3. Arrest of Peter and John (4:1–4)
1While they were speaking1 to the people, the [chief] priests,2 the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them.
2They were annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming, in the case of Jesus, resurrection from the dead.3
3They arrested them and locked them up until the following day (for it was now evening).
4But many of those who heard the word believed, and the number of the men grew to about five thousand.
1 Such a crowd gathered around Peter and John while they addressed the people thus in Solomon’s Colonnade that the temple authorities intervened. The “captain of the temple,”4 the commander of the temple police, was responsible for maintaining order in the temple courts, and he may have had misgivings lest the obstruction caused by so large a crowd might lead to a riot.
2 But some of the other authorities had strong religious objections to the content of the apostles’ preaching, in particular to the announcement that Jesus had been raised from the dead. It is noteworthy that the Sadducees5—the party to which the chief-priestly families6 belonged—are specially mentioned in this regard. They objected on principle to the doctrine of resurrection in itself, considering it to be a Pharisaic innovation, and they were greatly annoyed because the two apostles, by their insistence on the fact of Jesus’ resurrection, were so publicly and cogently maintaining that doctrine.
3–4 It was now evening (an hour or two at least must have gone by since the afternoon prayers for which Peter and John had gone up to the temple in the first instance), and there was no time to hold an inquiry into the apostles’ conduct before sundown. They were therefore locked up for the night. But the temple authorities could not undo the harm (as they considered it) that Peter and John had done; the healing of the cripple and the preaching which followed it had the effect of adding a large number to the three thousand who believed on the day of Pentecost. The number of men alone,7 says Luke, now totaled some five thousand.
4. Peter and John Before the Sanhedrin (4:5–12)
5The next day there came together in Jerusalem their rulers, elders, and scribes,
6with Annas the high priest and Caiaphas, John8 and Alexander, and all who belonged to the high-priestly family.
7They set Peter and John in the midst and proceeded to inquire: “By what authority or in what name have you9 done this?”
8Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders!
9If we are being questioned today regarding a good deed done to a cripple, by what means he has been healed,
10let all of you, and all the people of Israel, take knowledge that this man is standing here before you all in perfect health through the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,10 whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead.
11He is ‘the stone which was rejected by the builders’—by you—‘but has been made top stone of the pediment.’
12And there is no saving health11 in anyone else, for indeed no other name under heaven has been given to human beings, by which we must be saved.”
5–6 The next morning the Sanhedrin,12 met (probably in a building immediately to the west of the temple precincts13), and the chief-priestly, Sadducean, element in its membership was especially well represented. Annas, the senior ex-high priest,14 was there, and so was his son-in-law Caiaphas,15 the reigning high priest, who was president of the Sanhedrin by virtue of his office. Not many weeks had passed since these two men had taken a part in the arrest and condemnation of Jesus. If they hoped that they had got rid of him, their hope was short-lived; it looked now as if they were going to have as much trouble on his account as they had had before his death. With them were several of their kinsmen, two of whom are mentioned by name, although one of these cannot be identified with certainty, and the other cannot be identified at all.16
7 When the members of the court had taken their seats, Peter and John were fetched from the lock-up and set before them. They were then asked, presumably by the president, by what authority men like them17 had presumed to act as they had done. Perhaps the Sanhedrin met on this occasion more as a court of inquiry than in a more formal capacity, but the presence of so many senior members indicates the seriousness with which they viewed the situation.
8–10 For such an occasion as this the apostles had already received instructions from their Master: “Settle it therefore in your minds, not to meditate beforehand how to answer; for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict” (Luke 21:14–15). They now proved the truth of this assurance. In words inspired by the Holy Spirit,18 Peter made his reply. If he and John were being examined with regard to an act of healing performed on a cripple, if the court wished to know the cause of the man’s cure, then let them know, and let all the nation know, that the deed had been done in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah. The former cripple was present in court with them: either he had been locked up with them overnight, as being partly responsible for the commotion in Solomon’s Colonnade, or else he had been summoned as a witness. “This man stands here in your presence completely healed,” said Peter, “by the name of Jesus the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, whom you sent to his death, but whom God raised from the dead.” Of the responsibility of the men whom Peter was now addressing there could be no doubt; it was they who had handed Jesus over to Pilate, Caiaphas bearing the chief responsibility. (It is to Caiaphas that reference is probably made in Jesus’ words to Pilate in John 19:11, “he who delivered me to you has the greater sin.”) As before, there is a pointed contrast between men’s treatment of Jesus and God’s treatment of him.
