They Had Been with Jesus

No doubt, the Sanhedrin—the Jewish ruling council—thought that Peter and John would be easy to dispense with when they arrested the Apostles for proclaiming Jesus in the temple courts (Acts 3:1–4:12). Peter and John were, after all, “uneducated, common men,” as we see in today’s passage (v. 13). We should not take this to mean that the Apostles were unintelligent or illiterate. Not long before their arrest, Peter and John were part of a relatively successful fishing operation (see Luke 5:1–11), and it takes skill to run a business. Instead, the Jewish officials saw that Peter and John did not have the kind of formal training in the rabbinical schools that many Sanhedrin members enjoyed. They had not been officially educated in the art of biblical interpretation, the traditions of the elders, or rabbinic methods of argumentation and debate.

We know that the Sanhedrin thought that they could deal with Peter and John easily because today’s passage also says that the boldness of Peter and John, despite their lack of formal training, astonished the Jewish leaders (Acts 4:13). “Boldness” refers not merely to the forthright style of the Apostles’ speech but also to their ability to match and even best their more educated Jewish opponents in theological debate. In other words, the members of the Sanhedrin were surprised that Peter and John knew the Scriptures so well and could argue their case so persuasively.

Apparently, the Jewish leaders did not remain surprised for long. Thinking on the matter, “they recognized that [Peter and John] had been with Jesus” (v. 13). The Apostles’ teaching was given with the same kind of authority that Jesus had demonstrated—directly from the Scriptures without referring to opinions of the rabbis (see Matt. 7:28–29). When a person has sat under the teaching of Jesus and absorbed it, others cannot help but notice that the individual’s demeanor and understanding have been transformed. Matthew Henry comments, “Those that have been with Jesus, in converse and communion with him, have been attending on his word, praying in his name, and celebrating the memorials of his death and resurrection, should conduct themselves, in everything, so that those who converse with them may take knowledge of them that they have been with Jesus; and this makes them so holy, and heavenly, and spiritual, and cheerful; this has raised them so much above this world, and filled them with another.”