The Meaning of Acts 5:29 Explained

Acts 5:29

KJV: Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.

YLT: And Peter and the apostles answering, said, 'To obey God it behoveth, rather than men;

Darby: But Peter answering, and the apostles, said, God must be obeyed rather than men.

ASV: But Peter and the apostles answered and said, We must obey God rather than men.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Then  Peter  and  the [other] apostles  answered  and said,  We ought  to obey  God  rather  than  men. 

What does Acts 5:29 Mean?

Verse Meaning

This verse clarifies that the authorities had arrested other apostles besides Peter and John. Peter as spokesman for the apostles did not attempt to defend their civil disobedience but simply repeated their responsibility to obey God rather than men, specifically the Sanhedrin ( Acts 4:19; cf. Luke 12:4-5). This is Peter"s fourth speech that Luke reported.

Context Summary

Acts 5:27-42 - Folly Of Fighting Against God
The high priest and his party could not forget the imprecation of Matthew 27:25. It haunted them. Compare Peter's description of the Cross as the tree with Deuteronomy 21:23 and Galatians 3:13; also his own usage of the phrase in 1 Peter 2:24. Notice in Acts 5:31 the divine order-Jesus must be Prince, if He is to be Savior. It is because that order is not observed, and men therefore seek to derive His benefits before they concede His rights, that He is unable to deliver them. Christ must be the enthroned Lord and Master of your life, if you want to be saved to the uttermost. See Romans 10:9, r.v. Repentance is His gift equally as forgiveness. Mark that reference to the witness of the Holy Spirit, Acts 5:32. Let us never stand in pulpit or class without being first assured that the truth we utter is such that He can endorse.
Gamaliel had been Paul's teacher. He was very astute and non-committal. He said, "Let us wait and see; the truth will conquer." He expected that the new enthusiasm would die down if it were let alone. He knew that a draught of wind fans a fire. But he lived to see his mistake. We must be warned by Acts 5:42 not only to preach Christ as king in the Temple, but also at home. [source]

Chapter Summary: Acts 5

1  After that Ananias and Sapphira his wife,
3  at Peter's rebuke had fallen down dead;
12  and that the rest of the apostles had wrought many miracles;
14  to the increase of the faith;
17  the apostles are again imprisoned;
19  but delivered by an angel bidding them preach openly to all;
21  when, after their teaching accordingly in the temple,
29  and before the council,
33  they are in danger to be killed;
34  but through the advice of Gamaliel, they are kept alive, and are only beaten;
41  for which they glorify God, and cease no day from preaching

Greek Commentary for Acts 5:29

We must [δει]
Moral necessity left them no choice. They stood precisely where Peter and John were when before the Sanhedrin before (Acts 4:20). [source]
Obey [πειταρχειν]
Old verb from πειτομαι — peithomai and αρχη — archē to obey a ruler. Only by Luke and Paul in the N.T. [source]

Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Acts 5:29

Matthew 16:18 Thou art Peter [οὺ εἶ Πέτρος]
Christ responds to Peter's emphatic thou with another, equally emphatic. Peter says, “Thou art the Christ.” Christ replies, “Thou art Peter.” Πέτρος (Peter ) is used as a proper name, but without losing its meaning as a common noun. The name was bestowed on Simon at his first interview with Jesus (John 1:42) under the form of its Aramaic equivalent, CephasIn this passage attention is called, not to the giving of the name, but to its meaning. In classical Greek the word means a piece of rock, as in Homer, of Ajax throwing a stone at Hector (“Iliadvii., 270), or of Patroclus grasping and hiding in his hand a jagged stone (“Iliadxvi., 784).On this rock ( ἐπὶ ταύτῃ τῇ πέρᾳ )The word is feminine, and means a rock, as distinguished from a stone or a fragment of rock ( πέτρος , above). Used of a ledge of rocks or a rocky peak. In Homer (“Odyssey,” ix., 243), the rock ( πέτρην ) which Polyphemus places at the door of his cavern, is a mass which two-and-twenty wagons could not remove; and the rock which he hurled at the retreating ships of Ulysses, created by its fall a wave in the sea which drove the ships back toward the land (“Odyssey,” ix., 484). The word refers neither to Christ as a rock, distinguished from Simon, a stone, nor to Peter's confession, but to Peter himself, in a sense defined by his previous confession, and as enlightened by the “Father in Heaven.” The reference of πέτρα to Christ is forced and unnatural. The obvious reference of the word is to Peter. The emphatic this naturally refers to the nearest antecedent; and besides, the metaphor is thus weakened, since Christ appears here, not as the foundation, but as the architect: “On this rock will I build.” Again, Christ is the great foundation, the “chief corner-stone,” but the New Testament writers recognize no impropriety in applying to the members of Christ's church certain terms which are applied to him. For instance, Peter himself (1 Peter 2:4), calls Christ a living stone, and, in 1 Peter 2:5, addresses the church as living stones. In Revelation 21:14, the names of the twelve apostles appear in the twelve foundation-stones of the heavenly city; and in Ephesians 2:20, it is said, “Ye are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets (i.e., laid by the apostles and prophets), Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone.” Equally untenable is the explanation which refers πέτρα to Simon's confession. Both the play upon the words and the natural reading of the passage are against it, and besides, it does not conform to the fact, since the church is built, not on confessions, but on confessors - living men. “The word πέτρα ,” says Edersheim, “was used in the same sense in Rabbinic language. According to the Rabbins, when God was about to build his world, he could not rear it on the generation of Enos, nor on that of the flood, who brought destruction upon the world; but when he beheld that Abraham would arise in the future, he said' 'Behold, I have found a rock to build on it, and to found the world,' whence, also, Abraham is called a rock, as it is said' 'Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn.' The parallel between Abraham and Peter might be carried even further. If, from a misunderstanding of the Lord's promise to Peter, later Christian legend represented the apostle as sitting at the gate of heaven, Jewish legend represents Abraham as sitting at the gate of Gehenna, so as to prevent all who had the seal of circumcision from falling into its abyss” (“Life and Times of Jesus”). The reference to Simon himself is confirmed by the actual relation of Peter to the early church, to the Jewish portion of which he was a foundation-stone. See Acts, Acts 1:15; Acts 2:14, Acts 2:37; Acts 3:12; Acts 4:8; Acts 5:15, Acts 5:29; Acts 9:34, Acts 9:40; Acts 10:25, Acts 10:26; Galatians 1:15.Church ( ἐκκλησίαν ) ἐκ out, καλέω , to call or summon. This is the first occurrence of this word in the New Testament. Originally an assembly of citizens, regularly summoned. So in New Testament, Acts 19:39. The Septuagint uses the word for the congregation of Israel, either as summoned for a definite purpose (Acts 7:38); but for this there is more commonly employed συναγωγή , of which synagogue is a transcription; σύν , together, ἄγω , to bring (Acts 13:43). In Christ's words to Peter the word ἐκκλησία acquires special emphasis from the opposition implied in it to the synagogue. The Christian community in the midst of Israel would be designated as ἐκκλησία , without being confounded with the συναγωγή , the Jewish community. See Acts 5:11; Acts 8:1; Acts 12:1; Acts 14:23, Acts 14:27, etc. Nevertheless συναγωγή is applied to a Christian assembly in James 2:2, while ἐπισυναγωγή (gathering or assembling together ) is found in 2 Thessalonians 2:1; Hebrews 10:25. Both in Hebrew and in New Testament usage ἐκκλησία implies more than a collective or national unity; rather a community based on a special religious idea and established in a special way. In the New Testament the term is used also in the narrower sense of a single church, or a church confined to a particular place. So of the church in the house of Aquila and Priscilla (Romans 16:5); the church at Corinth, the churches in Judea, the church at Jerusalem, etc.Gates of hell ( πύλαι ᾅδου )Rev., Hades. Hades was originally the name of the god who presided over the realm of the dead - Pluto or Dis. Hence the phrase, house of Hades. It is derived from ἀ , not, and; ἰδεῖν , to see; and signifies, therefore, the invisible land, the realm of shadow. It is the place to which all who depart this life descend, without reference to their moral character. By this word the Septuagint translated the Hebrew Sheol, which has a similar general meaning. The classical Hades embraced both good and bad men, though divided into Elysium, the abode of the virtuous, and Tartarus, the abode of the wicked. In these particulars it corresponds substantially with Sheol; both the godly and the wicked being represented as gathered into the latter. See Genesis 42:38; Psalm 9:17; Psalm 139:8; Isaiah 14:9; Isaiah 57:2; Ezekiel 32:27; Hosea 13:14. Hades and Sheol were alike conceived as a definite place, lower than the world. The passage of both good and bad into it was regarded as a descent. The Hebrew conception is that