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From: Acts 4:13-21

Address To the Sanhedrin (Continuation)

[13] Now when they (the Sanhedrin) saw the boldness of Peter and John, and
perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they wondered; and they re-
cognized that they had been with Jesus. [14] But seeing the man that had been
healed standing beside them, they had nothing to say in opposition. [15] But
when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred
with one another, [16] saying, “What shall we do with these men? For that a no-
table sign has been performed through them is manifest to all the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it. [17] But in order that it may spread no further
among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to any one in this Name.”
[18] So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the
name of Jesus. [19] But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in
the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God you must judge; [20] for we
cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” [21] And when they had fur-
ther threatened them, they let them go, finding no way to punish them, because
of the people; for all men praised God for what had happened.

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Commentary:

13. The members of the Sanhedrin are surprised by Peter’s confidence and by
the way these men, who are not well versed in the Law, are able to use Sacred
Scripture. “Did not the Apostles,” (St. John) Chrysostom asks in admiration,
“poor and without earthly weapons, enter into battle against enemies who were
fully armed [...]? Without experience, without skill of the tongue, they fought
against experts in rhetoric and the language of the academies” (”Hom. on Acts”,
4).
18-20. In one of his homilies Bl. John Paul II gives us a practical commentary
on this passage, which help us see the right order of priorities and give pride of
place to the things of God: “Whereas the elders of Israel charge the Apostles not
to speak about Christ, God, on the other hand, does not allow them to remain si-
lent. [...] In Peter’s few sentences we find a full testimony to the Resurrection of
the Lord. [...] The word of the living God addressed to men obliges us more than
any other human commandment or purpose. This word carries with it the su-
preme eloquence of truth, it carries the authority of God Himself. [...]

“Peter and the Apostles are before the Sanhedrin. They are completely and ab-
solutely certain that God Himself has spoken in Christ, and has spoken definitely
through His Cross and Resurrection. Peter and the Apostles to whom this truth
was directly given — as also those who in their time received the Holy Spirit —
must bear witness to it. Believing means accepting with complete conviction the
truth that comes from God, drawing support from the grace of the Holy Spirit
‘whom God has given to those who obey Him’ (Acts 5:32) to accept what God
has revealed and what comes to us through the Church in its living transmission,
that is, in Tradition. The organ of this Tradition is the teaching of Peter and of the
Apostles and of their successors.

“Over the centuries the sanhedrins change which seek to impose silence, aban-
donment or distortion of this truth. The “sanhedrins of the contemporary world”
are many and of all types. These sanhedrins are each and every person who re-
jects divine truth; they are systems of human thought, of human knowledge; they
are various “conceptions of the world” and also the various programs of human
behavior; they are also the different “forms of pressure” used by so-called public
opinion, mass civilization, media of social communication, which are materialist
or secular agnostic or anti-religious; they are, finally, certain contemporary “sys-
tems of government” which—if they do not totally deprive citizens of scope to pro-
fess the faith — at least limit that scope in different ways, marginalize believers
and turn them into second-class citizens...and against all these modern types of
the Sanhedrin of that time, the response of faith is always the same: ‘We must
obey God rather than men’ (Acts 5:29)” (”Homily”, 20 April 1980).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.