Act 4:1-3, 5:17 | Clarke | e4.org | CHAPTER IV. The priests And Sadducees are incensed at the apostles' teaching, and put them in prison , 1-3. The number of those who believed , 4. The rulers, elders, and scribes call the apostles before them, and question them concerning their authority to teach , 5-7. Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, answers, and proclaims Jesus , 8-12. They are confounded at his discourse and the miracle wrought on the lame man, yet command them not to preach in the name of Jesus , 13-18. Peter and John refuse to obey , 19, 20. They are farther threatened and dismissed , 21, 22. They return to their own company, who all join in praise and prayer to God , 23-30. God answers, and fills them with the Holy Spirit , 31. The blessed state of the primitive disciples , 32-35. The case of Joses, who sells his estate, and brought the money to the common stock . 36. 37. NOTES ON CHAP. IV. Verse 1. The priests ] These persons had evidenced the most implacable enmity against Christ from the beginning. The captain of the temple ] See this office particularly explained in the note, . The Sadducees ] Whose whole system was now in danger by the preaching of the resurrection of Christ; for they believed not in the immortality of the soul, nor in any future world. These made a common cause with the priests, &c., to suppress the evidence of Christ's resurrection, and silence the apostles.

‏ Acts 4:1-3

CHAPTER IV.

The priests And Sadducees are incensed at the apostles' teaching, and put them in prison, 1-3.

The number of those who believed, 4.

The rulers, elders, and scribes call the apostles before them, and question them concerning their authority to teach, 5-7.

Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, answers, and proclaims Jesus,

8-12.

They are confounded at his discourse and the miracle wrought on the lame man, yet command them not to preach in the name of Jesus, 13-18.

Peter and John refuse to obey, 19, 20.

They are farther threatened and dismissed, 21, 22.

They return to their own company, who all join in praise and prayer to God, 23-30.

God answers, and fills them with the Holy Spirit, 31.

The blessed state of the primitive disciples, 32-35.

The case of Joses, who sells his estate, and brought the money to the common stock. 36. 37.

NOTES ON CHAP. IV.

Verse 1. The priests] These persons had evidenced the most implacable enmity against Christ from the beginning.

The captain of the temple] See this office particularly explained in the note, See Clarke on Lu 22:4.

The Sadducees] Whose whole system was now in danger by the preaching of the resurrection of Christ; for they believed not in the immortality of the soul, nor in any future world. These made a common cause with the priests, &c., to suppress the evidence of Christ's resurrection, and silence the apostles.

Verse 2. Being grieved] διαπονουμενοι, They were thoroughly fatigued with the continuance of this preaching; their minds suffered more labour, through vexation at the success of the apostles, than the bodies of the apostles did in their fatiguing exercise of preaching during the whole day.

‏ Acts 5:17

Verse 17. The high priest-and-the sect of the Sadducees] αιρεσις τωνσαδδουκαιων, The heresy of the Sadducees. In this place, as well as in several others, the word αιρεσις, heresy, has no evil meaning in itself; it is a word of distinction, and may receive either a good or bad colouring from the persons or opinions designated by it. It signifies a sect or party, whether good or bad, distinguished from any other sect. αιρεσις, heresy, comes from αιρεω, I choose, and was anciently applied to the different sects of the heathen philosophers, the members of each sect having chosen their own in preference to all the others. It has been applied among ecclesiastical writers in the same way-when a man chooses one party of Christians, in preference to others, to be his companions in the way of salvation; and he chooses them and their creed and Christian discipline, because he believes the whole to be more consistent with the oracles of God than any of the rest. The Church of Rome has thought proper to attach a very bad meaning to this innocent word, and then apply it to all those who can neither credit her transubstantiation, depend on her purgatory, nor worship her relics. A heretic, in her acceptation, is one who is not a papist, and, because not a papist, utterly out of the way and out of the possibility of being saved. These persons should recollect that, by a then persecuting brother, St. Paul, all the apostles, and the whole Church of Christ, were termed ναζωραιωναιρεσις, the heresy of the Nazarenes, Ac 24:5; and it was after the way which the persecuting Jews called heresy that St. Paul and the rest of the apostles worshipped the God of their fathers, Ac 24:14; and it was according to the strictest HERESY in the Jewish Church, ακιριβεστατηναιρεσιν, that St. Paul lived before his conversion, Ac 26:5; and we find, from Ac 28:22, that the whole Church of Christ was termed this heresy, ταυτηςαιρεσεως, and this by persons who intended no reproach, but wished simply to distinguish the Christians from scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, &c. Heresy therefore, in its first acceptation, signifies simply a choice: afterwards it was applied to designate all those persons who made the same choice; and hence the word sect and it became synonymous: in process of time it was applied to those professing Christianity who made, in some cases, a different choice as to some article of faith, or form of worship, from those which had obtained in that part of the Church with which they had been before connected. The majority, from whom they became thus separated, spoke evil of them, and treated them ill, because they presumed to choose for themselves on the foundation of the Holy Scriptures; and because they would take nothing for the truth of God that was not accredited from heaven. Thus, when the people now called Protestants, began to examine their creed according to the Holy Scriptures, and, in consequence of this examination, left out auricular confession, indulgences, the priests' power to forgive sins, adoration of saints, angels, and relics, purgatory, and the doctrine of transubstantiation, because they could not find them in the word of God, the papists called them heretics, by which they meant, in opposition to the meaning of the word, persons holding damnable errors; and, as such, they persecuted, burnt, and destroyed them wherever they had power. Now be it known to these persecutors, that the Protestants still choose to reject opinions and practices which they know to be unscriptural, absurd, and superstitious; and which they have a thousand times demonstrated to be such: and, on this ground, may they still be HERETICS!

Were filled with indignation.] ζηλου, With zeal. ζηλος, from ζεω, to be hot, and λα or λιαν, very much, signifies a vehement affection or disposition of the mind, which, according to its object, is either good or bad, laudable or blamable. Its meaning in this place is easily discerned; and not improperly translated indignation, in our version. We need not be surprised that the Sadducees were filled with indignation, because the apostles proclaimed the resurrection of Christ, and, through that, the general resurrection, which was diametrically opposed to their doctrine; for they denied the possibility of a resurrection, and believed not in the being of either angel or spirit; nor did they allow of the existence of a spiritual world. See Clarke on Ac 4:2.