of a place of darkness; a cheerless home of a dull, joyless, shadowy life. See Psalm 6:5; Psalm 94:17; Psalm 115:17; Psalm 88:5, Psalm 88:6, Psalm 88:10; Job 10:21; Job 3:17-19; Job 14:10, Job 14:11; Ecclesiastes 9:5. Vagueness is its characteristic. In this the Hebrew's faith appears bare in contrast with that of the Greek and Roman. The pagan poets gave the popular mind definite pictures of Tartarus and Elysium; of Styx and Acheron; of happy plains where dead heroes held high discourse, and of black abysses where offenders underwent strange and ingenious tortures. There was, indeed, this difference between the Hebrew and the Pagan conceptions; that to the Pagan, Hades was the final home of its tenants, while Sheol was a temporary condition. Hence the patriarchs are described (Hebrews 11:16) as looking for a better, heavenly country; and the martyrs as enduring in hope of “a better resurrection.” Prophecy declared that the dead should arise and sing, when Sheol itself should be destroyed and its inmates brought forth, some to everlasting life, and others to shame and contempt (Isaiah 26:19; Hosea 13:14; Daniel 12:2). Paul represents this promise as made to the fathers by God, and as the hope of his countrymen (Acts 26:7). God was the God of the dead as well as of the living; present in the dark chambers of Sheol as well as in heaven (Psalm 139:8; Psalm 16:10). This is the underlying thought of that most touching and pathetic utterance of Job (Job 14:13-15), in which he breathes the wish that God would hide him with loving care in Hades, as a place of temporary concealment, where he will wait patiently, standing like a sentinel at his post, awaiting the divine voice calling him to a new and happier life. This, too, is the thought of the familiar and much-disputed passage, Job 19:23-27. His Redeemer, vindicator, avenger, shall arise after he shall have passed through the shadowy realm of Sheol. “A judgment in Hades, in which the judge will show himself his friend, in which all the tangled skein of his life will be unravelled by wise and kindly hands, and the insoluble problem of his strange and self-contradicting experience will at last be solved - this is what Job still looks for on that happy day when he shall see God for himself, and find his Goel (vindicator) in that Almighty Deliverer” (Cox, “Commentary on the Book of Job”). In the New Testament, Hades is the realm of the dead. It cannot be successfully maintained that it is, in particular, the place for sinners (so Cremer, “Biblico-Theological Lexicon”). The words about Capernaum (Matthew 11:23), which it is surprising to find Cremer citing in support of this position, are merely a rhetorical expression of a fall from the height of earthly glory to the deepest degradation, and have no more bearing upon the moral character of Hades than the words of Zophar (Job 11:7, Job 11:8) about the perfection of the Almighty. “It is high as heaven - deeper than Sheol. ” Hades is indeed coupled with Death (Revelation 1:18; Revelation 6:8; Revelation 20:13, Revelation 20:14), but the association is natural, and indeed inevitable, apart from all moral distinctions. Death would naturally be followed by Hades in any case. In Revelation 20:13, Revelation 20:14, the general judgment is predicted, and not only Death and Hades, but the sea give tip their dead, and only those who are not written in the book of life are cast into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:15). The rich man was in Hades (Luke 16:23), and in torments, but Lazarus was also in Hades, “in Abraham's bosom.” The details of this story “evidently represent the views current at the time among the Jews. According to them, the Garden of Eden and the Tree of Life were the abode of the blessed. We read that the righteous in Eden see the wicked in Gehenna and rejoice; and similarly, that the wicked in Gehenna see the righteous sitting beatified in Eden, and their souls are troubled (Edersheim, “Life and Times of Jesus”). Christ also was in Hades (Acts 2:27, Acts 2:31). Moreover, the word γέεννα , hell (see on Matthew 5:22), is specially used to denote the place of future punishment. Hades, then, in the New Testament, is a broad and general conception, with an idea of locality bound up with it. It is the condition following death, which is blessed or the contrary, according to the moral character of the dead, and is therefore divided into different realms, represented by Paradise or Abraham's bosom, and Gehenna. The expression Gates of Hades is an orientalism for the court, throne, power, and dignity of the infernal kingdom. Hades is contemplated as a mighty city, with formidable, frowning portals. Some expositors introduce also the idea of the councils of the Satanic powers, with reference to the Eastern custom of holding such deliberations in the gates of cities. Compare the expression Sublime Porte, applied to the Ottoman court. The idea of a building is maintained in both members of the comparison. The kingdom or city of Hades confronts and assaults the church which Christ will build upon the rock. See Job 38:17; Psalm 9:13; Psalm 107:18; Isaiah 38:10. [source]
John 3:36 He that believeth not [ὁ ἀπειθῶν]
More correctly, as Rev., obeyeth not. Disbelief is regarded in its active manifestation, disobedience. The verb πείθω means to persuade, to cause belief, to induce one to do something by persuading, and so runs into the meaning of to obey, properly as the result of persuasion. See on Acts 5:29. Compare 1 Peter 4:17; Romans 2:8; Romans 11:30, Romans 11:31. Obedience, however, includes faith. Compare Romans 1:5, the obedience of faith. [source]
Acts 5:37 Obeyed []
Note the word for obeyed ( ἐπείθοντο ) implying the persuasive power of Theudas' boasting. See on Acts 5:29. [source]
Acts 5:32 Obey []
See on Acts 5:29. [source]
Acts 27:21 Hearkened [πειθαρχήσαντας]
See on obey, Acts 5:29. [source]
Romans 10:16 Obeyed [ὑπήκουσαν]
See on obedience and disobedience, Romans 5:19. Also see on Acts 5:29. Obeyed as the result of listening, and so especially appropriate here. Compare head and hear, Romans 10:14. For the same reason hearken (Rev.) is better than obeyed. [source]
Titus 3:1 To obey magistrates [πειθαρχεῖν]
Comp. Acts 5:29, Acts 5:32; Acts 27:21. See on Acts 5:29. The idea of magistrates is contained in the word itself; but it is quite proper to render as Rev. to be obedient. Rare in lxx. [source]

