This is the twelfth
entry in the Bible Junkies Online Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles. The first entry covered some of the major critical,
technical and background issues that will concern us as we read through and
comment on the Acts. The second post, found here, considered the prologue to the Acts of the Apostles. In the third column, we began to examine the founding of the
Jerusalem Church.
In the fourth blog post, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost
and the beginning of Peter’s speech was discussed. In the fifth post, the bulk of Peter’s speech was examined. In the sixth entry, Peter’s speech concludes with a successful
response according to Acts. The seventh blog post deals with the formation of the apostles
and other disciples into a community and the practices of the earliest
community.
In the eighth column Peter and John heal a man who was lame. In the ninth entry, Peter explains how the lame man was healed
and what this means about Jesus and his salvific power. The tenth blog post explored Peter and John before the Council
in Jerusalem. In
the eleventh chapter, their trial on the Temple concluded.
In this, the
twelfth entry, Peter and John speak to their friends in the aftermath of their
release.
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3. Contents:
C) Work of Peter and
the Apostles (3:1-5:42): The aftermath: Peter and John released by the Council
(4:23-31):
23 After they were released, they went to their friends and reported what
the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 When they heard it, they
raised their voices together to God and said, "Sovereign Lord, who made
the heaven and the earth, the sea, and everything in them, 25 it is you who
said by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant: "Why did
the Gentiles rage, and the peoples imagine vain things? 26 The kings of the
earth took their stand, and the rulers have gathered together against the Lord
and against his Messiah.' 27 For in this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius
Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against
your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, 28 to do whatever your hand and
your plan had predestined to take place. 29 And now, Lord, look at their
threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, 30
while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed
through the name of your holy servant Jesus." 31 When they had prayed, the
place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled
with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness. (NRSV)
This section begins
with a transition statement, linking the events on the Temple Mount with the whole
of the community of disciples, as “after they were released, they went to their
friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them”
(Acts 4:23).[1]
Most scholars see in the “thematic unity” signs that “the scene is a
Lucan composition” (Richard Pervo, Hermeneia:
Acts of the Apostles, 120). Joseph Fitzmyer, S.J. says that “this passage
serves as a climax of the narrative that began at 3:1 and conveys Luke’s real
intention: Peter and John have not been acting on their own, but rather as God’s
agents on behalf of the rest of Jerusalem Christians” (Anchor Bible Commentary: Acts of the Apostles, 306). The prayer
which will soon follow and its interpretation ties together in many ways all of
the trajectories of Acts up until this point, especially the fact that what has
taken place comes through God’s power and plan not the human plans of Peter,
John or any other of the disciples.
When the community
hears the report from Peter and John, they begin immediately to respond with
prayer in Luke’s narrative: “they raised their voices together to God” (Acts
4:24), who they praise as the source of all (“sovereign Lord, who made the
heaven and the earth, the sea, and everything in them”-Acts 4:24). In fact, the Greek translated as “sovereign
Lord” (Despota) is according to the NJBC “a Hellenistic (Jewish and
Christian) prayer idiom favored where God’s dominion over the cosmos is invoked”
(737).
As straightforward
as those two verses are, the beginning of Acts 4:25, which is the introduction
to the citation from Psalm 2, is noted by every commentator as textually corrupt.[2]
The phrase, “it is you who said by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David,
your servant,” must be teased out of the Greek by subtraction or addition to
the text as it stands. The basic gist, however, seems clear: the Psalm, and all
Psalms are attributed to King David in antiquity, is the voice of God speaking
even now to the community in the events which have just occurred.
Psalm 2, a royal Psalm,
has as its first two verses in translation from the Hebrew,
1 Why do the nations conspire, and the
peoples plot in vain? 2 The kings of the earth set themselves, and the
rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and his anointed…
The Greek of Acts is
taken directly from the Septuagint (LXX) and gives a similar, if not identical,
passage:
25b "Why did the
Gentiles rage, and the peoples imagine vain things? 26 The kings of the earth
took their stand, and the rulers have gathered together against the Lord and against
his Messiah.'
What follows is an
interpretation of this passage in prayer form, applied as a prophetic passage
concerned with the death of Jesus and the events just undergone by Peter and
John.
Fitzmyer says that
the prayer resembles the prayer of Hezekiah found in Isaiah 37:16-20 and 2
Kings 19:15-19 (306):
15 And
Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said: "O Lord the God of Israel, who
are enthroned above the cherubim, you are God, you alone, of all the kingdoms
of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. 16 Incline your ear, O
Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; hear the words of Sennacherib,
which he has sent to mock the living God. 17 Truly, O Lord, the kings of
Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, 18 and have hurled
their gods into the fire, though they were no gods but the work of human
hands—wood and stone—and so they were destroyed. 19 So now, O Lord our
God, save us, I pray you, from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth
may know that you, O Lord, are God alone." (2 Kings 19:15-19)
Even more, Fitzmyer
argues by using this Isaian/2 Kings prayer as a model, Luke has “cunningly recast in prayer-form an
early Christian exegesis of Psalm 2” in a composition of his own making (306-07).[3]
In the
prayer-exegesis of Psalm 2, the disciples note that a foreign and Jewish ruler
gathered against Jesus (“for in this
city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples
of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed”
– Acts 4:27). But what took place was in fact only “whatever your hand and your
plan had predestined to take place” (Acts 4:28). “The interpretation presumes that
the conspiracy of Psalm 2 forecasts the fate of Jesus. The implied understanding
is that the encounter of Peter and John with the authorities is like the
experience of Jesus, who is an example for those arraigned before courts”
(Pervo, 122-23). It is indeed the case that Luke presents Peter and John, guided
by the Holy Spirit, as examples who continue the ministry of Jesus, even when
persecuted by the authorities.
For, as the prayer
continues, they ask God to “look at their threats, and grant to your servants
to speak your word with all boldness” (Acts 4:29). They do not ask, as Fitzmyer
says, “to be spared persecution, but for parrhêsia,
‘courageous speech’” (306), a word which also appears in Acts 4:13 (see
Acts of the Apostles Commentary 10). All that has taken place, especially
the healing of the man who was lame, is because God is acting through them;
they will speak, “while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and
wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:30).
It is God who acts miraculously through them in the name of Jesus, as we have
seen many times up to this point. Jesus is also once again classified here as
in Acts 3:13 as pais, child or
servant (see the extended discussion of pais
in Acts
of the Apostles Commentary 9).
Finally, at the end
of their prayer, “the place in which they were gathered together was shaken;
and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with
boldness” (Acts 4:31). Pervo notes that in Roman authors “at the appearance of
the gods temples shake” (123), but one might also look for a parallel in the
tearing of the curtain in the Temple (Luke 23:45) or the shaking of the earth
in Matthew 27:51. With the giving of the
Holy Spirit to all the believers again and the ability to speak boldly now given
to all (previously in Acts parrhêsia is
only a gift of Peter and John), it is obvious for Luke that “the gift of Pentecost
endured and, should the question arise, shows what side God has taken in the
conflict” (Pervo, 124).
Next entry, the disciples of Jesus share everything in
common.
John W. Martens
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This entry is cross-posted at America Magazine The Good Word
[1]
Luke Timothy Johnson, Acts, sees the
Greek translated here as “to their friends” (pros tous idious), literally, “to their own,” as referring to the
other apostles, not the whole community. I do not see that reflected in this phrase
and think Luke is speaking of the whole of the group of the disciples (90).
[2]
Page, Acts, 107; Johnson, Acts, 83-84; Pervo, Acts, 122; Fitzmyer, Acts,
308. Pervo in particular speaks of the Greek in v. 25 creating stylistic,
grammatical and theological difficulties. For those interested in these linguistic
issues, please consult any of the commentaries listed here.
[3]
Pervo, Acts, 120 raises a question
about Luke’s composition here since Luke himself “does not agree with the
thesis that the death of Jesus took place through a collaboration between Herod
and Pilate” (120). See Luke 23.