Bible Study on Acts 5, verses 17 to 25, the prison doors are opened

 

Acts 5:17 ¶  Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation, 18  And laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison. 19  But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth, and said, 20  Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life. 21  And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning, and taught. But the high priest came, and they that were with him, and called the council together, and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought. 22  But when the officers came, and found them not in the prison, they returned, and told, 23  Saying, The prison truly found we shut with all safety, and the keepers standing without before the doors: but when we had opened, we found no man within. 24  Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these things, they doubted of them whereunto this would grow. 25  Then came one and told them, saying, Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing in the temple, and teaching the people.

 

Note what I said back in comments on 4:1-4;

 

Acts 23:8  For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit: but the Pharisees confess both.

 

Back in 3:15 Peter referred to Christ’s resurrection which would have seriously perturbed this sect of the Jews. Josephus, the Jewish general turncoat who worked for the Romans and wrote histories of the Jews claimed that they believed that the soul could die, that there was no afterlife, that there were no rewards or penalties after death, and that only the written law was valid. They were composed of the upper class and educated elite who oversaw the temple operations and shared with the Roman upper class a denial of the reality of the supernatural. They did, apparently, believe in God but were more political and worldly than the more conservative Pharisees, and they were composed of a ruling class that expected God’s benefits and prosperity now, in this life, and denied even His intervention in history, sources say. They would have been terrified of anything that threatened their position under Roman authority.

 

They threw the Apostles in prison. But, the angel of the Lord, the presence of Christ Himself, opened the doors and literally took them out of the prison and set them free, ordering them to teach in the temple, sort of rubbing it in the faces of these priests. Imagine the scene as officers of the council go to a prison whose doors are still shut with guards standing guard still but none of the Apostles inside.

 

The officials were very perplexed at these developments and on top of that they were then told that the very men who had been locked up were now standing in the temple teaching freely.