The Council’s Response:
The members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the Scriptures. They also recognised them as men who had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing right there among them, there was nothing the council could say. So they ordered Peter and John out of the council chamber and conferred among themselves. “What should we do with these men?” they asked each other. “We can’t deny that they have performed a miraculous sign, and everybody in Jerusalem knows about it. But to keep them from spreading their propaganda any further, we must warn them not to speak to anyone in Jesus’ name again.”
Acts 4:13-17
The earlier questions I gave you for Peter’s response:
- To what degree is Peter “filled with the Spirit”? And what does it mean?
- What was it that highlighted Peter’s boldness?
- What was he bold about?
- Why don’t the Rulers and Elders respond to Peter’s boldness in other ways? Why do they just marvel?
- Why is the lame man (the one who has been healed) not questioned as he would be in any normal investigation into a healing case?
- Is there any significance to the closing statement of this segment by Luke? “And they recognized them, that they were with Jesus.”
- Does it contrast with the reference to “untaught” or “uneducated” or is it used in another way?
Here are the extra questions which came to me as I have been reading through the passage over and over in different versions (just following Deeper Bible Tips).
- Is there anything to the fact that John is included again – for what reason? Boldness or something else?
- What does “agrammatos” and “common” mean in this context?
- What is it that caused the Council to wonder or marvel?
- What did they marvel at?
- How was it that the members of the Council just “now” recognise them as men who had been with Jesus?
- What do they mean by “being with Jesus”?
- What role did the healed man, standing there, play in all of this?
- Why was it the Council could say nothing?
- Why did they order Peter and John out of the chamber?
- Why do they say, “What should we do with these men?” Why did they have to do anything?
- What were their alternatives?
- Isn’t the evidence stacked against the council? Why do they persist in continuing the façade?
- Why must they take disciplinary action? What game are they playing?
- Why do they handle this incident with kid gloves when at other times their response is harsher?
Compare some other similar incidents (Acts 5:12-26, 5:40-41) and see how their response on this occasion was very different. What was behind it?
Is the “but” of verse 17 adversative or an intensifier related to the subjunctive sense?
I have received no other questions from any of you at this stage so I will work through the questions I have come up with. Maybe some of you figure there is no point adding questions to Ian’s. He will cover all the bases anyway and besides if we did, it will just add to the number of Gems he will write on these verses and we want to move on quickly. We want Acts to be finished before Christmas. Fat chance.
There are some very interesting elements in this short section and the following passages continue the flow. Although this is a continuing, unfolding story, Luke has arranged the material in a very specific way as we shall see at the end. That’s enough for now. Time for you to do some thinking on these questions I have come up with before we start pulling it apart. (With the exception perhaps of adversatives, intensifiers and subjunctive senses. That’s more for my benefit. Just be thankful that I didn’t make note of the imperfect inchoative form of the active verb [thaumazo].)
All joking aside, now it is time to get to work. (You mean that was a joke Ian? I thought it was gooble-de-gook. – Well that too.)
A couple of people have told me recently they rely on Uncle Google a lot for answers to their life questions.
Ian Vail
Do we believe God can tell us something Google can’t? (without doubt always and forever. I know it, He already has. Ian)
John Piper.
We have an all-knowing, all-seeing, all-wise God, but most of the time we’d rather entrust our questions to the internet.
John Piper
The god at our fingertips is visible, controllable, instant, and seemingly omniscient, at least omniscient enough for us.
John Piper
But God didn’t invent the internet to replace himself. It is spiritual suicide to turn aside from God to Google.
John Piper
Learn to ask the right questions and always consult the Source for the Truth.
Ian Vail
And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?
Isaiah 8:19
The world and all its wisdom will feed you for the day, and starve you for eternity.
John Piper
Make hearing His voice your first priority. Is your communication with Him two-way or just one-way?
Ian Vail