Acts 5:24Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

It was also good that this was not reported to the Jewish rulers at once. First they were left in perplexity, so that when they learned everything, they might understand 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.

"The high priest": strictly, the priest (hiereus). Judging from the context, this word undoubtedly refers to the high priest. But why he is called this here, the only such place in the whole New Testament, cannot be decided. Conjectures would be useless.

"The captain of the guard": see the note on Acts 4:1. "The chief priests": see the note on Mt 2:4. "They were perplexed as to what this would mean": more precisely, what would come of this.

They were not properly perplexed about why the apostles were not in prison, but about the consequences of this event. Seeing much that was extraordinary and miraculous in the course of events, they seem even now to have understood that the apostles' release from prison had occurred miraculously.

Yet, as throughout the history of the preceding years, they were concerned not with the fact itself, but with its consequences. Now they fearfully wondered what would come of all this.

Perplexity over what had happened must first have been expressed by that priest, the chief one, who was captain of the temple guard and, at the same time, of the public prison. By his office, as priest and guard, he was concerned in the matter (see 4:1).

Then the high priests were also perplexed, though less so, for they could not be as sure that everything was secure as the priest-strategos was. Moreover, deep in their souls they believed in the possibility, even the necessity, of new miracles.

These would defend those whom they oppressed solely from envy. Soon it became known that those who had been in prison were preaching in the temple.