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When they heard this, they entered into the temple about daybreak and taught. But the high priest and those who were with him came and called the council together, with all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.
But the officers who came didn’t find them in the prison. They returned and reported,
“We found the prison shut and locked, and the guards standing before the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside!”
Now when the high priest, the captain of the temple, and the chief priests heard these words, they were very perplexed about them and what might become of this.
One came and told them, “Behold, the men whom you put in prison are in the temple, standing and teaching the people.”
Then the captain went with the officers, and brought them without violence, for they were afraid that the people might stone them.
Verse 26. Then went the magistrate; [4] which by the Greek was a military officer. But he did not bind them like prisoners, for fear of a tumult, but desired them to go along with them to the sanhedrim. Witham.—Without violence. They persuaded them to appear willingly before the sanhedrim, thinking, perhaps, moreover, that they could not bind them, whom the walls of the prison could not confine. The apostles here, and on all other occasions, shew the most astonishing examples of patience, constancy, and obedience to the laws of the country. Menochius.—O Jews! who do you shut your eyes against the light? why so blindly mad? You say the apostles took Christ from the tomb. Tell me, then, who stole the apostles from under your locks and bolts? Who conveyed them from your prison through the midst of your guards, without alarming them? Shall the evidence of the miracle serve only to make you the less open to conviction? Ven. Bede. D. Carthus.
When they had brought them, they set them before the council. The high priest questioned them,
saying, “Didn’t we strictly command you not to teach in this name? Behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and intend to bring this man’s blood on us.”
Verse 28. Commanding, we commanded you. That is, charged you severely.—You have a mind to bring the blood of this man upon us. You will make us pass for guilty of the murder of the Messias. Witham.
But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.
Verse 29. Peter answered boldly, We ought to obey God, rather than men. And withal adds, that God had raised from death Jesus, the Prince and Saviour of mankind, by whose merits all might find repentance, and forgiveness of their sins; that they were witnesses of his resurrection, and so forth Witham.
The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed, hanging him on a tree.
God exalted him with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins.
We are his witnesses of these things; and so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”
But they, when they heard this, were cut to the heart, and were determined to kill them.
Verse 33. They were cut to the heart; [5] exasperated to fury and madness, and were for killing them. Witham.