Saying, Did not we strictly command you that you should not teach in this name? and, behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us.
All Commentaries on Acts 5:28 Go To Acts 5
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Well, if they undertook to obey you, you do well to call them to account: but if even at the very time they told you they would not obey, what account have you to call them to, what defence is there for them to make? And behold you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. Mark the inconsistency of the accusations and the exceeding folly. They want to make it appear now, that the dispositions of the Jews are sanguinary, as if they were doing these things not for the truth's sake, but in the wish to be revenged. And for this reason too the Apostles do not answer them with defiance (θρασέως): for they were teachers. And yet where is the man, who, with a whole city to back him, and endowed with so great grace, would not have spoken and uttered something big? But not so did these: for they were not angered; no, they pitied these men, and wept over them, and marked in what way they might free them from their error and wrath. And they no longer say to them, Judge ye: Acts 4:19 but they simply affirm, saying, Whom God raised up, Him do we preach: it is by the will of God that these things are done. They said not, Did not we tell you even then, that we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard? Acts 4:20 for they are not contentious for glory; but they repeat again the same story—the Cross, the Resurrection. And they tell not, wherefore He was crucified— that it was for our sakes: but they hint at this indeed, but not openly as yet, wishing to terrify them awhile. And yet what sort of rhetoric is here? None at all, but everywhere it is still the Passion, and the Resurrection and the Ascension, and the end wherefore: The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, etc. (v. 30, 31.) And yet what improbable assertions are these! Very improbable, no doubt; but for all that, not rulers, not people, had a word to say against them: but those had their mouths stopped, and these received the teaching.
