the Romans, men of war, or the Greeks, lovers of art, or the worshippers of gods which were only personifications of natural or human feeling, feeling such amazement. But here we are in the land of the prophets, yes–but religion was in a state of decay, impregnated with the spirit of the world. Therefore its pride was punished and its wisdom confounded.

II. Arose from the illiteracy of the disciples.

1. Opposition does not exist between religion and science in itself, but between false knowledge and religion. Two conditions of religious knowledge proceed from the nature of its object, which is God.

(1) The moral intuition of the heart and conscience.

(2) The communication of the Spirit of God. Learning destitute of these conditions is ignorance, but having them the apostles could afford to be illiterate. See that learned man with his phylacteries. He reads the Scriptures, but understands nothing; compare him with the man who was born blind. Yes, these apostles, opening their minds to the teaching of the Master, have learned more than all the sages of Jerusalem.

2. Application to the present time.

(1) Man objects to illiterate Christianity compared to antichristianity. But the objection must be overruled, for Christianity has knowledge rich and fruitful. Fear nothing, therefore.

(2) God wills, perhaps, to lead us back to the intuitions of the heart and conscience.

(3) Above all, we should learn the lessons of the upper room, that we may cause our contemporaries to acknowledge that we have been with Jesus. (E. De Pressense, D. D.)

Influence of unlearned but true piety

Next came a negro servant. He was my next evangelist. I used to watch him in the field, and in the house, and even now, with my mature reflection, I cannot remember ever to have seen him do a wrong act. As I worked beside him in the field, he used to tell me his experience, and where he learned this and that hymn; and then he would sing as only the African can sing, and I used to wish that I could have such religion as that negro enjoyed. When we went to bed–he and I slept in the same garret, he in one corner and I in the other; some people would think it a dreadful thing to have to share a garret with a negro–when we went to bed he used to pile his pillows up behind him so that he could lie sitting up, take his hymn-hook, and fasten his candle up somewhere so that he could see. He would sing hymn after hymn with such relish and enjoyment, the big tears frequently rolling down his dark face, that I used to be cut to the heart with remorse, that I, a ministers son, brought up with every advantage, should be so much worse than a poor negro. I would lie there and pretend to be asleep, while all the time was singing right at my conscience, and I was crying heartily to hear him. Oh, how glad I should have been could I have changed places with that poor negro serving-man, if it hadnt been for cheating him I I think that lived, acted out religion does more good to children than all the talking that can be done, though talking certainly should not be omitted. That African did me more good than all the ministers that ever came to my fathers house. (H. W. Beecher.)

Unbelievers astonished

There are two sets of problems which excite the attention of the unbelief of every age–intellectual and practical. The first provokes antagonism, the second, mostly wonder. It is with the second that we have here to do. Note–

I. The courage of the weak in the presence of irresistible might. What that might and that weakness were had been felt eight short weeks ago. Nor had the one grown weaker or the other stronger by lapse of time. Yet in the face of the power which could commit them to prison, to scourging and to the cross, these two helpless men deliberately brought themselves into collision with the authorities. The like has been witnessed in every age, when the tender child, the gentle maiden, the aged have dared the fires of martyrdom for the cause of Christ. The like is still witnessed in the conflict with the powers of darkness, the resistance to worldly solicitation, the endurance of contempt, poverty, and affliction even with gladness. Whence this courage? asks the infidel. Ah! we know. We have been with Jesus.

II. The victory of the ignorant when confronted with the wisdom of this world. What chance had these uneducated fishermen in the presence of whole college of learned Rabbis? Yet the Rabbis were made to look very foolish, and the fishermen won a triumph such as a philosopher might have envied. So has it ever been. It was so with Jesus as a child, it was so with Him as a man. Whence has this man letters? It has been so with His followers ever since. How often has Christianity been slain in the opinion of its opponents! Scholarship has left no weapon unused. But the victory of Christianity is all along the line. And this not because of the labours of its learned apologists. The disciples of Celsus were not vanquished by the treatises of Origen, but by the witness of obscure slaves and artisans. The tide of infidelity in the last century was not stemmed by Butlers Analogy, but by the testimony of Kingswood colliers and Lincolnshire labourers. The good fight of faith to-day is not won by academic men in secluded cloisters, but by unlearned and ignorant successors of the men who could not but speak the things they had seen and heard. And sceptics marvel. They need not, for it is an open secret, We have been with Jesus.

III. The persistency with which christians adhere to a discredited cause. Here were men calmly avowing themselves disciples of a crucified malefactor, and prepared to be crucified themselves rather than abandon not simply His cause, but His very cross. It was this which astonished the cultured Greek and the practical Roman; it is this which has astounded both persecutors and onlookers ever since. The offence of the cross has not ceased, yet millions still glory in it. Wonderful, says the worldling, that these fanatics should renounce our pleasures and profits, and deliberately prefer a life of self-sacrifice and service of others. Wonderful, says the modern thinker, that men in the nineteenth century should hold to a creed formulated in the first. Not at all wonderful, says the Christian, I have been with Jesus.

IV. The reason of it all, which is the greatest wonder. How can there be fellowship with Jesus? And if that were possible, how can that fellowship make men bold in persecution, invincible in argument, enthusiastic in attachment, and so hold the field all through the centuries? Ah, perhaps we ourselves cannot tell. All we can say is, We have been with Jesus, and He has baptized us with the power from on high, which has made us bold. We have been with Jesus, and have learned of Him, and with His wisdom have been made wise. We have been with Jesus, and His love has created a union which death, life, angels, principalities, powers, etc., cannot break. We can say nothing further to a wondering world except Come and see; then you will know what we know, but cannot speak. (J. W. Burn.)

They took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.—

Christians who have been with Jesus

The apostles are called unlearned and ignorant, or private men, i.e., men of private education. They were not men who then appeared unlearned and ignorant. The freedom with which they spake, their knowledge of the Scriptures, and the force of their reasoning, convinced the rulers that they were at that time men of superior abilities and acquirements. But it was matter of wonder how these men who had only had a private education, and never had been instructed in the Jewish schools, should so speak; but the fact that they had been with Jesus was sufficient to account for it all. It is here observable, that though Christ chose men of private education, yet He sent them not forth to preach until they had been for some time under His own immediate instruction: Paul, whose early education had been superior, was previously instructed in the doctrines of the gospel by Ananias. Even in that day, when uncommon gifts were bestowed by the Spirit, a preparatory education was ordinarily required for the gospel ministry. Novices were not to be introduced into so great and important aa office. How absurd is it, then, in this day, when supernatural gifts have ceased, for the unlearned and ignorant to assume, without a previous education, the work of public instruction!

I. The expression being with Jesus may be applied to–

1. All who enjoy the gospel. Peter and John, and their fellow disciples, were admitted to familiar converse with their Lord. You have His gospel, which communicates the instructions they heard, the works they beheld, the example they followed, and the devotions in which they joined. In regard therefore to all the purposes of faith, knowledge and virtue, you may be with Him as truly as they were. If a living voice will touch the heart more sensibly, yet the written word is better adapted to enrich your memory and improve your knowledge.

2. The true believer. He has received the renewing influence of the Spirit of Christ, and experienced the sanctifying power of his gospel. This the first disciples had. Barely to behold Christs works and receive His instructions, was but a small thing compared with this. But there are times when true believers have special intercourse with Christ.

(1) In their private devotions.

(2) In social worship. Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.

(3) In the Holy Communion.

II. Those who have been with Jesus. Should–

1. Be watchful against all sin. You have seen Him who suffered death to redeem you from iniquity; how can you continue any longer therein?

2. As having been trained up under His instructions, excel in religious knowledge.

3. Show themselves to be like Him. Learn of Him to be meek and lowly, patient and contented, pious and heavenly.

4. Set their affections on things in heaven, for Jesus is there.

5. Like the apostles, discover zeal and fortitude in the cause of Christ.

6. Be loving. (J. Lathrop, D. D.)

Fellowship with Jesus

I. Lifes truest fellowship. It is with Jesus.

1. It is real. Enoch walked with God.

2. It is spiritual (Rom 8:1-39.).

3. It is heartfelt (Luk 24:32).

4. It is sustaining (2Co 12:9-10).

5. It is efficacious (Rom 8:37; Php 4:13).

6. It is constant (Mat 28:20).

II. The marks of lifes truest fellowship.

1. Simple faith (Act 4:7-12).

2. Manly courage (Act 4:20).

3. Sanctified wisdom (Act 4:19).

4. Decisive choice of associations (Act 4:23).

5. Faithful consistency of character in all things (Luk 1:6).

III. The influence of lifes truest fellowship.

1. It awakens surprise. They marvelled.

2. It produces conviction. They took knowledge of them that had been with Jesus.

3. It disarms the enemy (Act 4:21.) (Homiletic Review.)

Been with Jesus

I. We must be much with Him by meditating on His great love for us displayed in His sufferings on our behalf.

II. We must be much with Jesus in studying the example He has set us.

III. We must be much with Jesus in holding communion with Him. (Homilist.)

Keeping company with Jesus

I. It is possible to keep company with Jesus.

1. In His Word.

2. In the sanctuary.

3. In the closet.

4. At His table.

5. In every path of service.

II. Keeping company with Jesus will result in some assimilation of character.

1. In proportion to the degree of intimacy.

2. The constancy of the intercourse.

3. The regard we have for our Companion.

III. The resemblance to Christ, in habit and character, will be manifest to the world. The disciple rosy be unconscious of it, but.

1. God will see and reward it.

2. Angels will note it and rejoice.

3. Brethren will discern it and be encouraged or rebuked.

4. The ungodly will be forced to confess it, to the honour of religion. (Homiletic Review.)

Fellowship with Jesus

I. As a spiritual possibility. By many lightly esteemed, by some ignored, and by others denied, fellowship with Him in His work, word, worship, is real (1Jn 1:3). As real now as with the disciples of Emmaus, as with the youths in the fire, as with Paul, John, or Peter.

II. As an essential experience. However ignored or denied, it a necessity of spiritual life. Christ cannot be known but by fellowship.

1. It is the initial act of living faith. Consciously or unconsciously, each soul that seeks has fellowship. The woman touched hem of garment, and fellowship resulted, though she knew not its meaning. So in prayer of contrite as well as in sublimest communion.

2. It is the constant solace of earnest spirits: Mid lifes perplexing problems and heavy sorrows, this is support. It is indispensable. The body would as soon forget to breathe as the heart to talk with and lean upon Christ. Lo I am with you alway, is Christs promise: I am continually with Thee, is the hearts reply.

III. As a moral inspiration The apostles possessed the secret of true courage. They, of all men, could be bold–

1. Because they believed and did the right. They knew their mission and their message So be Divine; this made them invincible. If God be for us, who can be against us? Who is he that shall harm you if you be followers of that which is good?

2. Because they believed and did the right from a right motive. They were no time-servers. Many can do the right when such doing is popular. Inquiring too often what will please, what will suit, not what is right, what will profit.

3. Because they believed and did the right from a right motive under the immediate inspiration of Christ. Here was the true secret of courage. Fear not, for I am with thee; Go in this thy might.

IV. As the secret of real influence. They took knowledge of them, etc. Priests and scribes and rulers felt the force with which these men spoke. They exerted an influence which–

1. Transcended social distinctions; they were but fishermen.

2. Surpassed educational attainments. They were unlearned and ignorant men.

3. Lies within our reach. It was when Jacob had been alone with God that he was enabled to meet and to overcome his brother. Be much with Christ, and you shall be a prince amongst men. (W. H. Burton.)

Fellowship with Christ essential to courageous testimony for Him

I. In the presence of the world. To have heard or read of Him is not enough: we must be with Him; walk with Him in a consenting will, love Him as having first loved us, be joined to Him in one Spirit. They who have been with Jesus fear not the pomp, nor the scoffs, nor the threats of men. A mans religion before the world is one of those things by which his genuineness as a Christian are most readily tested. By testimony for Christ I do not mean an obtrusive introduction of His name and doctrines at all times; but a prudent uncompromising assertion of His rights and defence of His precepts and servants when occasion requires.

II. Before the foe within, a more formidable feat. Many a man could bear testimony for Christ before a world in arms, who yet is ignominiously silent in the council chamber of his own heart. There–where he hopes, or fears, or loves–his Redeemers name is not heard, his Saviours precepts are not alleged, his Masters example is not heeded. Would you find a remedy for this and uplift the spirit so that it may assert Christian motives, press Christian rules of action, put forward Christ as his pattern? Christ must dwell in your heart by faith.

III. In the time of sorrow. Ere we have gone on long in life, hopes betrayed, fears realised, joys dashed with bitterness, are every mans companions. And sorrow is a stern suggester of doubts and misbelief. Would you bear a consistent testimony in the presence of sorrow? Here, above all, you require the Saviours presence. Hearing and reading of Him may do while the weather is fair, and the sails are set, and the sea is smooth; but when the sky is overcast, and the winds are awake, and the sail is torn, and the billows rage, we want Him in the boat to steer.

IV. In the period of prosperity. If sorrows are open foes, successes are to us enemies in disguise. Many a man has borne noble witness to his Saviour in adversity, but how few have glorified Him in the broad sunshine of prosperity I It was the custom of persecutors to try not merely tortures to shake the constancy of the martyrs–these only a few craven dispositions heeded–but also to tempt them by the offer of advancement, of lands and houses, of rank and honours. And the father of persecutors follows the same plan. All these will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. How shall the man of wealth, the magistrate, the statesman, render a fearless testimony to the Master of his talents and time? Only in one way–only on one condition. That way is the way of reality–that condition, communion with his Lord for himself. They took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. How different is the decent toleration of religion, the respectable patronising of God, His service and His people, the worldly-prudent care to grasp the world in one hand and just touch the refuge with the other; from the genuine Christian character, whose fountains gush evermore within, which is found always fearless on the side of God and good, submitting to obloquy if need be, enduring hardness as a good soldier of Christ. And there is nothing short of being with Jesus that will create such a character. You cannot put it on–it must result from the gradual accretion of many experiences, trials, failures, prayers, years spent under the eye and within the sound of the voice of the Saviour. You cannot build it up on the shifting sands of fashion, or on the soft and tempting soil of self-indulgence: its foundations must be on the holy hills, or it will never stand.

V. In the hour of death. There will come a day when each one will be called to wrestle with the last foe: to bear, in the presence of his past life, and in the presence of those who are to outlive him, his witness to Christ. Would we meet death fearless, and in humble assurance that we have a part in One who has robbed him of his terrors? There is but one way, and that way is, to have been with Jesus during our lives. There is nothing but the reality of the Christian life, which can ensure the peace of the Christians death.

VI. In the day of judgment. Then who are they that shall escape the wrath of the Judge, whom the crash of falling worlds shall strike unmoved and fearless? There will be found a multitude whom no man can number, who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Angels and men shall take knowledge of them, that they have been with Jesus. (Dean Alford.)

The Christians exemplification of religion

I. By what marks men should take knowledge of the Christian that he has been with Jesus.

1. By the exclusive dependence with which he regards Him as his Saviour.

2. By the simplicity with which he acknowledges Him as a Teacher.

3. By the fidelity with which he follows Him as his Example.

II. To what end this manifestation is demanded of him.

1. It were a motive of irresistible urgency (if no other existed), to one who knows his obligations to redeeming goodness, that He who bought him from the condemnation of endless death, is hereby honoured in the estimation of men.

2. To this powerful impulse I would add the animating consideration, that the conduct resulting from a spiritual and saving communion with Jesus Christ by faith, may be advantageous to others; and induce them to glorify God in the day of their visitation.

Lessons:

1. Remember, ye who profess to seek Jesus, that as the Jews took knowledge of the apostles that they had been with Him, so the world is taking knowledge of you.