What do the individual words in Acts 5:29 mean?

Answering however Peter and the apostles said To obey it is necessary God rather than men
Ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ Πέτρος καὶ οἱ ἀπόστολοι εἶπαν Πειθαρχεῖν δεῖ Θεῷ μᾶλλον ἀνθρώποις

Ἀποκριθεὶς  Answering 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Participle Passive, Nominative Masculine Singular
Root: ἀποκρίνομαι  
Sense: to give an answer to a question proposed, to answer.
δὲ  however 
Parse: Conjunction
Root: δέ  
Sense: but, moreover, and, etc.
Πέτρος  Peter 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Masculine Singular
Root: Πέτρος  
Sense: one of the twelve disciples of Jesus.
ἀπόστολοι  apostles 
Parse: Noun, Nominative Masculine Plural
Root: ἀπόστολος  
Sense: a delegate, messenger, one sent forth with orders.
εἶπαν  said 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Indicative Active, 3rd Person Plural
Root: λέγω  
Sense: to speak, say.
Πειθαρχεῖν  To  obey 
Parse: Verb, Present Infinitive Active
Root: πειθαρχέω  
Sense: to obey (a ruler or a superior).
δεῖ  it  is  necessary 
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Active, 3rd Person Singular
Root: δεῖ  
Sense: it is necessary, there is need of, it behooves, is right and proper.
Θεῷ  God 
Parse: Noun, Dative Masculine Singular
Root: θεός  
Sense: a god or goddess, a general name of deities or divinities.
μᾶλλον  rather 
Parse: Adverb
Root: μᾶλλον  
Sense: more, to a greater degree, rather.
  than 
Parse: Conjunction
Root:  
Sense: either, or, than.
ἀνθρώποις  men 
Parse: Noun, Dative Masculine Plural
Root: ἄνθρωπος  
Sense: a human being, whether male or female.

What are the major concepts related to Acts 5:29?

Loading Information...