St. Peter and St. John answer to the Council

St. Peter and St. John before the Counsel  

The Passage: Acts 4:5-22

Structure:

a. 4:5-7, Reaction of Rulers (question of power)

  b. 4:8-12, Speech of Peter being filled with the Holy Spirit

    c. 4:13, Initial assessment of the rulers

      d. 4:14, seeing the man rulers have nothing to say

    c’. 4:15-17, inner conferring – we can not deny, but it has to stop

      d’. 4:18, rulers charge apostles not to speak  

  b’. 4:19-20, Response of Peter and John

a’. 4:21-22, Reaction of Rulers (afraid of [the power] of people)  

Historical and geographical context:

Temple is the place of worship, social interactions (receiving alms), justice, and banking. We saw the first two in the previous lesson. The question of justice will come up here, while the banking will come up in a couple of lessons. It is important to understand that the Temple was a more “complicated” place. It is not a simple equivalent of our modern churches.      

Sanhedrin. ESV in v. 15 puts it as council. This is the first time St. Luke uses the term (14 in Acts, 1 in Luke [22:66], total 22 times in NT – number of letters on Hebrew alphabet). Sanhedrin was a gathering of the rulers of Judea gathered every day in the Temple area, in the building called House/Hall of Hewn Stones. Total number of members was 71: Moses + 70 elders (Num. 11:16-17, 24). Just by itself it is a symbolic number – prime, more specifically it is a permutable prime (71 and 17), also it is centered heptagonal number (1+7+14+21+28).   

Theology:

Theology of name (cont.). The rulers associate the Name and Place (1 Kings 8:48). Which was a correct interpretation prior to incarnation of Jesus. Yet, after the destruction there was an idea that the Name should be closer connected with the Word Ps. 138:2.    

Sanhedrin’s reasoning is similar to the reasoning for the crucifixion – John 11:45-53. If the power/authority over people is the main question, then the rulers will do everything to secure it. Knowing that they cannot deny the sign/miracle, the rulers attempt to suppress the spreading of preaching in the name. Note that they lit. do not have power, cp. 1:8, you will receive power, and St. Peter speaks being filled with the Holy Spirit. He already was one of the 120 – original Pentecostal group. Yet, we have here a fulfillment of Jesus’ promise (Mt. 10:17-20).       

Importance of people. The Book of Acts will present the masses raging against the Gospel (cp. Acts 19:28,34). Here we have a positive impact of the people. There is an important aspect of theology of gathering. St. John in his last two epistles concludes that he wants to see brothers face to face (2 John 12; 3 John 14). Also, it raises the important question for the future, “should we serve Holy Communion only individually during persecution or next governmental shut-down?”

Other themes:

Needed correction of translation in 13 – uneducated, should be “not scribes”. They did not belong to the educational elite scribal cast. It is not the point of knowledge, but an inner circle acceptance. Apostles WERE educated, for sure they were not illiterate, knowing 4 languages. St. Paul uses the same word for “common man” in 2 Cor. 11:6 as “un-skilled”. Also, Jesus promised to provide new generation of prophets, wisemen, and scribes (Mt. 23:34). The rulers did not see their “ID” of trained scribes…       

Usage of OT Scriptures. In the next passage the congregation as a whole recites and interpreters Ps. 2. But here St. Peter weaves in Ps. 118:22 in v.11. He attributes the stone of the passage to Jesus and builders – to the rulers (right at their faces). Doing this St. Peter follows the example of Jesus (Mt. 21:42). Also, Ps. 118 has a very interesting place in the Canon – right in the middle of the Bible (in our setting). There are 594 chapters around Ps. 118, it is surrounded by the shortest “chapter” (117), and the longest one (119). 594+594+1=1189. It should be Ps. 118:9 – it is better to trust in the LORD than to trust in princes. Or the real middle of Ps. 118:15 – Glad song of salvation are in the tents of the righteous.   

Significant numbers in the lives of people. He was 40 years old – being lame from birth (3:1) he spent 40 years “stumble along” – like Israel in the desert. Now he is brought into the “promised land” of life with Christ.