2. If any here, like the chief priests and Sadducees, are taking knowledge of those who have been with Jesus, to blame the good part they have chosen–to cavil at the principles they profess, the joys they feel, the self-denial they practice, or the faith in which they delight–Let such ungenerous observers bear in mind Who hath said, Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Me. (R. P. Buddicom, M. A.)

Communion with Christ discovered

I. When may we be said to have been with Jesus?

1. When we have been engaged in private devotion.

2. When we have been attending public worship.

3. When we have been partaking of the Holy Communion. There we dwell in Christ, and He in us.

II. By what proofs should men take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus?

1. By our humility.

2. By our zeal.

3. By our heavenly-mindedness.

4. By our holiness–hatred of sin, and determination to avoid it. (R. Davies, M. A.)

The assimilation of character

It is a law of our nature that we become like those whom we habitually admire and love. This is the principle according to which religions, whether true or false, react on mens minds and hearts for good or evil. By worshipping, men are assimilated to the moral character of the objects which they adore. In China, Buddhist priests have been heard to say, Think of Buddha, and you will be transformed into Buddha. If you pray to Buddha and do not become Buddha, it is because the mouth prays, and not the mind. The same is true in the highest degree of Christianity: communion with God in Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit, must have an assimilating effect, very gradual, indeed, but sure. There are, it has been well said, some men and women in whose company we are always at our best. While with them, we cannot think mean thoughts or speak ungenerous words. Their mere presence is elevation, purification, sanctity. All the best stops in our nature are drawn out by their intercourse, and we find a music in our souls that was never there before. Suppose even that influence prolonged through a month, a year, a lifetime, and what would not life become? To have lived with Christ must have made us like Christ: that is to say, a Christian. (W. Burner, M. A.)

The odour of grace

Men carry unconscious signs of their life about them. Those that come from the forge, and those from the lime and mortar, and those from the humid soil, and those from dusty travel, bear signs of being workmen, and of their work. One need not ask a merry face or a sad one whether it hath come forth from joy or from grief. Tears and laughter tell their own story. Should one come home with fruit, we say, Thou art come from the orchard; if with hands full of wild flowers, Thou art from the fields; if ones garments smell of mingled odours, we say, Thou hast walked in a garden. But how much more, if one hath seen God, hath held converse of hope and love, and hath walked in heaven, should he carry in his eye, his words, and his perfumed raiment, the sacred tokens of Divine intercourse! (H. W. Beecher.)

Fellowship with Christ: its visible effects

Often when I am on the beach, or even from my window, I look across the bay; and I can just see a speck gleaming against the grey sands, or the surf-beaten, sullen-looking cliffs of Howth beyond; and I know at once what the speck is by its whiteness. At other times when the storm has come, and the waves are sweeping over the rocks, I see a light speck upon the dark cloud curtain; and I know it is a brave little sea-gull in its white coat. So when we have given ourselves to Jesus, it should be easy for those round about us to see that we have. When, like the bird on the sands, we are doing our lowly work, the white robe should be visible; and in sorrow and trouble the whiteness should gleam as it did in the lives of those men of whom we are told in the New Testament that others took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. (J. Bowker.)

Communication with Christ the secret of power to bless men

On Thursday evening, March 29, 1883, for above an hour all who had occasion to use the telephone in Chicago found it vibrating to musical tones. Private and public telephones, and even the police and fire-alarm instruments, were alike affected. The source of the music was a mystery until the following day, when it was learned that a telegraph wire, which passes near most of the telephone wires, was connected with the harmonic system; that tunes were being played over it, and that the telephone wires took up the sounds by induction. If one wire carrying sweet sounds from place to place could so affect another wire by simply being near to it, how ought Christians in communication with Christ in heaven to affect all with whom they come in contact in the world. The Divine music of love and gentleness in their lives should be a blessing to society. (Homiletic Monthly.)

Communication with Christ the source of pulpit power

It is related that one of his hearers once asked, How is it that Mr. Bramwell always has something that is new to tell us when he preaches? Why, said the person interrogated, you see Brother Bramwell lives so near the gates of heaven that be hears a great many things that we dont get near enough to hear anything about. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Christs people–imitators of Him

I. What a believer should be–a striking likeness of Christ. You have read lives of Christ beautifully and eloquently written, but the best life of Christ is His living biography, written out in the words and actions of His people. A Christian should imitate Christ in–

1. His boldness. This is a virtue nowadays called impudence, but the grace is equally valuable by whatever name it may be called. Christ dealt out honest truth; He never knew the fear of man; He stood out Gods chosen, careless of mans esteem. Be like Christ in this. Have none of the time-serving religion of the present day, which only flourishes in a hot-bed atmosphere, a religion which is only to be perceived in good company. No; if ye are the servants of God, be like Jesus Christ; never blush to own your religion; your profession will never disgrace you–take care you never disgrace that.

2. His loveliness. The one virtue of boldness will never make you like Christ. There have been some who, by carrying their courage to excess, have been caricatures of Christ and not portraits. Let courage be the brass; let love be the gold. Let us mix the two together, so shall we produce a rich Corinthian metal, fit to be manufactured into the beautiful gate of the temple. The man who is bold may accomplish wonders. John Knox did much, but he might have done more if he had had a little love. Luther was a conqueror–still, if while he had the fortiter in re he had been also suaviter in mode, he might have done even more good than he did. So, while we too are bold, let us ever imitate the loving Jesus.

3. His humility. In England a sovereign will not speak to a shilling, and a shilling will not notice a sixpence, and a sixpence will sneer at a:penny. But it should not be so with Christians. We ought to forget caste, degree, and rank, when we come into Christs church. Recollect, Christian, who your Master was–a man of the poor.

4. His holiness.

II. When should Christians be this? For there is an idea in the world that persons ought to be very religious on a Sunday, but that it does not matter what they are on a Monday. Is there a time when the warrior may unbuckle his armour, and become like other men? No; at all times and in every place let the Christian be what he professes to be. I remember talking with a person who said, I do not like visitors who come to my house and introduce religion; I think we ought to have religion when we go to the house of God, but not in the drawing-room. I suggested that there would be a great deal of work for the upholsterers in that case. How is that? was the question. Why, I replied, we should need to have beds fitted up in all our places of worship, for surely we need religion to die with, and consequently every one would want to die there. Aye, we all need the consolations of God at last; but how can we expect to enjoy them unless we obey the precepts of religion during life? Imitate Christ–

1. In public. Most of us live in some sort of publicity. The eagle-eyed, argus-eyed world observes everything we do; and sharp critics are upon us. Let us live the life of Christ in public. Let us exhibit our Master, and not ourselves–so that we can say, It is no longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in me.

2. In the Church. How many there are like Diotrephes, seeking pre-eminence, instead of remembering that there all men are equal–alike brethren. Let your fellow-members say of you, He has been with Jesus.

3. In your houses. Rowland Hill once said he would not believe a man to be a true Christian, if his wife, his children, the servants, and even the dog and cat were not the better for it.

4. In secret. When no eye seeth you except the eye of God, then be ye like Jesus Christ. Remember His secret devotion–how, after laboriously preaching the whole day, He stole away in the midnight shades to cry for help from His God. Take care of your secret life.

III. Why should Christians be this?

1. For their own sakes. For their honestys sake, their credits sake, their happiness sake; let them imitate Christ.

2. For religions sake. The professor who has not lived up to his profession; the man who eaters the fold, being nought but a wolf in sheeps clothing–such men injure the gospel more than the laughing infidel or the sneering critic.

3. For Christs sake. If ye love Me, keep My commandments. Be like Christ, since gratitude demands obedience; so shall the world know that ye have been with Jesus.

IV. How He can be so.

1. You must know Christ as your Redeemer before you can follow Him as your Exemplar.

2. You must study Christs character. There is a wondrous power about that, for the more you regard it the more you will be conformed to it. I view myself in the glass, I go away, and forget what I was. I behold Christ, and I become like Christ.

3. But, say you, we have done that, and we have proceeded but little farther. Then correct your poor copy every day. At night recount all the actions of the twenty-four hours, scrupulously putting them under review. When I have proof sheets sent to me of any of my writings, I have to make the corrections in the margin. I might read them over fifty times, and the printers would still put in the errors if I did not mark them.

4. Seek more of the Spirit of God. Take the cold iron, and attempt to weld it if you can into a certain shape. How fruitless the effort! Lay it on the anvil, seize the blacksmiths hammer with all your might; let blow after blow fall upon it, and you shall have done nothing. But put it in the fire, let it be softened and made malleable, then lay it on the anvil, and each stroke shall have a mighty effect, so that you may fashion it into any form you may desire. So take your heart, put it into the furnace; there let it be molten, and after that it can be turned like wax to the seal, and fashioned into the image of Jesus Christ. Conclusion: To be like Christ is to enter heaven; but to be unlike Christ is to descend to hell. Likes shall be gathered together at last, tares with tares, wheat with wheat. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The true joyfulness of a witness for God

I. On what it is founded.

1. The experience of grace in the heart.

2. The pure Word of God on the lip.

3. The exemplary walk in the life.

II. How it shows itself.

1. In the pulpit by the joyful opening of the mouth.

2. In the world by the fearless testimony of the truth.

3. Under the cross by peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.

III. How it works.

1. To the confusion of the adversaries.

2. To the building up of the Church.

3. To the glory of God. (C. Gerok.)

The means of silencing blasphemers

I. Joyful perseverance in testimony.

II. Exhibition of fruits of work. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 13. The boldness of Peter and John] , The freedom and fluency with which they spoke; for they spoke now from the immediate influence of the Holy Ghost, and their word was with power.

That they were unlearned and ignorant men] , Persons without literature, not brought up in nor given to literary pursuits-and ignorant, , persons in private life, brought up in its occupations alone. It does not mean ignorance in the common acceptation of the term; and our translation is very improper. In no sense of the word could any of the apostles be called ignorant men; for though their spiritual knowledge came all from heaven, yet in all other matters they seem to have been men of good, sound, strong, common sense.

They took knowledge of them] may imply that they got information, that they had been disciples of Christ, and probably they might have seen them in our Lord’s company; for there can be little doubt that they had often seen our Lord teaching the multitudes, and these disciples attending him.

That they had been with Jesus.] Had they not had his teaching, the present company would soon have confounded them; but they spoke with so much power and authority that the whole sanhedrin was confounded. He who is taught in spiritual matters by Christ Jesus has a better gift than the tongue of the learned. He who is taught in the school of Christ will ever speak to the point, and intelligibly too; though his words may not have that polish with which they who prefer sound to sense are often carried away.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

They were unlearned; not wholly unlearned, but such as were without any polite learning, or more than ordinary education, such as every one amongst them had.

Ignorant men; idiots, so the Greek word, from whence ours come, signifying such as were brought up at home, and never acted in a larger sphere than the walls of their own house; having never been magistrates, or teachers of the law, or any way public persons; and spake only their mother tongue.

They took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus; which these rulers might easily take notice of, many of them frequenting his company too, Mat 21:23; Luk 18:18; Joh 12:42.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

13-17. perceived that they wereunlearned and ignorant menthat is, uninstructed in thelearning of the Jewish schools, and of the common sort; men inprivate life, untrained to teaching.

took knowledge of them thatthey had been with Jesusrecognized them as having been in Hiscompany; remembering possibly, that they had seen them with Him[MEYER, BLOOMFIELD,ALFORD]; but, moreprobably, perceiving in their whole bearing what identified them withJesus: that is, “We thought we had got rid of Him; but lo! Hereappears in these men, and all that troubled us in the NazareneHimself has yet to be put down in these His disciples.” What atestimony to these primitive witnesses! Would that the same could besaid of their successors!

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John,…. With what courage and intrepidity they stood before them, the presence of mind they had, and the freedom of speech they used, as the word properly signifies: they observed their elocution, the justness of their diction, the propriety of their language, and the strength and nervousness of their reasoning; as well as their great resolution, constancy, and firmness of mind; not being afraid to profess the name of Christ, or to charge them with the murder of him; and that they seemed to be determined to abide by him, at all events; to assert him to be the true Messiah, though rejected by the Jewish builders; and that he was risen from the dead; and not only to ascribe unto him the miracle now wrought, but the salvation of men; and to declare, that there was none in any other but him: the Syriac version renders it, “when they heard the word of Simeon and John, which they spoke openly”: and freely, without any reserve: they answered readily to the question, that it was by the name of Jesus of Nazareth that they had done this miracle; they dealt freely with the Jewish sanhedrim, and told them in so many words, that they were the crucifiers of Christ, and the rejecters of that stone, which God had made the head of the corner, and that there was no salvation for them in any other: it appears from hence, that John spoke as well as Peter, though his words are not recorded:

and perceived that they were unlearned ignorant men; not by what they now said, but by what they heard and understood of them before: they were informed that they were “unlearned” men, or who did not understand letters; not but that they had learned their mother tongue, and could read the Scriptures; but they had not had a liberal education; they had not been brought up at the feet of any of the doctors, in any of the schools and universities of the Jews; they were not trained up in, and conversant with, the nice distinctions, subtle argumentations, and decisions of the learned doctors, in the interpretation of the law of Moses, and the traditions of the elders: and understood that they were also “ignorant” men, , “idiots”, or private men; for men might be unlearned, and yet not be such; it seems the high priests themselves were sometimes unlearned men: hence, on the day of atonement,

“they used to read before him, in the order of the day, and say to him, Lord high priest, read thou with thine own mouth; perhaps thou hast forgot, or it may be, , “thou hast not learned” c.”

The Jews have adopted the word here used into their language; and express by it, sometimes a man that is mean, abject, and contemptible: thus instead of “children of base men”, or “without a name”, the Targumist on Job 30:8 reads, , “the children of idiots”, or “private men”: and in the Targum on 1Sa 18:23 it is used for one lightly esteemed, and comparable to a flea: it sometimes designs persons in a private life, though men of learning and knowledge, in distinction from those that are in office; so we read d, that

“three kings, and four , “private” persons, have no part in the world to come; the three kings are Jeroboam, Ahab, and Manasseh; the four “idiots”, or private men, are Balaam, Doeg, Ahithophel, and Gehazi.”

And so a bench of idiots, or private men, is distinguished from a bench of authorized and approved judges e; and sometimes the word is used of such, as are distinguished from doctors, or wise men; so when it is said f,

“the command of plucking off the shoe, is done before three judges, and though the three are “idiots”;”

the note of Maimonides upon it is,

“not wise men, but that know how to read the language,”

the Hebrew language: and such were the disciples, in every sense of the word; they were mean and abject, poor fishermen, men of no name and figure, that were in no office, and exalted station of life, nor versed in Jewish learning, but common private men: so that

they marvelled; the sanheddrim were astonished to hear them talk with so much fluency and pertinence:

and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus; looking wistly upon them, they knew them again, and remembered that; they were persons that were the disciples of Jesus, and whom they had seen in company with him; not in the high priest’s palace, when Jesus was arraigned, examined, and condemned there; though Peter, and some think John was there at that time, yet not to be observed and taken notice of by the sanhedrim; but in the temple where Jesus taught, and where the chief priests, Scribes, and elders came, and disputed with him about his authority, and cavilled at him, Mt 21:15.

c Misn. Yoma, c. 1. sect. 3. d Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 11. sect. 2. e T. Bab. Bava Metzia, fol. 32. 11. f Misn. Yebamot, c. 12. sect. 1.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The boldness ( ). Telling it all (, ). See also verses Acts 4:29; Acts 4:31. Actually Peter had turned the table on the Sanhedrin and had arraigned them before the bar of God.

Had perceived (). Second aorist middle participle of , common verb to grasp strongly (), literally or with the mind (especially middle voice), to comprehend. The rulers recalled Peter and John from having seen them often with Jesus, probably during the temple teaching, etc.

