Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

5:20 The words of this Life means the words of salvation and eternal life. It seems that early Christianity may also have been called "the Life," as well as "the Way" (see note on 9:1-2).

5:21 It was daybreak, and a crowd would be gathering at the temple for the morning sacrifices. The council and all the senate are almost certainly two names for the same group, the Sanhedrin ("council" translates Gk. synedrion, "Sanhedrin").

5:30 hanging him on a tree. See note on 10:39. The allusion is to Deut. 21:22-23.

5:33 On the Jews' pattern of resistance (cf. 7:51; 12:1-3; 13:45; 25:7; 28:24), see note on Amos 4:6.

5:34 The lone voice in the Sanhedrin to speak against an immediate death sentence was that of Gamaliel. He was the most prominent rabbi of his day and the teacher of Paul (22:3). He belonged to the Pharisaic minority on the Sanhedrin but had considerable influence.

5:36 Gamaliel cited two examples from Jewish history to support his basic argument that movements not backed by God always come to nothing. Both examples were failed movements, the first being that of a revolutionary named Theudas, and the second that of "Judas the Galilean" (v. 37), who is said to have come "after him." Judas the Galilean is well known, having led a tax revolt in a.d. 6 (Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 18.23), and this is evidently the person to whom Gamaliel is referring. Although there is no historical record of the "Theudas" mentioned here (other than this statement by Gamaliel), most likely this "Theudas" was one of many otherwise unknown leaders of such movements following the death of Herod the Great in 4 b.c. Although Jewish historian Josephus (writing in a.d. 95 in Jewish Antiquities 20.97) mentions someone named "Theudas" who led a movement at a later date (a.d. 44-46), it is clear that Josephus's reference is to a different person, since the movement to which he refers occurred many years after the speech by Gamaliel (c. a.d. 30 or 33).

5:40 This time the Sanhedrin enforced their command by scourging the apostles. The text does not say whether it was with the maximum of 39 stripes prescribed by Jewish law (see 2 Cor. 11:24) or with fewer stripes. The lashing consisted of striking the victim's bare skin with a tripled strip of calf's hide. The victim received two blows to the back, then one to the chest. Thus each cycle had to be divisible by three, which explains the maximum limit of 39--one less than the 40 prescribed in Deut. 25:3.

5:41 The apostles left rejoicing at being considered worthy to suffer for their witness in Jesus' name, which they boldly resumed despite the Sanhedrin's threat. Their suffering paradoxically resulted in the growth of the church (6:1). Suffering for the name of Jesus is a characteristic theme in Acts.