The apostles, daily supported anew by fresh tokens of divine aid, went
on in their labors among the people, encouraged by their increasing
attention and favor. So deep was the impression of awe made by the
late occurrence, that none of the rest of the church dared to mingle
familiarly with the apostles, who now seemed to be indued with the
power of calling down the vengeance of God at will, and appeared to be
persons too high and awful for common men to be familiar with. Yet the
number of the church members, both men and women, continued to enlarge,
and the attendance of the people to increase, so that there was no
place which would accommodate the vast crowd of hearers and beholders,
except the great porch of Solomon, already described, where the
apostles daily met the church and the people, to teach and strengthen
them, and to work the cures which their Master had so often wrought.
So high was the reputation of the apostles, and so numerous were those
who came to solicit the favor of their healing power, for themselves or
friends, that all could not get access to them even in the vast court
of the temple which they occupied, insomuch that they brought the sick
into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, along the path
which the apostles were expected to pass, that at least the shadow
of Peter, passing by, might overshadow some of them. Nor was this
wonderful fame and admiration confined to Jerusalem; for as the news
was spread abroad by the pilgrims returning from the pentecost, there
came also a multitude out of the cities round about Jerusalem, bringing
sick folks and those who were affected by evil spirits, and they were
healed, every one.
_Mingle familiarly with them._――Commonly translated, “join
himself to them,” which conveys a totally erroneous idea, since
all their efforts were given to this end, of making as many
as possible “join themselves to them.” The context (verse 14,)
shows that their numbers were largely increased by such
additions. “Yet no one of the common members (οἱ λοιποι) dared
mingle familiarly (κολλασθαι) with them; but the people held
them in great reverence.” Acts v. 13.
_Met the church and people._――This distinction may not seem very
obvious in a common reading of the Acts, but in v. 11, it is
very clearly drawn. “Great fear was upon the whole church _and_
on all the hearers of these things.” And throughout the chapter,
a nice discrimination is made between ὁ λαος, (_ho laos_,) “the
people,” or “the congregation,” and ἡ εκκλησια, (_he ekklesia_,)
“the church.” See Kuinoel in v. 13, 14.
_The shadow of Peter._――This is one of a vast number of passages
which show that high and perfectly commanding pre-eminence of
this apostolic chief. The people evidently considered Peter
as concentrating all the divine and miraculous power in his
own person, and had no idea at all of obtaining benefit from
anything that the minor apostles could do. In him, alone, they
saw the manifestations of divine power and authority;――he spoke
and preached and healed, and judged and doomed, while the rest
had nothing to do but assent and aid. Peter, then, _was_ THE
great pastor of the church, and it is every way desirable that
over-zealous Protestants would find some better reason for
opposing so palpable a fact, than simply that Papists support it.