They were unlearned ( ). Present indicative retained in indirect discourse. Unlettered men without technical training in the professional rabbinical schools of Hillel or Shammai. Jesus himself was so regarded (Joh 7:15, “not having learned letters”).

And ignorant ( ). Old word, only here in the N.T. and 1Cor 14:24; 2Cor 11:6. It does not mean “ignorant,” but a layman, a man not in office (a private person), a common soldier and not an officer, a man not skilled in the schools, very much like . It is from (one’s own) and our “idiosyncracy” is one with an excess of such a trait, while “idiot” (this very word) is one who has nothing but his idiosyncracy. Peter and John were men of ability and of courage, but they did not belong to the set of the rabbis.

They marvelled (). Imperfect (inchoative) active, began to wonder and kept it up.

Took knowledge of them ( ). Imperfect (inchoative) active again, they began to recognize them as men that they had seen with Jesus.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Boldness. See on freely, ch. 2 29.

Perceived [] . The word, meaning originally to seize upon or lay hold of, occurs frequently in the New Testament in different phases of this original sense. Thus, to apprehend or grasp, Eph 3:18; Phi 3:12, 13; Rom 9:30 : of seizure by a demon, Mr 9:18 : of something coming upon or overtaking, Joh 12:35; 1Th 5:4 : of comprehending, grasping mentally, as here, Act 10:34; Act 25:25.

Unlearned [] . Or, very literally, unlettered. With special reference to Rabbinic culture, the absence of which was conspicuous in Peter’s address.

Ignorant [] . Originally, one in a private station, as opposed to one in office or in public affairs. Therefore one without professional knowledge, a layman; thence, generally, ignorant, ill – informed; sometimes plebeian, common. In the absence of certainty it is as well to retain the meaning given by the A. V., perhaps with a slight emphasis on the want of professional knowledge. Compare 1Co 14:16, 23, 24; 2Co 11:6.

Took knowledge [] . Or recognized. See on ch. Act 3:10.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

Preaching In Jesus’ Name Forbidden, Challenged, V. 13-22

1) “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, “(theorountes de ten tou Petrou parresian kai losnnu) “And observing or scrutinizing the boldness of Peter and John,” 1Co 1:27. This boldness was from the empowering spirit and grace of God, Heb 4:15-16. Peter and John reflected the boldness of their Lord, Mar 8:32; Mar 8:34.

2) “And perceived that,” (kai katalabomenoi hoti) “And perceiving (knowing) or assuming that,” with their spiritual ignorance and blindness, in their lost state; 1Jn 4:13. They looked upon the apostles, disciples, and church of our Lord as if they were offspring of abstract ignorance, yet it is they who in their rebellious pride shall be abased, Luk 18:14.

3) “They were unlearned and ignorant men,” (anthropoi agrammatooi eisin kai idiotai) “They were (existed) unlettered, or had been without formal education, and laymen,” idiotic men in the minds of the proud scribes, elders, rulers, and Sanhedrin; yet the reverse situation was true, 1Co 1:18-25; 1Co 2:14; 2Co 4:3-4; Eph 4:18. They were unlearned only in Rabbinical law.

4) “They marveled,” (ethaumazon) “They marveled,” were spell-bound. For they had once seen them in despond, near cowed, and humbled at the trial and crucifixion of Jesus, but now they were full of boldness and joy in the risen Lord, Joh 18:15-18.

5) “And took knowledge of them,” (epeginoskon) “And recognized them,” as having been with Jesus, therefore really neither unlearned nor idiotic. For our Lord had furnished them unto every good work by His Spirit and Word, 2Ti 3:16-17; Joh 13:34-35.

6) “That they had been with Jesus,” (hoti sun to lesou esan) “That they had been in colleague or close affinity with Jesus,” with the master Teacher of the ages, and none is either ignorant or unlearned today who has received the words of Jesus, His teachings; Psa 119:105; Psa 119:130; Psa 119:160; Mat 11:25-26.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

13. Here may we see an evil conscience; for being destitute of right and reason, they break out into open tyranny, the hatred whereof they had essayed to escape. Therefore, he doth first declare that they were convict, that it may appear that they did war against God wittingly and willingly like giants. For they see a manifest work of his in the man which was healed, and yet do they wickedly set themselves against him. In as much as they know that Peter and John were men unlearned and ignorant, they acknowledge that there was somewhat more than belongeth to man in their boldness; therefore they are enforced to wonder whether they will or no. Yet they break out into such impudence, that they fear not to seek some tyrannous means to oppress the truth. When as they confess that it is a manifest sign, they condemn themselves therein of an evil conscience. When they say that it is known to all men, they declare that passing over God they have respect unto men only. For they betray their want of shame thereby, that they would not have doubted to turn their back if there had been any color of denial. And when they ask what they shall do, they make their obstinate wickedness known unto all men. For they would have submitted themselves unto God, unless devilish fury had carried them away to some other purpose. This is the spirit of giddiness and madness, therewith God doth make his enemies drunk. So when they hope shortly after that they can by threatenings bring it about, that the same shall go no farther, what can be more foolish? For after they have put two simple men to silence, shall the arm of God be broken?

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL REMARKS

Act. 4:13. Perceived.Lit., having perceived from what they saw and heard at the time, or from previous inquiry. It would certainly have been strange if the Sanhedrists, and in particular Annas and Caiaphas (see Joh. 18:16), had not been acquainted with Peter and John (Zeller, Holtzmann); but this is not necessarily implied in the language, which rather suggests that they recognised the apostles as having been formerly among Christs disciples. Unlearned.I.e., illiterate, untaught in the learning of the Jewish schools (see Joh. 7:15), and Ignorant.I.e., private or obscure persons, plebeian as distinguished from persons in the higher walks of life (1Co. 14:16).

Act. 4:15. Out of the council.Which was open to others, so that Luke could easily have ascertained from parties who had been present what was said and done during the absence of the apostles. It has been thought not improbable that Saul of Tarsus was there (Hackett).

Act. 4:16. That indeed a notable miracle hath been wrought by them is manifest.This confession on the part of the Sanhedrin has been pronounced incredible, and inconsistent with the instruction given in Act. 4:17 (Gfrrer, Zeller); but their conduct in this instance is no more difficult to understand than their behaviour in the case of the man who was born blind (John 9), with which it is pretty much of a piece.

Act. 4:17. Let us straitly threaten.Lit., with a threat let us threaten them. For a similar construction see Luk. 22:15. The R.V. omits with a threat.

Act. 4:18. Nor teach in or upon () the name of Jesus.So as to make it a theme of discourse.

Act. 4:19. Whether it be right, etc.See on Act. 4:29; and compare Amo. 3:8; 1Jn. 1:1-3. This remarkable utterance is not without Greek, Roman, and Rabbinical parallels.

Act. 4:21. Glorified God for that which was done.Compare Luk. 5:26; Gal. 1:24.

Act. 4:22. Forty years old.A note characteristic of Luke (compare Act. 9:33, Act. 14:8; Luk. 8:43).

HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.Act. 4:13-22

The Apostles removed from the Court; or, the Conspirators in Conclave

I. The perplexity of the Sanhedrists.These holy inquisitors before whom John and Peter were arraigned were

1. Staggered at the boldness of their prisoners. These behaved not like criminals who had been apprehended in acts of wickedness, taken, as it were, red-handed, but like persons who felt conscious not of having done wrong, but of having performed a great good. Peter could have replied to Annas or Caiaphas

Thou shalt not see me blush

Nor change my countenance for this arrest;
A heart unspotted is not easily daunted.
The purest spring is not so free from mud
As I am clear from (wrong doing).Shakespeare.

Neither Peter nor John resembled their old selves who ran away when they beheld their Master bound with cords, and hurried off to face that awful tribunal. Things had changed since the Gethsemane transaction, both with their Master and with themselves. He had risen from the tomb into which His enemies had thought to shut Him down, and had ascended to His throne; they were being assisted and upheld by His Almighty Spirit.

2. Confounded by their prisoners eloquence. Peter and John, though neither learned nor distinguished persons like their judges, but ignorant and obscure fishermen, nevertheless spoke with such fluent and cogent utterance as the most gifted of their Rabbis could not equal or even imitate. The only possible explanation of the phenomenon which presented itself to the Sanhedrists was one they did not likeviz., that their prisoners had been companions of Jesus. It was a virtual admission that Christ had impressed even those who rejected Him with a secret conviction of His superhuman dignity.

3. Unable to deny the miracle. The evidence of its reality stood before them. The man who had been healed was in court. The whole town besides was ringing with excitement at what had happened, and had pronounced it a miracle. The theory of imposture would impose on no one. Just as little would the hypothesis of illusion or delusion. The man himself might have been a hypochondriac, and the apostles might be counted jugglers, but a whole town could not be cheated into believing that a miracle had been wrought, if no such thing had occurred.

4. At a loss what to do with their prisoners. To punish them for healing a lame man would look ridiculous; common sense would say they should rather be rewarded with the freedom of the city. Besides, in the present temper of the people, it would be dangerous to proceed to violence, the people being manifestly on the side of the apostles. Then to debar them from working similar miracles upon other lame persons would be hard upon the invalids. To drive them from the metropolis would only be to send them with their philanthropies to other towns. When men will not do the obviously right thing, it is no wonder they become perplexed in choosing the best of the wrong things. Wrong things are never best.

II. The resolution of the Sanhedrists.How Luke ascertained what was talked in the council chamber, after Peter and John had been removed, may be difficult to tell. If the court was opened to the public (see Critical Remarks) some of the apostles friends may have been present; if it was closed against the public some of the Sanhedrists themselves, on becoming converted, may have revealed the secrets of the court. In any case, what the Sanhedrists resolved upon was this

1. To prevent, if possible, the spread of the report about the miracle. They felt that if the story was repeated it would be believed, which shows that they regarded it as true. So will Christs gospel, wherever told, commend itself to mens consciences in the sight of God. Hence, the chief aim of its enemies is to prevent its diffusion among the people.

2. To forbid the apostles any more to speak or teach in the name of Jesus. Still avoiding the explosive topic of the resurrection, they limit their prohibition to a general order not to speak in Christs name. What they wanted was, if possible, to suppress the name altogether. But as Christ could not be hid when on earth (Mar. 7:24), so now that He is risen can He not be suppressed. He must reign till all His enemies have been placed beneath His feet (1Co. 15:25).

III. The action of the Sanhedrists.Having concluded their deliberations, and recalled the apostles, they did three things.

1. Charged them. Not to speak at all, nor to teach in the name of Jesus. But such an order neither John nor Peter could obey. It invaded the domain of conscience, which was Gods peculiar territory. It traversed the commandment of Jesus, which had already bound them to preach the gospel to every creature (Mat. 28:19; Mar. 16:15). It sought to silence the convictions of their souls that what they had seen and heard was true. It collided with that three-fold necessity which urged them on. Hence Peter told the Sanhedrists, that where the alternative lay between obeying them and obeying God, the choice could only be the latter. So affirmed he afterwards to the same judicial body for himself and his brethren. We ought to obey God rather than man (Act. 5:29). So replied Socrates to his Athenian judges: Athenians, I will obey God rather than you; and if you would let me go and give me my life on condition that I should no more teach my fellow-citizens, sooner than agree to your proposal I would prefer to die a thousand times (Apology, 23, B.). In this first conflict between conscience and force, says Pressens, victory remains with the former. This day is liberty born into the world never to be destroyed.

2. Threatened them. With pains and penalties endeavoured to deter them from following the path of duty. Had the judges of Peter and John gone no further than this prohibition and threatening, they would have been entitled to be called persecutors (Pressens). The essence of persecution is the application of physical force to religion, in which the only forces admissible are those of truth for the understanding and love for the heart.

3. Dismissed them. The Sanhedrists lacked the courage to inflict punishment upon their prisoners. As yet they feared the people, who, siding with the apostles, and glorifying God for what had been done, would not have tolerated either imprisonment or scourging. Hence they felt compelled to let their prisoners go.

Learn.

1. The transformations Christ through His grace can effect on human character and life, exemplified in Peter and John
2. The best sort of evidence in support of Christs religionsuch miracles as are wrought upon mens characters and lives through its influence.
3. The holy courage that should at all times be displayed by Christs servantsto obey God and Christ rather than man.
4. The confidence with which Christ and His servants can appeal to the consciences even of their enemies.

HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS

Act. 4:13. Companionship with Jesus.

I. A distinguished privilege.

II. A transforming power.

III. A perilous distinction.

IV. A high responsibility.

Act. 4:1-14. The Courage of the Apostles.

I. The occasion of the courage.It was an imposing assembly, made up of the intelligence and authority and ecclesiastical power of the Jewish nation. The court demanded by what power or efficacy, and in the use of what name, they had done this now notable miracle. Peter stood in view of them all, calm and confident, a splendid illustration of the truth that the righteous are bold as a lion (Pro. 28:1), and made his reply.

II. The secret of the courage.Filled with the Holy Ghost. This was the secret of Peters boldness. This made the difference between Peter before the Ascension and Peter after it. It was not natural courage, to the manner born. Peter was impulsive and forward, quick and stout in assertion, but by nature a coward. The coward is become a hero. The bank of sand is transformed into a rock of firmness. Impulse has given way to principle. Fear of man is exchanged for fear of God. His being filled with the Holy Spirit accounts for the difference. That Spirit has given him a sense of things invisible, has opened to his faiths sight invisible troops of God, has lifted him to a level where he can look with something of the calmness and fearlessness of his Lord upon those who can only kill the body. He knows now, even better than he knew before, his own weakness and his own need, but he has been taught of the Spirit the illimitable sufficiency of God. Filled with the Spirit means assurance of sonship. Filled with the Spirit is proof that God is for us and in us, and that therefore they that be for us are more than they that be against us. It can easily be understood how this would arm the timid soul with a dauntless and deathless courage. One, with God, is a majority always. Weakness, with God, is omnipotence.

III. Characteristics of the courage.But a courage of this sort, born of the presence of the Spirit of God, true Christian courage, will be marked by certain characteristics. Let us look at them as they appear in the record of Peters speech before the court.

1. Courtesy marks the first words of this brave soul. Peter gives the men of the court their appropriate titles, recognises their office and authority, and addresses them with deference and respect: Ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel. Bravery does not consist in brusqueness and bravado and bluster. To speak the truth boldly one need not be a boar or a bear. The bully is not the ideal hero. The kingdom and patience of Jesus go hand in hand. There is a so-called maintaining ones self-respect which is simply a manifesting ones impudence.

2. Prudence is another characteristic of Christian courage, as shown by Peter in this defence. His courteous recognition of the position and office of the men composing the tribunal is immediately followed by a reference to the character of the deed for which he was arraigned: If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man. The deed was good, and Peter reminds them of it. An impotent man has been made whole. Mark the prudent wisdom of this answer. Peter first turns attention from the method of the doing to the thing done. The work itself could challenge only gratitude and joy. Of itself it could provoke no opposition. He thus by a wise tact sought to pave the way for a favourable hearing. He made the most of his circumstances. So will the highest courage always. It does not disdain the use of every justifiable means to conciliate opposition. While scorning compromise of principle, it presses into service every alleviating circumstance. It does not court a tilt or invite a conflict.

3. Frankness is another characteristic, as exhibited by Peter. The council demanded by what authority or by what name they had done this. They got for instant answer, By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Here Peter might have stopped. But this was not the truth that put Peter in bonds. Peter could answer the courts questions without any allusion to the crucifixion and resurrection. But it was this that got him into trouble, and he must not withhold it now to get out of trouble. Christian courage is always the very soul of frankness. It will wear no maskstell the whole truth, as well as nothing but the truth. The temptation to be compromisingly politic at the point of real danger is most plausibly insidious and subtle, and a brave spirit gets here its sorest test.