11 The apostles are technically on the defensive, but actually they have gone over to the attack. Peter proceeds to preach the gospel to his judges, and he bases his argument on a well-known Old Testament text. “The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner” (Ps. 118:22) is one of the earliest messianic testimonies. It was so used (by implication) by Jesus himself, as the conclusion of the parable of the vineyard (Mark 12:10–11).19 In the original Old Testament context the rejected stone is perhaps Israel, despised by the nations but chosen by God for the accomplishment of his purpose. But, as so often in the New Testament, God’s purpose for Israel finds its fulfilment in the single-handed work of Christ.
Both here and in later Christian use of this “testimony,” the “builders”20 are interpreted as the rulers of the Jewish nation, who failed to acknowledge Jesus as the divinely sent deliverer; but the Stone which they disregarded has now received from God the place of highest distinction: Jesus now sits enthroned at God’s right hand.
12 And from the once rejected but now glorified Jesus, and from him alone, comes true saving health. The deliverance of the cripple from a bodily affliction might serve as a parable of deliverance from the guilt of sin and from judgment to come.21 If the rulers persisted in their repudiation of Jesus, which had already involved them in blood-guiltiness, no deliverance from its consequences could be hoped for from any other quarter or by the power of any other name. The name of Jesus, by which the cripple had been empowered to spring to his feet and walk, was the name with which Israel’s salvation (and, as was to appear later, the salvation of the world) was inextricably bound up. The course of duty and wisdom for the rulers was therefore clear; if they refused it and persisted in their present attitude, they would bring destruction on their nation as well as on themselves.
The founders of the great world-religions are not to be disparaged by followers of the Christian way. But of none of them can it be said that there is no saving health in anyone else; to one alone belongs the title: the Savior of the world.
5. Debate in the Sanhedrin (4:13–17)
13As they saw Peter and John’s freedom of speech and realized that they were uneducated laymen, they were surprised, and recognized them as having been with Jesus.
14And, as they saw the man who had been healed standing with them, they had no reply to make.22
15So they ordered them to leave23 the court, and conferred with one another.
16“What shall we do to these men?” they said. “It is a matter of public knowledge24 among all the residents in Jerusalem that a notable sign has been performed through them; we cannot deny it.
17But to prevent this25 from spreading more widely among the people, let us warn them, under severe penalties,26 to speak no more to anyone in this name.”
13–14 Peter and John were obviously unversed in the formal learning of the rabbinical schools,27 yet they spoke with a freedom and forthrightness that impressed their judges.28 How could untrained laymen like these so ably sustain a theological disputation with members of the supreme court? The answer was not far to seek: the judges took cognizance of the fact29 that they had been companions of Jesus. He too had sat at the feet of no eminent rabbi, yet he taught with an authority which they could well remember. People expressed the same surprise about him: “How is it that this man has learning,30 when he has never studied?” (John 7:15). None could match him in his sure handling of the scriptures, his unerring ability to go back to first principles for the confirming of his own teaching and the discomfiture of his opponents. And plainly he had imparted something of that same gift to his disciples. Not only so, but he had supported his teaching with the mighty works which he performed; now Peter and John were doing the same. That the cripple had been cured was evident; he stood before them as a witness to the fact. Peter and John claimed that the cure had been effected by the power of Jesus’ name; their judges were in no position to deny the claim.
15–17 Peter and John were accordingly sent outside the council-chamber while the court conferred.31 It was difficult to know what action to take. They had broken no law in curing the cripple; besides, their action in doing so had made them popular heroes, and it would be impolitic to penalize them. On the other hand, it would be equally impolitic to set them at liberty to go on teaching and healing in the name of Jesus; the authorities would then be confronted once more with the problem which they had thought to be solved by Jesus’ condemnation and execution, and that in a more intractable form than previously. The action on which they decided was a confession of their weakness: they would dismiss the two men, but threaten them with serious consequences if they did the like again.
It is particularly striking that neither on this nor on any subsequent occasion did the authorities take any serious action to disprove the apostles’ central affirmation—the resurrection of Jesus.32 Had it seemed possible to refute them on this point, how eagerly would the opportunity have been seized! Had their refutation on this point been achieved, how quickly and completely the new movement would have collapsed! It is plain that the apostles spoke of a bodily resurrection when they said that Jesus had been raised from the dead; it is equally plain that the authorities understood them in this sense. The body of Jesus had vanished so completely that all the resources at their command could not produce it. The disappearance of his body, to be sure, was far from proving his resurrection, but the production of his body would have effectively disproved it. Now the apostles’ claim that Jesus was alive had received public confirmation by the miracle of healing performed in his name. It was, for the Sanhedrin, a disturbing situation.
