Acts 4:19

Acts 4:19-20 . Peter and John — Feeling themselves animated in this arduous circumstance with a courageous zeal, which would not permit them to be silent, lest that silence should be interpreted as a promise to quit the ministry; answered, Whether it be right — A righteous thing; in the sight of God — To whom we are all accountable; to hearken unto you — That is, to obey you; more than God, judge ye — Ye cannot but know in your own consciences on which side the superior obligation lies; and you must therefore expect that we shall act accordingly. As these rulers professed to believe the being and infinite perfections of God, they must, on their own principles, easily see the absurdity of expecting obedience to their commands from good men, who believed themselves divinely commissioned.

Was it not by the same spirit that Socrates, when they were condemning him to death for teaching the people, said, “O ye Athenians, I embrace and love you, but I will obey God rather than you; and if you would spare my life on condition I should cease to teach my fellow- citizens, I would die a thousand times rather than accept the proposal.” For we cannot but speak, &c. — For though we respect you as our civil rulers, and are heartily willing to obey you, as far as we lawfully can, yet, since God hath charged us with the publication of this important message, on which the eternal salvation of men depends, we dare not be silent; and therefore are free to tell you, that we must speak the things which we have seen and heard — Which God hath manifested in so miraculous a manner, and which he hath commissioned us to declare.

Peter and John answered; both spake by one and the same Spirit, and agreed in one and the same answer; they are not solicitous what will best bring them off at present, but said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God, from whom nothing is hid, and who is the avenger of all wrong, to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. The apostles seem to refer to a commonly received rule amongst their rabbins, which also they make use of, Acts 5:29 , We ought to obey God rather than men. In the greatest matters of our most holy religion, God hath not left himself without a witness, or a thousand witnesses, in our own breasts and consciences, Amos 2:11 .

Acts 4:19 . Ἀποκριθέντες , having answered ) openly and in plain terms. They employ no artifice, with a view to being let go.— ἐνώπιον τοῦ Θεοῦ , i n the sight of God ) The world accounts many things as right, which in the sight of God are not right: and vice versâ .— ἀκούειν ) to hearken to , for to obey . He who does not comply, even hears with reluctance.— μᾶλλον , rather ) On the part of the courageous saints the authority of those rulers (high priests) alone is respected, who establish or command nothing that is contrary to GOD.— κρίνατε , judge ye ) The figure Communicatio [leaving the judgment of a matter to the hearers, or even to the very adversaries themselves]. The world cannot readily maintain their own laws against the cause of GOD with so great perverseness, as that natural equity should be utterly stifled.

19 . Peter and John ] Both alike express their determination to publish the news of Christ’s life and resurrection. The reason why both names are here mentioned may be that each was separately appealed to for a promise to desist. For an instance of like firmness in a good cause cp. 2Ma 7:30 . judge ye ] Come to whatever decision you please. “We are not careful to answer you in this matter.”

Acts 4:19-22 . Ἐνώπ . τ . Θεοῦ ] coram Deo , God as Judge being conceived as present: “multa mundus pro justis habet, quae coram Deo non sunt justa,” Bengel. We may add, that the maxim here expressed (founded on Matthew 22:21 ) takes for granted two things as certain; on the one hand, that something is really commanded by God; and, on the other hand, that a demand of the rulers does really cancel the command of God, and is consequently immoral; in which case the rulers actually and wilfully abandon their status as organs of divine ordination, and even take up a position antagonistic to God. Only on the assumption of this twofold certainty could that principle lead Christianity, without the reproach of revolution, to victory over the world in opposition to the will of the Jewish and heathen rulers.[158] For analogous expressions from the Greek (Plat. Apol. p. 29 D; Arrian. Epict. i. 20) and Latin writers and Rabbins, see Wetstein. The μᾶλλον ἤ is: rather ( potius , Vulgate) than, i.e. instead of listening to God, rather to listen to you.[159] See Baeuml. Partik. p. 136. The meaning of ἀκούειν is similar to ΠΕΙΘΑΡΧΕῖΝ , Acts 4:29 . ΓΆΡ ] Acts 4:20 specifies the reason, the motive for the summons: ΚΡΊΝΑΤΕ in Acts 4:19 . For to us it is morally (in the consciousness of the divine will) impossible not to speak (Winer, p. 464 [E.

T. 624]), i.e. we must speak what we saw and heard —namely, the deeds and words of Jesus, of which we were eye-witnesses and ear-witnesses. ἡμεῖς ] we on our part. προσαπειλησάμενοι ] after they had still more threatened them , namely, than already in the prohibition of Acts 4:18 , in which, after Acts 4:17 , the threatening was obviously implied. Comp. Sir 13:3 , ed. Compl. Dem. 544. 26; Zosim. i. 70. μηδὲν εὑρίσκοντες τὸ πῶς κ . τ . λ .] because they found nothing, namely how they were to punish them . The article before whole sentences to which the attention is to be specially directed. Comp. Kühner, II. p. 138; Mark 9:23 ; Luke 1:62 ; Acts 22:30 . πῶς is not, with Kuinoel and others, to be explained qua specie, quo praetextu ; the Sanhedrim, in fact, did not know how to invent any kind of punishment , which might be ventured upon without stirring up the people. Therefore διὰ τὸν λαόν , on account of the people, i.e. in consideration of them, is not to be referred, as usually, to ἀπέλυσαν αὐτούς , but to ΜΗΔῈΝ ΕὙΡΊΣΚΟΝΤΕς Κ.Τ.Λ.ἘΤῶΝ ΓᾺΡ Κ.Τ.Λ. ] So much the greater must the miracle of healing have appeared to the unprejudiced people, and so much the more striking and worthy of praise the working of God in it. ΠΛΕΙΌΝΩΝ ΤΕΣΣΑΡΆΚ . Comp. Matthew 22:23 ; Plat. Apol. p. 17 D, and Stallb. in loc. ; Lobeck, ad Phryn. p. 410 f. [158] Comp. Wuttke, Sittenl. § 310.

(19) Whether it be right in the sight of God . . . —The words assert the right of conscience, recognising a divine authority, to resist a human authority which opposes it. In theory, as the appeal “judge ye” showed even then, the right so claimed is of the nature of an axiom. In practice, the difficulty rises in the question, Is there the divine authority which is claimed? And the only practical answer is to be found in the rule, that men who believe they have the authority are bound to act as if they had it. If the Lord God hath spoken to them, they can but prophesy ( Amos 3:8 ). In cases such as this, where the question is one of witness to facts, they must not tamper with the truth, if they believe themselves commissioned by God to declare the facts, for fear of offending men. When they pass from facts to doctrines inferred from facts, from doctrines to opinions, from opinions to conjectures, the duty of not saying that which they do not believe remains the same, but there is not the same obligation to proclaim what they thus hold in various stages of assent. There may be cases in which reticence is right as well as politic. And even in regard to facts, the publication—as law recognises in relation to libels—must not be gratuitous. There must be an adequate authority, or an adequate reason for disobedience to the human authority, which is binding until it is superseded by that which is higher than itself.