Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 4:22
For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was showed.
22. the man was above forty years old ] To one who looked on the circumstances with a physician’s eye, as St Luke would (Col 4:14), this feature would be most noticeable. For limbs unused shrink and wither, and become disproportionate to the other parts of the frame. The physician’s description is also evident in the two unique words ( and ) which are used (Act 3:7) to describe the cure of the cripple.
on whom this miracle of healing was shewed ] The word here used for miracle = sign. This the A.V. has endeavoured to represent by the use of the verb shewed. Lit., “on whom this sign of healing was wrought.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For the man … – The age of the man is mentioned to show the certainty and greatness of the miracle. If it had been a man who had been lame but a few years, or if it had been a child or a very young man, the case would not been so remarkable. But after a continuance of 40 years, all hope of healing him by any ordinary means must have been abandoned, and all pretence that this was jugglery or deception must have been absurd.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 22. The man was above forty years old] The disease was of long standing, and consequently the more inveterate; but all difficulties, small or great, yield equally to the sovereign power of God. It is as easy with God to convert a sinner of forty or four-score, as one of ten years old. But he who now refuses to obey the call of God has neither reason nor revelation to support himself even in the most distant hope that he shall get, in a future time, the salvation which he rejects in the present.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Therefore:
1. The harder to be cured.
2. The man was the more credible, who had so long known what it was to be without the use of his limbs, which now he enjoyed.
3. Whom they could not themselves but have often seen and heard begging.
But if he had laid so many years in the porch of the temple through which our Saviour frequently entered, how came it to pass that he was not cured before? We do not read that our Saviour denied any who came for cure. There need no other answer, but that all times and seasons are in Gods hands, who justly forbore to send deliverance till this very time, and now mercifully sent it; especially reserving this miracle for the confirmation of the truth of the gospel, and of the apostles themselves in the preaching of it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18-22. Whether it be right . . . tohearken to you more than . . . God, judge ye.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For the man was above forty years old,…. So that the miracle was the greater, that a man born lame, and who had been so above forty years, should have a cure; and he was the more known to the people, and his testimony met with more credit:
on whom this miracle of healing was showed; both for the good of men, for the glory of God, and for the confirmation of the Gospel of Christ.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Was wrought (). Second past perfect active without augment from .
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “For the man was above forty years old,”(eton gar en pleionon tessarakonta ho anthropos) “For the man was more than forty (years of age),” who for many years had been laid paralyzed at the gate Beautiful to receive alms of the masses, Act 3:2.
2) “On whom this miracle of healing was shewed,” (eph’ hon gegonei to semeion tonto tes iaseos) “On or upon whom this miracle of cure(healing) had happened,” or been performed by Peter and John, Act 3:7-11. Because of his total paralysis (lameness) from birth, and his begging for so long, the cure appeared so much greater.
In this first confrontation of the church with the Sanhedrin the church prevailed, thru the miraculous witnessbearing power exercised by Peter and John, Heb 2:4; Mat 10:19; Mar 13:11.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(22) The man was above forty years old.This precision in noting the duration of disease or infirmity is again characteristic of the writer. Comp. the case of the woman with an issue of blood (Luk. 8:43); of neas (Act. 9:33); of the cripple at Lystra (Act. 14:8).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
22. Forty years old The apostle here follows the track of popular thought. The miracle was genuine, for both the notoriety and the age of the man so demonstrated it.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘For the man was more than forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was wrought.’
The people glorified God because the man who had been healed had been constantly lame for over forty years, into full manhood. It was therefore not something he would grow out of. In view of what was undoubtedly the significance of his lameness in that it pointed to the lameness of the people of Israel, this may well have been intended to bring to mind how Israel had limped through the wilderness for forty years.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
22 For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was shewed.
Ver. 22. Above forty years old ] An old cripple, therefore the greater miracle; so it is to convert an old sinner (that is habituated and long accustomed to evil courses) from the error of his way; since it is true of many others as well as of Flemings, that quo magis seneseunt, eo magis stultescunt, they grow crooked and aged with good opinions of themselves without cause; and can seldom or never be set straight again.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
22. ] . . for . ., as sometimes in classical Greek; so , Thucyd. vi. 95. See Winer, edn. 6, 37, 5. The constr. (see as in reff.) is accounted for by the sense involved in it being the access , so to speak, of the event to the person mentioned. In the note on Rev 4:2 , I have noticed that is commonly used when the fact is announced for the first time , with an accus.: but afterwards when the same fact is again referred to, with a gen. or dat.
. . the genitive of apposition; so , 2Co 5:5 ; , Rom 4:11 , &c. The circumstance of his being more than forty years old both gave notoriety to his person as having long resorted there, and made the miracle more notable, his malady being more confirmed.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 4:22 . Characteristic of St. Luke to note the age, as in the case of neas, Act 9:33 , and of the cripple at Lystra, Act 14:8 , cf. also Luk 8:42 (although Mark also here notes the same fact), Act 13:11 . The genitive with or , instead of the accusative, in reference to the question of age, is noted by Friedrich as characteristic of St. Luke; cf Luk 2:42 (Luk 3:23 ), Luk 8:42 , and here; but cf. Mar 5:42 . : in this episode “with its lights and shades” Overbeck (so Baur) can only see the idealising work of myth and legend, but it is difficult to understand how a narrative which purports to describe the first conflict between the Church and the Sanhedrim could be free from such contrasts, and that some collision with the authorities took place is admitted to be quite conceivable (Weizscker, Apostolic Age , i., 46, E.T.); we should rather say that St. Luke’s power as an historian is nowhere more visible than in the dramatic form of this narrative (Ramsay, St. Paul, u. s. ).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
was shewed = had been wrought.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
22.] . . for . ., as sometimes in classical Greek; so , Thucyd. vi. 95. See Winer, edn. 6, 37, 5. The constr. (see as in reff.) is accounted for by the sense involved in it being the access, so to speak, of the event to the person mentioned. In the note on Rev 4:2, I have noticed that is commonly used when the fact is announced for the first time, with an accus.: but afterwards when the same fact is again referred to, with a gen. or dat.
. .-the genitive of apposition; so , 2Co 5:5; , Rom 4:11, &c. The circumstance of his being more than forty years old both gave notoriety to his person as having long resorted there, and made the miracle more notable, his malady being more confirmed.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Act 4:22. , more than forty years) The infirmity of the man who was born lame had been inveterate.- ) on whom.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
forty: Act 3:2, Act 9:33, Mat 9:20, Luk 13:11, Joh 5:5, Joh 9:1
Reciprocal: Mar 5:25 – twelve Mar 9:21 – How Mar 16:18 – they shall lay Luk 8:43 – twelve Act 3:10 – they knew
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
2
Act 4:22. It would have been useless to claim the whole circumstance was a delusion, for the man was more than forty years old who had been healed. A mere child or very young man might have been said to be ready for improvement through the course of nature. Such a theory would not be accepted concerning a man forty years old.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
See notes on verse 21