Acts 4:1–22 Peter and John Before the Sanhedrin
Quick Summary
Acts 4:1–22 narrates the first sustained encounter between the apostles and Jerusalem’s ruling religious authorities. After healing a man at the temple and proclaiming Jesus’ resurrection, Peter and John are arrested, questioned, warned, and released. Luke presents this scene not as a courtroom drama alone but as a theological moment in which authority, witness, and obedience are tested. The passage shows how resurrection faith speaks under pressure and how the early church begins to learn what faithfulness will cost.
Introduction
Acts 4 opens without transition. Peter is still speaking when the scene shifts. Luke offers no buffer, no summary, no explanation. Authority arrives abruptly. This is how Luke signals that proclamation and resistance are not separate chapters in the church’s life but overlapping realities.
Up to this point in Acts, the response to the gospel has been amazement and growth. The healing at the Beautiful Gate has drawn attention rather than hostility. Here, for the first time, the apostles are required to account publicly for what they are saying and doing in Jesus’ name. Luke slows the narrative because what happens next will set a pattern that repeats throughout Acts.
This is not simply a story about courage. It is a story about discernment. The question beneath every exchange is not whether Peter and John are persuasive, but who now has the right to interpret God’s saving work. Resurrection has destabilized familiar structures, and those structures are beginning to respond.
Verse by Verse Breakdown of Acts 4:1–22 and Commentary
Acts 4:1 — Interrupted Proclamation
“While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came to them” (Acts 4:1).
Luke begins with interruption. Peter does not finish his sermon. Authority steps in while the word is still being spoken. This detail matters because it shows that resistance is not the result of misunderstanding. The message is clear enough to be threatening before it is complete.
The arrival of this particular group signals seriousness. Priests represent religious legitimacy, the temple captain represents public order, and the Sadducees represent theological control, especially regarding resurrection. Luke wants the reader to see that this is not an emotional reaction from the crowd but a coordinated institutional response.
By naming the Sadducees, Luke places resurrection at the center of the conflict. What troubles the authorities is not enthusiasm, noise, or even healing. It is the claim that God has acted decisively beyond their interpretive control.
Acts 4:2 — Teaching That Disrupts
“They were much annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming that in Jesus there is the resurrection of the dead” (Acts 4:2).
Luke describes the authorities as deeply disturbed. The irritation is not personal offense but structural anxiety. Teaching is occurring outside sanctioned channels, and it is occurring publicly.
The issue is not whether the healing happened. Luke never suggests that the authorities deny it. The problem is interpretation. Resurrection has moved from theological debate into lived reality, and that shift destabilizes established authority.
Luke shows how doctrine becomes dangerous when it leaves abstraction behind. Once resurrection is embodied, it can no longer be managed as a theory.
Acts 4:3 — Containment
“So they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, since it was already evening” (Acts 4:3).
The arrest is orderly. Luke emphasizes procedure rather than chaos. Authority responds by containment rather than argument.
Evening matters. Jewish legal practice limits nighttime proceedings, so custody becomes a holding action. The apostles are removed from the public space not because they are violent but because they are persuasive.
Luke quietly exposes the logic of power here. When speech cannot be answered, it is delayed. Control replaces conversation.
Acts 4:4 — The Word Continues
“But many of those who heard the word believed; and they numbered about five thousand” (Acts 4:4).
Luke places this sentence precisely here to reframe the arrest. The word continues to do its work even as the messengers are confined.
Faith arises from hearing, not from the apostles’ freedom. Luke underscores that once proclamation is released, it cannot be recalled.
Growth alongside opposition becomes a recurring pattern in Acts. Resistance does not signal failure. It often accompanies fruitfulness.
Acts 4:5–6 — Authority Assembled
“The next day their rulers, elders, and scribes assembled in Jerusalem, with Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander” (Acts 4:5–6).
Luke names names to establish gravity. Annas and Caiaphas are not generic leaders. They are figures associated with decisive authority and recent memory.
This gathering represents consolidated power. Political influence, religious oversight, and interpretive authority converge. The apostles stand before the full weight of institutional legitimacy.
Luke draws continuity with Jesus’ own trial. Resurrection has not removed his followers from the path he walked. Vindication does not eliminate confrontation.
Acts 4:7 — The Question of Authorization
“When they had made the prisoners stand in their midst, they inquired, ‘By what power or by what name did you do this?’” (Acts 4:7).
The question seeks source and legitimacy. Power and name function as markers of authorization. Who stands behind this action?
Luke exposes the irony without comment. The council asks the right question but resists the implication of its answer. Resurrection demands a rethinking of authority itself.
The physical placement of Peter and John in the center underscores the courtroom setting. They are witnesses under scrutiny.
