Acts 4:9Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

With great courage he attacked them from the very beginning and wounded them. At the same time he reminded them of what had happened before, since they were judging them for a benefaction.

It was as though he said: For this, surely, you ought rather to crown us and proclaim us benefactors. Yet we are being judged for a benefaction done to a weak man, one who is neither rich, powerful, nor renowned.

Who could envy us in this? Peter's words contained much that was grievous. Yet they show that the Jews themselves were forcing evil upon themselves.

It says that Annas and Caiaphas were there. Peter once could not endure even the question of Caiaphas' maidservant, and denied Him while another was being detained.

"Rulers of the people and elders of Israel." Observe what wisdom there is. Where necessity requires it, Peter rebukes them sharply. Thus he called them by honorable names. But when he came to the matter itself, he no longer drew back from fitting rebuke. He indirectly reminded them that over such deeds they always contended in court and came away without rejoicing. What he says is this: rather, you should have crowned us for this and proclaimed us as benefactors.

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.

"If we are examined," and so forth: the conditional form of the speech and the very choice of expressions subtly and sharply point to the injustice of the present trial of the apostles.

They, the apostles, had shown a benefaction to a weak man. Is one really to demand an answer, or an accounting, for a benefaction? Is one to judge it before the highest tribunal as though it were a crime?

"For this, surely, you ought rather to crown us and proclaim us benefactors. Yet we are judged for a benefaction done to a weak man, not rich, not strong, and not renowned" (Chrysostom).

At the same time, the apostle points to the undeniable character of the miracle. The man had truly been weak, and had truly been healed by them.

The Apostle Peter explains the form of the chairman's indefinite question. He gives it precisely the direction that the chairman himself ought to have given it, had he not been acting deceitfully.

Yet together with framing the question, the apostle wonderfully weaves into it the answer. In the healing of the weak man, a work of benefaction has been revealed. Men are judged not for benefactions, but for evil deeds.

Therefore the great judges of the people, and its most senior representatives, had at least troubled themselves in vain. Still less justly had they brought innocent benefactors to trial.

At the same time, the apostle clearly points to the undeniable character of the miracle. He says that the man had been weak and had been healed by them.