Actschapter 4

Speaks with:Acts 5×10 Acts 2×7 Acts 3×6 Acts 4×4 Acts 1×3 Galatians 2×3

Summary

Chapter summary

Peter and John arrested; five thousand added. Sanhedrin interrogation. 'Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.' Boldness granted; the church prays; the place shakes; all things common (Barnabas named).

Context

History · Luke — Acts overview

A. 1–12 Arrested for Preaching the Resurrection
B. 13–22 Unlearned Men Who Had Been With Jesus
C. 23–31 The Place Was Shaken When They Prayed for Boldness
D. 32–37 One Heart and Soul; Barnabas Sells a Field

The outline

A.Arrested for Preaching the Resurrectionvv. 1 to 12
Read vv. 1 to 12 →
B.Unlearned Men Who Had Been With Jesusvv. 13 to 22
Read vv. 13 to 22 →
C.The Place Was Shaken When They Prayed for Boldnessvv. 23 to 31
Read vv. 23 to 31 →
D.One Heart and Soul; Barnabas Sells a Fieldvv. 32 to 37
Read vv. 32 to 37 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

The stone which the builders refused

Pattern

A refused building stone becomes the head of the corner. The psalm sings it, Isaiah lays a tried stone in Zion, the Lord quotes the line of himself in the temple, Peter names the builders before the council, and his epistle joins both stone texts in a single paragraph.

The image carries the gospel's whole argument about rejection: the act of refusing the stone is the very thing that sets it at the head of the corner. Peter could stand before the council and say the scripture had happened in front of them.

Psalms 118:22
The stone which the builders refused
Isaiah 28:16
A tried stone laid in Zion
A precious corner stone, a sure foundation.
Matthew 21:42
Did ye never read in the scriptures
The Lord quotes the psalm of himself in the temple.
Acts 4:11 you are here
Peter names the builders
Set at nought of you builders, said to the council itself.
1 Peter 2:6-7
Both stone texts joined in one paragraph

The world behind this chapter

Acts 4

When

The first collision with the temple authorities · c. AD 30–33

Where

Jerusalem — the temple courts, a holding cell overnight, and the council chamber of the Sanhedrin.

Who first heard it

Theophilus and Gentile readers, learning early that the opposition came from the ruling priests, not from Rome.

The history

The Sanhedrin was the Jewish high court, about seventy men led by the high priest. Under Rome it kept real power over religious and much civil life in Judea, though the death penalty needed the governor's hand. Its dominant families were Sadducees — wealthy, priestly, and cooperative with Roman rule.

That matters here, because the Sadducees did not believe in resurrection at all. Preaching a risen man in the temple courts attacked their theology and their authority in the same sentence.

The temple had its own police force under a commander called the captain of the temple, second in rank to the high priest. They could arrest and hold men overnight, which is what happened to Peter and John — courts did not sit after dark.

Annas is named alongside Caiaphas because he had been high priest earlier and remained the power behind the office; five of his sons and a son-in-law held the post in turn. Josephus describes the same family network.

What it meant to them

The first readers saw the church tested and holding. Ordinary, unschooled Galileans stood before the men who had condemned Jesus and refused to stop speaking — and the court had no answer, because the healed man was standing there in the room.

The believers' response was not a protest but a prayer, and what they asked for was boldness rather than safety. Luke then shows the result on the ground: a community so bound together that people sold property to keep anyone from going without.

Sources cited

F. F. Bruce, The Book of the Acts (NICNT)
Flavius Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on Acts 4. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

Connections from this chapter

v. 11 · Quoted here

'set at nought of you builders': Peter before the Sanhedrin.

Psalms 118:22→

The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

public-domain commentaries in agreement

v. 25 · Quoted here

'Why did the heathen rage': the gathered believers in prayer ('by the mouth of thy servant David'). Royal psalm.

Psalms 2:1→

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

public-domain commentaries in agreement

v. 26 · Linked to Psalms 2:2

H4899 mashiach -> LXX christos (G5547); the messianic title carried by the Greek OT (feeds the Christos card).

Psalms 2:2→

The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together, against the LORD and against His Anointed One:

LXX Ps 2:2 (Swete, PD); Acts 4:26

This page draws on Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David on Psalm 118; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Isaiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.

Study this chapter

What

Salvation Prayer Grace

Acts 58 verses
- Acts 5:2With his wife’s full knowledge, he kept back some of the proceeds for himself, but brought a portion and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
- Acts 5:18and arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.
- Acts 5:20“Go, stand in the temple courts and tell the people the full message of this new life.”
- Acts 5:26At that point, the captain went with the officers and brought the apostles—but not by force, for fear the people would stone them.
- Acts 5:28“We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us responsible for this man’s blood.”
- Acts 5:29But Peter and the other apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than men.
- Read Acts 5: 2 more there →
Acts 26 verses
- Acts 2:2Suddenly a sound like a mighty rushing wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.
- Acts 2:4And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
- Acts 2:23He was delivered up by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, and you, by the hands of the lawless, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross.
- Acts 2:36Therefore let all Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ!”
- Acts 2:41Those who embraced his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to the believers that day.
- Acts 2:45Selling their possessions and goods, they shared with anyone who was in need.
- Read Acts 2 →
Acts 35 verses
- Acts 3:2And a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those entering the temple courts.
- Acts 3:6But Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!”
- Acts 3:7Taking him by the right hand, Peter helped him up, and at once the man’s feet and ankles were made strong.
- Acts 3:8He sprang to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and leaping and praising God.
- Acts 3:16By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know has been made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through Him that has given him this complete healing in your presence.
- Read Acts 3 →
Acts 44 verses
- Acts 4:8Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people!
- Acts 4:13When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they marveled and took note that these men had been with Jesus.
- Acts 4:27In fact, this is the very city where Herod and Pontius Pilate conspired with the Gentiles and the people of Israel against Your holy servant Jesus, whom You anointed.
- Acts 4:30as You stretch out Your hand to heal and perform signs and wonders through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.”
- Read Acts 4 →

4 more chapters this one speaks with

Acts 13 verses
- Acts 1:8But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
- Acts 1:16“Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled which the Holy Spirit foretold through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus.
- Acts 1:22beginning from John’s baptism until the day Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.”
- Read Acts 1 →
Galatians 23 verses
- Galatians 2:1Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, accompanied by Barnabas. I took Titus along also.
- Galatians 2:9And recognizing the grace that I had been given, James, Cephas, and John—those reputed to be pillars—gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.
- Galatians 2:13The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
- Read Galatians 2 →
Luke 222 verses
- Luke 22:2and the chief priests and scribes were looking for a way to put Jesus to death; for they feared the people.
- Luke 22:4And Judas went to discuss with the chief priests and temple officers how he might betray Jesus to them.
- Read Luke 22 →
Acts 62 verses
- Acts 6:10but they could not stand up to his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke.
- Acts 6:12So they stirred up the people, elders, and scribes and confronted Stephen. They seized him and brought him before the Sanhedrin,
- Read Acts 6 →