4. Fidelity is one more mark of Christian courage that shone out conspicuously in this court-scene at Jerusalem. This pushed Peter beyond the mere claims of frankness. He had fully stated the facts. The Jews had crucified Jesus, and God had raised Him from the dead. These two facts Peter had put in the plainest terms. They were offensive to the tribunal. They implicated his hearers both in crime and folly. Yet out they came with courageous frankness. This was the top and crown of Christian courage. It was transforming the prisoners bar into a pulpit from which to preach a gospel sermon to men, some of whom probably had never heard it before, and whose ear the preacher might never have again.

IV. Effect of the courage.It only remains to speak briefly of the effect of this righteous boldness. These effects are common where Christian courage gets anything like such public exhibition in such hostile circumstances.

1. Men wonder first at the boldness. They see nothing behind it, nothing to support itno arms, no government, no material resourceand they are astounded. They marvel where it gets its spring and inspiration. The world knows not its secret. It is born of the invisible Spirit of God.

2. Then they have nothing to speak against. Christian courage has a wonderful way of disarming opposition.

Christians, there are some things taught here that ought to be to our spiritual profit.

1. The Spirit of God can make the weakest saint bold.
2. We can afford to trust Christ.
3. Truth will sometimes smite to silence when it does not smite to heal.H. Johnson, D.D.

Act. 4:16. What shall we do with these men?The worlds question concerning Christians.

I. To this the world has usually answered.Let us

1. Suspect them as hypocrites.
2. Disbelieve them as liars.
3. Oppose them as enemies.
4. Punish them as evildoers; and, generally,
5. Persecute them as sectaries, separatists, and heretics.

II. To this the world ought to answer.Let us

1. Listen to them as bringers of good tidings.
2. Honour them as self-denying philanthropists.
3. Credit them as sincere preachers.
4. Reward them as benefactors of their race; and, generally,
5. Imitate them as noble exemplars of virtue.

Act. 4:19. Liberty of Conscience.

I. The principle stated.To hearken unto God rather than unto man.

II. The principle exemplified.By the behaviour of the Apostles.

III. The principle justified.By an appeal to the moral and religious instincts of the Sanhedrists.

IV. The principle recognised.In part, at least, by the dismissal of the apostles from the council chamber. (See further on, Act. 5:29.)

Act. 4:20. The Preachers Motto.

I. The nature of the preachers function.To speak, to address his fellow-men by the living voice. This function can never be superseded by the press. There is that in the contact of soul with soul, through the medium of the living voice, which no printed page can supply.

II. The extent of the preachers commission.To speak what he has seen and heard. This what the apostles were called to do when they were made witnesses of Christs resurrection. In like manner the proper business of the Christian preacher is to lay before his fellow-men the truth of sacred Scripture as that is revealed to and appropriated by his own understanding, heart, and conscience.

III. The constraint of the preachers action.We cannot but speak showed that the apostles had not taken up their calling as a matter of self-directed choice, but in obedience to the impulse of conscience, and not from interested motives as a means of procuring a livelihood or acquiring fame, but from an irresistible sense of duty, or, as Paul afterwards expressed it, because necessity had been laid upon them (1Co. 9:16). So should none assume the preachers office except under a similar constraint. To exercise the preachers office for a piece of bread (1Sa. 2:36) is to desecrate the office and be guilty of sacrilege.

Act. 4:21. God glorified by the People for the Healing of the Lame Man.

I. For the exhibition of divine power which they had witnessed.

II. For the rich grace which had been shown to the cripple.

III. For the signal honour which had been put upon the apostles in making them the instruments of this miracle.

IV. For the glorious hope of heavenly succour which was brought to themselves, the people, through this wondrous deed.

Act. 4:1-22. The Jewish Leaders and the Apostles.

I. On the side of the Jewish leaders there was

1. Illiberality. Being grieved that they taught the people. The highest pre-christian culture! Christ alone has shown Himself the friend of universal manslave or king. Christianity is a universal appeal. It is not a taper, it is the sun.

2. Shortsightedness. They put the apostles in prison! Fools! They could not put God in prison! Had the apostles been original workers, had the cause of their actions lain within themselves, imprisonment might have met the case. But God! etc. Why were the apostles put in prison? For two reasons:

(1) They did good to the diseased;
(2) They instructed the ignorant. Christianity is still the great physical and mental regenerator of the world. The only charge which can be brought against Christianity is that it continually seeks to do good.

3. Impotence. What shall we do to these men? For that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it. They threatened the apostles. That is, they shook their fists in the face of the sun in order to darken the world! They stamped a foot angrily on the sea-shore in order to repel the advancing tide! They sent a message to the wind stating that they would henceforth be independent of the living air! We see how small men are when they set themselves against Truth. They know not what they do! Truth is to them an unknown quantity; at any moment it may smite them; it is subtle, mysterious, intractable. Terrible is the hand of the Lord upon all them that oppose the truth.

II. On the side of the apostles there was

1. Complete intelligence within the sphere of their ministry. Though the apostles were unlearned and ignorant men, yet within the compass of the work which they were called to do they were wise and efficient. This is the secret of success. Know what you do know. Do not venture beyond the line of your vocation. Every preacher is strong when he stands upon fact and experience. Christians must not accept the bait which would draw them upon unknown or forbidden ground.

2. Inconquerable courage in narrating and applying facts.

(1) Look at the dignity of the address;

(2) Look at the calm and emphatic assertion of the name of Christ;

(3) Look at the direct and special impeachment of the hearers; whom ye crucified; set at nought of you builders. Dignity is proper in the preachers of truth; Christ is the life of Christianitybeware of lauding the system, and forgetting the Man. Accusation is the first work of every Christian evangelist. Prove the worlds crime!

3. Christian magnanimity in preaching the Gospel. Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, where by we must be saved. Thus was the Gospel preached to the murderers of Gods Holy One. Beginning at Jerusalem. In this brief sermon Peter proceeds upon two assumptions:

(1) That men need saving;
(2) That there is but one true way of saving them. These assumptions have been proved to be true.

4. Incorruptible loyalty to God and to His truth. Whether it be right in the sight of God, etc. (Act. 4:19). Things which we have seen and heard! What a field! Missions at home and abroad,Schools,Labours,Sacrifices,Death-beds!J. Parker, D.D.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

(13) When they saw the boldness of Peter and John.John, so far as we read, had not spoken, but look and bearing, and, perhaps, unrecorded words, showed that he too shared Peters courage. That boldness of speech had been characteristic of his Lords teaching (Mar. 8:32; Joh. 7:13). It was now to be the distinctive feature of that of the disciples: here of Peter; in Act. 28:31, 2Co. 3:12; 2Co. 7:4, of St. Paul; in 1Jn. 4:17; 1Jn. 5:14, of the beloved disciple. It is, perhaps, characteristic that the last named uses it not of boldness of speech towards men, but of confidence in approaching God. The Greek word for when they saw implies considering as well as beholding; that for perceived would be better expressed by having learnt, or having ascertained. The Greek verb implies, not direct perception, but the grasp with which the mind lays hold of a fact after inquiry. In Act. 25:5, it is rightly translated when I found.

Unlearned and ignorant.The first of the two words means, literally, unlettered. Looking to the special meaning of the letters or Scriptures of the Jews, from which the scribes took their name (grammateis, from grammata), it would convey, as used here the sense of not having been educated as a scribe, not having studied the Law and other sacred writings. It does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament. The second word means literally, a private person, one without special office or calling, or the culture which they imply: what in English might be called a common man. It appears again in 1Co. 14:16; 1Co. 14:23-24, with the same meaning. Its later history is curious enough to be worth noting. The Vulgate, instead of translating the Greek word, reproduced it, with scarcely an alteration, as idiota. It thus passed into modem European languages with the idea of ignorance and incapacity closely attached to it, and so acquired its later sense of idiot.

They took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.Better, they began to recognise. The tense is in the imperfect, implying that one after another of the rulers began to remember the persons of the two Apostles as they had seen them with their Master in the Temple. These two, and these two alone, may have been seen by many of the Council on that early dawn of the day of the Crucifixion in the court-yard of the high priests palace (Joh. 18:15).

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

13. Boldness There was in their style both of action and language a clear, calm freedom; not as if they strained themselves to hardihood, but as if they were unconscious of any demand for nerve. It was quiet self-possession, as if they were speaking respectfully and evenly to equals.

Unlearned Not literati, but men of the ordinary education.

Ignorant Not a very correct translation. The word signifies that they were not priests, but laymen; not magistrates, but private men; not rabbis, but non-professional men.

Took knowledge This does not mean (with Meyer and Dr. Gloag) that they now for the first time caught the idea that these men were followers of Jesus. This was known before they were apprehended, (Act 4:2,) (Caiaphas and John were acquaintances, Joh 18:15,) and was the reason for their apprehension. Nor is there any thing that indicates (as Alford) that the memory of the court was now so awakened as to recollect the having seen them with Jesus; which would have been a fact of no significance. The Greek word signifies fully to know, to recognize, realize, appreciate. These very judges, Annas and Caiaphas, had but a few short weeks previously seen Jesus himself before them. And in these men, filled with the spirit of Jesus, they recognized and appreciated the same clear, divine self-possession and unshrinking retort, and they referred these qualities to their intimacy with the Master.

With Jesus The preposition with was often used by the Greeks to express the attendance of inferiors upon a superior, as “Xenophon and those with him.”

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘Now when they beheld the boldness of Peter and John, and had perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.’

We only have recorded the words of Peter, but it is clear from these words that John had also spoken (the boldness — of John’). And the Sanhedrin were impressed. They were used to men cringing before them, not speaking out boldly. And they were not used to having Scripture quoted at them. The fact that these were ‘unlearned and ignorant men’, that is, not officially taught in official methods of Scriptural interpretation and not cognisant of the Law as officially taught, meant that they could only be officially admonished. However, once they learned that they had been with Jesus it put them on the spot. They had rejected Jesus as a heretic and a blasphemer. But these men were still proclaiming Him and even claiming the power of His Name. Now therefore it was apparent that they were Jesus men, and that they were representing themselves as carrying on His work.

Most, if not all, of them had probably never previously noticed the disciples. Their attention had been on Jesus. Thus it is not surprising that they had not recognised in these bold men the previous rather timid (in the presence of leading Scribes and Sadducees) followers of Jesus.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The consultation of the Sanhedrin:

v. 13. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus.

v. 14. And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.

v. 15. But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves,

v. 16. saying, What shall we do to these men? For that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it.

v. 17. But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them that they speak henceforth to no man in this name.

The Jewish rulers had expected Peter and John to show fear or timidity in their presence, to be overawed by the dignity and learning of the members of the council. Instead of that, however, there was in their bearing a freedom and confidence and in the speech of Peter a fearless candor which compelled respect on their part. The longer they contemplated the manner of the men, the more this conviction was forced upon them. And this impression was heightened by the fact that the judges had perceived, either by their dress or by their dialect, that the two men before them were really unlearned and ignorant men, that they not only were not versed in the Law and in all the Jewish learning, but actually had not been able to write, were altogether illiterate. And there was still another point which the members of the council now noted, namely, that these men had belonged to the small company of Christ’s followers. This recognition came to them at this point, since they had seen Peter and John both as attendants of Jesus, and since John was a personal acquaintance of Caiaphas, Joh 18:15; Joh 18:18. No wonder that all these facts, gradually absorbing the consciousness of the judges, caused them to sit in embarrassed silence. For as far as the miracle was concerned, any attempt at denial would have been worse than futile, since the former cripple was there before their eyes, standing upright and sound upon his feet. The evidence of the miracle spoke no less forcibly than the apostles themselves. And so the rulers had nothing to say. Finally the silence was broken by the proposal, and the command based upon it, that the men leave the council-chamber for some time, being undoubtedly taken out under guard. Now the judges felt free to consider the matter; they exchanged their thoughts and opinions of the case. The gist of the discussion is given by Luke. There was no denying that a very evident miracle had been performed, which had also come to the knowledge of all the people of Jerusalem. To attempt a denial of these facts would have been worse than useless, it would have been foolishness of the most extreme type. And yet someone proposed an effort to stop the spread of the truth, and the proposal was eagerly made a resolution. In order that the message and the movement which accompanied it might spread no farther and be dispersed among the common people, like seed that promised a bountiful crop, they resolved earnestly to threaten the apostles that they speak no more about the name of Jesus, making Him and His Gospel the subject of their discourses. With none of the people, to not a single individual, should they speak about the name Revelation red by them above all other names. Note: The unbelieving children of this world cannot deny that the power of God is mighty in the teaching and in the lives of the Christians. And yet they remain hostile to the name of Christ and make every effort to suppress the proclamation of the Gospel. Thus the unbelievers, with their unbelief and with their enmity toward Christ, act in direct opposition to their own conscience and better knowledge

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Act 4:13. Unlearned and ignorant men, Illiterate men, and in private stations of life; , men of no education, nor in any public rank of life, as the priests and magistrates were: And they took knowledge of them, , would read more properly, and they knew them. Grotius observes, that therulers,having often been present when Christ taught publicly, might have seen Peter and John near him, though perhaps they might have observed them more particularly the night that Jesus was taken, when they had attended their Lord to the house of Caiaphas.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Act 4:13-15 . ] “Inest notio contemplandi cum attentione aut admiratione.” Tittmann, Synon. N. T. p. 121.

] and when they had perceived (Act 10:34 ; Eph 3:18 ; Plat. Phaedr. p. 250 D; Polyb. viii. 4. 6; Dion. Hal. ii. 66), when they had become aware . They perceived this during the address of Peter, which was destitute of all rabbinical learning and showed to them one (Plat. Apol. p. 26 D). (Xen. Mem. iv. 2. 20; Plat. Crit. p. 109 D) denotes here the want of rabbinic culture. is the same: laymen , who are strangers to theological learning. See Hartmann in the Stud. u. Krit. 1834, I. p. 119 ff. The double designation is intended to express the idea very fully; has in it, moreover, something disparaging: unlearned men . Comp. Lys. acc. Nicom . 28, and Bremi in loc. On , which, according to the contrast implied in the connection, may denote either a private man, or a plebeian, or an unlearned person, or a common soldier, or one inexperienced in gymnastic exercises, one not a poet, not a physician, and other forms of contrast to a definite professional knowledge, see Valcken. in loc ; Hemsterhuis, ad Lucian. Necyom. p. 484; Ruhnken, ad Long. p. 410. Here the element of contrast is contained in : hence the general meaning plebeians (Kuinoel and Olshausen, comp. Baumgarten) is to be rejected. They were , 1Co 1:27 . Comp. Joh 7:15 .

, . . .] and recognised them (namely) that they were (at an earlier period) with Jesus . Their astonishment sharpened now their recollection; and therefore Baur and Zeller have taken objection to this remark without sufficient psychological reason. . is incorrectly taken (even by Kuinoel) as the pluperfect . See Winer, p. 253 [E. T. 337]. The two imperfects, . and ., are, as relative tenses, here entirely in place.

.] emphatically put first.

] they conferred among themselves. Comp. Act 17:18 ; Plut. Mor. p. 222 C.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. (14) And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it. (15) But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves, (16) Saying, What shall we do to these men? for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it. (17) But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name. (18) And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. (19) But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. (20) For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. (21) So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people: for all men glorified God for that which was done. (22) For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was showed.

