Acts 4:10

4:5-14 Peter being filled with the Holy Ghost, would have all to understand, that the miracle had been wrought by the name, or power, of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, whom they had crucified; and this confirmed their testimony to his resurrection from the dead, which proved him to be the Messiah. These rulers must either be saved by that Jesus whom they had crucified, or they must perish for ever. The name of Jesus is given to men of every age and nation, as that whereby alone believers are saved from the wrath to come. But when covetousness, pride, or any corrupt passion, rules within, men shut their eyes, and close their hearts, in enmity against the light; considering all as ignorant and unlearned, who desire to know nothing in comparison with Christ crucified. And the followers of Christ should act so that all who converse with them, may take knowledge that they have been with Jesus. That makes them holy, heavenly, spiritual, and cheerful, and raises them above this world.

Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel; the apostles are not dismayed, but make their boldness, spoken of Acts 4:13 , to appear; they preach Christ to all of them, and wish they could make him known to all others. Jesus Christ of Nazareth: see Acts 2:22 . Whom God raised; i.e. God the Father: our Surety was discharged by God himself, who had laid him in the prison of the grave for our debts. This man stand here before you whole; the lame man that was made whole being present, and an ocular demonstration of the miracle wrought upon him.

{4} 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 here before you whole. (4) He is indeed a true shepherd that teaches his sheep to rest upon Christ alone as upon one that is not dead, but has conquered death, and has all rule in his own hands.

10. Be it known unto you … and to all the people of Israel—as if emitting a formal judicial testimony to the entire nation through its rulers now convened. by the name of Jesus, &c.—(See on [1948]Ac 3:13, &c.). even by him doth this man stand before you whole—for from Ac 4:14 it appears that the healed man was at that moment before their eyes.

Verse 10. - In ( the name ) for by , A.V., and again, in ( him ) for by , A.V.; but if ἐν τίνι is rightly rendered by what means , ἐν τῷ ὀνόματι and ἐν τούτῳ ought to be rendered as in the A.V., by. Be it known unto you all , etc. St. Peter skillfully excuses himself from any presumption in preaching to the rulers by making his words the direct and necessary answer to their inquiry. Jesus Christ of Nazareth (see Acts 3:6 , note). Whom ye crucified, whom God raised . With what wonderful conciseness and force are the great doctrines of the gospel condensed into a few words! The human nature, the mediatorial glory, the humiliating but atoning death, the glorious resurrection (a cardinal point in all the apostolic preaching), and the present might of Christ to save his people on earth, are all set out in hail a dozen pregnant words. Even in him . The apostle thus passes from the Name to him whose Name it was. Before you. How could they deny what was actually before their eyes? Acts 4:10

10 . by the name of Jesus ] Read in the name, as before. whom ye crucified ] i.e. by the Roman soldiers. So ( 2 Samuel 12:9 ) David is said to have killed Uriah, though it is added “by the sword of the children of Ammon.” even by him ] The Greek seems rather to refer back to the former clause of the verse, and to be better rendered even in this (name).

(10) By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified. —The boldness of the declaration was startling. He does not shrink now from confessing the Nazarene as the Messiah. He presses home the fact that, though Pilate had given the formal sentence, it was they who had crucified their King. He proclaims that He has been raised from the dead, and is still as a Power working to heal as when on earth.

Be it known ... - Peter might have evaded the question, or he might have resorted to many excuses and subterfuges (Calvin), if he had been desirous of avoiding this inquiry. But it was a noble opportunity for vindicating the honor of his Lord and Master. It was a noble opportunity also for repairing the evil which he had done by his guilty denial of his Lord. Although, therefore, this frank and open avowal was attended with danger, and although it was in the presence of the great and the mighty, yet he chose to state fully and clearly his conviction of the truth. Never was there an instance of greater boldness, and never could there be a more striking illustration of the fitness of the name which the Lord Jesus gave him, that of a rock, John 1:42 ; Matthew 16:17-18 . The timid, trembling, yielding, and vacillating Simon; he who just before was terrified by a servant-girl, and who on the lake was afraid of sinking, is now transformed into the manly, decided, and firm Cephas, fearless before the Great Council of the nation, and in an unwavering tone asserting the authority of him whom he had just before denied, and whom they had just before put to death. It is not possible to account for this change except on the supposition that this religion is true. Peter had no worldly motive to actuate him. He had no prospect of wealth or fame by this.

Even the hopes of honor and preferment which the apostles had cherished before the death of Jesus, and which might have been supposed to influence them then, were now abandoned by them. Their Master had died, and all their hopes of human honor and power had been buried in his grave. Nothing but the conviction of the truth could have made this change, and transformed this timid disciple to a bold and uncompromising apostle. By the name - By the authority or power, Acts 3:6. Of Jesus Christ - The union of these two names would be particularly offensive to the Sanhedrin. They denied that Jesus was the Christ, or the Messiah; Peter, by the use of the word "Christ," affirmed that he was. In the language then used, it would be, "By the name of Jesus, the Messiah." Of Nazareth - Lest there should be any mistake about his meaning, he specified that he referred to the despised Nazarene; to him who had just been put to death, as they supposed, covered with infamy. Christians little regard the epithets of opprobrium which may be affixed to themselves or to their religion. Whom ye crucified - There is emphasis in all the expressions that Peter uses. He had before charged the people with the crime of having put him to death, Acts 2:23; Acts 3:14-15. But he now had the opportunity, contrary to all expectation, of urging the charge with still greater force on the rulers themselves, on the very council which had condemned him and delivered him to Pilate.

Acts 4:10 . St. Peter does not hesitate to refer his judges to the same passage of Scripture which a few short weeks before Jesus of Nazareth had quoted to a deputation of the Sanhedrim. In that case too the question put to Jesus had been as to the authority by which He acted, Matthew 21:42 , Mark 12:10 , Luke 21:17 . It is possible that the words from Psalm 118:22 were already regarded as Messianic, from the fact that the people had welcomed Jesus at His public entry into Jerusalem with part of a verse of the same Psalm, Acts 4:26 , Edersheim, Jesus the Messiah , ii., 368. Moreover, the passage, Isaiah 28:16 , which forms the connecting link between the Psalm and St. Peter’s words, both here and in his First Epistle ( 1 Peter 2:7 , cf. Romans 9:33 ; Romans 10:11 ), was interpreted as Messianic, apparently by the Targums, and undoubtedly by Rashi in his Commentary, cf. also Wetstein on Matthew 21:42 ; Edersheim, u. s. , ii., 725. In the original meaning of the Psalm Israel is the stone rejected by the builders, i.e. , by the heathen, the builders of this world’s empires, or the expression may refer to those in Israel who despised the small beginnings of a dawning new era (Delitzsch); but however this may be, in the N.T. the builders are the heads and representatives of Israel, as is evident from our Lord’s use of the verse, and also by St. Peter’s words here, “ you the builders ,” R.V.