ACC ~ Acts 5 v27 - 32

OVERVIEW:

The hearing now proceeds in two steps. The leaders of Israel enjoin silence on the leaders of the new community; Peter, once again, answers with a speech. The whole account recorded in this part of Acts 5 has remarkable parallels to the account in Acts 4:1-31: arrest, confrontation between the authorities and Peter, a brief kerygmatic statement and the remark that it is better to obey God than people. Chrysostom once again calls attention to the patience and compassion for their persecutors evinced by the apostles; Bede thinks the high priest must have forgotten that he had already called down upon himself the blood of Jesus.

5:28 | Jerusalem Filled with the Apostles’ Teaching

BRINGING THIS MAN’S BLOOD ON US. BEDE: The high priest had forgotten the doom that he had called down upon himself and his own when he said, “His blood be on us and on our children.” COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 5.28.

5:30 | God Raised Jesus

NOT DEFIANCE BUT COMPASSION. CHRYSOSTOM: It was not with defiance that the apostles answered them, for they were teachers. And yet who, backed by an entire city and enjoying such grace, would not have spoken and uttered something big? But not these men. For they were not angered, but they pitied and wept over them and looked for a way to free them from their error and anger. No longer did they say to them, “You must judge,” but they declared, “He whom God raised, this man we proclaim.” It is by the will of God that these things are done, he says. They did not say, “Did we not say to you even then, that ‘we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard’?” For they do not lust after honor. He repeats the same things: the cross, the resurrection. And they do not say why he was crucified—that it was for our sakes, but they hint at this, though not yet openly, because they wish to frighten them for a while. And yet what kind of rhetoric is this? No rhetoric at all, but always the passion, the resurrection, the ascension and the wherefore. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 13.

5:31 | To Give Repentance

FORGIVENESS PROFFERED AS TO BENEFACTORS. CHRYSOSTOM: Notice how every time they mention the crime, they add the mention of forgiveness, showing that what had been done was worthy of death but what was given was offered as if to benefactors. How else could anyone have persuaded them? HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 13.