ACC ~ Acts 5 v19

FOR ENCOURAGEMENT AND INSTRUCTION. CHRYSOSTOM: “But at night an angel of the Lord opened the prison doors and brought them out and said, ‘Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.’ And when they heard this, they entered the temple at daybreak and taught.” This was done for the encouragement of the disciples and for the benefit and instruction of the others. For notice how what Christ once did happened again here: he does not allow them to witness the miracle in action but provides that from which they may learn of it. This is what happened on the occasion of his resurrection: he did not let them see how he rose again. When wine is made from water, the guests do not see it (for they were drunk); the judgment he entrusts to others. Likewise in the present case, they do not see them being led out, but the evidence, from which they might understand what happened, they saw. And it was by night that the angel put them outside. Why? Because in this way they were more believed than they would have been otherwise. They would not have come to ask questions. They would not have believed otherwise. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 13.

AN ANGEL OPENED THE PRISON DOORS. BEDE: So that Thomas would not doubt that the Lord bore flesh and blood when he had seen him entering with the doors closed, behold, he himself, while he was still clothed in mortal flesh, made his departure with his companions though the doors were closed. COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 5.19.

HIS SIDE IS A WITNESS. ARATOR: If anyone in addition considers Thomas, with his feeble heart, let him seek teaching from this: seeing that the closed door, being penetrated, admitted God then,is it astonishing if [Christ], in the flesh, approaches a gate in this manner, [he] whom a virgin bore, whom the unviolated womb of his mother conceived? What reason, I ask, was there to take human flesh unless it was to resurrect it? Returning after that, he presents his side for a witness and teaches that the ashes of our body must be made new by the example of his own, proving they are his limbs by their wounds. ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 1.

Acts