Acts 5:23Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

There was a double guard, as at Christ's tomb: a seal and men. See how they fought against God! Tell me, is what happened to them characteristic of men? Who led them through locked doors?

How did they pass by the guards standing before the doors? Truly, their words are the words of madmen and of men drunk with wine.

Those whom neither prison, nor bonds, nor locked doors had restrained, they hoped to overcome, acting like foolish children. Their own servants came and reported what had happened, so as to refute every excuse of theirs.

Do you see the various signs following upon signs? Some came from the apostles, others concerned them. The latter were even more glorious.

After this they should have feared God, Who guarded the apostles from their hands like fledglings. The double securing of the prison, that is, both the seal and the men, and everything else in general, was sufficient to convince them that what had happened was the action of divine power.

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.

The increase in the number of believers and the fame of the preachers of the risen Christ greatly irritated the high priest and the other members of the Sanhedrin. This was especially true of those who belonged to the heresy of the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection from the dead (Acts 4:2).

So the apostles were imprisoned. This time the Sanhedrin decided to deal far more harshly with the apostles than it had dealt with Peter and John (Acts 4:21). It did not intend to end the matter with beatings alone.

Yet on this occasion the apostles' sufferings were limited to beatings (Acts 5:40). The Sanhedrin wished to put them to death (v. 33). But the Lord Himself showed them help by wondrously bringing them out of prison.

"We found the prison securely shut," and so forth. From the words of the guards, the members of the Sanhedrin should have understood that something extraordinary had happened. Yet the guards reported only what they themselves had witnessed, without entering into any guesses or suppositions.

The report of those sent to the prison for the apostles undoubtedly corresponded to reality. The angelic deliverance from prison had to be such.

If the doors had been open, an ordinary release could also have taken place. But here the doors were found locked, and the guard was standing in its usual place by the doors. Only the prisoners were absent.

Undoubtedly this report struck many with amazement. Perhaps Gamaliel was not the only one who thought what he said, while others kept silent for fear of the Jews.

"Jesus Christ, according to the saying of John the Theologian, is the Holy One, the True One, who has the key of David, who opens and no one shall shut" (Rev 3:7).