Acts 4:1–4

  ¹ Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, ² being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. ³ And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. ⁴ However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand. 

Commentary 

Vs. 1-2 ¹ Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, ² being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 

And so, it was while the Apostle’s Peter and John were speaking to the people; Peter having finished his preaching the Lord Jesus Christ risen from the dead to them (Acts 3:13-26); that the priests from the temple with the captain of the temple (i.e. the enforcement officer of it), along with the Sadducees (i.e. the religious group who mostly controlled the high priesthood and Sanhedrin council) came upon them, that is came to arrest and remove them from the temple grounds. For as the Scripture says they were greatly disturbed that the apostles were teaching the people and preaching in Jesus Christ the resurrection from the dead. For the Sadducees steadfastly denied that there was a resurrection of the dead, (whereas Jesus Christ the Son of God taught and proved otherwise, consider John 5:24-30). And thus, for them it was all about this life. Even their seeking “justice” was often not about doing God’s justice, but was often only their taking their own vengeance on their adversaries, or their dealing with those who threatened either their or their influential backers status quo, and this they did through their strict and unmerciful applications of the Law. Therefore, holding a religious office for them was not a means to serving God and His people with a future with Him and them in mind. Rather the Sadducees were more or less the representatives and guardians of the beliefs and practices of the upper echelons of the wealthy and the politically influential in Jewish society, who like them held to those same beliefs, and so they could’ve just as easily held a political office as a religious one, if that would’ve given them control over the temple and high priesthood, and thus control over the execution of the Jews religious laws and affairs. Therefore, though their title bears them a strict religious connotation as the “sons of Zadok; the high priest who faithfully fulfilled his position in the days of King David; no one should assume that they conducted themselves in the execution of their duties in a manner that could be considered worthy of him. And so now returning to the passage, to verse two, when the apostles preached to people the resurrection of the dead in the Jesus’ Person/Name on the temple grounds they quickly descended upon them with the captain of the temple (and his men) to arrest them. For as the Scripture says they were greatly disturbed that the apostles were now preaching in Jesus (the One they plotted against and had Crucified) the resurrection from the dead. 

Vs. 3-4 ³ And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. ⁴ However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand. 

Therefore, having seized and arrested the apostles Peter and John they placed them in custody, holding them on the temple grounds, so as to make them stand trial before the Sanhedrin council the next morning, for it was already late. Nonetheless the apostles arrest did nothing to hinder the Word of the Lord which had already gone forth through them, for the Scripture says that many of those who heard the word believed! The number being about five thousand men who thus came to believe! The Spirits works that had begun at Pentecost then was rapidly moving to grow Christ’s church! 

Scripture Quotations 

New King James (1982):Thomas Nelson.