Vincent Word Studies - Acts 5:29 - 5:29

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com

Vincent Word Studies - Acts 5:29 - 5:29


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

We ought (δεῖ)

Stronger, we must.

To obey (πειθαρχεῖν)

Not often used in the New Testament to express obedience, the most common word being ὑπακούω. Sometimes πείθω is used. But this word, in itself, is the only one of the several in use which expresses the conception of obedience exclusively. Ὑπακούνειν is to obey as the result of listening to another: πείθεσθαι is to obey as the result of persuasion. This is the special term for the obedience which one owes to authority (ἀρχή): It occurs four times in the New Testament: Act 5:29, Act 5:32; Act 27:21; Tit 3:1; and in every case, of obedience to established authority, either of God or of magistrates. In Act 27:21, where it is used of the ship's officers hearkening to Paul's admonition not to loose from Crete, Paul speaks of his admonition as divinely inspired; compare Act 27:10. In Act 4:19, Peter and John say hearken (ἀκούειν). That is a mere listening to or considering the proposition made to them. This is a deliberate course of action.