Acts 4:22
in Acts 4For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For the man was more than forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was wrought.
KJV
For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was shewed.
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This verse in Acts 4
Commentary
9 notes on this verseFor the man was above forty years old,.... So that the miracle was the greater, that a man born lame, and who had been so above forty years, should have a cure; and he was the more known to the people, and his testimony met with more credit: on whom this miracle of healing was showed; both for the good of men, for the glory of God, and for the confirmation of the Gospel of Christ.
This site's exposition
further threatened them, they let them go
on Acts 4:21-22
So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people, the council's hand stayed by public opinion rather than by any change of conviction. For all men glorified God for that which was done, the crowd's response standing opposite the council's own hostility, and the exposition notes the same division that met the miracle at 3:9-13 now dividing the leaders from the people they claim to represent. The man was above forty years old on whom this miracle of healing was shewed, a detail Luke supplies to rule out any claim the healing was some minor or temporary ailment easily faked or self-correcting.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
The miracles shut their mouths: they would not so much as let them finish their speech, but cut them short in the middle, most insolently. "For all men glorified God for that which was done. For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was showed."
They were confounded, therefore, both by this instance of healing ("for the man was above forty years old on whom this miracle of healing took place"), and by the doctrine of the apostles, and by the exposition of the prophets, when the chief priests had sent away Peter and John. [These latter] returned to the rest of their fellow-apostles and disciples of the Lord, that is, to the Church, and related what had occurred, and how courageously they had acted in the name of Jesus.
The Medieval Church1 voice
The man was over forty years old on whom this sign of healing was performed. According to the history, the perfect age of the man is indicated amidst the invincible critics. Allegorically, however, the people of Israel did not only seek the Egyptian impurities in …
The Reformation1 voice
He had been born lame, and he had displayed his debility for so many years as a beggar that no one could say in slander that this deformity was simulated or insignificant.
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
The older he grew the more inveterate the disease was, and the more hardly cured. If those that are grown into years, and have been long accustomed to evil, are cured of their spiritual impotency to good, and thereby of their evil customs, the power of divine grace is therein so much the more magnified.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
The man was above forty years old - The disease was of long standing, and consequently the more inveterate; but all difficulties, small or great, yield equally to the sovereign power of God. It is as easy with God to convert a sinner of forty or four-score, as one of ten years old. But he who now refuses to obey the call of God has neither reason nor revelation to support himself even in the most distant hope that he shall get, in a future time, the salvation which he rejects in the present.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
For the man ... - The age of the man is mentioned to show the certainty and greatness of the miracle. If it had been a man who had been lame but a few years, or if it had been a child or a very young man, the case would not been so remarkable. But after a continuance of 40 years, all hope of healing him by any ordinary means must have been abandoned, and all pretence that this was jugglery or deception must have been absurd.
The words behind it
15 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ἐτῶν | eton | of years | G2094 → | 48 times |
| γὰρ | gar | for | G1063 → | 1039 times |
| ἦν | en | he was | G1510 → | 2333 times |
| πλειόνων | pleionon | more than | G4119 → | 45 times |
| τεσσεράκοντα | tesserakonta | forty - | G5062 → | 21 times |
| ὁ | ho | the | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| ἄνθρωπος | anthropos | man | G444 → | 549 times |
| ἐφ᾽ | eph᾽ | on | G1909 → | 883 times |
| ὃν | hon | whom | G3739 → | 1405 times |
| γεγόνει | gegonei | had taken place | G1096 → | 667 times |
| τὸ | to | <the> | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| σημεῖον | semeion | sign | G4592 → | 75 times |
| τοῦτο | touto | this | G3778 → | 1381 times |
| τῆς | tes | <the> | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| ἰάσεως.¶ | iaseos | of healing. | G2392 → |
ἐτῶνof years
etonG2094 →48 times
γὰρfor
garG1063 →1039 times
ἦνhe was
enG1510 →2333 times
πλειόνωνmore than
pleiononG4119 →45 times
τεσσεράκονταforty -
tesserakontaG5062 →21 times
ὁthe
hoG3588 →19766 times
ἄνθρωποςman
anthroposG444 →549 times
ἐφ᾽on
eph᾽G1909 →883 times
ὃνwhom
honG3739 →1405 times
γεγόνειhad taken place
gegoneiG1096 →667 times
τὸ<the>
toG3588 →19766 times
σημεῖονsign
semeionG4592 →75 times
τοῦτοthis
toutoG3778 →1381 times
τῆς<the>
tesG3588 →19766 times
ἰάσεως.¶of healing.
iaseosG2392 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
John 5:5One man there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.
it leads to
- Mark 9:21
Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has this been with him?” “From childhood,” he said.
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Luke 8:43
including a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years. She had spent all her money on physicians, but no one was able to heal her.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Acts 3:2
And 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.
- Mark 9:21
Through
Luke 13:11and a woman there had been disabled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was hunched over and could not stand up straight.
it leads to
- Luke 13:16
Then should not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be released from her bondage on the Sabbath day?”
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Luke 8:2
as well as some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out,
- Luke 13:16
Through
Matthew 9:20Suddenly a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years came up behind Him and touched the fringe of His cloak.
it leads to
- Luke 8:43–56
including a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years. She had spent all her money on physicians, but no one was able to heal her.
- Mark 6:56
And wherever He went—villages and towns and countrysides—they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged Him just to let them touch the fringe of His cloak. And all who touched Him were healed.
- Matthew 14:36
and begged Him just to let them touch the fringe of His cloak. And all who touched Him were healed.
- Luke 8:43–56
Where this verse is studied
About Acts
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Acts of the Apostles; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Commentary on Acts; Erasmus of Rotterdam, Commentary (church-history corpus); Irenaeus, Against Heresies Book III; J. A. Alexander, The Acts of the Apostles Explained; John Chrysostom, Homily on Acts 10; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.