Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible · Acts Capitolo 5

Acts 5:3. Why hath Satan filled thine heart, &c.— The phrase rendered filled thine heart, signifies emboldened, as appears from the Septuagint version of Est 7:5 and Ecclesiastes 8:11. To lie to the Holy Ghost, is expressed, Act 5:4 by lying unto God, a plain proof that the Holy Ghost is God. The verse may be thus paraphrased: "But, upon this, the Holy Spirit, under whose direction St. Peter acted, immediately suggested to him the fraud, and the aweful manner in which the divine wisdom saw fit to animadvert upon it: in consequence of which inward suggestion, looking sternly upon him, he said, O! Ananias, why hath Satan, through thine own wickedness in yielding to his temptations, filled thine heart with such a degree of covetousness, falsehood, folly, and presumption, that thou shouldst audaciously attempt to impose on the Holy Spirit himself, under whose special direction we are; and to secrete part of the price of the land which thou hast sold, when thou pretendest to have brought the whole?"

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Acts 5:4. Whiles it remained, was it not thine own, &c.?— That is, "Before it was sold, was it not thine? and being sold, was not the money paid thee, and in thine own power?—Thou hast therefore no excuse for what thou hast done;"—for there were two cases, which might have been pleaded by Ananias, in excusefor his bringing part of the price;—if either he had not been the whole and sole proprietor of what was sold, or had not received the whole purchase-money. As for the first, it is a self-evident truth, that a man can sell no more than what belongs to him; so that if Ananias had been owner only of a part, he could dispose only of a part. Secondly, though he were the whole and sole proprietor of the land, and so had a right to sell it; yet, had not the whole purchase-money been received, he might still have been excused for bringing buta part. But Ananias could plead neither of these excuses; for St. Peter urges, "While it remained unsold, did it not remain thine? or wert not thou owner and proprietor? And when it was sold, was not the money it was sold for in thy possession?" The first words, while it remained, &c. shew that Ananias was not obliged or forced to sell his possession, but might have retained it if he pleased; which plainlyshews, that contributing to the charitable fund, was not a matter of necessity, but purely voluntary. The whole verse may be thus paraphrased: "While you had the estate in your own possession, was it not a property which you might have kept, if you would? And after you thought fit to sell it, was not the money at your own disposal? You were under no necessity, either of selling it at all; or, afterwards, if you were minded to add any thing to the common stock for the use of the church, you were at full liberty to put in, either a part, or the whole of the price, just as you pleased: Why then have you thus freely consented to Satan's temptation, who could not have forced you to it? You have herein been guilty of a most abominable and aggravated lie, not to man only, but to the Holy Spirit himself, who, you know, eminently dwells and works in us, and who is truly and properly the heart-searching God, and will not be mocked; but will severely avenge the affront, in jealousy for his own glory, and to deter others from any such further insults upon him to the corrupting of the ch

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Acts 5:5. And Ananias hearing these words, &c.— This severity was not only righteous, considering that complication of vain glory and covetousness, of fraud and impiety, which the action contained; but was wise and gracious, both as it served to vindicate the honour of the blessed Spirit, so notoriously affronted by this attempt to impose on those, who had been so lately and eminently anointed by his extraordinary effusion; and farther, as it tended most effectually to deter any dishonestpersons from joining the Christians, merely for the sake of a present alms, to which, by a fraud like this, many might on easy terms have purchased a pretence, who would also, no doubt, have proved a great scandal to a profession taken up on such infamous motives. (Comp. Acts 5:13.) This likewise was a very convincing attestation of the apostles' most upright conduct in the management of the sums with which they were entrusted, and indeed of their divine missionin general; for none can imagine, that St. Peter would have had the assurance to pronounce, and much less the power to execute, such a sentence as this, if he had been at the same time guilty of a much baser fraud of the like kind, or had been belying the Holy Ghost in the whole of his pretentious to be under his miraculous influence and direction.

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Acts 5:6. And the young men arose, &c.— They were persons of an inferior rank, who were usually employed in this office. They stripped, swathed him,— συνεστειλαν,— and afterwards carried him to his grave. The Jews now inter their dead within twenty-four hours at farthest from the time of their death, and generally much sooner.

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Acts 5:11. And great fear came upon all, &c.— In the striking narrative before us, we have an example of the severest temporal punishment inflicted throughout the New Testament; a punishment inflicted by the apostle, not out of a spirit of passion, cruelty, or revenge, but by a prophetic spirit; not by the sword of the magistrate, or by any power of his own, but by a miraculous and divine power; punishing a notorious lie, which was made to tempt or try the Holy Spirit in the beginning of his peculiar oeconomy or dispensation. Thus was the dignity of the Spirit of God vindicated, and the honour of the apostles of our Lord maintained: for hereby it was plain, that they had the spirit of truth and of power, by which they could easily detect and punish the spirit of falsehood; and that they made no pretensions to the Spirit, in which that Spirit would not bear them out. This was exercising the apostolic rod: but we must always remember, that the power was that of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that the apostles had only an impulse of the Spirit upon their minds, by which they were enabled to foretel such extraordinary and divine judgments. Porphyry accused St. Peter as cruel, for inflicting this punishment; to which the ancients well answered: "The apostle did by no means "pray for their deaths; but by the prophetic spirit denounced the judgment of God upon them, that the punishment of two persons might be for the instruction of many." Indeed, such severity in the beginning of Christianity was highly proper, in order to prevent any occasion for similar punishments in future. Thus Cain, the first murderer, was most signally punished by the immediate hand of God, as were Sodom and Gomorrah, which, in the early ages, were distinguished for their filthiness and abominations. Thus, upon the erecting of God's temporal kingdom among the Jews, Nadab and Abihu were struck dead for offering strange fire before the Lord; and Korah and his company were swallowed up alive by the earth, for opposing Moses, the faithful minister of the Lord; and lastly, Uzzah, for touching the ark, fell by as sudden and remarkable a divine judgment, when the kingdom was given to be established in the house of David, to teach Israel a reverence for God and divine things. Nay, in establishing even human laws, a severe punishment upon the first transgressors often prevents the punishment of others, who are deterred from like attempts by the suffering of the first criminals. And the effect in the present case was accordingly; for a great dread and unusual awe fell upon all the Christian church; and not upon them alone, but upon all others also who saw or heard of what had happened. We may just remark, that this is the first place in which the word church is mentioned; and here is a native specimen ofa New Testament church, called by the gospel, initiated by baptism, animated by love, united by holy and divine fellowship, and disciplined by the exemplary punishment of hypocrites.

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Acts 5:13. And of the rest, &c.— That is, the people held them in distant admiration, and presumed not, on any false pretence, to join them, if not truly converted; which yet it appears by the next verse many were, who readily came into a full and solemn profession of the gospel; as indeed the late miracle was a glorious, though a dreadful demonstration of its truth. The word κολλασθαι, rendered join, signifies to associate or unite with; to adhere or cleave to.

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Acts 5:15. That at least the shadow, &c.— The efficacy of St. Peter's shadow in curing distempers, is so far from being natural, or likely to enter into the minds of any, that nothing but the force of truth could have rendered it credible; and it must have been experience which first gave the idea of it. For the sick being exposed in the streets where the apostles passed, that they might receive from them a cure by their prayers and the imposition of hands, they found that the shadow of Peter had the sacred power; and this unlooked-for experiment became afterwards a means of their faith and expectation.

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Acts 5:17. The sect of the Sadducees,— The Sadducees, as they denied the resurrection from the dead, and a future state of rewards and punishments, were the most constant and implacable enemies to Christianity. Grotius and other commentators have concluded from this text, that the high-priest and his kindred were Sadducees. Josephus also affirms, that some of the high-priests were of this se

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Acts 5:20. All the words of this life.— The whole doctrine of life. Heylin—"that glorious gospel with which you are "charged, on which the eternal life of man so evidently depends, and by which alone their final happiness can be secured." See 2 Timothy 1:10.

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Acts 5:21. Called the council—and, all the senate, &c.— The whole Sanhedrim, and all the elders of Israel, πασαν την γερουσιαν . Some render it the Sanhedrim, even, or that is to say, the whole senate of the children of Israel.

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Acts 5:24. They doubted of them, &c.— They were in great perplexity about the apostles, and what this matter might come to. Heylin. It might be rendered more literally, They were in great doubt concerning them, (namely, τους λογους, these words, or this report,) what this could be—that is, whether they had procured their libertyby corrupting the keepers, or whether there might not be something miraculous in the deliverance of persons whom such extraordinary circumstances had attended.

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Acts 5:26. For they feared the people, &c.— This may seem a surprizing change in the people, considering the eagerness with which they demanded that Christ should be crucified: but if we consider that the common people, in many cases, judge without the fixed and inveterate prejudices which entangle the minds of their superiors; and how much the beneficent and incontestable miracles wrought by the apostles, must have affected them, we shall be the less surprised at so great and sudden a change; especially if it be considered also, how vehemently they longed to throw off the Roman yoke, and regain their ancient liberty; for which they still retained a passionate concern,notwithstandingtheyhadbeensooftendisappointed.Fromthe many evident miracles worked in confirmation of our Lord's resurrection and ascension, and the strong proofs that there were of his being the Messiah, very probably they were still ready to hope that he would some way or other bring about the deliverance which they so much expected and desired; and therefore they overawed their superiors from putting the apostles to death, or doing them the harm which they would otherwise have done them.

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Acts 5:28. This man's blood upon us,— That is, the odium and the guilt of it. See Matthew 27:25.

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Acts 5:30. Whom ye slew and hanged on a tree,— Whom ye crucified. Heylin. Literally, Whom ye slew, hanging him on a tree. See Deuteronomy 21:23. Instead of raised up, some read hath raised up.

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Acts 5:31. Him hath God exalted, &c.— "Even him has God not only raised to life, but likewise, by a glorious operation of his almighty power, has exalted to the greatest dignity, honour, and universaldominion in heaven and earth, that he may live and reign on high, with all authority and grace, as a prince enthroned in all the glory, majesty, and power of his kingdom, and as the only and all-sufficient Saviour, ableand willing to give to all that believe, inclusive of those very Jews that crucified him, the most necessary and inestimable blessings, even repentance, by the divine operations of his Spirit; and the free and full pardon of all their trespasses through faith in his b

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Acts 5:32. And so is—the Holy Ghost,— The testimony arising from this miraculous communication of the Spirit to Christians at that time, entirely removes the objection from Christ's not appearing in public after his resurrection; for had there been any imposture, it certainly would have been easier of the two to have persuaded people at a distance that he had so appeared to the Jewish rulers, or even to the multitude, and yet had been rejected, than that he had given his servants such extraordinary powers; since, had this assertion been false, every one might have been a sufficient witness of its falsehood, without the trouble and expence of a journey to Jerusalem, or any other distant place. See Ch. Acts 10:41.

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Acts 5:33. They were cut to the heart,— The word Διεπριοντο expresses the action of those, who, through rage, grate with their teeth, as it were with a saw; from the word πριω, which signifies to cut with a saw. See Acts 7:54.

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Acts 5:34. A Pharisee, named Gamaliel,— He is said to have been the son of good old Simeon, mentioned Luk 2:25 and was the person at whose feet St. Paul was brought up. He was a man in so great esteem among the Jews, that Onkelos, the author of the Targum, is said to have burned seventy pounds weight of perfumes at his funeral; and the Jews have this saying concerning him, "From the time that Rabbin Gamaliel the Old died, the honour of the law failed, and purity and Pharisaism died."

