Acts 4:21Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

The signs stopped their mouths, and they no longer allowed the Apostles to finish their word. Instead, they interrupted them very offensively while they were still speaking. Of course, they ought to have turned to faith because of the miracle for which the people glorified God. But they threaten even murder, so greatly did they resist God. "And when they had further threatened them, they let them go." Through this the Apostles became more glorious and more renowned. "My strength," it is said, "is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor 12:9). They had already borne witness to this, having withstood everything.

It goes without saying that this prohibition and threat had no effect on the apostles. They returned home after they had experienced the first persecution for the name of Christ. They had also seen the first experience of the help of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ had foretold that it would not be they who spoke at the trial, but the Holy Spirit. Therefore they made it their first task to pray to God that He would continue His help to them. They asked for signs and wonders for the conversion of unbelievers. And when they received a new sign in confirmation of God’s good pleasure, the place where they prayed was shaken. Then they preached the gospel with still greater boldness.

It is understandable how the members of the Sanhedrin must have received this answer from the defendants. Yet for a time they were forced to suppress their malice. In this case the people were on the side of the Apostles. The miracle of the healing of the lame man had made a powerful impression on them, and this impression was still very vivid and fresh. Therefore they released the Apostles, only ordering them not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus. But already from this it is clear what position those who sit on Moses' seat would take in the future toward the followers of Christ.

Such an answer forced the elders to gnash their teeth in malicious indignation. But since they feared to use any severe measures because of the people, they were compelled to limit themselves to repeated threats, and with these they released the Apostles.

"They let them go": they released them from trial as innocent. "Finding no way": strictly, finding no way, no pretext, by which to punish them. "Because of the people": here again is the same fear of the Sanhedrin before the crowd which we observe in the final days of the Gospel history (Mt 26:5 and parallels).

The apostles were released because they had not been convicted. But this was also helped considerably by the fact that the people saw in the miracle the manifest power of God, for which they glorified God. To detain the wonderworkers, and still more to condemn them under such circumstances, was unsafe. Finally, the healed man himself was of sufficient age to come forward in defense of his benefactors. He was now no longer a feeble lame man, but a man in the flower of years and fullness of strength. If it had proved necessary, he probably could have spoken no less powerfully than the man born blind had spoken before a similar assembly. Then the rumor unfavorable to the judges would have grown still stronger.