Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 5:39
But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.
39. but if it be of God ] The verb is not in the same mood as in the previous clause, and had the construction been in classical Greek, it might have indicated some opinion on Gamaliel’s part of the truth of Christianity = “If it is [as it is] of God.” But in the N. T. the construction indicates no more than a simple conditional. Yet to mark the difference of phrase, read here, But if it is of God.
ye cannot overthrow it ] The best authorities read, ye will not be able to overthrow it.
lest haply ye be found, &c.] The clause depends on, “Take heed to yourselves ” ( Act 5:35).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But if it be of God – If God is the author of this religion. From this it seems that Gamaliel supposed that it was at least possible that this religion was divine. He evinced a far more candid mind than did the rest of the Jews; but still it does not appear that he was entirely convinced. The arguments which could not but stagger the Jewish Sanhedrin were those drawn from the resurrection of Jesus, the miracle on the day of Pentecost, the healing of the lame man in the temple, and the release of the apostles from the prison.
Ye cannot overthrow it – Because:
- God has almighty power, and can execute his purposes;
- Because he is unchanging, and will not be diverted from his plans, Job 23:13-14.
The plan which God forms must be accomplished. All the devices of man are feebleness when opposed to him, and he can dash them in pieces in an instant. The prediction of Gamaliel has been fulfilled. People have opposed Christianity in every way, but in vain. They have reviled it; have persecuted it; have resorted to argument and to ridicule; to fire, and faggot, and sword; they have called in the aid of science; but all has been in vain. The more it has been crushed, the more it has risen, and it still exists with as much life and power as ever. The preservation of this religion amidst so much and so varied opposition proves that it is of God. No severer trial can await it than it has already experienced; and as it has survived so many storms and trials, we have every evidence that, according to the predictions, it is destined to live and to fill the world. See the Mat 16:18; Isa 54:17; Isa 55:11 notes; Dan 4:35 note.
Lest – That is, if you continue to oppose it, you may be found to have been opposing God.
Haply – Perhaps. In the Greek this is lest at any time; that is, at some future time, when too late to retract your doings, etc.
Ye be found – It shall appear that you have been opposing God.
Even to fight against God – Greek Theomachoi, those who contend with God. The word occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. To fight against God is to oppose him, or to maintain an attitude of hostility against him. It is an attitude that is most fearful in its character, and will most certainly be attended with an overthrow. No condition can be more awful than such an opposition to the Almighty; no overthrow more terrible than what must follow such opposition. Compare Act 9:5; Act 23:9. Opposition to the gospel in the Scriptures is uniformly regarded as opposition to God, Mat 12:30; Luk 11:23. People may be said to fight against God in the following ways, or on the following subjects:
(1) When they oppose his gospel, its preaching, its plans, its influence among people; when they endeavor to prevent its diffusion, or to withdraw their families and friends from its influence.
(2) When they oppose the doctrines of the Bible. When they become angry that the real truths of religion are preached, and suffer themselves to be irritated and excited by an unwillingness that those doctrines should be true, and should be presented to people. Yet this is no uncommon thing. People by nature do not love those doctrines, and they are often indignant that they are preached. Some of the most angry feelings which people ever have arise from this source; and man can never find peace until he is willing that Gods truth should exert its influence on his own soul, and rejoice that it is believed and loved by others.
(3) People oppose the Law of God. It seems to them too stern and harsh. It condemns them; and they are unwilling that it should be applied to them. There is nothing which a sinner likes less than he does the pure and holy Law of God.
(4) Sinners fight against the providence of God. When he afflicts them they rebel. When he takes away their health, or property, or friends, they complain. They esteem him harsh and cruel; and instead of finding peace by submission, they greatly aggravate their sufferings, and infuse a mixture of wormwood and gall into the cup by complaining and repining. There is no peace in affliction but in the feeling that God is right. And until this belief is cherished, the wicked will be like the troubled sea which cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt, Isa 57:20. Such opposition to God is as wicked as it is foolish. The Lord gave, and has a right to remove our comforts; and we should be still, and know that he is God.
(5) Sinners fight against God when they resist the influences of his Spirit; when they oppose serious thoughts; when they seek evil or frivolous companions and pleasures rather than submit to God; and when they spurn all the entreaties of their friends to become Christians. All these may be the appeals which God is making to people to be prepared to meet him. And yet it is common for sinners thus to stifle conviction, and refuse even to think of their eternal welfare. Nothing can be an act of more direct and deliberate wickedness and folly than this. Without the aid of the Holy Spirit none can be saved; and to resist his influences is to put away the only prospect of eternal life. To do it is to do it over the grave; not knowing that another hour of life may be granted; and not knowing that if life is prolonged, the Spirit will ever strive again with the heart. In view of this verse, we may remark:
- That the path of wisdom is to submit at once to the requirements of God. Without this, we must expect conflicts with him, and peril and ruin. No man can be opposed to God without endangering himself every minute.
- Submission to God should be entire. It should extend to every doctrine and demand; every law, and every act of the Almighty. In all his requirements, and in all afflictions, we should submit to him, for thus only shall we find peace.
- Infidels and scoffers will gain nothing by opposing God. They have thus far been thwarted, and unsuccessful; and they will be still. None of their plans have succeeded; and the hope of destroying the Christian religion, after the efforts of almost two thousand years, must be vain, and will recoil with tremendous vengeance on those who make them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 39. But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it] Because his counsel cannot fail; and his work cannot be counteracted. If he be determined that this doctrine shall prevail, it is vain for us to attempt to suppress it.
Lest haply ye be found-to fight against God.] . Some have thought that they saw a parallel to these words in the speech of Diomede, when, seeing Mars, associated with Hector, oppose the Grecians, he judged farther opposition vain, and desired his troops to retire from the battle.
‘ ,
, .
, .
Iliad, lib. v. 603.
Protected always by some power divine;
And Mars attends this moment at his side,
In form a man. Ye therefore still retire,
But facing still your foes: nor battle wage,
However fierce, yet fruitless, with the gods.
COWPER.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The other part of the dilemma.
The counsel of the Lord, that shall stand, Pro 19:21; Isa 46:10; and it must needs be so, for all power is his, in whom we live and move, Act 17:28.
Fight against God; they who afflict and contend with his people unjustly, though they little think so, set themselves against God, who will overcome at the last, and triumph over his and his peoples enemies.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
35-39. Theudasnot the samewith a deceiver of that name whom JOSEPHUSmentions as heading an insurrection some twelve years after this[Antiquities, 20.5.1], but some other of whom he makes nomention. Such insurrections were frequent.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But if it be of God,…. If it is according to the counsel of his will; if it is a scheme of his forming, and a work to which he has called these men, and they proceed in it on good principles, and with a view to the honour and glory of God:
ye cannot overthrow it; it will proceed and get ground, and stand, maugre all the opposition of hell and earth; therefore do nothing to them, or hinder them from going on. Some copies read, “ye cannot overthrow them”; and add, “neither you, nor kings, nor tyrants; wherefore refrain from these men”; so Beza’s Cambridge copy.
Lest haply ye be found even to fight against God; which to do is downright madness, and which no man in his senses can expect to succeed in. There are some sayings of the Jewish doctors which seem to agree with these reasonings of Gamaliel p.
“Says R. Jochanan the shoemaker, every congregation, which is for the name of heaven (or God) at length shall be established, but that which is not for the glory of God shall not be established in the end.”
Which one of the commentators q interprets in words still nearer to Gamaliel’s language, thus:
“it shall be that that counsel which is for God shall stand and prosper, but that which is not for God shall cease.”
And in another place it is said r,
“all contention (or dispute) which is for God, at length shall be established, but that which is not for God shall not in the end be established: what is contention that is for God? the contention of Hillell and Shammai, (two famous doctors among the Jews,) but that which is not for God is the contention of Korah, and his whole company.”
Some have thought from this advice of Gamaliel, that he was a Christian, or greatly inclined to Christianity; but when it is considered what respect was shown him at his death by the Jews, before observed on Ac 5:34 it will appear that he died a Pharisee; and especially it cannot be thought he had any favourable sentiments of the Christians, since a little before his death he ordered a prayer to be made against them. Maimonides says s, that
“in the days of Rabban Gamaliel, the Epicureans (so the Amsterdam edition reads, but former editions read , “heretics”, by whom are meant Christians) increased in Israel; and they distressed the Israelites, and seduced them to turn aside from God; and when he saw that this was greater than all the necessities of the children of men, he stood up, and his council or sanhedrim, and composed another prayer, in which there was a request to God to destroy the Epicureans,”
or heretics, meaning the Christians: and though this prayer is sometimes ascribed to Samuel the little, yet it was composed by him at the hint and instigation of Gamaliel; for so it is said t, R. Gamaliel said to the wise men,
“is there no man that knows how to compose a prayer for the Sadducees? (R. Asher reads “heretics”;) Samuel the little stood up and composed one.”
And it is also said u, that
“Samuel the little composed, , “the prayer for the heretics”, before, or in the presence of Gamaliel the elder.”
He made it when he was present, assisting, dictating, directing, and approving. The prayer was this w,
“let there be no hope for apostates, and may all heretics perish in a moment, and all the enemies of thy people be quickly cut off: root out the kingdom of pride, and break, destroy, and subdue them in haste in our days.”
In some forms it is added,
“blessed art thou, O Lord, that breakest the wicked in pieces, and humblest the proud.”
Upon the whole, Gamaliel does not seem to have been a Christian, or to have favoured the Christian religion; but he was, as he is said, Ac 5:34 to be, a Pharisee: and this council, or sanhedrim, were, for the greater part of them, Sadducees, as seems from Ac 5:17 who, as the Jews say, were wicked and base men, men of very ill manners, whereas the Pharisees were , “merciful men” x; and such an one was Gamaliel: he was a religious man in his way; a man of humanity, a mild and moderate man, that had compassion and pity for his fellow creatures; and could not give in to any schemes of cruelty and persecution, which the Sadducees were forward to; and upon these principles he acted, and upon these he gave this advice.
p Pirke Abot, c. 4 sect 11. q Jarchi in ib. r Pirke Abot, c. 5. sect. 17. s Hilchot Tephilla, c. 2. sect. 1. t T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 28. 2. u Juchasin, fol. 21. 1. Ganz Tzemach David, par. 1. fol. 25. 2. w Apud Buxtorf. Lex. Talmud. col. 2442. & Alting Shilo, l. 4. c. 26. p. 325. x Juchasin, fol. 139. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
But if it is of God ( ). The second alternative is a condition of the first class, determined as fulfilled, with the present indicative. By the use of this idiom Gamaliel does put the case more strongly in favor of the apostles than against them. This condition assumes that the thing is so without affirming it to be true. On the basis of this alternative Gamaliel warns the Sanhedrin that they cannot “overthrow” () these men for they in that case must “overthrow” God,
lest haply ye be found ( —, negative purpose with first aorist passive subjunctive)
even to be fighting against God ( , late adjective from and , in LXX and here only in the N.T.).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
To fight against God [] . Lit., to be God – fighters.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “But if it be of God,” (ei de ek theou estin) “Moreover if it is (exists) of God,” as the apostles had affirmed repeatedly, Act 4:8-12; Act 5:29-32; Isa 46:9-10.
2) “Ye cannot overthrow it; (ou dunesthe katalusai autois) “You all will not be able (powerful or dynamic enough) to destroy them,” the apostles, the church and their labors, Mat 16:18; Mat 28:18-20; Eph 3:21.
3) “Lest haply ye be found,” (mepote hai theomachoi) “Lest it occur you all be found to be rebels (fighters) even against God,” (heurethete) “You all (of the Sanhedrin council) be found,” to be public enemies against God, Rom 8:7; Act 7:51-54; as Pharaoh was, and Belshazzar was, and Nebuchadnezzar was, and Herod was, to resist or fight against God, Pro 19:20-21.
4) “Even to fight against God,” (kai theomachoi) “Also or even to do battle against God,” not only to try to kill men but also to be identified as slayers of God, in the person of His Son, Act 9:5; and to incur His wrath and judgement punishment, Rom 2:4-9; 2Th 1:8; Mat 12:30.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(39) Fighters against God.It is interesting to note the recurrence of the same phrase in the reasoning of the Pharisees who took St. Pauls part in Act. 23:9.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
39. If it be of God Gamaliel here does suggest the possibility that Jesus was from God. It may have been a momentary sincere feeling. The real fact probably was that, knowing that the popular mind was just in this state of doubt, Gamaliel grounded himself upon it to work a defeat of the Sadducean party.
Lest This lest depends upon the phrase let them alone in Act 5:38.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
39 But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.
Ver. 39. Ye cannot overthrow it ] Neither you, nor kings and tyrants to help you; so one ancient Greek copy readeth it. Diocletian laid down the empire in great discontent, because he could not, by any persecution, suppress the true Christian religion. (Beza.) So did Charles V, a political prince, and a sore enemy to the Church. He, when he had in his hand Luther dead, and Melancthon, Pomeran, and other preachers of the gospel, alive; he not only determined not anything extremely against them, or violated their graves, but also entreating them gently, sent them away; not so much as once forbidding them to publish openly the doctrine that they professed. For it is the nature of Christ’s Church, that the more that tyrants spurn against it, the more it flourisheth and increaseth.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
39. ] The somewhat difficult connexion of . . . may be explained, not by parenthesizing , but by understanding ‘ and ye will be obliged to give up your attempt ’ (which thought is contained in . . .), lest ye be , &c.
