And now, therefore, I say to you: Refrain from these men and let them alone. For if this council or this work be of men, it will come to nought:
και τα νυν λεγω υμιν αποστητε απο των ανθρωπων τουτων και εασατε αυτους οτι εαν η εξ ανθρωπων η βουλη η το εργον τουτο καταλυθησεται
8 Church Fathers comment on this verse
It is as though he said: wait. If these men too have appeared on their own, nothing will prevent them from being scattered. Here, it seems to me, he proposes the following conclusion to them: if it is not destroyed, then this work is not of men. See the commentary on Acts 5:39.
"Withdraw from these men." Having pointed to examples of false teachers who perished, Gamaliel advises them also to consider themselves. That is: beware lest, while striving to destroy others, you yourselves perish. For the one who goes against what is pleasing to God does not destroy his opponent, but himself. "If this work is from men," then what need is there for your efforts?
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.
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. But the apostles, without hesitation, said that one must obey God rather than men. They preached the resurrection of Jesus and the witness of the Holy Spirit.
The Sadducees could bear this no longer. They wanted to kill the apostles. But the voice of the learned Pharisee Gamaliel, respected by all the people, served the work of God. They were only punished and released.
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 reminds the judges of two popular uprisings and their instigators. One was a certain Theudas, a person not definitely known from history. The other was Judas the Galilean, who stirred up revolt during and because of the census.
This was the census that the Roman emperor Augustus ordered Quirinius, the Syrian governor, to carry out in Judea. Because of it the Nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ took place in Bethlehem (Lk 2:2).
Since the apostles’ work seemed dangerous in the eyes of the Sanhedrin because it was growing more and more (v. 28), Gamaliel reminds them that the mentioned agitators also had success at first. They too drew hundreds of people after themselves.
But, he says, since their work was not the work of God, they themselves perished, and their followers were scattered and vanished.
“And now, I say to you, keep away from these men and leave them alone. For if this plan and this work are from men, it will be overthrown. But if it is from God, you cannot overthrow it. Take care lest you also be found fighters against God.”
The comparison of the apostles with popular agitators seems to show that Gamaliel personally did not hold a high opinion of Christ’s preachers.
Yet the counsel that Gamaliel then gave to the Sanhedrin reflects a favorable view of Christianity. He allows the possibility that the apostles’ work is the work of God. He warns men lest they be found fighters against God.
“Withdraw from these men,” that is, from the apostles, “and leave them alone. For if this counsel or this work is from men, it will be overthrown. But if it is from God, you cannot overthrow it, lest perhaps you also be found fighters against God.”
The Stundists point to these words of Gamaliel as a rule by which Orthodox Christians and their pastors supposedly must be guided in relation to Stundism.
But Gamaliel allowed as possible that Christianity was not a human work, but God’s work. The Orthodox Church can in no way allow this concerning Stundism.
Christ said to the apostles, “He who is not against you is for you” (Mk 9:40). Guided by this, one may directly regard Gamaliel, who counseled them to “keep away from these men,” as a defender of the apostles.
But can truly Orthodox people defend the Stundists, who themselves began the struggle against Orthodoxy and strive to tear the Church’s children away from her?
Gamaliel was probably among those rulers of whom the Evangelist John says that they believed in the Lord Jesus, but did not confess Him, “lest they should be put out of the synagogue” (12:42).
So too, if falsehood may be compared with truth, in relation to Stundism. For a son of the Orthodox Church not to struggle against it is the same as secretly believing or sympathizing with its false teaching.
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.
“Keep away from these men,” and so forth. The work of Theudas and the work of Judas the Galilean then ended without the Sanhedrin’s intervention. As appears from Gamaliel’s further words, their work was not, in his opinion, the work of God.
On the basis of these and similar observations of events, Gamaliel expresses a general historical law. A work not from God collapses by itself, while no human power can destroy the work of God.
“From men,” compare Mt 21:25, means of human origin and character, with only human aims and aspirations, upon which there is no will or blessing of God.
“It will be overthrown.” It will perish by itself, since what is merely human and sinful bears the beginnings of destruction within itself.
Gamaliel urged the members of the Sanhedrin to remove themselves from judging the matter of the apostolic preaching and to leave it to God. If it is from God, He will always and in all things support and direct it.
In that case they, the members of the Sanhedrin, would prove to be rising up against God Himself. The Apostle Peter had already told them this.
But if this work was devised only by men, without God’s good pleasure, it would collapse by itself, as the works of Theudas and Judas the Galilean had collapsed.
“Gamaliel expresses a general historical law, that a work not from God collapses by itself, while no human power can destroy the work of God.”
“True in general, this principle cannot always be unconditionally true when applied to human activity and to people’s relation to events. If applied absolutely, people would not have to struggle against the development of evil principles in life, which God sometimes permits. That is contrary to the laws of conscience and to the law of God.”
In Gamaliel’s mouth, however, his counsel had full force. First, besides the internal government of the people, there was then Roman government in Judea. It could prevent the apostles from any external violations of law.
They neither intended to commit such violations nor could do so according to their faith.
Second, their work was from God. Gamaliel himself evidently believed this, and therefore did not keep silent about the God-opposing malice and rebellion of the Sanhedrin’s members.
If he partly put Theudas and Judas the Galilean on a level with the apostles, this was an argument adapted to those who could not, and did not wish to, distinguish men incomparable in the essence of their convictions and life.
They had only certain similarities in external circumstances and situations.
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 26 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS