The apostles, as soon as they were released from this unjust
confinement, went directly to their own companions, and reported
all that the high priests and elders had said to them. And when the
disciples heard of the threats which these tyrannical hierarchs had
laid on their persecuted brethren, with one mind they raised a voice
to God in a prayer of unequalled beauty and power, in which they called
upon the Lord, as the God who had made heaven, and earth, and sea, and
all in them, to look down upon them, thus endangered by their devotion
to his cause, and to give them all boldness of speech in preaching his
word; and to vindicate their authority still further, by stretching out
his hand to heal, and by signs and miracles. No sooner had they uttered
their prayer than they received new assurance of the help of God, and
had new evidence of a divine influence. “The place where they were
assembled was shaken, and they were all filled again with the Holy
Spirit, and spake the word of God with renewed boldness.” This first
attack upon them, by their persecutors, so far from dispiriting or
disuniting them, gave them redoubled courage, and bound them together
still with the ties of a common danger and a common helper. “All those
who believed were of one heart and one soul,” and were so perfectly
devoted to each others’ good, that “none of them said that any of the
things which he possessed was his own, but held them as the common
support of all.” And in spite of the repeated denunciations of the
Sadducees and the Sanhedrim, the apostles, with great power and effect,
bore witness of the resurrection of their Lord; and the result of their
preaching was, that they were all in the highest favor with the people.
Neither was any one of them suffered to want any comfort or convenience
of life; for many that owned houses and lands at a distance, turned
them into ready money by selling them, and brought the money thus
obtained, to the apostles, with whom they deposited it in trust,
for distribution among the needy, according to their circumstances.
This was done more particularly by the foreign Jews, many of whom
were converted at the pentecost, when, being gathered from all parts,
they heard for the first time of the Messiah, from the mouths of his
apostles, and saw their words supported by such wonders. Among these
was a native of Cyprus, by name Joseph, a Levite, who so distinguished
himself by his labors of love among them, and gave such promise of
excellence as a teacher of the new faith which he had adopted, that the
apostles honored him with a new name, by which he was ever after known,
instead of his previous one. They called him Barnabas, which means
“the son of exhortation,” no doubt referring to those talents which
he afterwards displayed as an eminent and successful minister of the
gospel.
_Raised a voice._――This is literal; and can mean nothing more
than the common modern expression, “unite in prayer,” with
which it is perfectly synonymous. The judicious Bloomfield
(Annotations in Acts iv. 24,) observes, “We cannot rationally
suppose that this prefatory address was (as some conjecture) not
pronounced _extempore_, but a pre-composed form of prayer, since
the words advert to circumstances not known until that very time;
as, for instance, the threatenings of the Sanhedrim, (verse 29,)
of which they had been but just then informed; and the words
ἀκουσαντες ὁμοθυμαδον ῃραν φωνην will not allow us to imagine
any interval between the report of Peter and John, and the
prayer.” Kuinoel’s view is precisely the same.
_Were in the highest favor with the people._――Very different
from the common translation, “great grace was upon them all.”
But the Greek word, Χαρις, (_Kharis_,) like the Latin _gratia_,
(in the Vulgate,) means primarily “favor;” and the only question
is, whether it refers to the favor of God or of man. Beza,
Whitby, Doddridge, &c. prefer the former, but Kuinoel justly
argues from a comparison of the parallel passages, (ii. 47,
and iv. 34,) that it refers to their increasing influence on
the attention and regard of the people, which was indeed the
great object of all their preaching and miracles. Grotius,
Rosenmueller, Bloomfield and others, also support this view.
_Deposited in trust._――This is a free, but just version of
ετιθουν παρα τους ποδας, (_etithoun para tous podas_,) Acts iv.
35, literally and faithfully rendered in the common translation
by “laid at the feet;” but this was an expression very common
not only in Hebrew, but in Greek and Latin usage, for the
idea of “deposit in trust;” as is shown by Rosenmueller’s apt
quotations from Cicero, “ante pedes praetoris in foro expensum
est auri pondo centum,” Defence of Flaccus, chapter 28; and from
Heliodorus, παντα τα εαυτου τιθεναι παρα τους ποδας βασιλεως.
But Kuinoel seems not to think of these, and quotes it as a mere
Hebraism.
_Barnabas, son of exhortation._――This is the translation of this
name, which seems best authorized. A fuller account of it will
be given in the life of Barnabas.