I pray the Reader never to lose sight of that most precious doctrine, that it was God the Spirit speaking in the Apostles, and by them: for without this steady eye to the Lord, we shall be apt to ascribe the boldness of the servants, to their own strength; and forget the source from whence they derived it. I admire the different apprehension of words in the world’s dictionary, from that of grace. Those doctors of the law, it is said, perceived that those Apostles were unlearned and ignorant men. Yes! In relation to human sciences, and vain philosophy, falsely so called, Peter and John had received no education. But the Holy Ghost, in giving his testimony, concerning that wisdom which is from above, and which maketh wise unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus; speaks very differently. He saith, that the precious things of his inspired word, and which to carnal men are hard to be understood, it is the unlearned and unstable, (that is, in divine science,) wrest as they do also the other Scriptures to their own destruction, 2Pe 3:16 . And here was a striking proof of it! For while those great men stood confounded and ashamed, unable to say anything in their own justification; the poor Apostles silenced, and overawed them all! Reader! doth not the same doctrine, and from the same cause, operate in the present hour? The weapons of our warfare (said Paul,) are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strong holds, 2Co 10:4 . And how otherwise should it be, that we sometimes see weak things of the world confound the things which are mighty, and foolish things confound what the world esteems wise; were it not that God hath chosen such for his instruments, to make manifest, that the excellency is of God, and not of men. Oh! the blessedness when men, taught and influenced by God the Spirit, come forth in the Lord’s name, sent by the Lord’s ordination, and crowned with the Lord’s blessing upon their labors! 1Co 1:27 .

Reader! it is sometimes profitable, to get behind the curtain of carnal men’s council, not indeed to learn their works, but to see how dreadfully alarmed they are. And here the Holy Ghost hath given us a short, but full relation, what frequently passeth there. For be assured, the conference of those convicted minds, as here represented, is a true statement of what every day, more or less, passeth among the unawakened in the world. They could not deny the miracle as a matter of fact, neither disprove the greatness of it. And one might have thought, that with such a conviction before their eyes, they would have embraced the Apostles, and sought mercy from the Lord. Ah, No! the thing was impossible. Yea, so impossible, that God the Holy Ghost hath caused the reason to be recorded no less than seven times in his sacred word, Isa 6:9-10 ; Mat 13:14 ; Mar 4:12 ; Luk 8:10 ; Joh 12:40 ; Act 28:26 ; and Rom 9:8 . And the same holds good forever. And the Lord, at the very beginning of his Scriptures, with the first dawn of revelation, writes down, as with a pen of iron, and the point of a diamond, the unalterable cause: I will put enmity between thee and the woman: and between thy seed and her seed, Gen 3:15 ; Joh 8:43-44 ; 1Jn 3:8 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

13 Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

Ver. 13. Unlearned and ignorant men ] Indoctos elegit Christus et idiotas, sed oculavit in prudentes: simulque dona dedit et ministeria. The primitive persecutors slighted the Christians for a company of hard illiterate fellows; and therefore they used to paint the God of the Christians with an ass’s head, and a book in his hand, saith Tertullian, to signify, That though they pretended learning, yet they were silly and ignorant people. Bishop Jewel, in his sermon uponLuk 11:15Luk 11:15 , cites this out of Tertullian, and applies it to his times. Do not our adversaries the like, saith he, against all that profess the gospel? Oh, say they, Who are those that favour this way? None but shoemakers, tailors, weavers, and such as never were at the University. These are the bishop’s own words. Bishop White said in open court, some few years since, That the Puritans were all a company of blockheads. The Jesuits say the same of all the Protestants; and that the empire of learning is within their dominion only. a But have they not picked up the best of their crumbs under our tables? and have not our English fugitives exceeded all their fellow Jesuits in show of wit and learning?

a Penes se esse literarum imperium. Eudaem. in Casaub.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

13 18 .] CONSULTATION AND SENTENCE OF THE SANHEDRIM.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

13. ] , having had previous knowledge ; not as E. V., which would be the partic. pres.; see the past, ch. Act 25:25 .

, the word of contrast to those professionally acquainted with any matter: here therefore, laics , men of no knowledge on such a subject as this.

, they recognized them ; (so Od. . 215, , . : Plato, Euthyd. 301 E, ( ) ; , , , 😉 their astonishment setting them to think, and reminding them that they had seen these men with Jesus: not for a pluperfect , here or any where else: nor is ; that they (once) were with Jesus .

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Act 4:13 . , cf. Act 3:16 , not merely ., as in Act 4:14 , but “inest notio contemplandi cum attentione aut admiratione,” Tittm., Synon. N. T. , p. 121. The present participle marks this continuous observation of the fearless bearing of the Apostles during the trial (Rendall). : either boldness of speech, or of bearing; it was the feature which had characterised the teaching of our Lord; cf. Mar 8:32 , and nine times in St. John in connection with Christ’s teaching or bearing; and the disciples in this respect also were as their Master, c. Act 4:29 ; Act 4:31 (Act 2:29 ); so too of St. Paul, Act 28:31 , and frequently used by St. Paul himself in his Epistles; also by St. John four times in his First Epistle of confidence in approaching God: “urbem et orbem hac parrhesia vicerunt,” Bengel. Cf. used of Paul’s preaching, Act 9:27-28 , and again of him and Barnabas, Act 13:46 , Act 14:3 , of Apollos, Act 18:26 , and twice again of Paul, Act 19:8 , Act 26:26 ; only found in Acts, and twice in St. Paul’s Epistles, Eph 6:20 , 1Th 2:2 , of speaking the Gospel boldly. For , see LXX, Pro 13:5 , 1Ma 4:18 , Wis 5:1 (of speech), cf. also Jos., Ant. , ix., 10, 4, xv., 2, 7. : even if St. John had not spoken, that “confidence towards God,” which experience of life deepened, 1Jn 4:17 ; 1Jn 5:14 , but which was doubtless his now, would arrest attention; but it is evidently assumed that St. John had spoken, and it is quite characteristic of St. Luke’s style thus to quote the most telling utterance, and to assume that the reader conceives the general situation, and procedure in the trial, Ramsay’s St. Paul , pp. 371, 372. : “and had perceived” R.V., rightly marking the tense of the participle; either by their dress or demeanour, or by their speech ( cf. Act 10:34 , Act 25:25 , Eph 3:18 , Blass, Grammatik des N. G. , p. 181). . in dependent clauses where English usage would employ a past tense and a pluperfect, N.T. usage employs a present and an imperfect “perceived that they were that they had been ,” Blass, and see Salmon on Blass’s Commentary, Hermathena , xxi., p. 229. : Wendt sees in the addition something depreciatory. : lit [153] , unlettered, i.e. , without acquaintance with the Rabbinic learning in (2Ti 3:15 ), the Jewish Scriptures (lit [154] , letters, hence ), cf. Joh 7:15 , Act 26:24 , where the word is used without , so that it cannot be confined to the sacred Scriptures of the O.T., and includes the Rabbinic training in their meaning and exposition. In classical Greek the word = “illiterati,” joined by Plato with , , see also Xen., Mem. , iv., 2, 20; by Plutarch it is set over against the , and elsewhere joined with , Trench, N. T. Synonyms , ii., p. 134, and Wetstein, in loco, cf. Athenus, x., p. 454 B., . : the word properly signifies a private person (a man occupied with ), as opposed to any one who holds office in the State, but as the Greeks held that without political life there was no true education of a man, it was not unnatural that should acquire a somewhat contemptuous meaning, and so Plato joins it with , and Plutarch with and (and instances in Wetstein). But further: in Trench, u. s. , p. 136, and Grimm, sub v. , the is “a layman,” as compared with the , “the skilled physician,” Thuc. ii. 48, and the word is applied by Philo to the whole congregation of Israel as contrasted with the priests, and to subjects as contrasted with their prince, cf. its only use in the LXX, Pro 6:8 ( cf. Herod., ii., 81, vii., 199, and instances in Wetstein on 1Co 14:16 ). Bearing this in mind, it would seem that the word is used by St. Paul (1Co 14:16 ; 1Co 14:23-24 ) of believers devoid of special spiritual gifts, of prophecy or of speaking with tongues, and in the passage before us it is applied to those who, like the , had been without professional training in the Rabbinical schools. The translation “ignorant” is somewhat unfortunate. certainly need not mean ignorant, cf. Plato, Legg. , 830, A., . St. Paul uses the word of himself, , 2Co 11:6 , in a way which helps us to understand its meaning here, for it may well have been used contemptuously of him (as here by the Sadducees of Peter and John) by the Judaisers, who despised him as “unlearned” and a “layman”: he would not affect the Rabbinic subtleties and interpretations in which they boasted. Others take the word here as referring to the social rank of the Apostles, “plebeians” “common men” (Kuinoel, Olshausen, De Wette, Bengel, Hackett), but the word is not so used until Herodian, iv., 10, 4. See also Dean Plumptre’s note on the transition of the word through the Vulgate idiota to our word “idiot”: Tyndale and Cranmer both render “laymen”. : if we take those words to imply that the Sanhedrim only recognised during the trial that Peter and John had been amongst the disciples of Jesus, there is something unnatural and forced about such an interpretation, especially when we remember that all Jerusalem was speaking of them, Act 4:16 ; Act 4:21 , and that one of them was personally known to the high priest (Joh 18:15 ). In Codex [155] (so [156] ) an attempt is apparently made to meet this difficulty by reading . Others have pointed out that the same word is used in Act 3:10 of the beggar who sat for alms, and that here, as there, . implies something more than mere recognition (see especially Lumby’s note on the force of ); thus the revisers in both passages render “took knowledge of”. But here as elsewhere Professor Ramsay throws fresh light upon the narrative, St. Paul , p. 371. And however we interpret the words, St. Chrysostom’s comment does not lose its beauty: . , i.e. , in His Passion, for only those were with Him at the time, and there indeed they had seen them humble, dejected and this it was that most surprised them, the greatness of the change; Hom. , x. The after ., and its repetition at the commencement of Act 4:14 (so R.V., W.H [157] , Weiss), is very Lucan (see Ramsay’s paraphrase above); for this closely connecting force of cf. Weiss’s commentary, passim . With . . . Weiss compares Luk 8:38 ; Luk 22:56 .

[153] literal, literally.

[154] literal, literally.

[155] Codex Claromontanus (sc. vi.), a Grco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[156] R(omana), in Blass, a first rough copy of St. Luke.

[157] Westcott and Hort’s The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Acts

THE FIRST BLAST OF TEMPEST

WITH AND LIKE CHRIST

Act 4:13 .

Two young Galilean fishermen, before the same formidable tribunal which a few weeks before had condemned their Master, might well have quailed. And evidently ‘Annas, the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest,’ were very much astonished that their united wisdom and dignity did not produce a greater impression on these two contumacious prisoners. They were ‘unlearned,’ knowing nothing about Rabbinical wisdom; they were ‘ignorant,’ or, as the word ought rather to be rendered, ‘persons in a private station,’ without any kind of official dignity. And yet there they stood, perfectly unembarrassed and at their ease, and said what they wanted to say, all of it, right out. So, as great astonishment crept over the dignified ecclesiastics who were sitting in judgment upon them, their astonishment led them to remember what, of course, they knew before, only that it had not struck them so forcibly, as explaining the Apostles’ demeanour- viz.,’that they had been with Jesus.’ So they said to themselves: ‘Ah, that explains it all! There is the root of it. The company that they have kept accounts for their unembarrassed boldness.’

Now, I need not notice by more than a word in passing, what a testimony it is to the impression that that meek and gracious Sufferer had made upon His judges, that when they saw these two men standing there unfaltering, they began to remember how that other Prisoner had stood. And perhaps some of them began to think that they had made a mistake in that last trial. It is a testimony to the impression that Christ had made that the strange demeanour of His two servants recalled the Master to the mind of the judges.

I. The first thing that strikes us here is the companionship that transforms.

The rulers were partly right, and they were partly wrong. The source from which these men had drawn their boldness was their being with Christ; but it was not such companionship with Christ, as Annas and Caiaphas had in view, that had given them courage. For as long as the Apostles had His personal presence with them, there was no perceptible transforming or elevating process going on in them; and it was not until after they had lost that corporeal presence that there came upon them the change which even the prejudiced eyes of these judges could not help seeing.

The writer of Acts gives a truer explanation with which we may fill out the incomplete explanation of the rulers, when he says, ‘Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost , said unto them.’ Ah, that is it! They had been with Jesus all the days that He went in and out amongst them. They had companioned with Him, and they had gained but little from it. But when He went away, and they were relegated to the same kind of companionship with Him that you and I have or may have, then a change began to take place on them. And so the companionship that transforms is not what the Apostle calls ‘knowing Christ after the flesh,’ but inward communion with Him, the companionship and familiarity which are as possible for us as for any Peter or John of them all, and without which our Christianity is nothing but sounding brass and tinkling cymbal.

They were ‘with Jesus,’ as each of us may be. Their communion was in no respect different from the communion that is open and indispensable to any real Christian. To be with Him is possible for us all. When we go to our daily work, when we are compassed about by distracting and trivial cares, when men come buzzing round us, and the ordinary secularities of life seem to close in upon us like the walls of a prison, and to shut out the blue and the light-oh! it is hard, but it is possible, for every one of us to think these all away, and to carry with us into everything that blessed thought of a Presence that is not to be put aside, that sits beside me at my study table, that stands beside you at your tasks, that goes with you in shop and mart, that is always near, with its tender encircling, with its mighty protection, with its all-sufficing sweetness and power. To be with Christ is no prerogative, either of Apostles and teachers of the primitive age, or of saints that have passed into the higher vision; but it is possible for us all. No doubt there are as yet unknown forms and degrees of companionship with Christ in the future state, in comparison with which to be ‘present in the body is to be absent from the Lord’; but in the inmost depth of reality, the soul that loves is where it loves, and has whom it loves ever with it. ‘Where the treasure is, there will the heart be also,’ and we may be with Christ if only we will honestly try hour by hour to keep ourselves in touch with Him, and to make Him the motive as well as the end of the work that other men do along with us, and do from altogether secular and low motives.

Another phase of being with Christ lies in frank, full, and familiar conversation with Him. I do not understand a dumb companionship. When we are with those that we love, and with whom we are at ease, speech comes instinctively. If we are co-denizens of the Father’s house with the Elder Brother, we shall talk to Him. We shall not need to be reminded of the ‘duty of prayer,’ but shall rather instinctively and as a matter of course, without thinking of what we are doing, speak to Him our momentary wants, our passing discomforts, our little troubles. There may be a great deal more virtue in monosyllabic prayers than in long liturgies. Little jets of speech or even of unspoken speech that go up to Him are likely to be heart-felt and to be heard. It is said of Israel’s army on one occasion, ‘they cried unto God in the battle, and He was entreated of them.’ Do you think that theirs would be very elaborate prayers? Was there any time to make a long petition when the sword of a Philistine was whizzing about the suppliant’s ears? It was only a cry, but it was a cry; and so ‘He was entreated of them.’ If we are ‘with Christ’ we shall talk to Him; and if we are with Christ He will talk to us. It is for us to keep in the attitude of listening and, so far as may be, to hush other voices, in order that His may be heard, If we do so, even here ‘shall we ever be with the Lord.’

II. Now, note next the character that this companionship produces.

Annas and Caiaphas said to each other: ‘Ah, these two have been with that Jesus! That is where they have got their boldness. They are like Him.’

As is the Master, so is the servant. That is the broad, general principle that lies in my text. To be with Christ makes men Christlike. A soul habitually in contact with Jesus will imbibe sweetness from Him, as garments laid away in a drawer with some preservative perfume absorb fragrance from that beside which they lie. Therefore the surest way for Christian people to become what God would have them to be, is to direct the greater part of their effort, not so much to the acquirement of individual characteristics and excellences, as to the keeping up of continuity of communion with the Master. Then the excellences will come. Astronomers, for instance, have found out that if they take a sensitive plate and lay it so as to receive the light from a star, and keep it in place by giving it a motion corresponding with the apparent motion of the heavens, for hours and hours, there will become visible upon it a photographic image of dim stars that no human eye or telescope can see. Persistent lying before the light stamps the image of the light upon the plate. Communion with Christ is the secret of Christlikeness. So instead of all the wearisome, painful, futile attempts at tinkering one’s own character apart from Him, here is the royal road. Not that there is no effort in it. We must never forget nor undervalue the necessity for struggle in the Christian life. But that truth needs to be supplemented with the thought that comes from my text-viz. that the fruitful direction in which the struggle is to be mainly made lies in keeping ourselves in touch with Jesus Christ, and if we do that, then transformation comes by beholding. ‘We all, reflecting as a mirror does, the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image.’ ‘They have been with Jesus,’ and so they were like Him.

