Acts 5:36Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

He instructs them by examples. To calm them, he points to a man who had drawn very many after himself.

Before giving the examples, he says, “consider among yourselves.” After giving them, he expresses his judgment in this way.

He does not present ancient examples, though he had them. He points to recent ones, which could persuade with special force. Therefore he speaks indirectly: “not long before this,” as if saying, a few days ago.

See how gentle he is. He does not make a long speech, but a short one. Nor does he mention those examples with anger: “And all who obeyed him were scattered and came to nothing.”

By saying this, he does not utter any blasphemy against Christ. Yet he attains what he especially desires.

“For before these days...” He gives two examples and mentions not ancient events, but recent ones, because recent events have greater persuasive force. Therefore, pointing to them, Gamaliel said, “before these days.”

Though he knew other examples, he was content with these two, the examples of Theudas and Judas the Galilean, verse 37. For “by two witnesses every word shall be established” (Deut 19:15).

He did not say by whom they were killed. He says only that all were dispersed.

Josephus also mentions Theudas in the nineteenth book of the Antiquities, as Eusebius says in the fourth book of the Ecclesiastical History. These are Eusebius’ words:

This Theudas, as Josephus mentions, persuaded many to carry their possessions out of the city and settle on the banks of the Jordan. Being a magician, he called himself a prophet and claimed that he could command the river to part and grant the people passage. By order of the procurator Fadus, a troop of horsemen attacked him. After killing or capturing many of these people, they brought the head of Theudas himself back to Jerusalem. Josephus, Antiquitates Judaicae 18.4-10, 23-25; 20.102; De bello Judaico 2.118, 433; 7.253. See also Eusebius of Caesarea, Historia ecclesiastica 1.5.

Having received a new sign confirming 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, this time in the public prison, as disturbers of public peace. The chief actors were again the Sadducees. To mock their vain designs, an angel opened the prison doors for the apostles, though the Sadducees rejected 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 questioned as men who had already violated the command of the authorities.

This open and firm confession of the apostles directly accused the judges of the unrighteous murder of the Savior of the world. It provoked such an outburst of anger in them that they were ready to forget the lesson given by the defendants’ miraculous release from prison.

Without further investigation, they plotted to kill them. The Sanhedrin was restrained from this rash act of anger by one of its members, Gamaliel. He was the famous teacher of the law at whose feet the Apostle Paul received his Jewish theological education (Acts 22:3).

After ordering the apostles to go out for a little while, Gamaliel first calls the assembly calmly to consider what they should do with these men.

He gave the wise counsel to wait and see what might come of the new teaching when left to itself.

This was an age of various rebellious deceivers, such as Theudas and Judas the Galilean. They ended in open revolt and were crushed by the power of Rome.

Such will undoubtedly be the end of these preachers too, if they are similar deceivers. This will at once free the Sanhedrin from every trouble and danger.

But another turn is also possible. This work may prove to be from God. If so, it is impossible to destroy it, and to oppose it means to come forth directly as fighters against God.

“Not long before this, Theudas arose,” and so forth. Flavius relates that under the procurator Cuspius Fadus, not before A.D. 44, Theudas appeared and represented himself as a prophet. He drew many followers after himself, but his whole gathering was dispersed by the Roman army, and he himself was killed.

Yet the Theudas mentioned here is not that man, though Flavius’ account closely resembles Gamaliel’s reference.

First, Flavius’ Theudas acted as a deceiver of the people several years after Gamaliel’s speech. Second, according to Gamaliel’s speech, Judas the Galilean, who appeared after Theudas, appeared during the census. Therefore he appeared around the time of Christ’s Nativity; compare the note on Lk 2:1.

The circumstances cited by Gamaliel were well known at that time. They were very effective in calming minds truly troubled by the coming influence of the apostolic movement.

At the same time, the reported facts also affected malicious judges who were pursuing their own aims. It was possible to postpone vengeance until a more convenient moment, when they could kill, as Theudas had been killed. He probably claimed to be the Messiah.

On the basis of the historian Eusebius’ account in book four, blessed Theophylact writes: “During the governorship of Fadus in Judea, a false teacher named Theudas persuaded the people to take their possessions and flee after him to the Jordan River.