Peter and John Before the Sanhedrin: Courage, Resurrection, and the Rejected Messiah (Acts 4:1‑11)
Commentary No 5. Acts 4:1-11
Following the healing of the lame man at the gate called Beautiful, and Peter’s rousing address afterwards, Peter and John were arrested and brough before the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish court which consisted of the following people, The priests; The captain of the Temple guard (a high-ranking priestly official); The Sadducees (a priestly sect with significant influence in the Sanhedrin); The rulers (likely chief priests and leading officials); The elders (lay aristocrats, heads of prominent families) and the teachers of the law / scribes (legal experts, often Pharisees).
The Sadducees belonged to the wealthy, aristocratic class. There were not many of them, but they had great influence. The whole matter annoyed them very greatly for two reasons. First, they did not believe in resurrection from the dead, which was the very truth that the apostles were proclaiming. Second, because they were wealthy aristocrats, the Sadducees tried to keep on friendly terms with the Romans in order that they might retain their wealth, comfort, status and power. The Roman government was very tolerant from a religious point of view, but when it came to matters of public disorder it was merciless. The Sadducees were sure that, if the apostles were allowed to go on preaching unchecked, riots and civil disorder might follow, with disastrous consequences to their status. Therefore, they proposed to nip the movement in the bud; and that is why Peter and John were so promptly arrested and imprisoned. Even in Roman times, the Sanhedrin had the right to arrest people. The one thing it could not do was to pass the death sentence, except in the single case of a Gentile who trespassed on the inner courts of the Temple. The Sanhedrin had seventy-one members.
Peter’s speech was spoken therefore to an audience of the wealthiest, the most intellectual and the most powerful in the land – and yet he, the Galilean fisherman, faced them more as their judge than as their victim. Further, it was this very court which had condemned Jesus to death. Peter bore witness to Christ no matter how negative the reaction might be. In Par 133 of Gaudete et Exsultate Francis wrote, “We need the Spirit’s prompting, lest we be paralyzed by fear and excessive caution, lest we grow used to keeping within safe bounds.” Peter and John knew that they were taking their lives in their hands. That said, they probably were comforted by some words spoken by Jesus in Lk 12:11, “When they bring you to be tried in the synagogues or before governors or rulers, do not be worried about how you will defend yourself or what you will say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.” Pope Francis spoke on more than one occasion about Christian’s need for parrhesia, i.e., boldness and couragein witnessing.
Peter and John demonstrated that kind of courage. They embodied what As St Paul was later to say to Timothy, “The Spirit we have received is not a spirit of timidity or fear, but rather one of courageous self-control” (2 Tim 1:7). I will have more to say about this point in one of our future Lectio Divinas.
When asked, “By what power or what name did you do this?” Peter gave his third inspired response in which he proclaimed that in the resurrection of Jesus, God had vindicated him who had been unjustly put to death by Israel. Peter concluded his response by quoting some words from Ps 118:22, which had predicted the vindication of the rejected Messiah. Jesus had quoted this same passage after the parable of the wicked tenant farmers, which had been directed against those same leaders of Israel. By Acts 4, the first believers knew that Jesus was prophetic when he said, in John 15:18, "If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first." This statement reflects the idea that followers of Jesus may face hatred and persecution because they do not belong to the world, which often opposes the values of Christ. The context of this verse emphasizes the challenges that believers in any era may have to encounter due to their faith.
