CINXE.COM

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=0;"/><title>Acts 4:1 Commentaries: As they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them,</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/newcom.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; cts.dataset.appid=i;cts.src='https://app.protectsubrev.com/catch_rp.js?cb='+Math.random(); document.head.appendChild(cts); }) (window,document,'head','script','rc-anksrH');</script></head> <script async src="https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtag/js?id=G-LR4HSKRP2H"></script> <script> window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);} gtag('js', new Date()); gtag('config', 'G-LR4HSKRP2H'); </script><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../vmenus/acts/4-1.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="/bmcom/acts/4-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="http://biblehub.com/commentaries/">Commentaries</a> > Acts 4:1</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../acts/3-26.htm" title="Acts 3:26">◄</a> Acts 4:1 <a href="../acts/4-2.htm" title="Acts 4:2">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="topverse">And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them,</div><div id="jump">Jump to: <a href="/commentaries/alford/acts/4.htm" title="Henry Alford - Greek Testament Critical Exegetical Commentary">Alford</a> • <a href="/commentaries/barnes/acts/4.htm" title="Barnes' Notes">Barnes</a> • <a href="/commentaries/bengel/acts/4.htm" title="Bengel's Gnomen">Bengel</a> • <a href="/commentaries/benson/acts/4.htm" title="Benson Commentary">Benson</a> • <a href="/commentaries/illustrator/acts/4.htm" title="Biblical Illustrator">BI</a> • <a href="/commentaries/calvin/acts/4.htm" title="Calvin's Commentaries">Calvin</a> • <a href="/commentaries/cambridge/acts/4.htm" title="Cambridge Bible">Cambridge</a> • <a href="/commentaries/chrysostom/acts/4.htm" title="Chrysostom Homilies">Chrysostom</a> • <a href="/commentaries/clarke/acts/4.htm" title="Clarke's Commentary">Clarke</a> • <a href="/commentaries/darby/acts/4.htm" title="Darby's Bible Synopsis">Darby</a> • <a href="/commentaries/ellicott/acts/4.htm" title="Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers">Ellicott</a> • <a href="/commentaries/expositors/acts/4.htm" title="Expositor's Bible">Expositor's</a> • <a href="/commentaries/edt/acts/4.htm" title="Expositor's Dictionary">Exp Dct</a> • <a href="/commentaries/egt/acts/4.htm" title="Expositor's Greek">Exp Grk</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gaebelein/acts/4.htm" title="Gaebelein's Annotated Bible">Gaebelein</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gsb/acts/4.htm" title="Geneva Study Bible">GSB</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gill/acts/4.htm" title="Gill's Bible Exposition">Gill</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gray/acts/4.htm" title="Gray's Concise">Gray</a> • <a href="/commentaries/guzik/acts/4.htm" title="Guzik Bible Commentary">Guzik</a> • <a href="/commentaries/haydock/acts/4.htm" title="Haydock Catholic Bible Commentary">Haydock</a> • <a href="/commentaries/hastings/acts/2-42.htm" title="Hastings Great Texts">Hastings</a> • <a href="/commentaries/homiletics/acts/4.htm" title="Pulpit Homiletics">Homiletics</a> • <a href="/commentaries/icc/acts/4.htm" title="ICC NT Commentary">ICC</a> • <a href="/commentaries/jfb/acts/4.htm" title="Jamieson-Fausset-Brown">JFB</a> • <a href="/commentaries/kelly/acts/4.htm" title="Kelly Commentary">Kelly</a> • <a href="/commentaries/king-en/acts/4.htm" title="Kingcomments Bible Studies">King</a> • <a href="/commentaries/lange/acts/4.htm" title="Lange Commentary">Lange</a> • <a href="/commentaries/maclaren/acts/4.htm" title="MacLaren Expositions">MacLaren</a> • <a href="/commentaries/mhc/acts/4.htm" title="Matthew Henry Concise">MHC</a> • <a href="/commentaries/mhcw/acts/4.htm" title="Matthew Henry Full">MHCW</a> • <a href="/commentaries/meyer/acts/4.htm" title="Meyer Commentary">Meyer</a> • <a href="/commentaries/parker/acts/4.htm" title="The People's Bible by Joseph Parker">Parker</a> • <a href="/commentaries/pnt/acts/4.htm" title="People's New Testament">PNT</a> • <a href="/commentaries/poole/acts/4.htm" title="Matthew Poole">Poole</a> • <a href="/commentaries/pulpit/acts/4.htm" title="Pulpit Commentary">Pulpit</a> • <a href="/commentaries/sermon/acts/4.htm" title="Sermon Bible">Sermon</a> • <a href="/commentaries/sco/acts/4.htm" title="Scofield Reference Notes">SCO</a> • <a href="/commentaries/ttb/acts/4.htm" title="Through The Bible">TTB</a> • <a href="/commentaries/vws/acts/4.htm" title="Vincent's Word Studies">VWS</a> • <a href="/commentaries/wes/acts/4.htm" title="Wesley's Notes">WES</a> • <a href="#tsk" title="Treasury of Scripture Knowledge">TSK</a></div><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="comtype">EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)</div><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/ellicott/acts/4.htm">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</a></div>IV.</span><p>(1) <span class= "bld">The priests, and the captain of the temple.</span>—For the first time in this book, we come across the chief agents in the condemnation passed on our Lord by the Sanhedrin. A few weeks or months had gone by, and they were congratulating themselves on having followed the advice of Caiaphas (<a href="/john/11-48.htm" title="If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him: and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.">John 11:48</a>). They knew that the body of Jesus had disappeared from the sepulchre, and they industriously circulated the report that the disciples had stolen it (<a href="/context/matthew/28-13.htm" title="Saying, Say you, His disciples came by night, and stole him away while we slept.">Matthew 28:13-15</a>). They must have heard something of the Day of Pentecost—though there is no evidence of their having been present as spectators or listeners—and of the growth of the new society. Now the two chief members of the company of those disciples were teaching publicly in the very portico of the Temple. What were they to do? The “captain of the Temple” (see Note on <a href="/luke/22-4.htm" title="And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him to them.">Luke 22:4</a>) was the head of the band of Levite sentinels whose function it was to keep guard over the sacred precincts. He, as an inspector, made his round by night, visited all the gates, and roused the slumberers. His presence implied that the quiet order of the Temple was supposed to be endangered. In <a href="http://apocrypha.org/2_maccabees/3-4.htm" title="But one Simon of the tribe of Benjamin, who was made governor of the temple, fell out with the high priest about disorder in the city.">2 Maccabees 3:4</a>, however, we have a “captain,” or “governor of the Temple” of the tribe of Benjamin.<p><span class= "bld">The Sadducees.</span>—The higher members of the priesthood, Annas and Caiaphas, were themselves of this sect (<a href="/acts/5-17.htm" title="Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation,">Acts 5:17</a>). They had already been foremost in urging the condemnation of Christ in the meetings of the Sanhedrin. The shame of having been put to silence by Him (<a href="/matthew/22-34.htm" title="But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.">Matthew 22:34</a>) added vindictiveness to the counsels of a calculating policy. Now they found His disciples preaching the truth which they denied, and proclaiming it as attested by the resurrection of Jesus. Throughout the Acts the Sadducees are foremost as persecutors. The Pharisees temporise, like Gamaliel, or profess themselves believers. (Comp. <a href="/acts/5-34.htm" title="Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space;">Acts 5:34</a>; <a href="/acts/15-5.htm" title="But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.">Acts 15:5</a>; <a href="/acts/23-7.htm" title="And when he had so said, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees: and the multitude was divided.">Acts 23:7</a>.)