Acts 4:10Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth." What especially grieved them, the apostle adds. This is precisely what Christ's words meant: "What you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops" (Mt 10:27).

"In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Whom you crucified, Whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands before you whole." Do not think, he says, that we conceal His homeland or His Passion.

"Whom you crucified, Whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands before you whole." Again the Passion, again the Resurrection.

But Peter had said, "We did not do this." Mark his prudence. He did not say at once, "We did it in the name of Jesus." How then? "By Him this man stands before you whole." Nor does he say, "He became well through us."

And since "we are being examined," "let it be known to you all and to all the people of Israel, that by the name..." This was especially grievous for the Jews. This is also what Christ had said to them: what you have heard with your ears, preach upon the housetops. "By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth." Do not think, he says, that we conceal His homeland. No, we proclaim His homeland also. This is not enough: we also confess His sufferings and preach the Resurrection. "Whom you crucified." He also uttered a word capable of terrifying the Jews. For what blow, do you think, was dealt to them by these words?

No one can doubt the words that the Father raised our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. The action was plainly performed upon His flesh. And He Himself, as the Giver of life and the effective power of the Father, raised up His own temple, according to what was said: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (Jn 2:19). Therefore what was raised was not a foreign body, nor the body of one of the men like us, but the body of the Word Himself.

Thus the community of believers, which also had members in other parts of Palestine, in Samaria and Galilee (Acts 9:31), increased daily in Jerusalem. Soon even the Jewish priests began to pass over into it (Acts 6:7).

The Sanhedrin no longer wished to leave the matter of Christianity without attention. Peter and John had healed the lame man at the temple. Afterward they preached to the people about Christ crucified and risen, by Whose power they had performed the healing.

Then the priests, together with the followers of the Sadducean sect, took them into custody. They intended to present them to the Sanhedrin in the morning. The next day they were indeed brought before the Sanhedrin, together with the man who had been healed.

In his answer, the Apostle Peter first says that the matter for which they, the apostles, have been summoned to judgment is a benefaction. It consists in the miraculous healing of a weak man.

Then he firmly and decisively testifies that the healing was accomplished in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, "Whom you crucified, Whom God raised from the dead."

Already in these words the apostle places his judges in the position of the accused. He directly ascribes to them the guilt of crucifying Jesus Christ.

He then does not soften this accusation, but strengthens it still further. He names Jesus Christ, in the words of the psalm (Ps 117:22), the cornerstone upon which all human salvation is built.

"By the name of Jesus Christ" (Acts 3:6), "of Nazareth" (Acts 2:22), whom you crucified, or delivered up to crucifixion (Acts 3:13), but whom God raised. By Him this man stands before you whole, that is, by His power and not ours (Acts 3:12), through the invocation of His name.

The Apostle Peter's confession of Jesus Christ, as the power by which they had performed the miracle, is clear, full, and bold. He adds that this is the same Jesus of Nazareth Whom you, the Jews, crucified, and Whom God raised.

He commands all who were present there, and the whole Jewish people, to know this. There was to be no misunderstanding either about this matter, or generally about everything concerning Jesus Christ.

Together with Him, this also concerned the apostles themselves, as the performers of Christ's work.

By the words "in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth," according to Blessed Theophylact's explanation, the apostle said, as it were: "Do not think that we hide His homeland. No, we also proclaim His homeland.