Acts 4:21

They let them go, &c.— This dismission was not intended as an acquittal; for it was customary among the Jews to try any accused person after his discharge, when new proofs started up against him. The threatening mentioned in the foregoing sentence, might possibly have included some declaration of this sort. Dr. Heylin reads the last clause, Who all glorified God, &c. So much wiser were the people than those who were over them. Nothing could contribute more to illustrate the miracle, than the circumstance mentioned, Acts 4:22. It shews that the man's case was desperate, and that his disorder was so inveterate and confirmed, as to be beyond the reach of medicine; yet was he in one moment completely cured by the word of the apostles.

Who, after reading this account of the manner in which the rulers treated these apostles, could ever imagine that the disciples stolethe body of Jesus, or that the chief priests and elders themselves believed they did? But it may perhaps be objected, that this account comes from Christian writers;—and could the objectors expect to meet with it in Jewish writers?—We might expect indeed to find in their writings some proofs of this charge upon the disciples; and had there been any, the chief priests, the adversaries of Christ, would doubtless not have failed to produce them. But the progress which Christianity made at that time in Jerusalem, is a stronger argument than even their silence, that no proof of this charge either was, or could be made. Could the apostles have had the imprudence to preach, and could so many thousand Jews have been weak enough to believe upon their testimony, that Christ was risen from the dead, had it been proved that the disciples had stolen away his body? An infidel may, if he pleases, believe this; but let him account for it if he can.