] Opponents not only to them, but also to God: ‘ even ,’ in E. V., does not give the sense. As regards Gamaliel’s advice, we may remark that it was founded on a view of the issues of events, agreeing with the fatalism of the Pharisees: that it betokens no leaning towards Christianity , nor indeed very much even of worldly wisdom; but serves to shew how low the supreme council of the Jews had sunk both in their theology and their political sagacity, if such a fallacious laissez-aller view of matters was the counsel of the wisest among them. It seems certainly, on a closer view, as if they accepted, from fear of the people (see Act 5:26 ), this opportunity of compromising the matter, which Gamaliel had designedly afforded them.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 5:39 . : it has sometimes been thought that the change of mood from subjunctive to indicative, “but if it is of God,” as if indicating that the second supposition were the more probable ( cf. Gal 1:8-9 ), indicates sympathy on the part of Gamaliel. It is of course possible that he may have been rendered favourably disposed towards the Christians by their strict observance of the Law, and by their appeal to a doctrine which widely divided Pharisees and Sadducees. Others have attributed the change in mood, not to Gamaliel at all, but to the author (so Overbeck, Holtzmann), and have maintained (so Blass, Weiss, cf. Winer-Moulton, xli. 2) that the indicative may be used because the second is the case with which the Council had actually to deal, the assertion, i.e. , of the Apostles. There may also be an underlying contrast between the transitoriness of all mere human schemes, all of which would be overthrown, and the certainty of that which is “of God,” and which has Him for its Author. There cannot be the least ground for supposing that Gamaliel’s counsel was in its tenor a mere invention, as it bears the impress of a thorough Rabbinical wise saying, cf. Sayings of the Jewish Fathers , v., 24 (Taylor, p. 93, second edition). See too Herod., ix. 16; Eur., Hippol. , vi., 76; for the construction, cf. Burton, N. T. Moods and Tenses , p. 96, and Viteau, Le Grec du N. T. , pp. 103, 113 (1893), who compares LXX, Gen 44:23 ; Gen 44:26 . : R.V. and W.H [186] , . with accusative of person in Xen., Cyr. , viii., 5, 24; Plato, Legg. , iv., p. 714, ., cf. 4Ma 4:16 . But without this addition it is usual to refer back to in Act 5:35 ( cf. Luk 21:34 ) for the construction of ; but may be explained on the principle that a verb of fearing is sometimes unexpressed, the idea of fear being supplied by the context (in clauses where with the subjunctive is found), Burton, u. s. , p. 96. , “lest haply,” its use in later Greek, Blass, Grammatik des N. G. , p. 208. sometimes interpreted (so Alford, Wendt, Holtzmann), as if it meant not only against man but also against God. : not found elsewhere, but cf. LXX, Job 26:5 , Symm., and in Pro 9:18 ; Pro 21:16 , applying the word to the Rephaim (see B.D. 2 “Giants”); in 2Ma 7:19 we have . In classical Greek the same verb is found, see Grimm and Wendt for instances; , Plato, Rep. , 378, D. (as certain books of the Iliad were called, especially the 19). The tolerance of the sentiments here attributed to Gamaliel is undoubtedly in perfect accordance with what we know of his character and opinions; the decisions attributed to him, e.g. , that relating to the law of the Sabbath (Hamburger, Real-Encyclopdie des Judentums , ii., 2, 237; see also Derenbourg, Histoire de la Palestine , pp. 239 246, and cf. also Renan, Apostles , p. 153, E.T.), are marked by a tendency to mildness and liberality; and perhaps a still more remarkable illustration of the same tendency is afforded by the enactment so often referred to him (Hamburger, u. s. ) to allow to the poor of the heathen, as well as of Israel, the gleaning and a participation in the corn left standing in the corner of the fields, to inquire after the welfare of the Gentile poor, to maintain them, to visit their sick, to bury their dead (the prayer against heretics belonged not to this Gamaliel, but to Gamaliel II.). But the decision of Gamaliel was not prompted by any sympathy with the Christians; it was the judgment of toleration and prudence, but certainly nothing more, although it scarcely falls under the head of “cynical”; it was rather, as Ewald called it, that of an ordinary politician. No credence whatever can be attributed to the tradition that Gamaliel became