Acts 5:17Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Observe, I ask you, how their whole life is made up of opposites.

First there was sorrow because of Christ's Ascension, then joy because of the descent of the Spirit. Again there was sorrow from those who reviled them, then joy from the faithful and from the miracle.

Again there was sorrow when they were detained, then joy after their vindication. Here again there is both joy and sorrow.

There was joy because they were glorified and received revelations from God. There was sorrow because men deprived their own people of life.

Again there was joy because they became known, and again sorrow because of the high priest.

This can be observed everywhere, just as it can be seen also among the ancient holy men.

The handkerchiefs and aprons of the Apostle Paul had the same wondrous effect upon the sick and the possessed (Acts 19:12). So also now, by the grace of God present in the Orthodox Church, there are many wondrous healings of every illness.

They come from the incorrupt relics of God's holy servants, from their coverings and garments, and from their holy icons. Miracles occur in a particular place and for particular people only by God's grace and by the faith of those who turn to God for help.

For this reason Christ said more than once, "Rise and go; your faith has saved you." And again, "According to your faith let it be unto you" (Lk 8:48). Therefore, Orthodox Christians, have a pure and firm faith in God (Mk 11:23).

The Sadducees, a word translated "righteous," claimed to be what they were not, as we read below. They entirely denied the bodily resurrection and said that the soul perishes with the flesh. Moreover, they did not even believe that angels or any spirits exist. Accepting only the five books of Moses, they rejected the prophecies of the prophets with contempt. Jerome, Commentarii in Evangelium Matthaei 3.22.23-32; Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae 8.4.4.

The Sadducees were heretics because they said that there is neither resurrection of the dead (Mt 21:23), nor spirits, nor angels (Acts 23:6, 8).

The number of these heretics grew so large that one part of the Jewish council consisted of them, and the other of Pharisees.

The high priest at that time, as one must suppose, was Caiaphas. He and all those with him, followers of the Sadducean heresy, heard that the apostles were preaching the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

They also heard that the apostles confirmed their preaching by many miracles. Consequently, they saw that their heresy, which denied the resurrection from the dead, was being exposed as false.

Having received a new sign as confirmation of God's good pleasure, for the place where they prayed was shaken, they preached the gospel with still greater boldness. This became the cause of the apostles' second imprisonment, now in the public prison, as disturbers of public peace.

The Sadducees were again the chief actors. To mock their vain designs, an angel opened the prison doors for the apostles, though they denied the very existence of angels. They were again in the temple and teaching.

From there they were taken and brought before the Sanhedrin. They were examined as men who had violated the command of the authorities. They were not asked how they had come out of prison. They were asked why they preached about Him whose name was hateful to them.

Both the increase in the number of believers and the fame of the preachers of the risen Christ irritated the high priest and the other members of the Sanhedrin to the highest degree.

This was especially true of those who belonged to the Sadducean heresy, which rejected the resurrection from the dead (Acts 4:2).

And the apostles were shut in prison.

This time the Sanhedrin decided to treat the apostles far more cruelly than it had treated Peter and John (Acts 4:21).

It did not intend to finish with them merely by beatings, though on this occasion the apostles' sufferings were limited to these (Acts 5:40). It wanted to put them to death (v. 33).

But the Lord Himself showed them help by miraculously bringing them out of prison.

“Then the high priest rose up, and all who were with him, that is, the sect of the Sadducees, and they were filled with envy. They laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison” (vv. 17-18).

The fame of the apostles' wondrous works and the extraordinary increase of those who believed in Jesus Christ were burdensome to the enemies of Christ's name.

Perhaps enmity against Jesus of Nazareth had not died in the hearts of the high priests since the time when they and the Jewish elders sought His death.

At last they handed Him over to Pilate for crucifixion.

When the Apostle Peter spoke his second word to the people, the apostles were taken into custody.

All this naturally could not leave the high priests and Jewish elders at rest. Before their conscience the shadow of the Galilean Whom they had crucified was visibly growing. Unable any longer to endure such success among the apostles, the high priests again ordered them seized and this time cast into prison.

The high priest and the others were filled with envy. Judging from the preceding description of the Christian community's inner condition and the people's attitude toward it, the Church of Christ was flourishing inwardly and was being glorified by the people.

It was natural that the Lord's murderers, who had envied His glory among other things, should also be filled with envy toward His disciples, who were so glorified by the people.

The high priest: on the basis of Acts 4:6, many understand the high priest here to be Annas or Ananus. Yet the basis is not firm.

The ruling high priest at that time was Caiaphas. If the designation of his office stands without mention of a name, then the holder of the high-priestly office should be understood, that is, Caiaphas.

The freeing of the apostles from prison was, as it were, one of the multitude of miracles.

The high priest and the Sadducees, who then stood at the head of the people's government, had unexpectedly imprisoned them without any trial.

The apostles had long since been freed from prison, even more quickly than they had been cast into it.

An angel led them out, opening the doors of the prison and commanding them, as before, to proclaim the teaching of life and eternal salvation (see Jn 6:68).

The envy of the high priest Caiaphas toward the holy apostles' influence over the people is understandable.

So too is the people's aversion to him, in view of his clearly marked attachment to the Jewish Sadducees.