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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - Acts 5:26 - 5:26
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
26. οὐ μετὰ βίας, without violence. Nor can we suppose that the Apostles were at all likely to offer resistance, for their examination before the council would afford them an opportunity of proclaiming the message of the Gospel.
On this verse Chrysostom says ὦ τῆς ἀνοίας· ἐφοβοῦντό, φησι, τὸν ὄχλον. τί γὰρ αὐτοὺς ὁ ὄχλος ὠφέλει; δέον τὸν θεὸν φοβηθῆναι τὸν καθάπερ πτηνοὺς ἀεὶ τῶν χειρῶν αὐτοὺς ἐξαρπάζοντα τε͂ν ἐκείνων, οἱ δὲ μᾶλλον τὸν ἄχλον φοβοῦνται.
μὴ λιθασθῶσιν. After a past tense, as ἐφοβοῦντο, the verb would be expected to be in the optative not in the subjunctive mood. The subjunctive is explained as implying more certainty of a result. Here = ‘lest they should be stoned,’ as surely they would have been. We have already had evidence of the favour with which the disciples were looked upon by the people, and we can see from the account of the death of Stephen that a sudden outbreak of popular rage might result in the death of him against whom this feeling was displayed. And that the Jewish people were ready enough thus to take the law into their own hands, we can see from the Gospel history (Joh 10:31-33), and the parables of Jesus speak of such proceedings as though they were of no very rare occurrence (Mat 21:35).