Acts 5:15

Acts 5:15. Into the streets. Those between the apostles' house and the Temple. The whole scene of growing admiration and respect for the persons of these brave and earnest teachers, who enforced their burning words with such mighty loving acts, reminds us of a still greater enthusiasm excited by the Master of Peter and his companions (see Mark 2:1-2; Mark 6:55-56).

The shadow of Peter. Peter especially is mentioned as the greatest and foremost of the apostles in all work and preaching in those early days. At this period there is certainly no doubt but that this apostle, both in reality and also in the popular estimation, was the acknowledged chief of the community of believers in Jesus.

On the much-disputed question respecting the efficacy of the ‘ shadow of Peter ' falling upon the sick, two points must not be lost sight of (1) the reality of the miracles wrought at this juncture of the Church's history; (2) the great number of the miraculous cures which were just then worked; for we read ‘how from the city the sick were brought from their houses and laid on beds and couches: and from the cities round about Jerusalem a multitude came, bringing sick folks; and they were healed, every one.' Occurring as it does in the midst of this matter-of-fact relation of a number of cures performed on the persons of the sick of the city and the neighbouring towns, the statement respecting the effect of the ‘ shadow of Peter ' must not be watered down by an attempt to explain it as an accident existing only in the opinion of the people, or by a suggestion that the author of the Acts makes no assertion whatever respecting the effect of the ‘shadow' falling on the sick. (See Meyer, Lange, and Gloag.) The writer's plain statement is, that some at least of these miraculous cures were effected by Peter's shadow falling upon them as, fervently trusting to be healed, they lay waiting his passing by. Instances of this special form of miracle, where the healing virtue appears to exist in the person, independent of all instruments, are very rare; in the Old Testament, the case of the prophet Elisha stands by itself. In the New Testament, our Lord (Luke 8:46), St. Peter in this passage, St. Paul (Acts 19:12), where the miracles in question are designated as ούϰ αἰ τυχοῡσαι. the ‘rarest' or ‘special' alone seem to have exercised this peculiar power. Dean Alford has an admirable note here: ‘In this and similar narratives (Acts 19:12), Christian faith finds no difficulty whatever. All miraculous working is an exertion of the direct power of the All-powerful a suspension by Him of His ordinary laws; and whether He will use any instrument in doing this, or what instrument, must depend altogether on His own purpose in the miracle the effect to be produced on the recipients, beholders, or hearers. Without His special selection and enabling, all instruments were vain; with them, all are capable. What is a hand or a voice more than a shadow, except that the analogy of the ordinary instrument is a greater help to faith in the recipient? When faith, as apparently here, did not need this help, the less likely medium was adopted. In this case at Jerusalem, as later with St. Paul at Ephesus, it was His purpose to exalt His apostle as the herald of His Gospel, and to lay in Jerusalem the strong foundation of His Church; and He therefore endues him with this extraordinary power.'