Acts 5:21 - Exposition

This for t hat, A.V.; about day. break for early in the morning, A.V.; prison-house for prison, A.V. About daybreak. In the hot climate of Jerusalem people are about very early in the meriting (comp. Matthew 26:57 , Matthew 26:75 ). But the high priest, etc. The narrative would run more clearly if the passage were translated more literally, Now when the high priest and they that were with him were come (to the council-chamber the next day) they called together, etc. The narrative is taken up from Acts 5:17 , Acts 5:18 . Having ( Acts 5:18 ) put the apostles in prison, they met the next morning to decide how to punish them. The council ( τὸ συνέδριον ) ; i.e. in the Hebraeo-Greek, the Sanhedrim, the great council of the nation, consisting of seventy-two members, usually presided over by the high priest. It is frequently mentioned in the New Testament. On the present occasion, besides the members of the Sanhedrim, there were gathered together all the senate ( γερουσία ) of the children of Israel , an expression which occurs only here, but which seems to comprise all the elders of the Jews, even though they were not members of the Sanhedrim. But some (Schleusner, Heinrich, etc.) understand it as merely another phrase for the Sanhedrim, added for explanation and amplification. The council, of course, were ignorant of the escape of the prisoners. The prison-house ( δεσμωτήριον ) ; "prison" (A.V.) represents φυλακή in the next verse.