Being grieved that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead:
διαπονουμενοι δια το διδασκειν αυτους τον λαον και καταγγελλειν εν τω ιησου την αναστασιν των νεκρων
7 Church Fathers comment on this verse
"Being grieved that they taught the people." They were vexed not only because the Apostles taught, but also because they said that Christ Himself had risen, and that we too shall rise through Him. "Being grieved that they taught the people," it says, "and proclaimed in Jesus the resurrection from the dead." His Resurrection was so effectual that He became the cause of resurrection for others also.
The Apostles had not yet had time to breathe after the former temptations when they fell into others. See how the events are arranged. First all the Apostles are mocked together. Then they fall into dangers, but not immediately.
At first they defend themselves in public assemblies and afterward perform a great miracle. Then, once they have become bolder, they enter the contests by God's permission.
But turn your gaze to the Jews' progress in malice and shamelessness. Earlier, during Christ's time, they sought a man to betray Him. Now they themselves lay hands on the Apostles, having become more daring and shameless after the Cross.
It says that the captain of the temple was with them. This was so that, by such circumstances, they might give the matter the character of a public charge and make it seem not their own affair.
They always try to act so. "And they put them in custody until the morning." Thus the Jews acted with the Apostles and kept guard over them, desiring to humble them.
Meanwhile the lengthened time made the Apostles more fearless. The priests bound them before the people in order to make the spectators themselves more timid. Yet the opposite happened.
They questioned the Apostles privately, fearing that their boldness might influence the hearers.
Thus the community of believers, with its members also in other places of Palestine, in Samaria and Galilee (Acts 9:31), increased daily in Jerusalem. Soon the Jewish priests themselves 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 healed the lame man at the temple and then preached to the people about Christ crucified and risen, by whose power they had performed the healing.
Then the priests, with the followers of the Sadducean sect, took them into custody, so that they might present them to the Sanhedrin in the morning.
The next day they were indeed presented to the Sanhedrin together with the healed man. There sat the same Annas and Caiaphas who had judged Jesus.
The Apostles were asked, "By what power, or by whose name, have you done this?" Perhaps they did not expect them to dare to speak before the Sanhedrin as openly as before the common people.
Yet the Apostles declared without hesitation that the lame man who had lain at the temple was raised up by them in the name of Jesus, whom they had crucified, that is, by the decree of the Sanhedrin.
They added that this Jesus, as He Himself had declared to them, truly is the stone rejected by the builders, but become the head of the corner.
They were recognized: John was known to one of the chief priests. Their boldness astonished the members of the Sanhedrin. Yet the miracle could not be denied.
The people were on their side, since they were not disposed toward the Sadducees. Therefore they decided only to forbid them to preach any longer to anyone "in this name."
Peter and John answered that they had to obey God rather than men. They were only threatened and released with the same prohibition.
Three classes of persons are indicated in the arrest of the Apostles: representatives of the Jewish hierarchy, the guardian of external order at the temple, and the Sadducees.
Two reasons or motives for taking the Apostles into custody are indicated: first, the fact that the Apostles were teaching the people, and then the subject of their teaching, the resurrection from the dead.
Concerning the latter motive, it is evident that the authorities of the Sadducean party were guided by it. As is known, they rejected the existence of the spiritual world and, with it, the resurrection from the dead.
Those belonging to this heresy were at that time mostly powerful and influential people. Even the head of the Jewish hierarchy himself, the high priest, was a Sadducee (Acts 5:17).
In the present case they were irritated because the Apostles, by preaching the resurrection of Jesus Christ, thereby taught in general about the resurrection from the dead.
This irritated them as Sadducees. But as members of the Sanhedrin and of the Jewish hierarchy generally, they were also vexed that the Apostles were teaching the people at all.
In this respect they agreed with all the priests. The latter saw in the teaching activity of simple men a usurpation of rights belonging only to themselves.
They saw damage to their authority as teachers of the people and guides in matters of faith. They feared the loss of their religious and moral influence over the people.
The guardian of external order could see, in simple men gathering crowds around themselves and teaching in one of the temple porticoes, both a breach of external decorum and order and the danger of popular agitation in any sense by the preachers.
This preaching, which gathered a multitude of hearers, drew the attention of the members of the Sanhedrin. They saw in it a continuation of the very teaching preached by the Galilean Teacher whom they had crucified. They were greatly angered at these insignificant Galilean villagers, as they considered them, who dared to preach in the temple.
"Being grieved that they taught the people." This refers to all the persons mentioned. The following words, "and preached the resurrection from the dead," refer exclusively to the Sadducees.
The priests were vexed that the Apostles, having no lawful authorization in their opinion, taught the people. This appeared to them as a willful intrusion into a sphere of priestly ministry that did not belong to them.
The captain of the guard, besides this, was of course vexed that the people's gathering around the Apostles seemed to disturb the decorum of the temple service. Thus the Apostles appeared to him as disturbers of public peace in the temple.
The Sadducees, who rejected the resurrection of the dead, were vexed with the Apostles because they preached the resurrection of the dead in the person of Jesus Christ. For if Christ is risen from the dead, then resurrection truly exists.
The vexation of the Hebrew priests could have arisen especially because the Apostles taught the people successfully. It was evident with what zeal and love those around them listened to them.
They did not listen coldly and calmly, as they listened to the priests. The Sadducees were troubled because the Apostles' teaching about resurrection was connected with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Many Hebrews were sufficiently informed about this, especially since it was accompanied by the resurrection of many others. Some of them had fallen asleep, while others remained alive (cf. 1 Cor 15:6).
Moreover, when the doctrine of resurrection was set forth in this way, it became very important for the Hebrew priests as well.
For Jesus, who was called Christ, as the cause of the universal resurrection of the dead, had to appear in another light even to their rather blinded eyes.
The captain of the guard, who was also a priest (cf. 2 Macc 3:4), could also be vexed that the Apostles, by their teaching, detained the people at the temple and so seemed to disturb the usual order.
This was especially so because evening there quickly passes into night. Therefore he could fear still more for the further order of the extraordinary gathering of a multitude of people.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 17 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS