17 And having risen, the chief priest, and all those with him -- being the sect of the Sadducees -- were filled with zeal,
And the unbelieving Jews, having been moved with envy, and having taken to them of the loungers certain evil men, and having made a crowd, were setting the city in an uproar; having assailed also the house of Jason, they were seeking them to bring `them' to the populace,
and the Jews having seen the multitudes, were filled with zeal, and did contradict the things spoken by Paul -- contradicting and speaking evil.
For provocation slayeth the perverse, And envy putteth to death the simple,
and the chief priests took counsel, that also Lazarus they may kill,
the chief priests, therefore, and the Pharisees, gathered together a sanhedrim, and said, `What may we do? because this man doth many signs? if we may let him alone thus, all will believe in him; and the Romans will come, and will take away both our place and nation.' and a certain one of them, Caiaphas, being chief priest of that year, said to them, `Ye have not known anything,
for he had known that because of envy they had delivered him up.
And I have seen all the labour, and all the benefit of the work, because for it a man is the envy of his neighbour. Even this `is' vanity and vexation of spirit.
A healed heart `is' life to the flesh, And rottenness to the bones `is' envy.
Why have nations tumultuously assembled? And do peoples meditate vanity? Station themselves do kings of the earth, And princes have been united together, Against Jehovah, and against His Messiah: `Let us draw off Their cords, And cast from us Their thick bands.'
And Saul is afraid of the presence of David, for Jehovah hath been with him, and from Saul He hath turned aside; and Saul turneth him aside from him, and appointeth him to himself head of a thousand, and he goeth out an cometh in, before the people. And David is in all his ways acting wisely, and Jehovah `is' with him, and Saul seeth that he is acting very wisely, and is afraid of him, and all Israel and Judah love David when he is going out and coming in before them.
the Pharisees, therefore, said among themselves, `Ye see that ye do not gain anything, lo, the world did go after him.'
Having put aside, then, all evil, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envyings, and all evil speakings,
and if bitter zeal ye have, and rivalry in your heart, glory not, nor lie against the truth; this wisdom is not descending from above, but earthly, physical, demon-like, for where zeal and rivalry `are', there is insurrection and every evil matter;
envyings, murders, drunkennesses, revellings, and such like, of which I tell you before, as I also said before, that those doing such things the reign of God shall not inherit.
and Paul having known that the one part are Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, cried out in the sanhedrim, `Men, brethren, I am a Pharisee -- son of a Pharisee -- concerning hope and rising again of dead men I am judged.' And he having spoken this, there came a dissension of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees, and the crowd was divided, for Sadducees, indeed, say there is no rising again, nor messenger, nor spirit, but Pharisees confess both.
and there rose up certain of those of the sect of the Pharisees who believed, saying -- `It behoveth to circumcise them, to command them also to keep the law of Moses.'
the kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Acts 5
Commentary on Acts 5 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 5
In this chapter we have,
Act 5:1-11
The chapter begins with a melancholy but, which puts a stop to the pleasant and agreeable prospect of things which we had in the foregoing chapters; as every man, so every church, in its best state has its but.
Act 5:12-16
We have here an account of the progress of the gospel, notwithstanding this terrible judgment inflicted upon two hypocrites.
Act 5:17-25
Never did any good work go on with any hope of success, but it met with opposition; those that are bent to do mischief cannot be reconciled to those who make it their business to do good. Satan, the destroyer of mankind, ever was, and will be, an adversary to those who are the benefactors of mankind; and it would have been strange if the apostles had gone on thus teaching and healing and had had no check. In these verses we have the malice of hell and the grace of heaven struggling about them, the one to drive them off from this good work, the other to animate them in it,
Act 5:26-42
We are not told what it was that the apostles preached to the people; no doubt it was according to the direction of the angel-the words of this life; but what passed between them and the council we have here an account of; for in their sufferings there appeared more of a divine power and energy than even in their preaching. Now here we have,