But now look at the specific kinds of excellence which seem to have come out of this communion. ‘They beheld the boldness of Peter and John.’ The word that is translated ‘boldness’ no doubt conveys that idea, but it also conveys another. Literally it means ‘the act of saying everything.’ It means openness of unembarrassed speech, and so comes to have the secondary signification, which the text gives, of ‘boldness.’

Then, to be with Christ gives a living knowledge of Him and of truth, far in advance of the head knowledge of wise and learned people. It was a fact that these two knew nothing about what Rabbi This , or Rabbi That , or Rabbi The Other had said, and yet could speak, as they had been speaking, large religious ideas that astonished these hide-bound Pharisees, who thought that there was no way to get to the knowledge of the revelation of God made to Israel, except by the road of their own musty and profitless learning. Ay! and it always is so. An ounce of experience is worth a ton of theology. The men that have summered and wintered with Jesus Christ may not know a great many things that are supposed to be very important parts of religion, but they have got hold of the central truth of it, with a power, and in a fashion, that men of books, and ideas, and systems, and creeds, and theological learning, may know nothing about. ‘Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, are called.’ Let a poor man at his plough-tail, or a poor woman in her garret, or a collier in the pit, have Jesus Christ for their Companion, and they have got the kernel; and the gentlemen that like such diet may live on the shell if they will, and can. Religious ideas are of little use unless there be heart-experiences; and heart-experiences are wonderful teachers of religious truth.

Again, to be with Christ frees from the fear of man. It was a new thing for such persons as Peter and John to stand cool and unawed before the Council. Not so very long ago one of the two had been frightened into a momentary apostasy by dread of being haled before the rulers, and now they are calmly heroic, and threats are idle words to them. I need not point to the strong presumption, raised by the contrast of the Apostles’ past cowardice and present courage, of the occurrence of some such extraordinary facts as the Resurrection, the Ascension, and the Descent of the Spirit. Something had happened which revolutionised these men. It was their communion with Jesus, made more real and deep by the cessation of His bodily presence, which made these unlearned and non-official Galileans front the Council with calmly beating hearts and unfaltering tongues. Doubtless, temperament has much to do with courage, but, no doubt, he who lives near Jesus is set free from undue dependence on things seen and on persons. Perfect love casts out fear, not only of the Beloved, but of all creatures. It is the bravest thing in the world.

Further, to be with Christ will open a man’s lips. The fountain, if it is full, must well up. ‘Light is light which circulates. Heat is heat which radiates.’ The true possession of Jesus Christ will always make it impossible for the possessor to be dumb. I pray you to test yourselves, as I would that all professing Christians should test themselves, by that simple truth, that a full heart must find utterance. The instinct that drives a man to speak of the thing in which he is interested should have full play in the Christian life. It seems to me a terribly sad fact that there are such hosts of good, kind people, with some sort of religion about them, who never feel any anxiety to say a word to any soul concerning the Master whom they profess to love. I know, of course, that deep feeling is silent, and that the secrets of Christian experience are not to be worn on the sleeve for daws to peck at. And I know that the conventionalities of this generation frown very largely upon the frank utterance of religious convictions on the part of religious people, except on Sundays, in Sunday-schools, pulpits, and the like. But for all that, what is in you will come out. If you have never felt ‘I was weary of forbearing, and I could not stay,’ I do not think that there is much sign in you of a very deep or a very real being with Jesus.

III. The last point to be noted is, the impression which such a character makes.

It was not so much what Peter and John said that astonished the Council, as the fact of their being composed and bold enough to say anything.

A great deal more is done by character than by anything else. Most people in the world take their notions of Christianity from its concrete embodiments in professing Christians. For one man that has read his Bible, and has come to know what religion is thereby, there are a hundred that look at you and me, and therefrom draw their conclusions as to what religion is. It is not my sermons, but your life, that is the most important agency for the spread of the Gospel in this congregation. And if we, as Christian people, were to live so as to make men say, ‘Dear me, that is strange. That is not the kind of thing that one would have expected from that man. That is of a higher strain than he is of. Where did it come from, I wonder?’ ‘Ah, he learned it of that Jesus’-if people were constrained to speak in that style to themselves about us, dear friends, and about all our brethren, England would be a different England from what it is t-day. It is Christians’ lives, after all, that make dints in the world’s conscience.

Do you remember one of the Apostle’s lovely and strong metaphors? Paul says that that little Church in Thessalonica rung out clear and strong the name of Jesus Christ-resonant like the clang of a bugle, ‘so that we need not to speak anything.’ The word that he employs for ‘sounded out’ is a technical expression for the ringing blast of a trumpet. Very small penny whistles would be a better metaphor for the instruments which the bulk of professing Christians play on.

‘Adorn the doctrine of Christ.’ And that you may, listen to His own word, which says all I have been trying to say in this sermon: ‘Abide in Me. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in Me.’

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Act 4:13-22

13Now as they observed the confidence of Peter and John and understood that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed, and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus. 14And seeing the man who had been healed standing with them, they had nothing to say in reply. 15But when they had ordered them to leave the Council, they began to confer with one another, 16saying, “What shall we do with these men? For the fact that a noteworthy miracle has taken place through them is apparent to all who live in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. 17But so that it will not spread any further among the people, let us warn them to speak no longer to any man in this name.” 18And when they had summoned them, they commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. 19But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to give heed to you rather than to God, you be the Judges 20 for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.” 21When they had threatened them further, they let them go (finding no basis on which to punish them) on account of the people, because they were all glorifying God for what had happened; 22for the man was more than forty years old on whom this miracle of healing had been performed.

Act 4:13 “the confidence” See the Special Topic: boldness (parrhsia) at Act 4:29.

“uneducated” The term is agrammatos, which is the term “writing” with the alpha privative. This may mean that they were

1. ignorant or uneducated (cf. Moulton, Milligan, Vocabulary, p. 6)

2. untrained in the rabbinical schools (cf. A. T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the Greek New Testament, vol. 3, p. 52 and Louw and Nida, Lexicon, vol. 1, p. 328)

“untrained” This is the term idits, which is usually translated “layman” or “untrained in a certain area.” Originally it referred to a normal person as opposed to a leader or spokesperson. It came to be used of an outsider vs. a member of a group (cf. 1Co 14:16; 1Co 14:23-24; 2Co 11:6).

Notice how the different English translations handle this phrase.

NASB, NKJV “uneducated and untrained men”

NRSV “uneducated and ordinary men”

TEV “ordinary men of no education”

NJB “uneducated layman”

“they were amazed” This is an imperfect active indicative (as are the next two verbs). They imply either the beginning of an action or repeated action in past time (indicative mood). Luke uses this word often (18 times in Luke and Acts); it usually, but not always, has a positive connotation (cf. Luk 11:38; Luk 20:26; Act 4:13; Act 13:41).

“began to recognize them as having been with Jesus” This was in truth a compliment. Jesus was also untrained in the rabbinical schools, yet He knew the Old Testament well. He did attend synagogue school as all Jewish children (as did Peter and John) were required to do.

These leaders recognized the boldness and power of Peter and John. They had seen the same in Jesus.

Act 4:14 Everyone knew this lame man because he regularly sat at the Temple door daily. But he was not sitting anymore! The crowd in the Temple could not deny this (cf. Act 4:16; Act 4:22).

Act 4:15 They asked the three of them to leave while they discussed their options and planned their strategy of denial and deception (cf. Act 4:17-18).

Act 4:17-18 This was their plan! Stop talking about Jesus and stop helping people in His name! What about all the people who were praising God for the healing (cf. Act 3:8-9; Act 4:16)?

Act 4:19 “whether” This is a first class conditional sentence, which is used not of reality, but for the sake of argument. Peter and John did not think their commands were valid (cf. Act 5:28).

“right” See SPECIAL TOPIC: RIGHTEOUSNESS at Act 3:14.

“you be the judge” This is an aorist active imperative. These leaders condemned themselves by their words, motives, and actions.

Act 4:20 Peter and John assert that they cannot deny what they have experienced and they will not stop sharing it!

Act 4:21 “when they had threatened them further” I wonder what they threatened to do. Jesus was raised from the dead. The man was raised from his bed; what were these leaders going to do to Peter and John?

“(finding no basis on which to punish them)” This may indicate one of Luke’s purposes in writing. Christianity was not a threat to Rome or the peace of Jerusalem. Even the Sanhedrin could find no grounds to condemn its leaders.

“on account of the people” The eyewitnesses of the events in Jerusalem held the early church in high esteem (cf. Act 2:47). The Jewish leaders were threatened by this popularity (cf. Act 5:13; Act 5:26).

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

Now when they saw = And beholding. Greek theoreo. App-133.

boldness = outspokenness. Greek. parrhesia. Same word as “freely”, in Act 2:29.

perceived. Greek. katalambano. Compare Joh 1:5. Eph 3:18.

unlearned = illiterate. Greek. agrammatos. Only here. Compare Joh 7:15.

ignorant = obscure. Greek. idiotes. Literally private, i.e. unprofessional. Only here, 1Co 14:16, 1Co 14:23, 1Co 14:24; 2Co 11:6.

took knowledge = recognized. Greek. epiginosko. App-132.

with Greek. sun. App-104.

Jesus. App-98.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

13-18.] CONSULTATION AND SENTENCE OF THE SANHEDRIM.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Act 4:13. ) beholding.-, the freedom of speech) The noun , and the verb , both very frequently used in this book of Acts, inasmuch as being appropriate to its subject, express the characteristic of true religion. It was by this boldness of speech that they overcame both city and world (urbem et orbem).-, having perceived) now, or even before.-, men) This is a more humble designation than .-, unlearned) who could scarcely read or write, having hardly made further progress even in sacred learning.-, untutored men) Private persons, viz. fishermen; and therefore not endued with those accomplishments on which political and eloquent men depend. The is unaccomplished; the , still more so. See the remarks which we have made concerning this word, on Chrysost. de Sacerd., 413. It is by men of this kind, despised in the eyes of the world, that God has ALWAYS caused His word to be preached.-Justus Jonas.- , and they knew or recognised) now at last: for a little before they had paid less attention to them.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Braving Men to Obey God

Act 4:13-22

Do people realize that there is something about us which cannot be accounted for except that we have been with Jesus? Our company always influences us. A man is known by the company he keeps. Good manners are caught by association with the well-mannered. What, then, will not be the effect upon us, if only we live in fellowship with Jesus! Our faces will shine with a reflection of His purity and beauty; and the ancient prayer will be answered, Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us, Psa 90:17. Our converts are our best arguments. The man which was healed (was) standing with them-his face suffused with the light of a new energy and hope. That fact answered all the sophistries of these Jewish leaders. It was as impossible to stay the effect of that miracle as to bid the sun cease shining. Note the exuberance of the life of God! We cannot but speak, Act 4:20. When once we have got the real thing, we cannot and dare not be still; we must speak. As the swelling seed will break down a brick wall, so when the love of Christ constrains us, though all the world is in arms, we must bear witness to our Lord.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

12. WHAT DOES MY LIFE SAY ABOUT CHRIST?

Act 4:13-22

Several things in this paragraph need to be carefully observed. Each is a matter worthy of more detailed study than can be given here.

First, Neither the gospel that Peter and John preached, nor the miracle they performed could be denied. The evidence was undeniable (Act 4:13-16). These men had honored God. They faithfully confessed Christ, bearing witness to him before his enemies, and God honored their faithfulness. Though they were now prisoners before the Sanhedrin, the Lord was with them. As he had promised, the Holy Spirit gave them the wisdom and the words they needed (Mat 10:19). GOD ALWAYS HONORS THOSE WHO HONOR HIM (1Sa 2:30).

Second, When there is a conflict between the will of God and the laws of men, the believer must obey God, regardless of cost (Act 4:17-20). In all things regarding civil life and government, believers are to be subject to the power and authority of civil rulers (Rom 13:1-4). However, if we are required by law to do that which is in direct violation of the Word of God, we are bound to obey God.

Third, All who serve the cause of God in this world will be protected by God and the cause they serve will succeed (Act 4:21-22). God will be glorified! In his wise and adorable providence God makes all things work together for the spiritual, eternal good of his elect and the glory of his own great name (Psa 76:10; Rom 8:28; Rev. 4:12). He always does that which is best. At this time, it was best for Peter and John to be released. Later, it was best for them to be beaten and imprisoned. Still later, it was best for them to be brutally killed for the testimony of Christ.

However, the thing that seems most significant in this paragraph is recorded in Act 4:13 – “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and THEY TOOK KNOWLEDGE OF THEM, THAT THEY HAD BEEN WITH JESUS.” Those men who had no reverence for God, no regard for Christ, and no interest in the gospel, took notice of Peter and John as being men whose lives were manifestly under the influence and control of the Lord Jesus Christ. Their communion and conversation with Christ so influenced their lives, their speech, and their conduct that even their enemies acknowledged them to be followers of Christ.

Here is a question that ought to pierce every believer’s heart – What does my life say about Christ? What does my behavior say to the people around whom I work and live about the Christ I profess to trust, love, and serve? This much is certain – If a person truly knows Christ, if a person lives in communion with Jesus Christ by faith, Christ will be manifest in his life. Paul knew the Thessalonians were elect of God because Christ was manifest in them (1Th 1:3-10). Give thoughtful consideration to the following questions:

WHAT IS A CHRISTIAN? A Christian is a person who has been chosen by God in eternal election as an object of his love and grace (Eph 1:4; 2Th 2:13), a person who has been redeemed from the curse of the law by the blood of Christ which was shed for the satisfaction of divine justice for God’s elect (Gal 3:13; 1Pe 3:18), one who has been regenerated by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel (1Pe 1:23; Jas 1:8), a person who by the irresistible influence of God the Holy Spirit freely acknowledges his sin and believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, confessing him as Lord (Rom 10:9-13; 1Jn 1:9). A Christian is a person in whom Christ dwells (Col 1:27; 2Pe 1:4).

The new birth is nothing less than Christ coming into a sinner’s heart, taking possession of him, ruling him, and causing him to become a follower of himself (Mat 12:29; Luk 14:26-27). Anything less than this is not Christianity. A Christian, a true believer, is a man or a woman who desires and seeks the perfection of Christ’s character in himself (Php 3:10; Col 3:1-3; Heb 12:14). Perfect conformity to Christ cannot be attained in this life, but that fact does not hinder the pursuit of it. The believer longs to be like Christ, to walk in his steps, to follow his example (Joh 13:15). Here are four things that characterized our Savior’s life. These four things will, to one degree or another, characterize all who know and follow him:

1. Unflinching boldness for the honor of God (Mat 21:12-13).

2. Gentleness and love (Joh 8:1-12; 1Co 13:1-8; Eph 4:32 to Eph 5:1).

3. Self-abasing humility (Php 2:5-8).

4. Righteousness (Luk 2:49-52; Eph 4:17-32).

Find a person whose life truly exemplifies these characteristics and you have found a person who has evidently “been with Jesus”. Those who bear the fruit of the Spirit are born of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23). Good works have nothing to do with salvation. We are saved by grace alone. But grace always produces good works (Eph 2:8-10).