<p><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/maclaren/acts/4.htm">MacLaren's Expositions</a></div>Acts<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">THE FIRST BLAST OF TEMPEST<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/acts/4-1.htm" title="And as they spoke to the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came on them,">Acts 4:1</a> - <a href="/acts/4-14.htm" title="And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.">Acts 4:14</a></span>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span> Hitherto the Jewish authorities had let the disciples alone, either because their attention had not been drawn even by Pentecost and the consequent growth of the Church, or because they thought that to ignore the new sect was the best way to end it. But when its leaders took to vehement preaching in Solomon’s porch, and crowds eagerly listened, it was time to strike in.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span> Our passage describes the first collision of hostile authority with Christian faith, and shows, as in a glass, the constant result of that collision in all ages.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span> The motives actuating the assailants are significantly analysed, and may be distributed among the three classes enumerated. The priests and the captain of the Temple would be annoyed by the very fact that Peter and John taught the people: the former, because they were jealous of their official prerogative: the latter, because he was responsible for public order, and a riot in the Temple court would have been a scandal. The Saddueees were indignant at the substance of the teaching, which affirmed the resurrection of the dead, which they denied, and alleged it as having occurred ‘in Jesus.’<span class="p"><br /><br /></span> The position of Sadducees and Pharisees is inverted in Acts as compared with the Gospels. While Christ lived, the Pharisees were the soul of the opposition to Him, and His most solemn warnings fell on them; after the Resurrection, the Sadducees head the opposition, and among the Pharisees are some, like Gamaliel and afterwards Paul, who incline to the new faith. It was the Resurrection that made the difference, and the difference is an incidental testimony to the fact that Christ’s Resurrection was proclaimed from the first. To ask whether Jesus had risen, and to examine the evidence, were the last things of which the combined assailants thought. This public activity of the Apostles threatened their influence or their pet beliefs, and so, like persecutors in all ages, they shut their eyes to the important question, ‘Is this preaching true or false?’ and took the easier course of laying hands on the preachers.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span> So the night fell on Peter and John in prison, the first of the thousands who have suffered bonds and imprisonment for Christ, and have therein found liberty. What lofty faith, and what subordination of the fate of the messengers to the progress of the message, are expressed in that abrupt introduction, in <a href="/acts/4-4.htm" title="However, many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.">Acts 4:4</a>, of the statistics of the increase of the Church from that day’s work! It mattered little that it ended with the two Apostles in custody, since it ended too with five thousand rejoicing in Christ.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span> The arrest seems to have been due to a sudden thought on the part of the priests, captain, and Sadducees, without commands from the Sanhedrin or the high priest. But when these inferior authorities had got hold of their prisoners, they probably did not quite know what to do with them, and so moved the proper persons to summon the Sanhedrin. In all haste, then, a session was called for next morning. ‘Rulers, elders, and scribes’ made up the constituent members of the court, and the same two ‘high priests’ who had tried Jesus are there, attended by a strong contingent of dependants, who could be trusted to vote as they were bidden. Annas was an <span class="ital">emeritus</span> high priest, whose age and relationship to Caiaphas, the actual holder of the post and Annas’s son-in-law, gave him an influential position. He retained the title, though he had ceased to hold the office, as a cleric without a charge is usually called ‘Reverend.’<span class="p"><br /><br /></span> It was substantially the same court which had condemned Jesus, and probably now sat in the same hall as then. So that Peter and John would remember the last time when they had together been in that room, and Who had stood in the criminal’s place where they now were set.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span> The court seems to have been somewhat at a loss how to proceed. The Apostles had been arrested for their words, but they are questioned about the miracle. It was no crime to teach in the Temple, but a crime might be twisted out of working a miracle in the name of any but Jehovah. To do that would come near blasphemy or worshipping strange gods. The Sanhedrin knew what the answer to their question would be, and probably they intended, as soon as the anticipated answer was given, to ‘rend their clothes,’ and say, as they had done once before, ‘What need we further witnesses? They have spoken blasphemy.’ But things did not go as was expected. The crafty question was put. It does not attempt to throw doubt on the reality of the miracle, but there is a world of arrogant contempt in it, both in speaking of the cure as ‘this,’ and in the scornful emphasis with which, in the Greek, ‘ye’ stands last in the sentence, and implies, ‘ye poor, ignorant fishermen.’<span class="p"><br /><br /></span> The last time that Peter had been in the judgment-hall his courage had oozed out of him at the prick of a maid-servant’s sharp tongue, but now he fronts all the ecclesiastical authorities without a tremor. Whence came the transformation of the cowardly denier into the heroic confessor, who turns the tables on his judges and accuses them? The narrative answers. He was ‘filled with the Holy Ghost.’ That abiding possession of the Spirit, begun on Pentecost, did not prevent special inspiration for special needs, and the Greek indicates that there was granted such a temporary influx in this critical hour.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span> One cannot but note the calmness of the Apostle, so unlike his old tumultuous self. He begins with acknowledging the lawful authority of the court, and goes on, with just a tinge of sarcasm, to put the vague ‘this’ of the question in its true light. It was ‘a good deed done to an impotent man,’ for which John and he stood there. Singular sort of crime that! Was there not a presumption that the power which had wrought so ‘good’ a deed was good? ‘Do men gather grapes of thorns?’ Many a time since then Christianity has been treated as criminal, because of its beneficence to bodies and souls.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span> But Peter rises to the full height of the occasion, when he answers the Sanhedrin’s question with the pealing forth of his Lord’s name. He repeats in substance his former contrast of Israel’s treatment of Jesus and God’s; but, in speaking to the rulers, his tone is more severe than it was to the people. The latter had been charged, at Pentecost and in the Temple, with crucifying <span class="ital">Jesus</span>; the former are here charged with crucifying the <span class="ital">Christ</span>. It was their business to have tested his claims, and to have welcomed the Messiah. The guilt was shared by both, but the heavier part lay on the shoulders of the Sanhedrin.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span> Mark, too, the bold proclamation of the Resurrection, the stone of offence to the Sadducees. How easy it would have been for them to silence the Apostle, if they could have pointed to the undisturbed and occupied grave! That would have finished the new sect at once. Is there any reason why it was not done but the one reason that it could not be done?<span class="p"><br /><br /></span> Thus far Peter has been answering the interrogation legally put, and has done as was anticipated. Now was the time for Annas and the rest to strike in; but they could not carry out their programme, for the fiery stream of Peter’s words does not stop when they expected, and instead of a timid answer followed by silence, they get an almost defiant proclamation of the Name, followed by a charge against them, which turns the accused into the accuser, and puts them at the bar. Peter learned to apply the passage in the Psalm {<a href="/acts/4-11.htm" title="This is the stone which was set at nothing of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.">Acts 4:11</a>} to the rulers, from his Master’s use of it {<a href="/matthew/21-42.htm" title="Jesus said to them, Did you never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?">Matthew 21:42</a>}; and there is no quaver in his voice nor fear in his heart when, in the face of all these learned Rabbis and high and mighty dignitaries, he brands them as foolish builders, blind to the worth of the Stone ‘chosen of God, and precious,’ and tells them that the course of divine Providence will run counter to their rejection of Jesus, and make him the very ‘Head of the corner,’-the crown, as well as the foundation, of God’s building.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span> But not even this bold indictment ends the stream of his speech. The proclamation of the power of the Name was fitly followed by pressing home the guilt and madness of rejecting Jesus, and that again by the glad tidings of salvation for all, even the rejecters. Is not the sequence in Peter’s defence substantially that which all Christian preaching should exhibit? First, strong, plain proclamation of the truth; then pungent pressing home of the sin of turning away from Jesus; and then earnest setting forth of the salvation in His name,- a salvation wide as the world, and deep as our misery and need, but narrow, inasmuch as it is ‘in none other.’ The Apostle will not end with charging his hearers with guilt, but with offering them salvation. He will end with lifting up ‘the Name’ high above all other, and setting it in solitary clearness before, not these rulers only, but the whole world. The salvation which it had wrought on the lame man was but a parable and picture of the salvation from all ills of body and spirit, which was stored in that Name, and in it alone.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span> The rulers’ contempt had been expressed by their emphatic ending of their question with that ‘ye.’ Peter expresses his brotherhood and longing for the good of his judges by ending his impassioned, or, rather, inspired address with a loving, pleading ‘we.’ He puts himself on the same level with them as needing salvation, and would fain have them on the same level with himself and John as receiving it. That is the right way to preach.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span> Little need be said as to the effect of this address. Whether it went any deeper in any susceptible souls or not, it upset the schemes of the leaders. Something in the manner and matter of it awed them into wonder, and paralysed them for the time. Here was the first instance of the fulfilment of that promise, which has been fulfilled again and again since, of ‘a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.’ ‘Unlearned,’ as ignorant of Rabbinical traditions, and ‘ignorant,’ or, rather, ‘private,’ as holding no official position, these two wielded a power over hearts and consciences which not even official indifference and arrogance could shake off. Thank God, that day’s experience is repeated still, and any of us may have the same Spirit to clothe us with the same armour of light!<span class="p"><br /><br /></span> The Sanhedrin knew well enough that the Apostles had been with Jesus, and the statement that ‘they took knowledge of them’ cannot mean that that fact dawned on the rulers for the first time. Rather it means that their wonder at the ‘boldness’ of the two drove home the fact of their association with Him to their minds. That association explained the marvel; for the Sanhedrin remembered how He had stood, meek but unawed, at the same bar. They said to themselves, ‘We know where these men get this brave freedom of speech,-from that Nazarene.’ Happy shall we be if our demeanour recalls to spectators the ways of our Lord!<span class="p"><br /><br /></span> How came the lame man there? He had not been arrested with the Apostles. Had he voluntarily and bravely joined them? We do not know, but evidently he was not there as accused, and probably had come as a witness of the reality of the miracle. Notice the emphatic ‘standing,’ as in <a href="/acts/4-10.htm" title="Be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him does this man stand here before you whole.">Acts 4:10</a>,-a thing that he had never done all his life. No wonder that the Sanhedrin were puzzled, and settled down to the ‘lame and impotent conclusion’ which follows. So, in the first round of the world-long battle between the persecutors and the persecuted, the victory is all on the side of the latter. So it has been ever since, though often the victors have died in the conflict. ‘The Church is an anvil which has worn out many hammers,’ and the story of the first collision is, in essentials, the story of all.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/benson/acts/4.htm">Benson Commentary</a></div><span class="bld"><a href="/context/acts/4-1.htm" title="And as they spoke to the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came on them,...">Acts 4:1-3</a></span>. <span class="ital">And as they </span>— Namely, Peter and John; <span class="ital">spake unto the people</span> — The multitude, who had assembled in the temple, upon occasion of the miraculous cure of the lame man, as related in the preceding chapter; <span class="ital">the priests, &c., came upon them </span>— So wisely did God order, that they should first bear a full testimony to the truth in the temple, and then in the great council: to which they could have had no access, had they not been brought before it as criminals. <span class="ital">Being grieved </span>— That the name of Jesus was preached to the people: especially they were offended at the doctrine of his resurrection; for, as they had put him to death, his rising again proved him to be the <span class="ital">Just One, </span>and so brought his blood upon their heads. The priests were grieved, also, lest their office and temple services should decline, and Christianity take root through the preaching of the apostles, and their power of working miracles. <span class="ital">The captain of the temple </span>was concerned to prevent all sedition and disorder; and <span class="ital">the Sadducees </span>were displeased at the overturning of all their doctrines, particularly with regard to the resurrection of the dead, as exemplified and demonstrated in the person of Jesus; and therefore, that they might prevent their preaching any more, <span class="ital">they laid hands on them </span>— Under pretence that they were seditious persons, who were labouring to incense the populace against the conduct of their governors; <span class="ital">and put them in hold </span>— Committed them into custody, that when the sanhedrim met at the usual hour the next day, they might consult what it was proper to do with them: <span class="ital">for it was now even-tide </span>— And therefore not a fit season to have them examined. As Peter and John went up to the temple at three in the afternoon, the expression, <span class="ital">it was now even-tide, </span>makes it probable that some considerable time was spent in preaching to the people, and, consequently, that what we have in the former chapter is only an abstract, or specimen of the discourses they delivered on this occasion, which probably is generally the case as to the speeches recorded by the sacred historians, as well as others.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a name="mhc" id="mhc"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/mhc/acts/4.htm">Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary</a></div>4:1-4 The apostles preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. It includes all the happiness of the future state; this they preached through Jesus Christ, to be had through him only. Miserable is their case, to whom the glory of Christ's kingdom is a grief; for since the glory of that kingdom is everlasting, their grief will be everlasting also. The harmless and useful servants of Christ, like the apostles, have often been troubled for their work of faith and labour of love, when wicked men have escaped. And to this day instances are not wanting, in which reading the Scriptures, social prayer, and religious conversation meet with frowns and checks. But if we obey the precepts of Christ, he will support us.<a name="bar" id="bar"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/barnes/acts/4.htm">Barnes' Notes on the Bible</a></div>The priests - It is probable that these priests were a part of the Sanhedrin, or Great Council of the nation. It is evident that they claimed some authority for preventing the preaching of the apostles.<p>The captain of the temple - See the <a href="/matthew/26-47.htm">Matthew 26:47</a>; <a href="/luke/22-4.htm">Luke 22:4</a> note. This was the commander of the guard stationed chiefly in the tower Antonia, especially during the great feasts; and it was his duty to preserve order and prevent any tumult. He came at this time to prevent a tumult or suppress a riot, as it was sup posed that the teaching of the apostles and the crowd collected by the healing of the lame man would lead to a tumult.<p>And the Sadducees - See the notes on <a href="/matthew/3-7.htm">Matthew 3:7</a>. One of the doctrines which the Sadducees maintained was, that there was no resurrection of the dead. Hence, they were particularly opposed to the apostles for preaching it, because they gave so clear proof that Jesus had risen, and were thus spreading the doctrine of the resurrection among the people.<p>Came upon them - This expression implies that they came in a sudden and violent manner. See <a href="/luke/20-1.htm">Luke 20:1</a>. <a name="jfb" id="jfb"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/jfb/acts/4.htm">Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary</a></div>CHAPTER 4<p>Ac 4:1-13. Peter and John before the Samhedrim.<p>1-12. the captain—of the Levitical guard.<p>of the temple—annoyed at the disturbance created around it.<p>and the Sadducees—who "say that there is no resurrection" (Ac 23:8), irritated at the apostles "preaching through (rather, 'in') Jesus the resurrection from the dead"; for the resurrection of Christ, if a fact, effectually overthrew the Sadducean doctrine.<span class="bld"><a href="/context/acts/4-1.htm" title="And as they spoke to the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came on them,...">Acts 4:1-4</a></span> The rulers of the Jews, offended with the teaching of<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>Peter and John, imprison them.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld"><a href="/context/acts/4-5.htm" title="And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers, and elders, and scribes,...">Acts 4:5-12</a></span> Being brought before the council, Peter boldly<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>avouches the late cure to have been wrought in the name<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>of Jesus, and that men can be saved by no other name.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld"><a href="/context/acts/4-13.htm" title="Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus....">Acts 4:13-22</a></span> The council, struck with the boldness of the two<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>apostles, after conferring together, dismiss them with<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>a threatening charge to speak more in the name of Jesus.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld"><a href="/context/acts/4-23.htm" title="And being let go, they went to their own company, and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them....">Acts 4:23-30</a></span> The church betakes itself to prayer.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld"><a href="/acts/4-31.htm" title="And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.">Acts 4:31</a></span> The presence of the Holy Ghost is signified by the house<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>shaking, and the apostles thereby emboldened to speak<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>the word.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld"><a href="/context/acts/4-32.htm" title="And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common....">Acts 4:32-37</a></span> The unity and charity of the church, who have their<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>possessions in common.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">The captain of the temple; </span> the commander over those soldiers who were appointed to guard the temple, and provide that no disorder might happen, by reason of the multitudes that came to worship there; and most probably was a Roman, and not of the Jewish nation, much less the chief of any of the courses of the priests, to whom this term cannot agree. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">The Sadducees; </span> these were most inveterate against the gospel, whose main article is the resurrection, which they denied: and thus each man, Jews and Gentiles, agree against Christ, as was foretold, <span class="bld"><a href="/psalms/2-1.htm" title="Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?">Psalm 2:1</a>,2</span>. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a name="gil" id="gil"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/gill/acts/4.htm">Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible</a></div>And as they spake unto the people,.... For though only mention is made of Peter's preaching in the preceding chapter, yet doubtless John preached as well as he; either in turn, or to a part of the people at some distance: and this shows their diligence, faithfulness, and integrity, in the ministration of the word; and it is recorded to their honour, that whilst they were about their master's business, and discharging the duty of their office, <p>the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them; by agreement, with great violence, and at unawares: the "priests" might be those who kept the watch in the temple; for <p>"in three places the priests kept watch, in the house of the sanctuary; in the house of Abtines, in the house of Nitsots, and in the house of Moked, and the Levites in one and twenty places (p).'' <p>And it now being eventide, they might be about to take their stands; "and the captain of the temple" might be he, whom they call, , "the man of the mountain of the house"; who was a ruler, or governor, and a president over all the wards (q); he is sometimes called , "the head of the ward" (r); and of him it is said (s), <p>"the man of the mountain of the house goes his round through every ward, with burning torches before him; and every ward that does not stand (is not on his feet), the man of the mountain of the house, says to him, peace be to thee; and if he observes that he is asleep, he strikes him with his staff, and he has power to burn his garments.'' <p>The Vulgate Latin and the Oriental versions read in the plural number, as in See Gill on <a href="http://biblehub.com/luke/22-4.htm">Luke 22:4</a>, <a href="/luke/22-52.htm">Luke 22:52</a>. The Sadducees were a sect among the Jews, that denied the resurrection of the dead; of their rise, name, and tenets; see Gill on <a href="/matthew/3-7.htm">Matthew 3:7</a>. <p>(p) Misn. Middot, c. 1. sect. 1.((q) Bartenora & Yom Tob in ib. sect. 2.((r) Bemidbar Rabba, sect. 6. fol. 186. 3.((s) Misn. Middot, c. 1. sect. 2.<a name="gsb" id="gsb"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/gsb/acts/4.htm">Geneva Study Bible</a></div><span class="cverse2">And <span class="cverse3">{1}</span> as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the <span class="cverse3">{a}</span> captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them,</span><p>(1) There are none more commonly diligent or bold enemies of the Church than those who profess themselves to be the chief builders of it, but the more they rage, the more steadfastly the faithful servants of God continue.<p>(a) The Jews had certain troops for the guard and safety of the temple and holy things (see Mt 26:47). These garrisons had a captain, such as Eleazarus Ananias, the high Priest's son in the time of the war that was in Judea, being a very impudent and proud young man; Josephus, lib. 2, of the taking of Judea.</div></div><div id="centbox"><div class="padcent"><div class="comtype">EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)</div><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/meyer/acts/4.htm">Meyer's NT Commentary</a></div><a href="/context/acts/4-1.htm" title="And as they spoke to the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came on them,...">Acts 4:1-2</a>. <span class="greekheb">ʼΕπέστησαν</span>] <span class="ital">stood there</span> beside them. The <span class="ital">sudden</span> appearance is implied in the context (<span class="greekheb">λαλούντ</span>. <span class="greekheb">δὲ αὐτ</span>., and see <a href="/acts/4-3.htm" title="And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold to the next day: for it was now eventide.">Acts 4:3</a>). See on <a href="/luke/2-9.htm" title="And, see, the angel of the Lord came on them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.">Luke 2:9</a>; <a href="/luke/20-1.htm" title="And it came to pass, that on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple, and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came on him with the elders,">Luke 20:1</a>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="greekheb">οἱ ἱερεῖς</span>] The article signifies those priests who were then serving as a guard at the temple.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="greekheb">ὁ στρατηγὸς τοῦ ἱεροῦ</span>] the leader on duty of the Levitical temple-guard (of the <span class="greekheb">ἱερεῖς</span>), and himself a priest; different from the <span class="greekheb">προστάτης τοῦ ἱεροῦ</span>, <a href="http://apocrypha.org/2_maccabees/3-4.htm" title="But one Simon of the tribe of Benjamin, who was made governor of the temple, fell out with the high priest about disorder in the city.">2Ma 3:4</a> (see Grimm <span class="ital">in loc.</span>); comp. Joseph. <span class="ital">Bell. Jud.</span> ii. 12. 6; <span class="ital">Antt.</span> xx. 6. 2. See also on <a href="/luke/22-4.htm" title="And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him to them.">Luke 22:4</a>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>As the concourse of people occurred in the temple-court, it was the business of the temple-guard officially to interfere. Therefore the opinion of Lightfoot, Erasmus Schmid, and Hammond, that the <span class="greekheb">στρατηγὸς τοῦ ἱερ</span>. is here the commander of the <span class="ital">Roman</span> garrison of the castle of Antonia, is to be rejected.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="greekheb">καὶ οἱ Σαδδουκαῖοι</span>] see on <a href="/matthew/3-7.htm" title="But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said to them, O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?">Matthew 3:7</a>. The <span class="ital">Sadducees</span> present in the temple-court had heard the speech of Peter, chap, 3, at least to <a href="/acts/4-15.htm" title="But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves,">Acts 4:15</a> (see <a href="/acts/4-2.htm" title="Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead.">Acts 4:2</a>), had then most probably instigated the interference of the guard, and hence appear now taking part in the arrest of the apostles.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="greekheb">διαπονούμενοι</span> … <span class="greekheb">νεκρῶν</span>] refers to <span class="greekheb">οἱ Σαδδουκ</span>. For these denied the resurrection of the dead, <a href="/matthew/22-23.htm" title="The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,">Matthew 22:23</a>. “Sadducaei negant dicuntque: deficit nubes atque abit; sic descendens in sepulcrum non redit,” <span class="ital">Tanchum</span>, f. iii. 1. <span class="greekheb">διαπονούμ</span>. here and in <a href="/acts/16-18.htm" title="And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.">Acts 16:18</a> may be explained either according to classical usage: who <span class="ital">were active in their exertions</span>, exerted their energies (my former interpretation), or according to the LXX. <a href="http://apocrypha.org/ecclesiasticus/10-9.htm" title="Why is earth and ashes proud? There is not a more wicked thing than a covetous man: for such an one setteth his own soul to sale; because while he liveth he casteth away his bowels.">Sir 10:9</a>; Aq. <a href="/genesis/6-6.htm" title="And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.">Genesis 6:6</a>; <a href="/1_samuel/20-30.htm" title="Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said to him, You son of the perverse rebellious woman, do not I know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own confusion, and to the confusion of your mother's nakedness?">1 Samuel 20:30</a> (Hesychius, <span class="greekheb">διαπονηθείς</span>· <span class="greekheb">λυπηθείς</span>): who <span class="ital">were grieved, afflicted</span> (the usual view, following the Vulgate and Luther). The latter meaning is most natural in the connection, is sufficiently justified in later usage[155] by those passages, and therefore is to be preferred. <span class="ital">Sorrow and pain</span> come upon them, because Peter and John taught the people, and in doing so announced, etc. That was <span class="ital">offensive</span> to their principles, and so <span class="ital">annoyed</span> them.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="greekheb">ἐν τῷ ʼΙησοῦ</span>] <span class="ital">in the person of Jesus, i.e.</span> in the case of His personal example. For in the resurrection of <span class="ital">Jesus</span> the <span class="greekheb">ἀνάστασις ἐκ νεκρ</span>. in general—although the latter is not expressly brought forward by Peter—was already inferential maintained, since the possibility of it and even an actual instance were therein exhibited (<a href="/1_corinthians/15-12.htm" title="Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?">1 Corinthians 15:12</a>).<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>We may add that, as the apostles made the testifying of the <span class="ital">Risen One</span> the foundation of their preaching, the emergence of the <span class="ital">Sadducees</span> is historically so natural and readily conceivable (comp. <a href="/acts/5-17.htm" title="Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation,">Acts 5:17</a>), that Baur’s opinion, as to an <span class="ital">à priori</span> combination having without historical ground attributed this <span class="ital">rôle</span> to them, can only appear frivolous and uncritical, however zealously Zeller has sought to amplify and establish it. See in opposition to it, Lechler, <span class="ital">Apost. Zeit.</span> p. 326 ff.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>[155] The classical writers use the simple verb <span class="greekheb">πονεῖσθαι</span> in this sense, whether the pain felt may be bodily or mental. See Krüger on <span class="ital">Thuc.</span> ii. 51. 4; Lobeck, <span class="ital">ad Aj.</span> p. 396; Duncan, <span class="ital">Lex. Hom.</span> ed. Rost, p. 969. Accordingly, in the above passages <span class="greekheb">διαπονεισθαι</span> is the <span class="ital">strengthened</span> <span class="greekheb">πονεῖσθαι</span> in this sense.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/egt/acts/4.htm">Expositor's Greek Testament</a></div><a href="/acts/4-1.htm" title="And as they spoke to the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came on them,">Acts 4:1</a>. <span class="greekheb">λαλούντων δὲ αὐτῶν</span>: the speech was interrupted, as the present participle indicates, and we cannot treat it as if we had received it in full. It is no doubt possible to infer from <span class="greekheb">αὐτῶν</span> that St. John also addressed the people.—<span class="greekheb">ἐπέστησαν αὐτοῖς</span>: commonly used with the notion of coming upon one suddenly, so of the coming of an angel, <a href="/acts/12-7.htm" title="And, behold, the angel of the Lord came on him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands.">Acts 12:7</a>, <a href="/acts/23-11.htm" title="And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as you have testified of me in Jerusalem, so must you bear witness also at Rome.">Acts 23:11</a>, <a href="/luke/2-9.htm" title="And, see, the angel of the Lord came on them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.">Luke 2:9</a>; <a href="/luke/24-4.htm" title="And it came to pass, as they were much perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by them in shining garments:">Luke 24:4</a>, sometimes too as implying a hostile purpose, <span class="ital">cf.</span> <a href="/acts/6-12.htm" title="And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came on him, and caught him, and brought him to the council,">Acts 6:12</a>, <a href="/acts/17-5.htm" title="But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took to them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.">Acts 17:5</a>, and St. Luke (<a href="/acts/10-40.htm" title="Him God raised up the third day, and showed him openly;">Acts 10:40</a>), <a href="/acts/20-1.htm" title="And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called to him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia.">Acts 20:1</a>. For its use in the LXX <span class="ital">cf.</span> <a href="http://apocrypha.org/wisdom_of_solomon/6-5.htm" title="Horribly and speedily shall he come upon you: for a sharp judgment shall be to them that be in high places.">Wis 6:5</a>; <a href="http://apocrypha.org/wisdom_of_solomon/6-8.htm" title="But a sore trial shall come upon the mighty.">Wis 6:8</a>; <a href="http://apocrypha.org/wisdom_of_solomon/19-1.htm" title="As for the ungodly, wrath came upon them without mercy unto the end: for he knew before what they would do;">Wis 19:1</a>.—<span class="greekheb">οἱ ἱερεῖς</span>: “the priests,” so A. and R.V., but the latter, margin, “the chief priests,” see critical note. <span class="greekheb">ἀρχιερεῖς</span> would comprise probably the members of the privileged high-priestly families in which the high-priesthood was vested (Schürer, <span class="ital">Jewish People</span>, div. ii., vol. i., pp. 203–206, E.T.), Jos., <span class="ital">B. J.</span>, vi., 2, 2. That the members of these families occupied a distinguished position we know (<span class="ital">cf.</span> <a href="/acts/4-6.htm" title="And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem.">Acts 4:6</a>), and there is nothing improbable in the supposition that the description <span class="greekheb">ἀρχιερεῖς</span> would include them as well as the ex-high-priests, and the one actually in office; this seems justified from the words of Josephus in the passage referred to above (Derenbourg, <span class="ital">Histoire de la Palestine</span>, p. 231).—<span class="greekheb">ὁ στρατηγὸς τοῦ ἱεροῦ</span>: the captain of the Temple (known chiefly in Jewish writings as “the man of the Temple Mount”). He had the chief superintendence of the Levites and priests who were on guard in and around the Temple, and under him were <span class="greekheb">στρατηγοί</span>, who were also captains of the Temple police, although subordinate to the <span class="greekheb">στρατηγός</span> as their head. The <span class="greekheb">στρατ</span>. <span class="greekheb">τοῦ ἱεροῦ</span> was not only a priest, but second in dignity to the high-priest himself (Schürer, <span class="ital">u. s.</span>, pp. 258, 259, 267, and Edersheim, <span class="ital">u. s.</span>, and <span class="ital">History of the Jewish Nation</span>, p. 139), <a href="/acts/5-24.htm" title="Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these things, they doubted of them whereunto this would grow.">Acts 5:24</a>; <a href="/acts/5-26.htm" title="Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned.">Acts 5:26</a>, Jos., <span class="ital">Ant.</span>, xx., 6, 2, <span class="ital">B. J.</span>, vi, 5, 3. For the use of the term in the LXX, see Schürer, <span class="ital">u. s.</span>, p. 258. In <a href="http://apocrypha.org/2_maccabees/3-4.htm" title="But one Simon of the tribe of Benjamin, who was made governor of the temple, fell out with the high priest about disorder in the city.">2Ma 3:4</a> the “governor of the Temple” is identified by some with the officer here and in <a href="/acts/5-24.htm" title="Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these things, they doubted of them whereunto this would grow.">Acts 5:24</a>, but see Rawlinson’s note <span class="ital">in loco</span> in <span class="ital">Speaker’s Commentary</span>.—<span class="greekheb">καὶ οἱ Σαδδουκαῖοι</span>: at this time, as Josephus informs us, however strange it may appear, the high-priestly families belonged to the Sadducean party. Not that the Sadducees are to be identified entirely with the party of the priests, since the Pharisees were by no means hostile to the priests as such, nor the priests to the Pharisees. But the Sadducees were the aristocrats, and to the <span class="ital">aristocratic</span> priests, who occupied influential civil positions, the Pharisees were bitterly opposed. Jos., <span class="ital">Ant.</span>, xvii., 10, 6, xviii., 1, 4, xx., 9, 1. Schürer, <span class="ital">u. s.</span>, div. ii., vol. ii., pp. 29–43, and div. ii., vol. i., p. 178 ff. The words <span class="greekheb">οἱ Σαδδ</span>. and <span class="greekheb">ἡ οὖσα αἴρεσις τῶν Σ</span>., <a href="/acts/4-17.htm" title="But that it spread no further among the people, let us straightly threaten them, that they speak from now on to no man in this name.">Acts 4:17</a>, are referred by Hilgenfeld to his “author to Theophilus,” as also the reference to the preaching of the Resurrection as the cause of the sore trouble to the Sadducees; but the mention of the Sadducees at least shows (as Weizsäcker and Holtzmann admit) that the author of <span class="ital">Acts</span> had correct information of the state of parties in Jerusalem: “The Sadducees were at the helm, and the office of the high-priest was in Sadducean hands, and the Sadducees predominated in the high-priestly families” (Weizsäcker, <span class="ital">Apostolic Age</span>, i., 61, E.T.).<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/cambridge/acts/4.htm">Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges</a></div><span class="bld"><a href="/context/acts/4-1.htm" title="And as they spoke to the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came on them,...">Acts 4:1-12</a></span>. First arrest of the Apostles. Their hearing and Defence<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">1</span>. <span class="ital">And as they spake unto the people</span>] The movements of the Apostles had by this time become an object of concern to the authorities in Jerusalem. See their complaint (<a href="/acts/5-28.htm" title="Saying, Did not we straightly command you that you should not teach in this name? and, behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood on us.">Acts 5:28</a>). There is no note of time at the beginning of chap. 3 to indicate what period had elapsed since Pentecost before the lame man was healed. But news soon spread in the city as we can learn from the events related in the previous chapter.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="ital">the priests</span>] Those whose duty it was at the time to take charge of the Temple services, and who probably had taken offence at the multitudes assembled in the Temple court. The division of the priests was into twenty-four courses, each of which was to serve in the Temple for a week, see <a href="/context/1_chronicles/24-1.htm" title="Now these are the divisions of the sons of Aaron. The sons of Aaron; Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar....">1 Chronicles 24:1-19</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/23-8.htm" title="So the Levites and all Judah did according to all things that Jehoiada the priest had commanded, and took every man his men that were to come in on the sabbath, with them that were to go out on the sabbath: for Jehoiada the priest dismissed not the courses.">2 Chronicles 23:8</a>. It was during such service in the order of his course, that the promise of the birth of John the Baptist was made to Zechariah the priest (<a href="/context/luke/1-5.htm" title="THERE was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth....">Luke 1:5-8</a>). Some authorities read <span class="ital">high priests</span>.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="ital">and the captain of the temple</span>] There is mentioned in the O. T. an officer whose title is “the ruler of the house of God” (<a href="/1_chronicles/9-11.htm" title="And Azariah the son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, the ruler of the house of God;">1 Chronicles 9:11</a>; <a href="/2_chronicles/31-13.htm" title="And Jehiel, and Azaziah, and Nahath, and Asahel, and Jerimoth, and Jozabad, and Eliel, and Ismachiah, and Mahath, and Benaiah, were overseers under the hand of Cononiah and Shimei his brother, at the commandment of Hezekiah the king, and Azariah the ruler of the house of God.">2 Chronicles 31:13</a>; <a href="/nehemiah/11-11.htm" title="Seraiah the son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, was the ruler of the house of God.">Nehemiah 11:11</a>). He was not a military officer, but had charge of the guard of priests and Levites who watched the Temple at night. There are two titles given to such an officer in the later writings of the Jews, (1) the <span class="ital">Memunneh</span> (Mishna <span class="ital">Tamid</span> i.), a kind of prefect of the Temple guard, and (2) a higher officer called “the captain of the mountain of the [Lord’s] house.” (Mishna <span class="ital">Middoth</span> ii.) Rabbenu Shimshon describes this second officer as “the Commander who was set over every watch of those that watched in the less sacred portion of the Temple.” He was apparently a civil as well as religious official, for we find (<a href="/acts/5-26.htm" title="Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned.">Acts 5:26</a>) that he goes with “the officers” to make the second arrest of the Apostles.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="ital">and the Sadducees</span>] This was the name of one of the most influential sects among the Jews in our Lord’s time. Their name has been variously explained. The Jewish authorities state that the name, which they write <span class="ital">Tsedukim</span>, is derived from <span class="ital">Tsadok</span> (Zadok) the proper name, and that thus they are “the followers of Zadok.” The Zadok from whom they derive the title is said to have been a disciple of Antigonus of Socho. This Antigonus is the second in order of the Jewish Fathers whose sayings are recorded in the <span class="ital">Pirke Aboth</span>, and the commentators thereon mention two of his pupils, Zadok and Baithos, to the latter of whom, and to his followers, they attribute the teaching that “there was nothing for them in the world to come.” But it is perhaps more probable, from their constant connection with the priests, that the name of the Sadducees was derived from the more famous Zadok who became high priest in the reign of King Solomon (<a href="/1_kings/2-35.htm" title="And the king put Benaiah the son of Jehoiada in his room over the host: and Zadok the priest did the king put in the room of Abiathar.">1 Kings 2:35</a>). We read of the distinction of his descendants as “the sons of Zadok” and “the priests the Levites of the seed of Zadok” even as late as the description of Ezekiel’s Temple (<a href="/ezekiel/40-46.htm" title="And the chamber whose prospect is toward the north is for the priests, the keepers of the charge of the altar: these are the sons of Zadok among the sons of Levi, which come near to the LORD to minister to him.">Ezekiel 40:46</a>; <a href="/ezekiel/44-15.htm" title="But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister to me, and they shall stand before me to offer to me the fat and the blood, said the Lord GOD:">Ezekiel 44:15</a>). The probability of this priestly descent of the sect of the Sadducees is strengthened by the way in which they are mentioned <a href="/acts/5-17.htm" title="Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation,">Acts 5:17</a>, “Then rose up <span class="ital">the high priest and all they that were with him</span> (<span class="ital">which is the sect of the Sadducees</span>).” The derivation which makes their name the plural of the Hebrew adjective <span class="ital">Tsaddik</span> = righteous, has not much authority to support it.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span>The teaching of the Sadducees is partly described <a href="/acts/23-8.htm" title="For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.">Acts 23:8</a>. They “say that there is no resurrection neither angel nor spirit.” In addition to this they attached no authority to the Oral Law, while the Pharisees maintained that the greater portion thereof had been transmitted to them from Moses. The Sadducees also taught the doctrine of the freedom of the will of men. The statement that they rejected all the Old Testament Scriptures except the Pentateuch has no confirmation in Josephus and has arisen from a confusion of the Sadducees with the Samaritans. Josephus (<span class="ital">Antiq</span>. xviii. 1. 4) says “their doctrine is accepted only by a few, but yet by those of the greatest dignity,” a statement fully borne out by the influential position in which we find them when the history of the Acts opens. They play no very prominent part in the Gospel history, because the teaching of Christ while on earth was directed more specially against the formalism and outward show of religion that prevailed among the Pharisees. It is only when the doctrine of the resurrection begins to be preached that the hostility of the Sadducees makes itself apparent.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="ital">came upon them</span>] to arrest them. The same word is used as of the action of the chief captain (<a href="/acts/23-27.htm" title="This man was taken of the Jews, and should have been killed of them: then came I with an army, and rescued him, having understood that he was a Roman.">Acts 23:27</a>), “Then <span class="ital">came I</span> (upon them) with an army and rescued him.” See note there.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/bengel/acts/4.htm">Bengel's Gnomen</a></div><a href="/acts/4-1.htm" title="And as they spoke to the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came on them,">Acts 4:1</a>. <span class="greekheb">Λαλούντων</span>, <span class="ital">whilst they were speaking</span>) The matter was divinely so ordered as that they first spake out all that was necessary in the temple; afterwards in the council (Sanhedrim), to which they would not have been allowed to go had they not been brought there.—<span class="greekheb">ἐπέστησαν</span>, <span class="ital">came upon</span> them) “The cross,” says Jonas, “always accompanies the true Gospel.”—<span class="greekheb">οἱ ἱερεῖς</span>, <span class="ital">the priests</span>) who were troubled (alarmed) as to their priesthood being in danger.—<span class="greekheb">ὁ στρατηγὸς τοῦ ἱεροῦ</span>, <span class="ital">the captain</span>, or <span class="ital">prefect of the temple</span>) who was troubled (alarmed) as to the public welfare (republicâ, <span class="ital">the state</span>), as being the chief prefect, under whom were the prefects of the watches in the temple: <a href="/luke/22-4.htm" title="And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray him to them.">Luke 22:4</a>.—<span class="greekheb">οἱ Σαδδουκαῖοι</span>, <span class="ital">the Sadducees</span>) who were troubled as to their doctrine.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a name="pul" id="pul"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/pulpit/acts/4.htm">Pulpit Commentary</a></div><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 1.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">The captain of the temple.</span> Only here and <a href="/acts/5-24.htm">Acts 5:24</a>, and <a href="/luke/22-4.htm">Luke 22:4, 52</a> in the plural some have thought that the commander of the Roman garrison of the castle of Antonia is here meant. But as the scene is laid in the court of the temple, this is very improbable. Josephus ('Ant. Jud.,' 20, 6:2) speaks of an officer apparently of the temple, who was called <span class="greek">ὁ στρατηγός</span>, and was certainly a Jew by his name Ananus, and being, as Josephus relates farther ('Bell Jud.,' 2, 12:6), the son of the high priest Ananias. He also mentions the captain of the temple ('Bell. Jud.,' 6, 5:3) at the time of the destruction of the temple. There can be little doubt, therefore, that the captain of the temple here spoken of was a priest who had under him the Levitical guard, and whose duty it was to keep order in the temple courts in these turbulent times, lie appears from <a href="/acts/5-25.htm">Acts 5:25, 26</a>, <a href="/luke/22-4.htm">Luke 22:4</a>, 52, and the passages in Josephus, to have been an officer of high rank. Acts 4:1<a name="vws" id="vws"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/vws/acts/4.htm">Vincent's Word Studies</a></div>Captain of the temple<p>It was the duty of the Levites to keep guard at the gates of the temple, in order to prevent the unclean from entering. To them the duties of the temple-police were entrusted, under the command of an official known in the New Testament as "the captain of the temple," but in Jewish writings chiefly as "the man of the temple mount." Josephus speaks of him as a person of such consequence as to be sent, along with the high-priest, prisoner to Rome.<p>Came upon (ἐπέστησαν)<p>Or stood by them, suddenly. Compare <a href="/luke/24-4.htm">Luke 24:4</a>; <a href="/acts/22-20.htm">Acts 22:20</a>; <a href="/acts/23-11.htm">Acts 23:11</a>. Of dreams or visions, to appear to. <div class="vheading2">Links</div><a href="/interlinear/acts/4-1.htm">Acts 4:1 Interlinear</a><br /><a href="/texts/acts/4-1.htm">Acts 4:1 Parallel Texts</a><br /><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/niv/acts/4-1.htm">Acts 4:1 NIV</a><br /><a href="/nlt/acts/4-1.htm">Acts 4:1 NLT</a><br /><a href="/esv/acts/4-1.htm">Acts 4:1 ESV</a><br /><a href="/nasb/acts/4-1.htm">Acts 4:1 NASB</a><br /><a href="/kjv/acts/4-1.htm">Acts 4:1 KJV</a><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="http://bibleapps.com/acts/4-1.htm">Acts 4:1 Bible Apps</a><br /><a href="/acts/4-1.htm">Acts 4:1 Parallel</a><br /><a href="http://bibliaparalela.com/acts/4-1.htm">Acts 4:1 Biblia Paralela</a><br /><a href="http://holybible.com.cn/acts/4-1.htm">Acts 4:1 Chinese Bible</a><br /><a href="http://saintebible.com/acts/4-1.htm">Acts 4:1 French Bible</a><br /><a href="http://bibeltext.com/acts/4-1.htm">Acts 4:1 German Bible</a><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/">Bible Hub</a><br /></div></div></td></tr></table></div><div id="mdd"><div align="center"><div class="bot2"><table align="center" width="100%"><tr><td align="center"><div align="center"> <script id="3d27ed63fc4348d5b062c4527ae09445"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=51ce25d5-1a8c-424a-8695-4bd48c750f35&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script> <script id="b817b7107f1d4a7997da1b3c33457e03"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=cb0edd8b-b416-47eb-8c6d-3cc96561f7e8&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-2'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-0' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-3'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-1' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br />  <div align="center" id='div-gpt-ad-1531425649696-0'> </div><br /><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:200px;height:200px" data-ad-client="ca-pub-3753401421161123" data-ad-slot="3592799687"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /><br /> </div> <div id="left"><a href="../acts/3-26.htm" onmouseover='lft.src="/leftgif.png"' onmouseout='lft.src="/left.png"' title="Acts 3:26"><img src="/left.png" name="lft" border="0" alt="Acts 3:26" /></a></div><div id="right"><a href="../acts/4-2.htm" onmouseover='rght.src="/rightgif.png"' onmouseout='rght.src="/right.png"' title="Acts 4:2"><img src="/right.png" name="rght" border="0" alt="Acts 4:2" /></a></div><div id="botleft"><a href="#" onmouseover='botleft.src="/botleftgif.png"' onmouseout='botleft.src="/botleft.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botleft.png" name="botleft" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="botright"><a href="#" onmouseover='botright.src="/botrightgif.png"' onmouseout='botright.src="/botright.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botright.png" name="botright" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div> <div id="bot"><iframe width="100%" height="1500" scrolling="no" src="/botmenubhnew2.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></td></tr></table></div></body></html>