6. The Apostles Dismissed with a Caution (4:18–22)
18So they called them in and charged them absolutely not to speak or teach any more in Jesus’ name.
19Then Peter and John answered them, “Judge for yourselves if it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God.
20As for us, we cannot give up speaking of what we have seen and heard.”
21Then they threatened them further and released them: they could find no way of punishing them, because everyone was glorifying God for what had happened.
22The man on whom this sign of healing had been performed was more than forty years old.
18–20 They recalled Peter and John, and acquainted them with their decision. A complete ban was imposed on any further public mention of the name of Jesus. If they thought that any heed would be paid to this ban, they were quickly disillusioned. Peter and John had probably never heard of Socrates, and had certainly never read Plato’s Apology, but they gave the same kind of answer as Socrates gave when he was offered his release on condition that he give up the pursuit and discussion of truth and wisdom: “I shall obey God rather than you.”33 It is, of course, the sort of answer that any person of principle will give when offered freedom at the price of abandoning the path that conscience dictates. But what weighed most of all with the apostles was their personal commitment to the risen Lord to be his witnesses. If the point were put to those judges in the abstract, whether a divine commandment or a human regulation should be obeyed in the event of a clash between the two, they would affirm without hesitation that the divine commandment must be obeyed at all costs. Right, said Peter and John, “we cannot stop telling what we have seen and heard.”34
21–22 Despite this open defiance, the court did nothing but repeat the threat of severe penalties. The popular enthusiasm was too great for them to do anything more. Luke points out here, by way of explaining the extent of the public amazement, that the cripple who had been cured was over forty years old: he had reached an age at which such cures, especially for a congenital defect, simply do not occur.35 Peter and John were discharged.
“This,” says a twentieth-century Jewish historian, “was the first mistake which the Jewish leaders made with regard to the new sect. And this mistake was fatal. There was probably no need to arrest the Nazarenes, thus calling attention to them and making them ‘martyrs’. But once arrested, they should not have been freed so quickly. The arrest and release increased the number of believers; for these events showed on the one hand that the new sect was a power which the authorities feared enough to persecute, and on the other hand they proved that there was no danger in being a disciple of Jesus (he, of course, being the one who had saved them from the hand of their persecutors!).”36
7. Peter and John Rejoin Their Friends (4:23–31)
23When they had been released, Peter and John rejoined their companions and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.
24When they heard it, they raised their voices together37 to God and said,
“Sovereign Lord, who hast made heaven and earth and sea and all that is in them,
25who by the Holy Spirit hast spoken through thy servant David, our father:38
and the peoples make vain plans?
26The kings of the earth set themselves in array,
and the rulers were gathered together,
against the Lord and against his anointed one’—
27for in truth, in this city, there were gathered together against thy holy Servant Jesus, whom thou didst anoint, Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and peoples of Israel,
28to do all that thy hand and counsel had foreordained to take place.
29And now, O Lord, look on their threats, and empower thy servants to declare thy word with all freedom of speech,
30while thou stretchest forth thy hand for healing and for the performance of signs and wonders through the name of thy holy Servant Jesus.”
31When they had prayed, the place where they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to declare the word of God with freedom of speech.39
23–24 The two apostles, on their release, returned to the place where their fellow-apostles and other believers were, and when they told them of their experience before the Sanhedrin, the whole company resorted to prayer. They addressed God as Sovereign Lord,40 the Creator of all, in time-honored liturgical language derived from Hebrew scripture.41
25–28 Then they quoted the opening words of the second Psalm, and found proof of their divine origin in the fulfilment which had so recently taken place in their own experience.