WHEN SHOULD BELIEVERS STRIVE TO BE LIKE CHRIST? I hope this question appears to be redundant to you. Yet, there are many who seem to think that Christianity is for Sundays and for church, but should not greatly interfere with a person’s life. If your religion does not interfere with your life, your religion is a sham (2Co 5:17). That person who knows Christ strives to be like him at all times, in all places, in all circumstances.

– In The House of God (1Ti 3:15-16).

– In The Daily Affairs Of Life (Mat 15:14-16).

– In The Home (Eph 5:22 to Eph 6:4).

– In Heart and Attitude (Psa 139:23-24).

WHY SHOULD THOSE WHO LOVE CHRIST STRIVE TO BE LIKE HIM? The believer’s life is not motivated by law, but by grace. God’s people do not serve him for fear of punishment or in hope of reward. And they certainly do not do what they do to be seen of men (Mat 6:1-18), but they do seek to imitate Christ in all things.

Earnestly strive to be like Christ in all things FOR YOUR OWN SAKE. Your happiness in this world greatly depends upon your obedience to Christ. Your spiritual health, in great measure, depends upon your willingness to follow your Savior. Imitate Christ in all things FOR THE GOSPEL’S SAKE (Tit 2:10). The gospel you profess to believe will gain or lose credibility in the eyes of men by the way you live. Strive to conform your life to Christ FOR CHRIST’S SAKE. Loving gratitude demands it (2Co 5:14). Child of God, never forget who you are and whose you are (1Co 6:20; 1Co 7:23).

HOW CAN A PERSON BE LIKE CHRIST? Many who admire the love and purity of Christ’s life try to follow his example. But they are building without a foundation. The house they build will soon crumble around them. It will do you no good to mold your behavior to the example of Christ until your heart is renewed by grace. “Ye must be born again!” Only Christ can make men and women to be like Christ. He does this by four mighty works of grace.

1. Blood Atonement (1Pe 3:18).

2. Imputed Righteousness (2Co 5:21).

3. Regenerating, Sanctifying Grace (2Pe 1:4).

4. Resurrection Glory (Php 3:21).

Fuente: Discovering Christ In Selected Books of the Bible

were: Act 2:7-12, Mat 4:18-22, Mat 11:25, Joh 7:15, Joh 7:49, 1Co 1:27

they took: Mat 26:57, Mat 26:58, Mat 26:71, Mat 26:73, Luk 22:52-54, Luk 22:56-60, Joh 18:16, Joh 18:17, Joh 19:26

Reciprocal: 1Sa 10:11 – What is this Psa 71:7 – as a wonder Psa 118:23 – it is Pro 28:1 – the righteous Ecc 8:1 – and the Isa 32:4 – the tongue Isa 40:9 – be not Jer 1:8 – not afraid Eze 2:6 – be not Mat 10:26 – Fear Mat 13:54 – they were Mar 6:2 – From Luk 12:4 – Be Joh 7:26 – he speaketh Act 1:13 – Peter Act 3:1 – Peter Act 4:29 – that Act 9:21 – amazed Act 9:27 – and how Act 12:3 – he proceeded Act 13:46 – waxed 1Co 14:16 – unlearned 2Co 3:12 – plainness Eph 6:19 – that I 1Th 2:2 – bold

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

COMPANIONS OF CHRIST

They took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

Act 4:13

The first outbreak of enmity against the disciples, and on their trial men recognised that they had been with Jesus.

I. We must be with Jesus if we would bear a good testimony for Him:

(a) In the presence of the world. To have heard of Him is not enough; we must be with Him.

(b) In our own hearts, where we form our designs. Unless we are with Jesus there will be no Christ in thoughts, words, actions.

(c) In the presence of sorrow. Here, above all, man requires His Saviours presence. A real walking with God will alone render a man master of sorrow.

(d) In prosperity. Successes are enemies in disguise. All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. How shall the man of wealth render testimony to His Lord? Only by being with Jesus.

(e) In the presence of death. If we would meet death fearless and in humble assurance of life beyond, we must have been with Jesus during our lives here.

II. One more testimony, not by but of men. At the Judgment Day who will escape the wrath of the Judge? Those of whom angels and men take knowledge that they have been with Jesus.

Dean Alford.

Illustration

Let no one be ashamed to confess his faith; and when that faith is evil spoken of, let us act so that the world must take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus. There is a story often told that on one occasion one of the bravest generals of Frederic the Great declined the kings invitation to dinner because he was going to receive the Blessed Sacrament. The next time he was present at the royal table, the king and his guests mocked at the Holy Eucharist, and at the scruples of the general. The old man rose, saluted the king, who was no man to be trifled with, and told him that there was yet a greater King than Frederic, and that he never allowed that Holy One to be insulted in his presence. The courtiers looked on in astonishment, but the king clasped the hand of his servant, and expressed his sorrow that he could not believe as firmly and declare his faith as fearlessly.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

The Results of a Faithful Testimony

Act 4:13-31

INTRODUCTORY WORDS

A real problem presented itself to the rulers of the Jews. They were greatly perturbed by the preaching of the disciples, and by the miracle of Peter and John, but what could they do?

Their heartless and causeless crucifixion of Christ had proved most disastrous to their religious prestige; for Christ had risen and all men conceded the fact.

They might once more have turned executioners, and have put Peter and John out of the way, but they feared the people. The fourth chapter of Acts makes this plain. Mark verse 14: “They could say nothing against it.” That is, they would have spoken against the healing of the lame man, if they had dared so to do. Again, Act 4:16 reveals their inner attitude, when it gives the words of the rulers, “What shall we do to these men? For that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it.”

Their final action was determined by their wisdom, not by their desires. All they dared to do was to threaten Peter and John, and to command them not to speak further in Christ’s Name.

With this course decided, they called Peter and John before them again and delivered their verdict. First, let us consider:

I. MARK WELL THE EFFECT OF THE WORDS WHICH THE DISCIPLES HAD SPOKEN

1. They acknowledged the boldness of Peter and John. How could they help so doing? The man, Peter, who had denied the Lord before a maid, had now lost all sense of fear. When Christ had been dragged by the rulers before Pilate, although Peter’s life was in no immediate danger, yet Peter quailed with fear before the taunt of a girl. Now with Peter’s own life in question, and not before a maid, but before Annas and Caiaphas, the men who had so heartlessly delivered Christ to His death, Peter knew no fear. No marvel that the rulers marveled at his boldness.

2. They conceded that Peter and John were ignorant men, unlearned in rabbinical wisdom. For this cause they marveled the more. To be sure Peter and John had both sat at the feet of Jesus and heard His word, but they had never sat at the feet of the learned Gamaliel. As men counted learning, they had none. Yet, the unlearned spoke before the learned, and spoke with unquestioned authority, the ignorant spoke before the wise, and spoke with unchallenged wisdom.

We stop a moment for a word of warning. Ecclesiastical powers are today making more and more stringent requirements along educational lines for would-be preachers. There is great danger here. Education may be all right, but some of it is all wrong. We, ourselves, value words that are “fitly spoken.” We enjoy messages, correct in grammar, and striking in their wide sweep of human knowledge. However, these are not the chief things with a minister of God.

Men who are unlearned, so far as “higher education” is concerned, are often the most learned in the things of God. Besides, the Holy Spirit is the power the pulpit needs, and He is the greatest of all teachers. We some way believe that the study of the Word of God, gives a preacher not only a marvelous command of diction, but it also gives him a great aid in correct language.

Let us never forget that Peter and John, fishermen of Galilee, untutored, unlearned, and ignorant in human lore. were chosen of the Lord. Afterward these very men, with mighty power, stood before Annas and Caiaphas and John, and Alexander, the intellectual chiefs of Israel, and confounded them.

We grant that Paul was educated at the feet of Gamaliel, and we recognize the advantages of a trained mind. However, we insist that much that Paul learned at the feet of Gamaliel was only so much garbage to him, and to his ministry, and it, therefore, had to be cast overboard. We assert that education with all of its helpfulness, carries serpents’ fangs when men are taught the present-day denials of the faith.

3. They asserted that Peter and John had been with Jesus. What an admission for these haters of Christ to make! These words of Annas and Caiaphas carry with them a forced, though frank acknowledgment of Christ’s greatness. Whatever the rulers thought of Jesus, they saw plainly that these untutored men of the nets, had been transformed into gifted men of the ministry, by their three years of contact with the Son of God.

What an unintended compliment to the Son of God! Annas and Caiaphas were right-it was the beautiful life and words of Jesus Christ that had made Peter and John what they were. The rulers who had tried Christ and cast Him out as worthy of death, now, unwittingly, condemn their own former treatment of Christ by acknowledging that all the power and forcefulness of Peter and of John had come from their former contact with the wonderful Jesus.

II. MARK WELL THE EFFECT OF THE HEALING OF THE LAME MAN UPON THE RULERS (Act 4:14)

Act 4:14 says of Annas and Caiaphas and the rest, “And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.”

Bless God-here was an unchallenged proof that Christ still lived, and wrought.

An infidel who was loud in his denunciation of Christ, being asked if he had a Christian mother, replied, in effect, “Gentlemen, that is the only thing that I cannot answer. My mother is the sweetest Christian I ever saw, and her life shows the genuineness of her faith.”

How wonderful it was-before the very eyes of the men who had delivered up the Son of God to Pontius Pilate stood one who presented an unanswerable proof that Christ still lived and wrought. Against this marvelous miracle they could say nothing at all. They knew that the untutored Peter and John had no power to make the lame to walk-yet the lame did walk. Peter was right-It was Christ’s Name, by faith in His Name, that made the man who had been lame, to stand there before them in perfect soundness.

Annas and Caiaphas and their comrade said, “That indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny it” (Act 4:16).

Peter and John were asked to step without, while these critics of the Christ sat to discuss their fate. None of us for a moment doubt what the rulers wanted to do-they wanted to put the two disciples where they had so recently put their Lord-on two crosses, out on old Golgotha’s hill, but, they dared not The best they dared to do was to threaten the disciples, and command them to speak no more in the Name of Christ. Thus they hoped that Christ’s Name and doctrine would spread no further. In the next division we will see how vain was their hope.

With what strange misgivings must the high priest and his associates have passed from that council! They no doubt remained in troubled consultation for some time, then they passed to their own homes to spend a restless night. Their consciences were stirred. Their sins were falling back, like a boomerang, upon their own heads.

As these men sought repose, we need not doubt that they saw their hands smirched with the Blood of Christ.

III. THE DISCIPLES’ RESPONSE TO THEIR JUDGES

When Peter and John received the order not to further speak in Christ’s Name, they replied:

“Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.

“For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Act 4:19-20).

Here is a statement that will help us to settle many things. Shall we place the authority of men above that of the Lord?

Shall we obey the state when its demands carry us counter to the Word of God? In this country the government is not under the hands of men such as Pilate; but, if the government should refuse us the right to obey God, judge ye, whom we shall obey.

Shall we obey the ecclesiastical powers that be, when they run counter to the commands of God? The national government does not seek to invade the rights of its citizens along spiritual lines. We cannot always say this about ecclesiastical authorities. There has grown up about us, in many quarters, a religious hierarchy, that seeks to curtail the liberty of the pulpit. It dares to dictate to preachers what they shall, and what they shall not, preach. Certain themes are particularly put under the ban-pre-eminently the Blessed Hope of the Return of the Lord. The preacher who dares to disregard the outspoken or veiled demand that he speak not on these things will find himself withstood in many localities.

What course should the faithful take? Should they obey God or men? Should they preach the smooth things, the humanly approved things, the things that draw ecclesiastical praise, or, shall they preach the God-commanded things, even though they be the disapproved things and the unpopular things?

Is denominational prestige more to be desired than Divine approval? Are the plaudits of men to be desired more than the praise of God? What did the Spirit say in Paul? “For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”

Peter and John felt a great impelling must back of their testimony. They said, “We must obey God.” There was something in them that impelled them. It was Paul who said, “Woe is unto me, if I preach not the Gospel.” Jeremiah once thought that he would cease preaching. There was so much of opposition, so much of persecution laid upon him. However, when he would have ceased to speak, the Word of God burned in his very soul, therefore he became weary with his withholding, and he could not stay.

IV. THE DISCIPLES CONTINUED TESTIMONY

Since the rulers could find no excuse to punish Peter and John, they turned them loose. Did fear possess the two Apostles? Not for one moment. Did the Christians in Jerusalem cringe before the onslaught of the chief priests? Not for a moment. Let us note Act 4:23, Act 4:24.

“And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them.

“And when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord, and said, Lord, thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is” (Act 4:23-24).

1. How expressive the words, “their own company!” There was a different atmosphere that surrounded the two disciples as they left the austere, critical mien of the Sanhedrin, and entered into the presence of those who believed in, and loved the Lord Jesus.

No fellowship is as gracious as that of saints.

“Blest be the tie that binds,

Our hearts in Christian love;

The fellowship of kindred minds

Is like to that above.”

Once more the Apostles stood in the midst of the household of God. The winter of an hostile court composed of biased and critical minds, had suddenly been changed to the summer of a friendly church, composed of lovers of truth, The wild blasts of chilling winds, had given way to balmy breezes, freighted with the aroma of heavenly peace.

2. How delightful is the expression, “They * * reported all that the chief priests and the elders, had said unto them.” How earnestly the Christians must have prayed while Peter and John were on trial; how eagerly now they listened to the report of all that had happened.

Nothing was left unsaid. The disciples recounted Peter’s bold testimony against the rulers; the quiet and perhaps voiceless testimony of the lame man who had been healed, as he stood in the group, hard by the ones who, in the Name of Jesus, had brought him healing; the dilemma of the leaders of Judaism when they squirmed under the thrusts of Peter and of John as they were charged with the death of the Lord; and, as they proclaimed the resurrection and power of the Lord Jesus. The two disciples then related the finale of the court-the command that they should speak no more in Christ’s Name, the threatenings, the promised penalties that would follow, if they did so speak.

3. How stirring is the paragraph: “They lifted up their voice to God with one accord.” These words, and the words that follow, carry with them certain contemplations that must not be overlooked:

(1) There was the recognition of God’s great supremacy. The people said, “Lord, Thou art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all that in them is.”

Somehow they all stood awed by the manifest presence and power of the living and mighty working God. The God whom they worshiped was the God who had created all things.

We would do well, if we, in our conceptions would keep in our mind that first great verse of the Bible, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

“God lives, shall I despair,

As if He were not there?

Is not my life His care,

Is not His hand Divine?

God lives, there rest my soul,

God is, and doth control.”

The happenings at court made the disciples and believers all feel that they were in the presence of a God who knows and cares. They felt that God had unsheathed His sword in behalf of His own.

(2) There was the recognition of the ravings of the court that had tried two disciples. The people with one accord said, “Who by the mouth of thy servant David hast said, Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?

“The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord, and against his Christ” (Act 4:25-26).

The words spoken by the saints covered a quotation taken from the second Psalm. It is a great thing to know the Scriptures; it is also great to be able, as daily events roll by, to say, “This is that.”

The disciples were not surprised, because they had been forewarned of God. The believers did not fail to catch the real spirit that lay behind Annas and Caiaphas and John and Alexander, and their kin-folk, who had arraigned Peter and John before them. As they grasped the report of that trial they felt that the rulers had raged like the heathen rage; they had imagined a vain thing. They had gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ.

Not this alone, but the Christians who heard the report of Peter and John, agreed that the two were justifiable, when they asserted that the rulers had crucified the Lord. Mark the assembly’s further words:

“For of a truth against Thy holy Child Jesus, whom Thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together.

“For to do whatsoever Thy hand and Thy counsel determined to be done” (Act 4:27-28).

We are almost startled at the sweep of truth that these Christians, so recently saved, manifested.

They saw on the one hand the crucifixion carried out by the hands of wicked men. They charged Herod and Pilate and the Gentiles, together with the people of Israel with the death of Christ.

They saw, on the other hand, that the crucifixion fulfilled the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. God had sent Christ to die, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.

