Acts 5:32Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Behold yet another gain, another teaching expressed in the form of a defense. “We are His witnesses in these things.” What great boldness!

Then, for greater trustworthiness of his words, Peter added: “and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”

Do you see how the apostles present not themselves alone as witnesses, but also the Spirit? They did not say, “He gave Him to us,” but “to those who obey.”

Thus they show their own humility, the greatness of the Spirit, and also that the Jews too can receive Him.

Notice how they were instructed both by deeds and by words, yet did not heed. For this reason righteous condemnation will overtake them.

"And the Holy Spirit, Whom God has given to those who obey Him." They did not say, "the Holy Spirit, Whom God has given to us," but "Whom God has given to those who obey Him." In this they both show humility and reveal great truths. Besides this, they declare that the Jews themselves could receive the Spirit. For this very reason God allowed the apostles to be brought into the tribunal: so that the Jews might be taught, the apostles themselves might gain greater boldness, and all in general might receive edification.

Having received a new sign confirming God’s favor, 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, this time in the public prison, as disturbers of public peace. The chief actors were again the Sadducees.

In mockery of their vain designs, an angel, though they denied the very existence of angels, opened the prison doors for the apostles. They are again in the temple and teaching.

From there they are taken and presented to the Sanhedrin. They are questioned as violators of the authorities’ command.

They are not asked how they left the prison. They are asked why they preach about Him whose name is hateful to them.

Yet those who crucified the Lord remain cruelly consistent even now. When the session opened, it became clear that the apostles had been freed from prison by the right hand of God. The prison doors had been carefully locked, and the guard was awake.

Nevertheless, the Sanhedrin ordered them brought to trial as criminals. The captain of the guard, carrying out this command, did not use violence against the innocent. He brought them out of the temple without force, because the people defended the apostles, their benefactors.

The high priest begins the interrogation, which the sacred historian gives only in its main outlines. “Did we not strictly command you not to teach in this name?”

Peter did not increase the anxiety of the Jewish leaders. He made no hint of coming vengeance. He only said that the apostles and the Holy Spirit acting in them were witnesses of the resurrection and glorification of Him Whom they had killed.

“We are His witnesses in these things,” more precisely, in these words, witnesses to the truth of everything said about Him, “and so is the Holy Spirit.”

The apostles were witnesses of the Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord, that is, of His exaltation by the right hand of God as Prince and Savior.

The Holy Spirit, distinct from the human spirit yet acting in the human spirit made gracious, bears witness to the same thing by countless actions in believers (cf. Rom 8:16).

The witness of the apostles and the witness of the Holy Spirit are completely one and the same in content. They are set side by side and distinguished only in the same sense in which the Lord Himself set them side by side and distinguished them.

“To those who obey Him”: not only to the apostles, but also to all believers, who by faith receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

In answering the accusation that the apostles were bringing the guilt of Christ’s shed blood upon the members of the Sanhedrin, Peter preaches the teaching about Jesus Christ as risen and made the Author of salvation, not of perdition, through repentance and forgiveness of sins.

From this two conclusions must be drawn. Whoever repents will be forgiven, and therefore the guilt of innocent blood will not fall upon him. But whoever remains unrepentant must justly bear the punishment determined by the voice of the people.

As for the apostles’ speaking of this, they cannot but speak, since they are witnesses of it and have the Holy Spirit. He also speaks in them, as He spoke through the prophets.

What Peter and John had first said to the authorities, all the apostles later said to them: one must obey God rather than men.

“The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed by hanging Him on a tree. God exalted Him at His right hand as Prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

We are His witnesses in these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.” What sincerity, fullness, definiteness, and clarity of confession!

God so ordered it that the Crucified One should be our Savior through the remission of sins in repentance. The witnesses are the apostles, the eyewitnesses, and the Holy Spirit, who manifestly acted in them and in all believers.