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Acts 5:36. Rose up Theudas, boasting himself, &c.— Pretending to somewhat extraordinary. Heylin. Theudas was a very common name among the Jews; the person therefore here mentioned most probably was one among the many leaders who, as Josephus informs us, took up arms in defence of the public liberties, when the grand enrolment and taxation were made by Cyrenius, in the days of Archelaus: for that this was not the Theudas mentioned by Josephus under the character of a false prophet (who drew a great number of people after him, with a promise of dividing Jordan before them, but was defeated, andbeheaded, most of his followers being also slain or imprisoned) is plain from hence, that he appeared when Fadus was procurator of Judea; that is, according to the best calculations, at least ten years after this was spoken. The Theudas here mentioned seems to have been supported by smaller numbers than the second of that name: but, like that second, he perished in the attempt. As his followers were dispersed, and not slaughtered, like those of the second Theudas, survivors might nottalk much of him, and Josephus might not think it worth his while to make a particularmention of him, though his history might be well known to Gamaliel, and the people of those times. This account of Theudas renders all the criticisms upon the beginning of the next verse entirely useless. In the days of the taxing might be read, In those days of the taxation, or enrolment; meaning those same days, or at the same period of time, when Theudas appeared. The reader will find in Josephus's 18th book of his Antiquities, an account of Judas of Galilee. See also the notes on Matthew 22:16; Matthew 24:3-4.Luke 2:2; Luke 2:2.

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Acts 5:37. And all—as many as obeyed him,— Dr. Lardner has justly observed, that the word rendered dispersed, by no means implies that these men, were destroyed. Gamaliel's reason will for ever hold good against all persecution and intolerance. See the note on Luke 13:1-2. We may just observe, for the classical reader, that there is in Homer's Iliad, E. 606 a line very similar to what Gamaliel says, Acts 5:39.

u917?ικετε μηδε θεοις μενεαινεμεν ιφι μαχεσθαι . The words lest haply are to be connected with let them alone, Act 5:38 and all that comes between it to be read in a parenthesis. "This speech of Gamaliel seems to me (says Dr. Benson,) to have been made, partly in opposition to the Sadducees, partly out of policy, to fall in with the popular sentiments at that time concerning the apostles, that the people might still keep up their veneration for him and for the other leading men among the Pharisees. But he seems to have spoken after that manner chiefly from an expectation of a temporal deliverance, and a strong desire to see it accomplished bythe apostles of Jesus, rather than not at all."—With what principle or view soever Gamaliel made it, his speech had so good an effect upon the Sanhedrim, that, instead of putting the twelve apostles to death, they called them in, and only ordered them to be scourged. "This, (says the Doctor,) I suppose, was the inflicting upon them what St. Paul calleth the forty stripes save one, 2 Corinthians 11:24. For the Romans did then allow the Jews to make use of that punishment as they thought proper."

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Acts 5:41. Rejoicing, &c.— The punishment ordered by the Sanhedrim, some suppose, was inflicted in some open market-place, whereby the sufferers were exposed; and therefore it is said, says Dr. Lardner, that they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame. But in Act 5:40 the apostles are represented as called in, and beaten with rods; or scourged before the Sanhedrim; and then, in this verse, as departing from the Sanhedrim, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to be exposed to infamy for the sake of his name. If they were scourged in the presence of the Sanhedrim, that was certainly being exposed before the highest and most venerable court among the Jews, and suffering great infamy in the esteem of the whole nation. We may observe, that the corrupt and persecuting world begins with mocking, ch. Act 2:13 thence proceeds to cavilling, ch. Act 4:7 to threats, Act 5:17 to imprisoning, ch. Act 5:18 to blows, Act 5:40 to slaughter, ch. Acts 7:58. A sure mark of the truth is joy in affliction, such as is true, deep, and pure.

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