Acts 5:13

‘But of the rest no man dared join himself to them: but however that might be the people magnified them.'

‘The rest' probably means those who did not require healing, and were not recognised believers. They were in awe because of what had happened and held back from approaching the Apostles. They did not ‘cement themselves to them'.

There may have been a number of reasons for this:

· They may have heard rumours and feared what the authorities were planning to do.

· Instructions might have been given out by the priests warning people against having anything to do with the Apostles.

· These twelve men may now have been seen as so awesome that people were afraid to approach them, apart that is from those driven to do so by illness. They now had such a powerful status in Jerusalem, and such an aura, that men walked in awe of them.

Nevertheless this did not mean that they were not appreciated. The people ‘magnified' them, saw them as larger than life, and listened to them from the crowd, and were no doubt approached by believers who bore witness to them of Christ.