a Christian, or that he was secretly a Christian, although we may sympathise with St. Chrysostom’s words, “it cannot be that he should have continued in unbelief to the end”. The Talmud distinctly affirms that he died a Jew, and, if he had betrayed his faith, we cannot understand the honour which Jewish tradition attaches to his name, “Gamaliel,” B.D. 2 ; Schrer, Jewish People , div. ii., vol. i., p. 364. Wendt, while he refuses to admit the historical character of the speech of Gamaliel, is evidently puzzled to discover any definite grounds for St. Luke’s wilful introduction of the famous Rabban into the scene (so too Feine). He therefore supposes that the decision in Act 5:38 , in which he sees a wise saying similar to those attributed to other Rabbis, was assigned by tradition to Gamaliel, and that St. Luke, who was in possession of the further tradition that Gamaliel had given a decisive judgment in the trial of the Apostles, introduces this saying into the speech which he attributes to Gamaliel as fitting to the occasion. But there is no indication in our authorities that the sentiment thus attributed to Gamaliel was in any way different from what might have been expected of him (see Schrer, Jewish People, u. s. ). The chief objection to the speech, viz. , the alleged anachronism involved in the mention of Theudas, really begs the question as to its authenticity, and even on the supposition of an inaccuracy in the point mentioned, we cannot get rid of the fact that the attitude of Gamaliel in itself betrays no inconsistency. It was this alleged anachronism which caused Spitta to refer the incident of Gamaliel in this chapter to his inferior source ., and to refuse to adopt the solution of Weiss and Feine, who solved the difficulty involved in the mention of Theudas by introducing the hand of a reviser.
[186] Westcott and Hort’s The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
if. Greek. ei. App-118.
cannot = are not (App-105.) able to.
overthrow. Greek. kataluo, as in Act 5:38.
lest haply. Greek. mepote, compound of me. App-105.
to fight against God = God-fighters. Greek. Theomachos.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
39.] The somewhat difficult connexion of . . . may be explained,-not by parenthesizing , but by understanding and ye will be obliged to give up your attempt (which thought is contained in . . .), lest ye be, &c.
] Opponents not only to them, but also to God:-even, in E. V., does not give the sense. As regards Gamaliels advice, we may remark that it was founded on a view of the issues of events, agreeing with the fatalism of the Pharisees: that it betokens no leaning towards Christianity, nor indeed very much even of worldly wisdom;-but serves to shew how low the supreme council of the Jews had sunk both in their theology and their political sagacity, if such a fallacious laissez-aller view of matters was the counsel of the wisest among them. It seems certainly, on a closer view, as if they accepted, from fear of the people (see Act 5:26), this opportunity of compromising the matter, which Gamaliel had designedly afforded them.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Act 5:39. , lest haply even) This use of the particles implies courtesy. The even signifies, that, independently of the vainness of the attempt, they would be guilty even of reckless impiety. This clause depends on the sense of the clause immediately preceding: ye cannot, and therefore ye ought not attempt, to dissolve or overthrow it.-) This word is put by Symmachus more than once for the Hebr. . The conjugates are and . [There is a large number of such persons.-V. g.]-, ye be found) in the issue.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
if: Act 6:10, Gen 24:50, 2Sa 5:2, 1Ki 12:24, Job 34:29, Isa 43:13, Isa 46:10, Dan 4:35, Mat 16:18, Luk 21:15, 1Co 1:25, Rev 17:12-14
to fight: Act 7:51, Act 9:5, Act 23:9, Exo 10:3-7, 2Ki 19:22, Job 15:25-27, Job 40:9-14, Isa 45:9, 1Co 10:22
Reciprocal: Gen 31:29 – Take 1Sa 17:36 – seeing 1Sa 23:17 – that also Saul 2Ch 13:12 – fight ye Ezr 6:7 – Let the work Ezr 6:12 – destroy Job 33:13 – strive Psa 35:1 – fight Psa 65:8 – afraid Pro 19:21 – nevertheless Pro 21:30 – General Pro 22:12 – eyes Ecc 3:14 – nothing Isa 8:10 – counsel Isa 46:11 – I have spoken Jer 26:19 – Thus Jer 36:29 – Thou hast Joh 9:33 – were Act 4:17 – that it Act 12:24 – General 2Ti 2:18 – overthrow
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
See notes on verse 34