(28) Did not we straitly command you . . .?--The Greek presents the same Hebrew idiom as in Acts 4:17, and suggests again that it is a translation of the Aramaic actually spoken.
Ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine.--Better, with your teaching, both to keep up the connection with the previous clause, and because the word is taken, as in Matthew 7:28, in its wider sense, and not in the modern sense which attaches to "doctrine" as meaning a formulated opinion.
To bring this man's blood upon us.--There seems a touch, partly of scorn, partly, it may be, of fear, in the careful avoidance (as before, in "this name") of the name of Jesus. The words that Peter had uttered, in Acts 2:36; Acts 3:13-14; Acts 4:10, gave some colour to the conscience-stricken priests for this charge; but it was a strange complaint to come from those who had at least stirred up the people to cry, "His blood be on us and on our children" (Matthew 27:25).
Verse 28. - We straitly charged for did not we straitly command? A.V. and T.R.; not to for that ye should not, A.V.; teaching for doctrine, A.V. We straitly charged, etc.; ἐπερωτάω seems to require a question to follow. Your teaching (for the command, see Acts 4:18). Intend to bring, etc. Here the secret of the persecution comes out, The guilty conscience winced at every word which spake of Jesus Christ as living. The high priest, too, would not so much as name the name of Jesus. It was "this name," "this man;" as in the Talmud, Jesus is most frequently spoken of as Teloni, i.e. "such a one," in Spanish and Portuguese Fulano, or still more contemptuously as "that man" (Farrar, 'Life of St. Paul,' vol. 1. p. 108). This terror of blood-guiltiness is a striking comment on the saying recorded in Matthew 27:25.
5:26-33 Many will do an evil thing with daring, yet cannot bear to hear of it afterward, or to have it charged upon them. We cannot expect to be redeemed and healed by Christ, unless we give up ourselves to be ruled by him. Faith takes the Saviour in all his offices, who came, not to save us in our sins, but to save us from our sins. Had Christ been exalted to give dominion to Israel, the chief priests would have welcomed him. But repentance and remission of sins are blessings they neither valued nor saw their need of; therefore they, by no means, admitted his doctrine. Wherever repentance is wrought, remission is granted without fail. None are freed from the guilt and punishment of sin, but those who are freed from the power and dominion of sin; who are turned from it, and turned against it. Christ gives repentance, by his Spirit working with the word, to awaken the conscience, to work sorrow for sin, and an effectual change in the heart and life. The giving of the Holy Ghost, is plain evidence that it is the will of God that Christ should be obeyed. And He will surely destroy those who will not have Him to reign over them.
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 (q) 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 , "of that man":''
and so another of their writers (r) 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 , "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 (s). Thus blasphemously and contemptuously do they speak of Christ.
(q) Aben Ezra, Vid. ib. in Dan. xi. 14. (r) Juchasin, fol. 16. 2.((s) Migdal Oz & Hagehot Maimoniot. in Maimon. Teshuba, c. 3. sect. 7.
Ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine.--Better, with your teaching, both to keep up the connection with the previous clause, and because the word is taken, as in Matthew 7:28, in its wider sense, and not in the modern sense which attaches to "doctrine" as meaning a formulated opinion.
To bring this man's blood upon us.--There seems a touch, partly of scorn, partly, it may be, of fear, in the careful avoidance (as before, in "this name") of the name of Jesus. The words that Peter had uttered, in Acts 2:36; Acts 3:13-14; Acts 4:10, gave some colour to the conscience-stricken priests for this charge; but it was a strange complaint to come from those who had at least stirred up the people to cry, "His blood be on us and on our children" (Matthew 27:25).
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 (q) 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 , "of that man":''
and so another of their writers (r) 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 , "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 (s). Thus blasphemously and contemptuously do they speak of Christ.
(q) Aben Ezra, Vid. ib. in Dan. xi. 14. (r) Juchasin, fol. 16. 2.((s) Migdal Oz & Hagehot Maimoniot. in Maimon. Teshuba, c. 3. sect. 7.