This psalm, with its explicit reference to Yahweh’s anointed one (Messiah), had been interpreted of the coming deliverer of David’s line at least as early as the middle of the first century B.C.;42 the words “You are my Son” (Ps. 2:7), addressed to Jesus at his baptism by the heavenly voice, actually hailed him as that Messiah. In conformity with this understanding is the interpretation which the apostles now place on the opening verses of the psalm. The “Gentiles” raged against Jesus in the person of the Romans who sentenced him to the cross and carried out the sentence; the “peoples” who plotted against him are (despite the plural) the Jews, or rather their rulers; the “kings” who set themselves in array are represented by Herod Antipas, tetrarch of Galilee and Peraea, while the “rulers” are represented by Pontius Pilate.43 The reference to Herod harks back to the account in Luke 23:7–12, where Pilate, learning that Jesus is a Galilaean, performs a diplomatic courtesy by referring him to Herod. Luke is the only one of the four evangelists who gives Herod a role in the passion narrative.44
The prophetic language of the psalm showed that Pilate, Herod, and the others, in uniting against Jesus, were simply carrying out “God’s appointed counsel and foreknowledge” (as it was called in 2:23), “that the Messiah was to suffer” (3:18).45 In these words of the apostles there is an explicit identification of God’s “holy Servant Jesus” with the royal Son of God addressed in Ps. 2:7. Jesus, God’s obedient servant, is the one whom God “anointed” or made Messiah—at his baptism.46
29–30 The Sanhedrin might threaten, but the threats called not for intimidation and silence but for increased boldness of speech. The apostles therefore prayed that they themselves might have courage to proclaim their message without fear or favor,47 and that God would place the seal of his public approbation on their witness by granting further mighty works of healing and similar signs and wonders through the same name which had cured the lame man—the name of his “holy Servant Jesus.”48
31 The assurance of divine favor and help came even as they prayed. The place shook as with an earthquake—whether there was an objective shaking or this was the way in which God’s presence and power were manifested to their consciousness cannot be said—and the Holy Spirit filled them all and sent them forth to proclaim the good news with renewed confidence. The description here is reminiscent of the description of what happened on the day of Pentecost, both in the external signs of the Spirit’s advent and in the prayerful attitude of the disciples at his coming;49 but while this was a fresh filling of the Spirit, it could not be called a fresh baptism.50 If the narrative of 3:1–4:31 is based on a different source from that of 2:1–41, the filling of the Spirit here is not a duplicate of that in 2:4, when for the first time “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit”; in the present narrative Peter has already been “filled with the Holy Spirit” for his effective defense before the court (4:8).
D. All Things in Common (4:32–5:11)
1. Community of Goods (4:32–35)
32Now the multitude of believers had one heart and soul,51 and none of them claimed any of his property as his own: they held everything in common.
33The apostles, with great power, bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus,52 and much grace rested on them all.
34No one was in need among them, for all who were owners of land or houses sold them and brought the price received from the sale
35and placed it at the apostles’ feet. Distribution was then made to each person according to individual need.
32–35 The summary contained in these verses is similar to that in 2:43–47, but serves a different purpose in the narrative. The earlier summary concluded the account of the day of Pentecost; this summary introduces the contrasted episodes of Barnabas and Ananias.
The Spirit-filled community53 exhibited a remarkable unanimity which expressed itself even in the attitude to private property. Whereas the institution of a communal purse was explicitly regulated in writing at Qumran,54 the action taken by these early disciples of Jesus was intended to be voluntary. Members regarded their private estates as being at the community’s disposal; those who owned houses or lands sold these in order that they might be more conveniently available to the community in the form of money. The richer members thus made provision for the poorer, and for a time no one had any need to complain of hunger or want. (But later on, when funds ran out and especially after the country was hard hit by the famine mentioned in 11:28, the Jerusalem church became dependent on the generosity of fellow-believers in other places.) The apostles, as the community leaders, received the free-will offerings that were brought, but they apparently delegated the details of distribution to others, for they themselves had to devote their time and energy to their public testimony to the risen Christ. As they did so, the power of God, shown in mighty works, attended their preaching, in answer to their prayer (v. 30). And they continued to enjoy the experience of God’s grace and the favor of the Jerusalem populace.55
2. The Generosity of Barnabas (4:36–37)
36There was one Joseph, whom the apostles surnamed Barnabas, meaning “son of encouragement.” He was a Levite; his family belonged to Cyprus.
37He had a field which he sold, and he brought the money and placed it at the apostles’ feet.
36–37 The exact etymology of Joseph’s additional name Barnabas is a matter of debate,56 but in all that we know of him he proved himself to be a true encourager. He was a Cypriot Jew, but he had relatives in Jerusalem57 and a piece of land as well. The Pentateuchal regulations prohibiting priests and Levites from holding landed property seem to have become a dead letter by this time.58 The piece of land59 which he possessed may not have been large; whatever it was, he sold it and gave the purchase-price to the apostles for the benefit of the community.