Acts 5:28

28 “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”

Acts 5:28 in Other Translations

28 Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us.

28 saying, "We strictly charged you not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and you intend to bring this man's blood upon us."

28 “We gave you strict orders never again to teach in this man’s name!” he said. “Instead, you have filled all Jerusalem with your teaching about him, and you want to make us responsible for his death!”

28 "Didn't we give you strict orders not to teach in Jesus' name? And here you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are trying your best to blame us for the death of this man."

28 saying, We strictly charged you not to teach in this name: and behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us.

28 He said, "We gave you strict orders not to mention Jesus' name when you teach. Yet, you've filled Jerusalem with your teachings. You want to take revenge on us for putting that man to death."

28 "Didn't we strictly order you not to teach in this name? And look, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to bring this man's blood on us!"

28 "We gave you clear orders not to teach in Jesus' name," he said. "But you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching. You want to make us guilty of this man's death."

Acts 5:28 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 5:28

Saying, did not we straitly command you
Or give you strict orders, with severe threatenings,

that you should not teach in this name?
the Ethiopic version reads, "in the name of Jesus"; which is what is meant, but was not expressed by the sanhedrim; see ( Acts 4:17 )

and behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine;
they disregarded the council, and its orders, its commands and threatenings, and preached the doctrines of the Gospel; and particularly that concerning the resurrection of Christ, and through him the resurrection of all the dead; and with such success, that great part of the inhabitants of Jerusalem received it; at least there were great numbers in all parts of the city which attended to it, and embraced it: and this they represent as a novel doctrine, devised by the apostles, and peculiarly theirs; and which Moses, and the prophets, were strangers to:

and intend to bring this man's blood upon us;
by charging us with the murder of him, and representing us as guilty of shedding innocent blood, and so stirring up the people, and the Romans against us, to take vengeance on us for it: this, as if they should say, seems to be the intention and design of your ministry, particularly in asserting, that Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified, is now risen from the dead, and was a holy, innocent, and righteous person, as his resurrection shows; and therefore, as we have been guilty in shedding his blood, the punishment of it will, one day or other, be inflicted on us; as it accordingly was, and as they themselves imprecated in ( Matthew 27:25 ) . It is to be observed, that they do not mention the name of Jesus, only by way of contempt, call him "this man", as it is usual with the Jews to do, when they speak of him. So a commentator ^F17 on ( Genesis 27:39 ) says of some,

``they believed in a man whom they set up for God; and Rome believed, in the days of Constantine, who renewed all that religion, and put upon his banner the form (awhh vyah) , "of that man":''

and so another of their writers ^F18 uses the phrase several times in a few words. Judah ben Tabai fled to Alexandria,

``that they might not make him president, and in the way, with one disciple; as it happened to Joshua ben Perachiah, with (vyah wtwa) , "that man"; and ye may receive it for a truth, that "that man" was his disciple--and the truth is, that "that man" was born in the fourth year of the kingdom of Jannai the Second.''

So an heretic is said to be one that confesses "that man"; and heretics are the disciples of "that man", who turned to evil the words of the living God ^F19. Thus blasphemously and contemptuously do they speak of Christ.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F17 Aben Ezra, Vid. ib. in Dan. xi. 14.
F18 Juchasin, fol. 16. 2.
F19 Migdal Oz & Hagehot Maimoniot. in Maimon. Teshuba, c. 3. sect. 7.

Acts 5:28 In-Context

26 At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them.

27 The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest.

28 “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”

29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings!

30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross.

Cross References

• 1. Acts 4:18
• 2. Matthew 23:35; Matthew 27:25; Acts 2:23,36; Acts 3:14,15; Acts 7:52