And it came to pass on the morrow, that their princes and ancients and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem.
εγενετο δε επι την αυριον συναχθηναι αυτων τους αρχοντας και πρεσβυτερους και γραμματεις εις ιερουσαλημ
6 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Again they assemble together. Among their other evils was this too, that the ordinances of the Law were no longer observed. Again they give the assembly the appearance of a court, so as to accuse them by an unjust judgment. Again there is an assembly in Jerusalem, and blood is shed there. They were not even ashamed before the city.
Besides their other injustices toward the Apostles, they did not even observe the requirements of the Law. Notice, for example, the multitude of high priests, though according to the Law there ought to be one while he lives. On this occasion too they gave the matter the form of a trial, so as to demand an answer from the Apostles before an unjust court. They inquired, "By what power or by what name?" Yet they themselves knew, because they had detained the Apostles precisely because they were burdened by their preaching of the Resurrection in Christ.
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.
The arrest of the Apostles took place already in the evening (v. 3). Therefore their trial was postponed until morning. On the next day the members of the Sanhedrin assembled.
Everything indicates that this was an extraordinary meeting. Consequently, the Apostles' preaching about Christ produced strong agitation among the murderers of Jesus.
The question they first considered it necessary to put to the Apostles concerned precisely the Person, the Name, by whom they had performed the healing and whom they preached.
They wanted to conduct a detailed interrogation of the Apostles. Therefore they begin not with their teaching in the temple, but with an investigation of the miracle of healing that preceded it.
The judges wished to notice contradictions and inconsistencies in the Apostles' answers. On that basis they could reject the miraculous character of the lame man's healing and prove the action of deception or cunning.
Probably for this purpose the Sanhedrin arranged that the healed man himself be present at the interrogation (v. 14), although it was mistaken in its calculation.
"They were gathered together," and so forth. As is clear, this was a formal and full assembly of the Sanhedrin, so important did the matter for which they gathered seem.
"In Jerusalem," properly, "to Jerusalem," as the usual place of the Sanhedrin's assemblies. It was perhaps at a season when many from the higher class left Jerusalem and lived on their estates, more or less far from the city.
Now they all gathered to Jerusalem for a general assembly. "Rulers," and so forth, means the Sanhedrin in its full composition.
The gathering for the trial of the Apostles, composed of various higher rulers and representatives of the people, shows that Peter and John were not taken into custody for the night without those rulers' knowledge.
They had long been greatly troubled by the successes of Christianity. The addition of another five thousand believers in Christ to the three thousand could have utterly alarmed them.
At the same time, even among hardened enemies of Christianity, there could arise a feeling of awareness of Christ's innocence, the truth of His teaching, and the actual power of God in the Apostles.
Therefore many could naturally gather soon, on the morning of the next day, to see the chief Apostles and hear the general official judgment on this matter.
The matter was so important in itself, and especially in relation to the Hebrew people and to each person separately. For many Hebrews, the salvation of the soul was a matter of first importance.
For all the rulers and representatives to gather in Jerusalem at that time was not entirely easy. With the onset of heat and after the festal season, many of them could be living outside the city on their estates.
As always, so even now, such estates surrounded Jerusalem on every side. Yet all this could not stop or delay the trial of the Apostles, just as it had not stopped the trial of Jesus Christ.
At that earlier time, however, there was a special circumstance hastening the trial, the approach of Pascha. Now there was nothing similar.
Clearly, the bitterness of the enemies of Christianity grew as the number of believers in Christ increased. Together with it grew their haste to adopt measures for suppressing Christianity.
The leaders of the people had not yet heard Gamaliel's wise word: "If this work is from men, it will come to nothing. But if it is from God, you cannot overthrow it. Beware lest you even be found fighting against God" (Acts 5:38-39).
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 17 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS