Peter And John Before The Sanhedrin
PETER AND JOHN BEFORE THE SANHEDRIN
ACTS 4:1-12
If we are going to be saved, then it can only be through Jesus Christ.
Such an offer as 3:26 contains seemed too good to be true. It gave the Jews a “second chance” and opened the door to God’s Messianic salvation. Many entered in (4:4). But the Jewish leaders were disturbed (4:2). Note what it was in the apostles’ preaching which upset them most (4:2). The Athenians found this also hard to accept (17:32); and it is still a rock of offense to modern minds.
The description, “a good deed,” is not boastfully made, for Peter’s explanation makes it clear that the risen Jesus is the Agent of healing (clearly in 4:10). Peter has thrown down the challenge to the Jewish religious leaders in an unmistakable way: Jesus is the Christ, and the Author of Messianic blessedness. The “good time coming,” yearned for by prophets and seers, has come in him. By his death and resurrection God has visited his people with his grace; and has reversed the verdict of those who cried, “Away with him” (Luke 23:18), prompted by the evil designs and accusations of their leaders (Mark 15:11). Peter’s vivid illustration of this reversal (4:11) would not be lost on those who remembered Jesus’ own teaching (Mark 12:10f.).
Notes 4:1: “captain of the temple” means probably a police official in charge of the soldiers who guarded the outer court and prevented Gentiles from crossing into the sacred (inner) enclosure. The Sadducees formed a Jewish party of aristocratic priestly leaders. They held a commanding place in the temple’s hierarchy and also in the governing body of legislature, the Sanhedrin. Conservative in belief, they objected to the doctrine of the resurrection (see Mark 12:18). Hence their twofold opposition to the apostolic ministry in the temple courts. 4:6: Annas was in fact the ex-high priest, but he continued to exert a considerable influence through his son-in-law Caiaphas (Luke 3:2). An important manuscript tradition (the Western text) gives Jonathan for John here. If this is correct, it refers to Jonathan, Annas’ son, who succeeded Caiaphas as high priest in AD 36. Alexander is otherwise unknown to us. 4:7: the two terms “power” (Gk. dynamis) and “name” characterize the Church’s early days. The apostles were powerful in word and work because they invoked a mighty Name (4:12: “name” carries its biblical sense of “revealed character,” the person known to others. Cf. Exodus 34:5ff.). 4:11: the “stoneship” of Christ derives from Psalm 118:22 and is found in Romans 9:33; Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:6-7.