Acts iv. 5-22.

The two apostles having been apprehended and put in prison, and the next day brought forth, together with the man who had been healed, before the Jewish Sanhedrim, Peter persists in ascribing the miraculous cure to its real author; and the council, finding no ground for accusing them of any crime, and fearing the people, dismiss them with a prohibition ever to say any thing more about the name of Jesus; to which, however, the apostles declare that they can pay no regard.

5. And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers and elders and scribes,

6. 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.

This is a description of the highest court of justice among the Jews, usually called the Sanhedrim, consisting of seventy or seventy-two members, who were probably chosen from among the priests, the magistrates of inferior courts, here called rulers, the elders of the tribes, and also from among the scribes, or those persons whose profession it was to transcribe or correct copies of the law. This council sat in the form of a circle, the president being on the side, and the prisoner placed in the middle.

There has been difficulty in accounting for Annas' being here called high-priest, when the evangelists Matthew and John inform us that Caiaphas possessed that office at this time, and Luke himself, the writer

of this history, tells us that Annas and Caiaphas were both high-priests in the year when the word of God came to John the Baptist. To reconcile these seemingly discordant accounts, it has been supposed that Annas, having once been high-priest, although at present deposed from his office by the Romans, still retained the name, and was probably thought by many of the Jews to be still entitled to the office*. The reason why he alone is called high-priest on this occasion may be that he was the president of the Sanhedrim.

7. And when they had set them, the two apostles and the man, in the midst, they asked, By what power, or in what name, have ye done this?

That is, by what powers of medicine have ye performed this cure, if it be a natural one; or in whose name, if it be miraculous? By these questions they hoped either to cast discredit on the miracle, or to discover some ground of accusation against them.

8. Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel,

9. If we this day be examined of the good state of the infirm man, by what means he is healed,

10. Be Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand before you healed.

Pearce and Lardner.

"Filled with the Holy Spirit." By this phrase we are to understand not that Peter was aided by any extraordinary inspiration upon the present occasion; for there is nothing in his speech which might not naturally be suggested by the circumstances of the case, and for which, therefore, divine aid could be wanted; but that, being conscious to himself of possessing extraordinary miraculous powers, manifested by the late event, and especially by the gift of tongues, he acquired thence an extraordinary degree of courage, to assert in the presence of the council what he then declared; namely, that Jesus Christ, whom they had crucified, was the author of the miracle about which they were inquiring; that God had raised him from the dead, and that therefore they were guilty of a great crime in putting him to death. Nothing but the fullest persuasion that he was countenanced by divine authority could have enabled him to hold this language, in such a situation.

Jesus is here and elsewhere called Jesus of Nazareth; a strong presumption that that town was the place of his nativity, and not Bethlehem, as some accounts would lead us to suppose. For as it appears, from John vii. 42. that the Jews expected their Christ to come from Bethlehem, had he really been born there no doubt can be entertained that his disciples would have named him after that place, Jesus of Bethlehem, in order to remove the objections of the Jews, and to give greater credibility to his claims.

11.

This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.

A stone at the head. of the corner connects and binds together the whole building, and therefore occupies the most important and conspicuous place in it. To such an exalted situation does Peter say that Jesus is now raised, in the structure which God is erecting; being the head of the Christian church, and superior to all former prophets and messengers. The

evidence of this exaltation is his being raised from the dead; an honour conferred on no preceding prophet, and his enabling his followers to perform such extraordinary miracles as the present. This language is taken from Ps. cxviii. 22. and is used by David respecting himself, whose exaltation to the throne of Israel had been opposed by the rulers of that nation; but is applied, by way of accommodation, both by Jesus and his apostles, to the Messiah.

12. Neither is there restoration to soundness in any other; for there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we may be saved.

To be saved, in the New Testament, frequently signifies the same thing as to be cured. Thus Christ says more than once to persons upon whom he had performed miraculous cures, Thy faith hath saved thee. When Peter, therefore, says here that there is salvation in no other name than that of Jesus, he means that miraculous cures, or deliverance from bodily maladies, can be accomplished by no authority but his. This sense of the passage connects extremely well with the preceding circumstances, which cannot be said of the common interpretation, which supposes an eternal and not a temporal deliverance to be here spoken of; tor Peter, being asked in what name the cure had been performed, replies, In the name of Jesus; and adds, that such cures can be performed in no other name.

13. Now when they saw the freedom of speech of Peter and John, and discovered that they were unlearned and common men, they wondered; and they recollected that they had been with Jesus.

The common translation of this verse is particularly unhappy, because it represents the apostles as ignorant men, a character which they did not deserve, and which the council did not mean to give them; for they probably had as much, if not more, knowledge of religion and the scriptures than most other men of their station in life. That they had some pretensions to knowledge appears from their works, one of them having written a history of Christ, and the other, two epistles, preserved to the present day. All that the words of the original imply, is that they were unlearned and common persons, in opposition to the council, which was composed of men of learning and high rank. The behaviour of such persons, when brought before their superiors, especially in a court of justice, is commonly timid and embarrassed; but the two apostles, conscious of being supported by divine power, spoke with a freedom which could not be expected from their station, and excited the astonishment of their hearers, who knew not whence it proceeded. That some of the members of the Sanhedrim should recollect having seen them with Jesus, is what might be expected; since they themselves used occasionally to attend upon his ministry, and we are expressly told that John was known to the high priest, at the time when he followed Jesus to his trial.

14. And beholding the man which was cured standing with them, they could say nothing against it, rather, "against them."

It was in vain to deny the reality of the miracle; for the man himself upon whom it was performed appeared before them, and was probably well known to them all.

15. But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves,