Acts 4:1 - Exposition

The captain of the temple. Only here and Acts 5:24 , and Luke 22:4 , Luke 22:52 in the plural some have thought that the commander of the Roman garrison of the castle of Antonia is here meant. But as the scene is laid in the court of the temple, this is very improbable. Josephus ('Ant. Jud.,' 20, Luke 6:2 ) speaks of an officer apparently of the temple, who was called ὁ στρατηγός , and was certainly a Jew by his name Ananus, and being, as Josephus relates farther ('Bell Jud.,' 2, 12. 6), the son of the high priest Ananias. He also mentions the captain of the temple ('Bell. Jud.,' 6, 5. 3) at the time of the destruction of the temple. There can be little doubt, therefore, that the captain of the temple here spoken of was a priest who had under him the Levitical guard, and whose duty it was to keep order in the temple courts in these turbulent times, lie appears from Acts 5:25 , Acts 5:26 , Luke 22:4 , Luke 22:52 , and the passages in Josephus, to have been an officer of high rank.