Acts 3:9Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Of course, he was not known to everyone, and therefore they tried to find out who he was. "And all the people saw him walking and praising God, and they recognized him as the one who sat at the Beautiful Gate of the temple." It is well said that they recognized him, because after what had happened to him, one might not have recognized him. We usually use this expression of those whom we barely recognize. Therefore they ought to have believed that the name of Christ remits sins, if it also performs such deeds.

This miraculous healing was all the more striking because the illness had been so long-lasting and incurable (cf. Acts 3:2; 4:22). The report quickly spread through the many-thousanded crowd that such an extraordinary deed had taken place in their midst. It is understandable what excitement this report must have produced. Everyone hastened to be convinced with his own eyes of the reality of the miracle. They hastened to see the lame beggar known to all. And since the healed lame man did not leave Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in amazement, to the porch called Solomon's.

“All the people”: those gathered and those gathering in the courts of the temple at this evening hour of prayer. The miracle itself was probably not performed before many who were passing at that moment through the Beautiful Gate into the temple. But when all the people saw the former lame man walking, and recognized in him that very lame man who usually sat at the Beautiful Gate to ask for alms, then all this people became witnesses of the miracle over the lame man, and trustworthy witnesses. “They were filled with wonder and amazement”: this expression signifies the highest degree of popular astonishment. The extraordinary deed produced an extraordinary impression on the people and struck them most deeply.

It was difficult to recognize, in the man who was leaping, the one who had formerly been lame from birth. Yet it was impossible not to recognize him, for he was very well known to frequent visitors of the temple, and especially to those who served there. And again fear came upon the eyewitnesses of the miracle, together with amazement. Amazement at the sight of such an extraordinary miracle is understandable. As for fear, one must suppose that some of the Jews were “limping,” as Saint John Chrysostom says, alluding to their attachment to material means and to their hypocrisy. This hypocrisy was ready to appear even here, had it not been afraid.