Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Acts 5:12-42, Peter's shadow, the prison and Gamaliel
Crowds bring the sick for Peter's shadow to fall on them. The apostles are jailed, freed by an angel, and brought before the council, where Gamaliel compares the movement to the failed causes of Theudas and Judas the Galilean.
Acts 5:12-42, in every translation this tool compares.
Healings multiply, and people lay the sick along the streets hoping even the passing shadow of Peter will reach them. The high priest's party locks the apostles up, but they are freed in the night and found teaching in the temple again the next morning. Before the council they insist that God must be obeyed above any human authority, and the furious leaders want them dead. Gamaliel, a respected Pharisee, points to earlier movements that collapsed and counsels caution, so the apostles are beaten, warned, and sent away glad to suffer for Jesus.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/magic-and-sorcery\/","n":"Magic and sorcery","s":"Spells, charms and incantations were sold and used across the ancient world, by Jews as well as pagans, and many feared the evil eye. People told a sorcerer, who worked in secret and for pay, from a holy man who acted openly.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/angels\/","n":"Angels","s":"God's messengers and his heavenly army. Jews of Jesus' day spoke of guardian angels, of the greatest angels standing before God's face, and of angels coming with God at the judgment.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/chief-priests-and-council\/","n":"Chief priests, elders and the council","s":"The Jerusalem aristocracy of priestly families and elders who ran the temple and the Sanhedrin and dealt with Rome.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/pharisees\/","n":"The Pharisees","s":"A mostly lay movement devoted to careful keeping of the law and of oral tradition, respected by the people and watchful of new teachers.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/rebels-and-would-be-messiahs\/","n":"Rebels and would-be messiahs","s":"In the decades around Jesus, men rose up claiming to deliver Israel: tax rebels, leaders of armed bands, and prophets who promised signs in the wilderness. Rome treated them all as rebels.","r":""}
Many thought a shadow carried something of its owner, and power passed by contact was a pagan magical idea, so the crowd may have mixed in superstition (Keener and his notes). Miraculous prison escapes appear in Greek stories about Dionysus (Keener), and Heiser lists this angel among those who open doors. The council could not legally execute without the governor (the cultural backgrounds notes). Gamaliel I was the most prominent Pharisee of his day, of the school of Hillel (Keener and his notes; the ESV Study Bible); Wright calls him Saul's teacher. Josephus says that under the governor Fadus "a certain magician, whose name was Theudas" led a crowd to the Jordan, promising to divide the river. That puts Theudas about AD 44, after this speech: Keener allows that Luke or Josephus is mistaken or that a better-known name was supplied, the ESV and CSB Study Bibles suggest an earlier Theudas, Wright thinks Gamaliel got the order wrong, and the cultural backgrounds notes say the undisputed point is that Gamaliel compares Jesus to revolutionaries. Flogging, up to thirty-nine lashes, was meant to shame (the cultural backgrounds notes; the ESV Study Bible).
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Acts 5:15, 5:18, 5:33, 5:34, 5:36-37 and 5:40
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Acts 5:14-16, 5:18, 5:19, 5:34-35 and 5:36
- CSB Study Bible, note on Acts 5:35-36
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on Acts 5:34, 5:36 and 5:40
- Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 20.5.1, trans. William Whiston
- N. T. Wright, Acts for Everyone, Part One, comment on Acts 5:27-42
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 23, Giant Problems
