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Acts 5:39

in Acts 5

But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

but if it is of God, ye will not be able to overthrow them; lest haply ye be found even to be fighting against God.

KJV

But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.

This verse in Acts 5

Commentary

12 notes on this verse

A commentator

Tertullian

To Scapula · Written before 220.

We who are without fear ourselves are not seeking to frighten you, but we would save all men if possible by warning them not to fight with God. You may perform the duties of your charge, and yet remember the claims of humanity; if on no other ground than that you are liable to punishment yourself, (you ought to do so).

This site's exposition

Some time ago Theudas rose up

on Acts 5:36-39

Gamaliel cites two failed movements, Theudas with about four hundred men and Judas the Galilean, both scattered once their leaders died. His test is that if the work is from God, the council will not be able to stop them.

This site's exposition

fighting against God

Bede notes that the Greek uses a single word for those who fight against God. Barnes thinks Gamaliel was open to the movement being divine yet unconvinced, while Chrysostom says later events proved it was of God. Tertullian repeats the warning against fighting God.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers3 voices

A commentator

John Chrysostom

Homily on Acts 14 · Written before 407.

proposed

Once more he checks them by the impossibility and the inexpediency of the thing, saying, "Lest haply ye be found even to fight against God." And he does not say, If Christ be God; but the work itself declares this. He does not pronounce upon it, either that it is "of men," or that it is "of God;" but he leaves the proof to the future. But what a great thing it was that he ventured to affirm: that it was of God, when in the sequel it received its proof from the events! Great boldness of speech, great freedom from all respect of persons!

A commentator

Oecumenius

Commentary on Acts · Written before 550.

proposed

Then, having therefore smoothed the discourse with them, he tries to turn aside the hearers from plotting against the apostles, for fear that, if they set out upon an unhindered occasion, we should, he says, by dying in opposition to God, fall into godlessness, and …

A commentator

Oecumenius

Commentary on Acts · Written before 550.

proposed

Gamaliel did not say that it is from God, but neither that the work is human. For with regard to what is from God, those men would immediately have opposed it, whereas what is from humans made them bolder against the apostles. Therefore observe the …

The Medieval Church2 voices

A commentator

Bede

Retractions on Acts · Written before 735.

proposed

Lest you be found to be fighting against God. For what we have as fighting against God, or, as some have interpreted, opposing God, in Greek one word is used, θεομάχοι. I thought this worth mentioning, so that when we find θεομάχος or θεομαχίαν in …

A commentator

Theophylact of Ohrid

Commentary on Acts · Written before 1107.

proposed

Having pointed to the examples of false teachers who perished, Gamaliel advises them to think also about themselves: beware, lest in your efforts to destroy others you yourselves perish, because he who goes against what is pleasing to God destroys not his opponent, but himself. …
4 more voices on this verse

The Medieval Church1 voice

A commentator

Bede

Retractions on Acts · Written before 735.

proposed

But if it is from God, you will not be able to destroy them. And in the Greek, more is added here: Neither you, nor your rulers.

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

But if it be of God,.... If it is according to the counsel of his will; if it is a scheme of his forming, and a work to which he has called these men, and they proceed in it on good principles, and with a view to the honour and glory of God: ye cannot overthrow it; it will proceed and get ground, and stand, maugre all the opposition of hell and earth; therefore do nothing to them, or hinder them from going on.

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

But if it be of God - If God is the “author” of this religion. From this it seems that Gamaliel supposed that it was at least possible that this religion was divine. He evinced a far more candid mind than did the rest of the Jews; but still it does not appear that he was entirely convinced.

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it - Because his counsel cannot fail; and his work cannot be counteracted. If he be determined that this doctrine shall prevail, it is vain for us to attempt to suppress it. Lest haply ye be found - to fight against God - Μηποτε και θεομαχοι εὑρεθητε. Some have thought that they saw a parallel to these words in the speech of Diomede, when, seeing Mars, associated with Hector, oppose the Grecians, he judged farther opposition vain, and desired his troops to retire from the battle. Τῳ δ’ αιει παρα εἱς γε θεων, ὁς λοιγον αμυνει· Και νυν οἱ παρα κεινος Αρης, βροτῳ ανδρι εοικως. Αλλα προς Τρωας τετραμμενοι αιεν οπισσω Εικετε, μηδε Θεοις μενεαινεμεν ιφι μαχεσθαι. Iliad, lib. v. 603. Protected always by some power divine; And Mars attends this moment at his side, In form a man. Ye therefore still retire, But facing still your foes: nor battle wage, However fierce, yet fruitless, with the gods. Cowper.

The words behind it

13 Greek words

Every 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.

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each 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

    Isaiah 46:10

    I declare the end from the beginning, and ancient times from what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and all My good pleasure I will accomplish.’

    it leads to

    • Proverbs 19:21

      Many plans are in a man’s heart, but the purpose of the LORD will prevail.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Psalms 33:11

      The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the purposes of His heart to all generations.

    • Ephesians 1:9–11

      And He has made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ

    • Isaiah 43:13

      Even from eternity I am He, and none can deliver out of My hand. When I act, who can reverse it?”

  • Through

    Matthew 16:18

    And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.

    it leads to

    • Ephesians 2:19–22

      Therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household,

    • 1 Corinthians 3:9–11

      For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.

    • Isaiah 28:16

      So this is what the Lord GOD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will never be shaken.

    • Colossians 1:18

      And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and firstborn from among the dead, so that in all things He may have preeminence.

Where this verse is studied

About Acts

The Pentecost, El Greco, about 1600, Museo del Prado. Public domain.
The Pentecost, El Greco, about 1600, Museo del Prado. Public domain.
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on Acts; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Retractions on Acts; John Chrysostom, Homily on Acts 14; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); Oecumenius, Commentary on Acts; Tertullian, To Scapula and Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on Acts.