Acts 4:22

For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was shewed.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(22) The man was above forty years old.—This precision in noting the duration of disease or infirmity is again characteristic of the writer. Comp. the case of the woman with an issue of blood (Luke 8:43); of Æneas (Acts 9:33); of the cripple at Lystra (Acts 14:8).

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

4:15-22 All the care of the rulers is, that the doctrine of Christ spread not among the people, yet they cannot say it is false or dangerous, or of any ill tendency; and they are ashamed to own the true reason; that it testifies against their hypocrisy, wickedness, and tyranny. Those who know how to put a just value upon Christ's promises, know how to put just contempt upon the world's threatenings. The apostles look with concern on perishing souls, and know they cannot escape eternal ruin but by Jesus Christ, therefore they are faithful in warning, and showing the right way. None will enjoy peace of mind, nor act uprightly, till they have learned to guide their conduct by the fixed standard of truth, and not by the shifting opinions and fancies of men. Especially beware of a vain attempt to serve two masters, God and the world; the end will be, you can serve neither fully.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For the man ... - The age of the man is mentioned to show the certainty and greatness of the miracle. If it had been a man who had been lame but a few years, or if it had been a child or a very young man, the case would not been so remarkable. But after a continuance of 40 years, all hope of healing him by any ordinary means must have been abandoned, and all pretence that this was jugglery or deception must have been absurd.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people—not at a loss for a pretext, but at a loss how to do it so as not to rouse the opposition of the people.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Therefore:

1. The harder to be cured.

2. The man was the more credible, who had so long known what it was to be without the use of his limbs, which now he enjoyed.

3. Whom they could not themselves but have often seen and heard begging.

But if he had laid so many years in the porch of the temple through which our Saviour frequently entered, how came it to pass that he was not cured before? We do not read that our Saviour denied any who came for cure. There need no other answer, but that all times and seasons are in God’s hands, who justly forbore to send deliverance till this very time, and now mercifully sent it; especially reserving this miracle for the confirmation of the truth of the gospel, and of the apostles themselves in the preaching of it.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For the man was above forty years old,.... So that the miracle was the greater, that a man born lame, and who had been so above forty years, should have a cure; and he was the more known to the people, and his testimony met with more credit:

on whom this miracle of healing was showed; both for the good of men, for the glory of God, and for the confirmation of the Gospel of Christ.

Geneva Study Bible

For the man was above forty years old, on whom this miracle of healing was shewed.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Acts 4:22. Characteristic of St. Luke to note the age, as in the case of Æneas, Acts 9:33, and of the cripple at Lystra, Acts 14:8, cf. also Luke 8:42 (although Mark also here notes the same fact), Acts 13:11. The genitive with εἶναι or γίγνεσθαι, instead of the accusative, in reference to the question of age, is noted by Friedrich as characteristic of St. Luke; cf Luke 2:42 (Luke 3:23), Luke 8:42, and here; but cf. Mark 5:42.—ἐγεγόνει: in this episode “with its lights and shades” Overbeck (so Baur) can only see the idealising work of myth and legend, but it is difficult to understand how a narrative which purports to describe the first conflict between the Church and the Sanhedrim could be free from such contrasts, and that some collision with the authorities took place is admitted to be quite conceivable (Weizsäcker, Apostolic Age, i., 46, E.T.); we should rather say that St. Luke’s power as an historian is nowhere more visible than in the dramatic form of this narrative (Ramsay, St. Paul, u. s.).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

22. the man was above forty years old] To one who looked on the circumstances with a physician’s eye, as St Luke would (Colossians 4:14), this feature would be most noticeable. For limbs unused shrink and wither, and become disproportionate to the other parts of the frame. The physician’s description is also evident in the two unique words (βάσεις and σφυρά) which are used (Acts 3:7) to describe the cure of the cripple.

on whom this miracle of healing was shewed] The word here used for miracle = sign. This the A.V. has endeavoured to represent by the use of the verb shewed. Lit., “on whom this sign of healing was wrought.”

Bengel's Gnomen

Acts 4:22. Πλειόνων, more than forty years) The infirmity of the man who was born lame had been inveterate.—ἐφʼ ὃν) on whom.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 22. - More than for above, A.V.; wrought for showed, A.V. Wrought; literally, as in ver. 16, came to pass, or happened, or took place. Acts 4:22