4. How marvelous the prayer, “And now, Lord, behold their threatenings.” They who had first gathered together against the Lord, now threatened the saints. Not only that, but the Lord beheld them as they threatened. There is nothing that is not naked and open to His eyes.

This, however was not all of their prayer. They prayed that God would grant His servants, “that, with all boldness they may speak Thy Word.” There was no desire, on the part of any, to retrench. They were determined to give their testimony, and they prayed that they might give it with all boldness. Why should saints tremble and fear, and refuse to take their stand, forsooth, because some one opposes them? Let them continue their testimony.

There was yet one thing more in their prayer. They prayed that healing, and signs and wonders might still be done in the Name of the holy Child, Jesus. Thus we know that the Christians recognized that the Christ, now exalted at the Father’s right hand, was the same as the Child, the holy Child, of Bethlehem. What they asserted was that this same Jesus still lived and worked. His Name was the power of their miracles.

V. THE REMARKABLE RESPONSE FROM HEAVEN

When the disciples had finished their report, and when the believers had finished their prayer, we read:

“And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness” (Act 4:31).

Let us mark three things:

1. The place was shaken. This brought to the servants of God a solemn sense of the presence of God. It carried them back to Pentecost when the sound of a mighty rushing wind filled the house where they were sitting. It gave them assurance that God had heard their prayer, accepted their praise, and that He was working in their behalf. What cared they for the threatening of the High Priests and of the rulers. God was with them, and who could be against them. When the Lord lifted up His hand, man could not draw it back.

2. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost came to impart unto them the spirit of wisdom, and of revelation, in the knowledge of Christ. He came to glorify Christ, to manifest His Name.

The Holy Ghost filled them that they might reveal the all-glorious fruit of love, and joy and peace.

The Holy Ghost was upon them that they might be given power, and be panoplied for testimony. Their ambitions were right, their prayer was acceptable, but God knew that even such valiant souls, could not, apart from the Spirit’s infilling, perform His purposes.

The preacher of the truth, must be filled with the Spirit, if his message is to carry power.

3. They spake the Word of God with boldness. These early believers did not speak with worldly wisdom nor did they proclaim a message based on intellectual reasonings. They did not preach dreams of their heads, nor reasonings of their minds. They preached the Word. They gave a “Thus saith the Lord” for every position they took. They unsheathed the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, They found the Word sufficient in all things. They did not seek to shine upon its statements, they merely held it up and let it shine.

They spake the Word, and they spake it with all boldness. It would be most unseemly for any Christian to be bold in preaching themselves, or, bold in parading their own hobbies, or self-manufactured think-sos. It is easy to rant around, asserting some fanatical fancy of an untaught brain. The disciples and the early Church were not given to fighting the old Jewish traditions, merely because they had a dislike for the men who ruled Judaism. These men spoke boldly, but they spoke a word not of their own making. They proclaimed a message that was sent from Heaven and they spoke that message with a faithful interpretation of Scripture. They convinced all gainsayers. They reasoned out of the Scriptures. They spoke a sane message from a sound mind, and they spake contending for the great foundation truths of the faith.

We who, for the time are teachers, need to be rooted and grounded in the Word; we need to rightly divide the Word of Truth. We are not to be heralders of the doctrines of men, but of the Word of God.

When we are thus rooted and grounded in the Truth, and when, in addition, we are filled with the Holy Ghost, we can speak with all boldness, without courting favor, or fearing frowns.

Let us seek to return to this threefold position of the early saints, (1) Preaching the Word. (2) Preaching the Word under the anointing of the Spirit. (3) Preaching the Word with all boldness. When this is done, God will bless our testimony.

In the beginning was the Word,

The Word with God was dwelling;

The Word was God, God was the Word,

Let us its truth be telling.

In Heav’n established is the Word,

Made sure by God forever;

Though Heav’n and earth shall pass away,

His Word, it falleth never.

All blessed is the precious Word,-

Christ’s Name in ancient story,

His Name when first to earth He came,

And when He comes in glory,

The Word, the Word, the wondrous Word;

The Word with God in Heaven;

We will with boldness preach the Word,

The Word to mortals given.

Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water

3

Act 4:13. The lexicon defines the original for boldness to mean, “Freedom in speaking, unreservedness in speech; openly, frankly; free and fearless confidence, cheerful courage.” Perceived is from KATALAMBANO, which Thayer defines at this place, “To lay hold of with the mind; to understand, learn, comprehend.” Unlearned and ignorant does not refer to their natural intelligence, for even their enemies did not think the apostles were lacking along that line; had they thought so, they would not have been so uneasy about their influence with the people. The phrase means the apostles were not cultured in the art of learning as taught in the public institutions, but were private citizens without what the world would call “education.” The leaders in the Sanhedrin perceived (realized) that the apostles were without these advantages of learning, yet beheld their boldness and ability of speech, and that caused them to marvel. They had to account for it in some way, which they did by concluding that the men had been with Jesus. These Jewish leaders did not know what Jesus had taught his apostles, but many of them had heard Him speak and had known how bold and outspoken he was. Now they conclude that the apostles had been with Jesus so much that they had imbibed the same spirit of courage and force of speech, which’made them (the leaders in the Sanhedrin) fearful of the influence they might have over the common people.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Act 4:13. Unlearned. Observing from the language and arguments used that Peter and John were untaught in the rabbinical learning of the Jewish schools.

And obscure, or common. Men of no mark.

They marvelled. The rulers were evidently astonished that one so unlearned and undistinguished should address them in such moving, powerful language.

They recognised that they had been with Jesus. Their wonder sharpened their recollection (Meyer). Jesus had taught publicly on many occasions in Jerusalem and in the Temple courts, and we know some at least of the rulers at different times had been present. These now remembered the faces of peter and John, who, no doubt, as His most trusted followers, were ever in the vicinity of the Master.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Observe here, 1. How convincing the boldness of the apostles was, together with the undeniable evidence of the miracle wrought by them: When the council observed both, they marvelled, the apostles being unlearned men, yet now able to speak all languages, and the cripple born lame, now able to leap and walk. These men were convinced, but not converted; silence, but not satisfied; they marvelled, but not believed: they were full of admiration, but far from faith. The evidence of the fact, with the courage of the apostles, stopped their mouths at present, but did not cure their hard hearts.

Observe, 2. At what a nonplus the council was, to know what to do with the apostles; they confess the miracle, but consult upon ways and means how to conceal it; and at last conclude upon threatening them, That for the time to come they speak no more in the name of Jesus; that is, not to preach in his name, nor work miracles by a power and authority derived pretendedly from him. Bt the apostles soon let them understand, that they esteemed not the threatenings of the counsel, nor looked upon them as any excuse for the forebearing of their duty; as appeareth by the next words.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Commanded To Speak No More Under Jesus’ Authority

It was obvious to those in the council that Peter and John had not been trained by the rabbis or with the scribes, yet they dared to interpret scripture with great boldness. Either because of their boldness, their use of scripture, their general demeanor, or some other factor, the council noted “they had been with Jesus.” All Christians ought to strive to live so that a similar observation can be made about them. Also, and perhaps most damaging of all, the council could not refute the miracle because the formerly lame man stood before them healed!

The apostles were asked to step outside while the council conferred. They could not deny a miracle had been worked because reports of the healing were wide spread. Neither were they able to refute Peter’s arguments for the resurrection of Jesus, but they needed to stop the preaching of Jesus before more of the people turned to follow him. So, they called the apostles back in, threatened them and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus ( Act 4:13-18 ). Boles says, “The original conveys the idea that they were not to let the name of Jesus pass their lips again. They severely threatened them and charged them that they were not to use ‘the name of Jesus’ at all.”

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

Act 4:13-14. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John Observed with what courage and freedom they spoke, and pleaded their Masters cause, and to what a high degree they extolled him in the very presence of those magistrates who had so lately condemned him to the most shameful death; and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant Or rather, illiterate and uneducated men, or men in private stations in life, as Dr. Doddridge renders the latter word, , observing, that the expressions literally signify, that they were not scholars, nor in any public rank of life, as the priests and magistrates were; but that they import no want of natural good sense, or any ignorance of what was then the subject of debate: so that our translation seems very unhappy here. They marvelled Were greatly astonished; and took knowledge of them Greek, , they knew, or were persuaded, namely, upon further recollection or consideration; that they had been with Jesus Had been his disciples, and from him had received their knowledge and their courage. They themselves, it is probable, had seen these two disciples with him in the temple, or on the night when he was taken, led to the house of Caiaphas, and examined: and they now recollected that they had seen them with him. Or some of the servants of these rulers, or those about them, informed them of it. And when they understood that they had been with Jesus, had been conversant with him, attendant on him, and trained up under him, they knew what to impute their boldness to; nay, their boldness in divine things was enough to show with whom they had associated, and from whom they had had their education. Observe, reader, those that have been with Jesus, that have had converse and communion with him, should conduct themselves in every thing so that those who converse with them may take knowledge of them that they have been with him; and, therefore, are made so holy and heavenly, spiritual and cheerful; so raised above this world, and inspired with hopes of, and desires after, another. And, beholding the man who was healed As they were obliged to acknowledge he was; standing with them With Peter and John, perfectly recovered; they could say nothing against it Against the fact, though they were unwilling to own the doctrine which it tended so strongly to prove.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

13, 14. Instead of answering evasively and timidly, as was expected of men in their social position, when arraigned in such a presence, the apostles had unhesitatingly avowed the chief deed of yesterday’s proceedings, with the name in which it had been done, stating all in the terms most obnoxious to their hearers. (13) “Now, seeing the freedom of speech of Peter and John, and perceiving that they were illiterate and private men, they were astonished, and recognized them, that they had been with Jesus. (14) But beholding the man who was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.” There was total silence for awhile, when Peter ceased speaking. Not a man in the Sanhedrim could open his mouth in reply to Peter’s brief speech. He had avowed every obnoxious sentiment on account of which they had been instigated to arrest him, yet not one of them dares to contradict his words, or to rebuke him for giving them utterance. The silence was painful and embarrassing.

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

ILLITERACY OF THE APOSTLES

13. Seeing the boldness of Peter and John, and observing that they are unlearned and ignorant men, they continue to be astonished and recognize that they were with Jesus. No ingenuity of scholarship can evade the force of this statement of the Holy Ghost. The Greek for unlearned is agrammatoi, from a, not, and gramma, a letter. Hence, it literally means unlettered, i. e., without a knowledge of letters. They had no common schools in that day. The word translated ignorant is idiootai from which have we idiot. Hence, it means that they were idiots, so far as human learning was concerned. They were rude, illiterate rustics, and there is no reason whatever to believe they could read or write. After our Savior called them they may have learned a little about letters. Of this we have no information, as Peter dictated his two brief Epistles to an amanuensis. John outlived all of the other Apostles a whole generation, doing his writing doubtless by an amanuensis when nearly an hundred years old. Why did our Lord select unlearned and ignorant men to preach the gospel to a dying world? He could just as easily have put His hand on the learned rabbis and have commanded the highest culture of the world.

(a) It was safer to use blank paper on which to write the messages destined to save the world, and thus obviate the innate tendency of humanity to incorporate some of their own wisdom along with the precious truth revealed.

(b) The gospel heralds, exposed to all the rigors of polar snows and equatorial heat, ocean waves and sand storms, lodging beneath the stars for a cover, with a stone for a pillow, needed the physical constitution of a hippopotamus and the activity of a kangaroo, which can only be developed by the toils, privations, exposures and hardships of a rough-and-tumble life.

(c) Their example to all their successors is indispensable. God needs an army of evangelists this day like that of Xerxes to save the world. Do you not know if the Apostles had all been collegiate graduates, no others would have the courage to respond to the call, shoulder the responsibilities, brave the dangers, brook the contempt and go to the ends of the earth to save the lost? So fast as church-members grieve away the Holy Ghost and backslide, they confine the preaching of the gospel to the learned. So long as Methodist preachers were unlearned and ignorant men, depending on Brush College for their education, they had power to shake heaven, earth and hell and roll a tide of salvation like a sweeping cyclone wherever they went. We do not depreciate learning when sanctified by the Holy Ghost (for unsanctified, it is dangerous and has sent many to hell); but we need all to save a lost world. So we will take the unlearned and not excuse the learned.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Act 4:13-22. Dilemma of the Rulers: their Verdict.The promise of Luk 21:15 is at once literally fulfilled, and the reasoning is given by which the judges felt themselves overborne. It is that Peter and John are certain of their case, and show no hesitation though they possess no literary training and are generally uncultured, and that the man they cured stood beside them, a living corroboration. The recognition of the apostles as having been with Jesus is regarded by many as irrelevant. but if Jesus was still active, He would act most naturally through His former intimates. The apostles are ordered to withdraw while the members of the court deliberate; yet we have a full account of their discussion, an account which has an appearance of probability. It is not based on the discussion of the Sanhedrists on John the Baptist (Mar 11:27-33); the matter is different. The priests and elders know nothing about faith healing; if a beneficent act has been done of which no agent is visible, it shows to their thinking that a power or a name has been at work which it only remains to identify. The apostles attribute it to the agency of Jesus, but this was to the court an intolerable thought. The name of Jesus must be suppressed; the apostles must be forbidden to base any claim upon it. They are therefore enjoined not to make any declaration nor teach any doctrine in connexion with Jesus (Act 4:18). It was natural that the Jews should aim at the suppression of that memory and that cause. Peter and John reply (Act 4:19) by appealing to what is a commonplace in ancient philosophy. Socrates, e.g., says to his judges, I shall obey God rather than you (Apology, 29); the judges are to decide if the opposite course can be right for the apostles. They cannot be silent about what they have seen and heard. Nothing follows on this declaration, and conflicting reasons are given for this; that no ground appeared for punishing them, and that the rulers were afraid of the people, though the arrest had taken place in their presence (Act 4:2-4).

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

Verse 13

Took knowledge of them, &c. They recognized them as having been among the followers of Jesus when he was alive.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

4:13 {5} Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and {i} ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

(5) The good liberty and boldness of the servants of God does yet this much good, that those who lay hidden under a mask of zeal at length betray themselves to indeed be wicked men.

(i) The word used here is “idiot”, which signifies a private man when it is used in reference to a magistrate: but with reference to sciences and studies, it signifies one that is unlearned, and with regard to honour and estimation, it implies one of base degree, and of no estimation.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The Sanhedrin’s response 4:13-22

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The Sanhedrin observed in Peter and John what they had seen in Jesus, namely, courage to speak boldly and authoritatively without formal training (cf. Mat 7:28-29; Mar 1:22; Luk 20:19-26; Joh 7:15). They may also have remembered seeing them with Jesus (Joh 18:15-16), but that does not seem to be Luke’s point here.

"They spoke of the men as having been with Jesus, in a past tense. What was the truth? Christ was in the men, and speaking through the men; and the similarity which they detected was not that lingering from contact with a lost teacher, but that created by the presence of the living Christ." [Note: Morgan, p. 96.]

These powerful educated rulers looked on the former fishermen with contempt. What a change had taken place in the apostles since Peter had denied that he knew Jesus (Luk 22:56-60)! The rulers also observed facility in handling the Scriptures that was extraordinary in men who had not attended the priests’ schools. This examining board could not dispute the apostles’ claim that Jesus’ power had healed the former beggar. The obvious change in the man made that impossible. They had no other answer. Unwilling to accept the obvious, the Sanhedrin could offer no other explanation.

Several details in the stories of the apostles’ arrests recall Jesus’ teaching concerning the persecution that the disciples would experience (cf. Luk 12:12 and Act 4:8; Luk 21:12 and Act 4:3; Act 5:18; Luk 21:13 and Act 4:8-12; Act 5:29-32; Luk 21:15 and Act 4:13).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)