Acts 4:8 — Filled for the Moment
“Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them” (Acts 4:8).
Luke pauses to name the source of Peter’s speech. This is not bravado or rhetorical confidence. It is Spirit-enabled witness.
Pentecost is not treated as a single past event. The Spirit continues to meet new situations as they arise, supplying courage and clarity where needed.
Luke presents faithful speech under pressure as a gift rather than a personality trait.
Acts 4:9–10 — Naming the Healed and the Healer
“If we are questioned today because of a good deed done to someone who was sick… let it be known to all of you… that this man is standing before you in good health by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth” (Acts 4:9–10).
Peter reframes the interrogation. He names the act as good and the outcome as restoration. Authority is placed in the position of questioning healing itself.
Jesus is named carefully and concretely. Nazareth anchors him in history. The power at work is not abstract or symbolic.
Luke shows that witness does not rely on volume or aggression. It relies on clarity.
Acts 4:11–12 — The Rejected Cornerstone
“This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders; it has become the cornerstone… there is salvation in no one else” (Acts 4:11–12).
Peter reaches into Israel’s Scriptures to interpret what is unfolding. The image of the rejected stone becoming the cornerstone comes from Psalm 118, a psalm associated with deliverance, worship, and God’s vindication of the one cast aside. By invoking it, Peter places Jesus’ rejection within a familiar pattern of divine reversal.
The cornerstone image carries architectural weight. In ancient construction, the cornerstone determined alignment and stability for the entire structure. To identify Jesus as the cornerstone is to claim that everything else must now be measured against him. Luke presents this not as rhetoric but as reality. A new foundation has been set.
Peter’s address to the leaders as “builders” sharpens the moment. These are not outsiders but caretakers of the religious structure. Their failure is not lack of effort but misrecognition. Authority has rejected the very foundation it depends upon.
The claim that salvation is found in no one else flows from resurrection, not arrogance. God has acted decisively in Jesus. Luke presents exclusivity here as testimony born of encounter rather than ideological hostility.
Acts 4:13 — Recognized Boldness
“When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed” (Acts 4:13).
Boldness here is not aggression. It is coherence under pressure. The council expects hesitation and finds clarity.
Luke challenges assumptions about credibility. Formal training and social standing do not determine authority. Proximity to Jesus does.
Recognition replaces dismissal. The leaders struggle to categorize what they cannot control.
Acts 4:14–16 — Embodied Evidence
“Seeing the man who had been healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say” (Acts 4:14).
Luke keeps the healed man in view. His presence prevents the council from turning the matter into a purely theoretical dispute.
Arguments can be managed. Embodied restoration cannot be undone. What God has done now stands in the room.
Silence becomes acknowledgment. Authority retreats to private deliberation.
Acts 4:17–18 — Commanded Silence
“So they ordered them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus” (Acts 4:18).
The council does not deny the healing or reinterpret it. Instead, they move the conflict away from evidence and toward control. The issue has shifted from truth to influence.
The command focuses on speech. The apostles are not forbidden from healing or gathering. They are forbidden from naming Jesus. What threatens authority is not action but interpretation.
Luke records this without commentary. Unable to refute what has happened, authority attempts to limit what may be said about it.
Acts 4:19–20 — Clarifying Allegiance
“Whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge” (Acts 4:19–20).
Peter and John respond without insult or escalation. Their words are measured and direct.
Obedience to God establishes the boundary. Witness is not framed as rebellion but as necessity. They speak because they have seen.
Luke presents courage as clarity about allegiance rather than defiance.
Acts 4:21–22 — Released, Not Resolved
“After threatening them again, they let them go… for all of them praised God for what had happened” (Acts 4:21–22).
Threats replace punishment. Authority withdraws without resolution.
Public praise becomes protection. God’s work generates its own defense in the community.
The passage ends without closure. Witness continues, and pressure remains.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do the Sadducees oppose the apostles?
The Sadducees reject resurrection theology. The apostles’ proclamation challenges their authority directly.
What does boldness mean in this passage?
Boldness refers to Spirit-empowered clarity, not aggression or recklessness.
Why is the healed man important to the trial?
His presence makes denial impossible. Embodied restoration becomes unanswerable evidence.
Does this passage justify civil disobedience?
Luke frames obedience to God as primary when commands conflict. The focus remains on faithful witness rather than rebellion.
See Also
Works Consulted
Bruce, F. F. The Book of the Acts. New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1988.
Johnson, Luke Timothy. The Acts of the Apostles. Sacra Pagina Series. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1992.
Keener, Craig S. Acts: An Exegetical Commentary, Volume 1. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012.
