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§12 The Apostles Heal Many (Acts 5:12–16)

In this further description of the inner life of the church, the emphasis is now on the power that was at work among them, especially through the apostles. The effectiveness of their witness in both word and deed explains the attack made upon them, which is the subject of the section following this one.

5:12 / The apostles performed many miraculous signs and wonders (see notes on 1:26 and 2:22). It would appear from this, as from the earlier passage (see disc. on 2:43), that the gift of miracles was confined to the apostles. With the appointment of the Seven, however, it was soon extended at least to Stephen (6:8) and Philip (8:6, 13). Later Paul and Barnabas exercised the gift (14:3; 15:12; 19:11ff.; Rom. 15:19; 2 Cor. 12:12), and from Paul’s writings, we know that others also possessed “gifts of healing and miraculous powers” (1 Cor. 12:9f.; Gal. 3:5). How widespread this was, we do not know. But on the evidence available to us, it might be fair to say that the gift of miracles was generally vested in the leaders of the church, partly perhaps to accredit them in the eyes of outsiders as Christ’s representatives. But it is not to this that Luke refers here when he speaks of miracles done among the people, but to the church. In the singular, the word laos, “people,” nearly always means the people of God. Luke adds that their favorite meeting place at this time was in Solomon’s Colonnade (see disc. on 3:11 and Ehrhardt, p. 19, for the contrast with the Essenes), and it was probably here (as the juxtaposition of ideas would suggest) that many of the miracles were performed (cf. 3:1–10).

5:13–14 / Being often in the temple, the believers would have come under the notice of the many others who frequented its courts, and the scene thus suggested may have been the context of Luke’s remark in verse 13. Whenever the Christians were met together no one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people (cf. v. 26). This reluctance to intrude was no doubt due to a healthy respect for the divine power evident in these meetings. But there is no contradiction with verse 14. A hesitation to join a church meeting need not have held any back from joining at other, more convenient, times. And many did, both men and women who believed in the Lord, literally, “who believed the Lord,” the sense being that they took the Lord at his word (for the title, see note on 11:20). The mention of women is another reminder of their role in the life of the church (see disc. on 1:14). The tense of the Greek verb, were added (imperfect), gives the sense that men and women kept on being added, whereas the passive voice carries the implication that it was God who did the adding (cf. 2:41, 47).

5:15–16 / The association of ideas might lead us to conclude that it was the men and women of verse 14 who now gave play to their new faith by bringing others to the apostles for healing. But surely they would have known that the power to heal was not inherent in any person, much less in a shadow, though it might please God to use both as “means of grace.” It is better, then, not to look for a link between verses 14 and 15, but to see verse 15 as a reference to the response of the nonbelievers to the growing fame of the apostles, Peter especially (cf. 19:12; Mark 6:56). That they should have sought Peter’s shadow was in line with the popular idea of the time that “to be touched by a man’s shadow means to be in contact with his soul or his essence and to be influenced by that, whether it be for better or for worse” (P. W. Van Der Horst, “Peter’s Shadow,” NTS 23 (1977), p. 207). It was downright superstition, yet out of it some may have come to a true faith. “The lesson is taught that spiritual influence can be conveyed through material things. The instances however are few and the appeal has the least permanent effect. The people throng the street, but do not come into the church” (Rackham, p. 69). Meanwhile, news of these things spread beyond the city and crowds gathered … from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by evil spirits (v. 16; cf. Matt. 4:24). All of them were healed, we are told, but blanket statements like this must often be read in the sense of “many” or “some” rather than all (see disc. on 9:35). At all events, by these contacts the way was being prepared for the advance of the gospel from Jerusalem into Judea.