While the apostles were thus occupied in speaking words of wisdom to
the attentive people, they were suddenly interrupted by the entrance of
the guards of the temple, who, under the command of their captain, came
up to the apostles, and seizing them in the midst of their discourse,
dragged them away to prison, where they were shut up, for examination
on the next day, before the civil and ecclesiastical court of the Jews.
This act of violence was committed by order of the priests who had the
care of the temple, more immediately instigated by the Sadducees, who
were present with the priests and guards when the arrest was made. The
reason why this sect, in general not active in persecuting Jesus and
his followers, were now provoked to this act of unusual hostility,
was, that the apostles were now preaching a doctrine directly opposed
to the main principles of Sadducism. The assertion that Jesus had
actually risen from the dead, so boldly made by the apostles, must,
if the people believed it, entirely overthrow their confidence in the
Sadducees, who absolutely denied the existence of a spirit, and the
possibility of a resurrection of the dead. It was now evening, and
the apostles being thus dragged away abruptly, in the midst of their
discourse, the people were obliged to disperse for the night, without
hearing all that the speakers had intended to say; yet even the
fragment of discourse which they had heard, was not without a mighty
effect. So convincing and moving were these few words of Peter, and
so satisfactory was the evidence of the miracle, that almost the whole
multitude of hearers and beholders seems to have come over in a mass
to the faith of Christ; for converts to the astonishing number of five
thousand are mentioned by the sacred historian, who all professed their
belief in Jesus, as the resurrection and the life, and the healing.
_The guards of the temple_, &c.――This was the same set of men
above described, as made up of the Levite porters and watchmen
of the temple. See note on page 111. Also Lightfoot Horae
Hebraica in Acts iv. 1.――Rosenmueller, ibid. and Kuinoel.
But Hammond has made the mistake of supposing this to be a
detachment of the Roman garrison.