Acts 5:40
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At this, they yielded to Gamaliel. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and released them.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
beaten them--for disobeying their orders (compare Luk 23:16).
Open source ↗In this chapter we have, I. The sin and punishment of Ananias and Sapphira, who, for lying to the Holy Ghost, were struck dead at the word of Peter (Act 5:1-11). II. The flourishing state of the church, in the power that went along with the preaching of the gospel (Act 5:12-16). III. The imprisonment of the apostles, and their miraculous discharge out of prison, with fresh orders to go on to preach the gospel, which they did, to the great vexation of their persecutors (Act 5:17-26). IV. Their arraignment before the great sanhedrim, and their justification of themselves in what they did (Act 5:27-33). V. Gamaliel's counsel concerning them, that they should not persecute them, but let them alone, and see what would come of it, and their concurrence, for the present, with this advice, in the dismission of the apostles' cheerful progress in their work notwithstanding the prohibition laid upon them and the indignity done them (Act 5:41, Act 5:42).
Open source ↗Cross-references
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But beware of men; for they will hand you over to their councils and flog you in their synagogues.
“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 responsible for this man’s blood.”
So be on your guard. You will be delivered over to the councils and beaten in the synagogues. On My account you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them.
A righteous man regards the life of his animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are only cruelty.
Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.
“Do not preach,” they preach. “Do not preach these things; disgrace will not overtake us.”
“But you made the Nazirites drink wine and commanded the prophets not to prophesy.
Because of this, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and others you will flog in your synagogues and persecute in town after town.
They say to the seers, “Stop seeing visions!” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us the truth! Speak to us pleasant words; prophesy illusions.
At harvest time, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat the servant and sent him away empty-handed.