Acts 5:17

5:17-25 There is no prison so dark, so strong, but God can visit his people in it, and, if he pleases, fetch them out. Recoveries from sickness, releases out of trouble, are granted, not that we may enjoy the comforts of life, but that God may be honoured with the services of our life. It is not for the preachers of Christ's gospel to retire into corners, as long as they can have any opportunity of preaching in the great congregation. They must preach to the lowest, whose souls are as precious to Christ as the souls of the greatest. Speak to all, for all are concerned. Speak as those who resolve to stand to it, to live and die by it. Speak all the words of this heavenly, divine life, in comparison with which the present earthly life does not deserve the name. These words of life, which the Holy Ghost puts into your mouth. The words of the gospel are the words of life; words whereby we may be saved. How wretched are those who are vexed at the success of the gospel! They cannot but see that the word and power of the Lord are against them; and they tremble for the consequences, yet they will go on.

Acts 5:17-18 . Then the high-priest rose up — Never did any good work go on with any hope of success, but it met with opposition; for they that are bent to do evil cannot be reconciled to them who make it their business to do good. Satan, the destroyer of mankind, ever was, and ever will be, an adversary to those who are men’s benefactors. And it would have been strange, if the apostles had been suffered to go on thus teaching and healing, and had received no check. In these and the following verses we have the malice of hell and the grace of Heaven struggling about them; the one to make them cease from this good work, the other to animate them in it. The high-priest, Annas or Caiaphas, was the ringleader in the opposition made to them: he rose up — As it were, with awakened and renewed fury; and all they that were with him — His friends and associates; for they saw their wealth and dignity, their power and tyranny, that is, their all at stake, and inevitably lost, if the spiritual and heavenly doctrine of Christ should gain ground and prevail among the people. Which is the sect of the Sadducees — A goodly company for the priest! The Sadducees were most forward to join with the high-priest in this persecution, having a particular enmity to the gospel of Christ, because it attested and confirmed the doctrine of the invisible and eternal world, the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and the future state, which they denied.

And were filled with indignation — Greek, ζηλου , with zeal, rather; namely, bitter, persecuting zeal against the cause of Christ: for it is not strange, if men of no religion be bigoted in their opinions against true and pure religion. When they heard and saw how the people flocked to the apostles, and how reputable they were become, they were exasperated to the last degree, and rose up in a passion, as men who could no longer bear such proceedings, and were resolved to oppose them, being vexed at the apostles for preaching the doctrine of Christ, and curing the sick; at the people for hearing them, and bringing the sick to be cured; and at themselves and their own party for suffering this matter to go so far, and not suppressing it at its first rise. Thus are the enemies of Christ and his gospel a torment to themselves! And laid their hands on the apostles — Being determined to bring them to another trial before the sanhedrim; and put them in the common prison — Where the vilest malefactors were lodged.

Then the high priest rose up; moved at the report of these things, went out of the council to observe what was done. And all they that were with him; there were both Pharisees and Sadducees in their sanhedrim or great council, as appears Acts 23:6 ; but the high priest and a great part were at this time Sadducees. Indignation, or zeal, which is the best when kindled (as the fire on the altar) from heaven, regularly acting for God’s truth and word; and the worst when inflamed by carnal affections, and set upon wrong objects for self-ends. The pique these Sadducees had against the apostles and their doctrine, was, because they taught the resurrection, which the Sadducees denied.

Acts 5:17 . Ἀναστὰς , having risen up ) He thought that he ought not to remain quiet.— τῶν Σαδδουκαίων , of the Sadducees ) Many gathered themselves together to these, so as that they might the more assail the resurrection of Jesus Christ.— ζήλου , with indignation or angry zeal ) The impotence of this feeling is made apparent by their whole proceeding.

{3} Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the {h} sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation, (3) The more that the Church increases, the more the rage os Satan increases, and therefore they proceed from threats to imprisonment. (h) The word which is used here is heresy, which signifies a choice, and so is taken for a right form of learning, or faction, or study and course of life, which the Latins call a sect: at first this word was used indifferently, but at length it came to be used only in reference to evil, whereupon came the name of heretic which is taken for one that goes astray from sound and wholesome doctrine in such a way that he thinks lightly of the judgment of God and his Church, and continues in his opinion, and breaks the peace of the Church.

Verse 17. - But for then , A.V.; they were filled for were filled , A.V.; jealousy for indignation , A.V. The high priest rose up . It was high time for him and his friends the Sadducees to be up and doing, if they wished to stop the spreading of the faith of Jesus Christ and the Resurrection. Which is the sect of the Sadducees ( Acts 4:1, 2 , note). It does not appear that Annas himself was a Sadducee, but his son was, and hence it is highly probable that the Sadducees should have attached themselves to Annas, and made a tool of him for suppressing the doctrine of the Resurrection. The sect ; αἵρεσις (see Acts 15:5 ; Acts 24:5, 14 ; Acts 26:4 ; Acts 28:22 ). The word was applied first by Jews to Christians, and then by Christians to sects ( 1 Corinthians 11:19 ; Galatians 5:20 ; 2 Peter 2:1 ). Jealousy scarcely so well expresses the idea of ζῆλος here as indignation does. In the First Epistle of Clement, ζῆλος is applied to the anger of Cain, of Joseph's brethren, of the Israelites against Moses, of the persecution of St. Peter and St. Paul (iv., 5.). It is only occasionally that it means that kind of anger which we call jealousy. The high priest and his party were indignant at the defiance of their authority, and at the success of the doctrine which they had made it a special object to put down. Acts 5:17

17–32 . Arrest of the Twelve. Their miraculous deliverance and their Defence before the Sanhedrin 17 . Then the high priest rose up ] The conjunction at the beginning of the sentence should be But . While the multitudes thronged to be healed, the effect on the authorities was to provoke them to opposition. rose up ] The Greek word is used in this chapter of the insurrections of Theudas and Judas ( Acts 5:36-37 ) and in the next chapter ( Acts 6:9 ) of the disputants with Stephen. It is often found without the sense of opposition which it has here and in those verses. and all they that were with him ] A phrase more comprehensive than that used in Acts 4:6 , “as many as were of the kindred of the high priest.” The opposition has had time to gather its forces and now represents not only the family of Annas, but the heads of the party of the Sadducees. which is the sect ] The word is that which St Paul uses in his defence ( Acts 24:14 ) before Felix, “after the way which they call heresy .” But he employs it without any sense of blame ( Acts 26:5 ) about the Pharisees, and it is used of them also Acts 15:5 . With a bad sense it is applied to the Nazarenes ( Acts 24:5 ), and similarly Acts 28:22 . of the Sadducees ] From Acts 5:21 it will be seen that the statement of Josephus concerning the influence of this sect is fully borne out ( Antiq. xiii. 11. 6), for they had the rich on their side.

We have no certain evidence in Scripture that Annas was a Sadducee, but Josephus ( Antiq . xx. 9. 1) tells us that his son Ananus [or Annas] was of this sect. and were filled with indignation ] The word used to express their feeling might better be rendered jealousy . What the historian is describing is an outbreak of party-feeling. The whole influence of the Sadducean party is called forth by their antagonism to the doctrine of the resurrection and their envy of the growth of the new movement.

Acts 5:17-18 . Ἀναστάς ] The high priest stood up ; he raised himself : a graphic trait serving to illustrate his present interference. Comp. Acts 6:9 , Acts 23:9 ; Luke 15:18 , al. “Non sibi quiescendum ratus est,” Bengel. The ἀρχιερεύς , is according to Acts 4:6 , Annas , not Caiaphas , although the latter was so really . καὶ πάντες οἱ σὺν αὐτῷ , ἡ οὖσα αἵρεσις τῶν Σαδδουκ .] and all his associates (his whole adherents, Acts 5:21 ; Xen. Anab. iii. 2.11, al.), which were the sect of the Sadducees . This sect had allied itself with Annas, because the preaching of Christ as the Risen One was a grievous offence to them. See Acts 4:1-2 . The participle ἡ οὖσα (not οἱ ὄντες is put) adjusts itself to the substantive belonging to the predicate, as is often the case in the classical writers. See Kühner, § 429; Stallb. ad Plat. Rep. p. 333 E, 392 D. Luke does not affirm that the high priest himself was a Sadducee, as Olshausen, Ewald, and others assert. This remark also applies in opposition to Zeller, who adduces it as an objection to the historical character of the narrator, that Luke makes Annas a Sadducee. In the Gospels also there is no trace of the Sadducaeism of Annas. According to Josephus, Antt. xx. 9. 1, he had a son who belonged to that sect. ἐν τηρήσει δημοσ .] τήρησ . as in Acts 4:3 . The public prison is called in Thuc. 5:18. 6 also merely τὸ δημόσιον ; and in Xen. Hist. vii. 36, οἰκία δημόσια .

(17) Then the high priest rose up. . . . Probably, as before, Annas or Caiaphas. Which is the sect of the Sadducees.—The fact, of which this is the only distinct record, is of immense importance as throwing light on the course of action taken by the upper class of priests, both during our Lord’s ministry and in the history of this book. From the time of the teaching of John 5:25-29, they must have felt that His doctrine was diametrically opposed to theirs. They made one attempt to turn that doctrine, on which, and almost on which alone, He and the Pharisees were in accord, into ridicule, and were baffled (Matthew 22:23-33). The raising of Lazarus mingled a dogmatic antagonism with the counsels of political expediency (John 11:49-50). The prominence of the Resurrection of Jesus in the teaching of the Apostles now made the Sadducean high priests their most determined opponents. The Pharisees, on the other hand, less exposed now than they had been before to the condemnation passed by our Lord on their unreality and perverted casuistry, were drawing off from those with whom they had for a time coalesced, into a position at first of declared neutrality; then of secret sympathy; then, in many cases, of professed adherence (Acts 15:5). Filled with indignation.—The word is that elsewhere rendered “zeal,” or “envy.” Both meanings of the word were probably applicable here. There was “zeal” against the doctrine, “envy” of the popularity of the Apostles.