Acts 4:29Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

And see: they did not say, crush them, cast them down. What then? "Grant to Your servants to speak Your word with all boldness." So let us also learn to pray. Truly, who would not be filled with anger on coming among men seeking his death and breathing such threats? And who would not be filled with indignation? But these holy ones do not act so. "Grant to Your servants," that is, let their threats not be fulfilled in deed. They spoke thus not because they feared suffering anything grievous, but because they were concerned for the preaching. They did not say, deliver us from dangers. What then? "Grant to Your servants to speak Your word with all boldness." You Yourself, Who brought that matter to completion, bring this one also to completion.

"And now look..." Observe: they did not say, "Strike them and cast them down." What did they say? "Look upon their threats, and grant to Your servants to speak Your word with all boldness." The Apostles prayed not to be delivered from enduring hardships, but for the success of the preaching.

It goes without saying that this prohibition and threat had no effect on the apostles. They returned home after experiencing the first persecution for the name of Christ. They had also seen the first instance of the Holy Spirit's help. Jesus Christ had foretold that it would not be they who spoke at trial, but the Holy Spirit. Therefore they first resolved to pray to God that He would continue His help to them, through signs and wonders, for the conversion of unbelievers. Then, having received a new sign confirming God's good pleasure, for the place where they prayed was shaken, they preached the Gospel with still greater boldness.

Peter and John related to their own people what the chief priests and elders had said to them. Here, as before, the writer of Acts does not define more closely the content of the threats with which Peter and John were released from the council chamber. But the content of the prayer shows this to us. Through it the souls of the believers responded to the news of these threats. This first public Christian prayer known to us is a prayer of supplication. The believers entreat almighty God, the Creator of heaven and earth, to defend them against their persecutors. They ask Him to grant them strength to remain firm and fearless confessors of Christ's name while suffering for Christ.

"Look upon their threats" and so forth: this is a prayer for the averting of the coming danger and calamities with which the council had threatened them (vv. 17, 18). Look upon them, defend us from enemies, preserve us from calamities. This is, so to speak, the negative side of the prayer. The positive side is that God would grant them, the believers and His servants, boldness. Despite all the enemies' threats, they ask to preach the word of God, or the Gospel of the world's salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ. "They cite the prophecy as though asking God to fulfill His promise. At the same time they console themselves that their enemies devise everything vainly. Thus their words mean: bring all this to completion, and show that they devised vain things" (Chrysostom; cf. Theophylact).

The apostles ask the Lord to preserve them from the fulfillment of the enemies' threats. They ask Him, as it were, to bless them for preaching Christ, despite the prohibition of the authorities. Pointing to the wonders God performs through them upon others, they ask Him not to deprive them of the wondrous help He promised them (see Mt 10:18-19). As for their enemies, the apostles entrust them to the guidance or correction of God Himself, saying, "Look upon..." "Observe," says blessed Theophylact, "they did not say, strike them and cast them down. What then did they say? Look upon their threats." Saint John Chrysostom says: "See, they did not say, crush them, cast them down. What then? Grant to Your servants to speak Your word with all boldness. So let us also learn to pray.