Acts 5:42
Every day, in the temple and from house to house
- The gospel’s word εὐαγγελίζομαι euangelizomai · to speak good news
Original
Translations
Every day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.
And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
also every day in the temple, and in every house, they were not ceasing teaching and proclaiming good news—Jesus the Christ.
저희가 날마다 성전에 있든지 집에 있든지 예수는 그리스도라 가르치기와 전도하기를 쉬지 아니하니라
그들이 날마다 성전에서와 모든 집에서 예수 그리스도를 가르치고 선포하는 것을 그치지 아니하니라.
Commentaries
Matthew Henry on Acts 5:34-42 as a whole
The Lord still has all hearts in his hands, and sometimes directs the prudence of the worldly wise, so as to restrain the persecutors. Common sense tells us to be cautious, while experience and observation show that the success of frauds in matters of religion has been very…
Read the whole commentary →Wesley
Nothing on this verse itself.
Read the whole commentary →
Note
Acts 5 closes on this verse. The council has had the apostles flogged and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus. They go on speaking it, every day.
Every day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.
Acts 5:42Arrested a second time, the apostles stand before the Sanhedrin. The high priest reminds them: "We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name" (Acts 5:28). Peter and the others answer, "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29). Gamaliel's counsel spares their lives but not their backs, and they leave "rejoicing that they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name" (Acts 5:41). This verse is their answer to the order.
It is the first appearance in Acts of , "to bring good news." Euangelizomenoi is a present middle participle, paired with didaskontes, "teaching," and both hang on an imperfect verb, ouk epauonto, "they did not stop." Everything in the grammar is ongoing: a daily practice, not a single sermon. What they announced fits into three Greek words, ton christon Iēsoun, "the Christ, Jesus." The news was an identification. The Messiah Israel had waited for is this Jesus, the man the council had handed over to be crucified. And there are two places: the temple courts, where all Israel came and went, and the homes where believers met. The church after Pentecost had done the same, meeting daily in the temple courts and breaking bread from house to house (Acts 2:46).
The versions read the last words in two ways. The King James Version takes them as a name: "they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." The BSB, with most modern versions, takes them as a sentence, Jesus is the Christ, and the Greek article before "Christ" supports that reading: here "Christ" is a title before it is a name. The LSV keeps the bare shape, "proclaiming good news—Jesus the Christ." Only the versions that say "good news" let an English reader see that the gospel word stands in this verse at all; "preach" hides it.
Matthew Henry notices what gave offence: "The apostles did not preach themselves, but Christ. This was the preaching that most offended the priests" Matthew Henry. He draws from it the constant business of every minister of the gospel: "Christ, and him crucified; Christ, and him glorified" Matthew Henry. Wesley pauses over the joy of the verse before, men flogged and glad of it: "This is a sure mark of the truth, joy in affliction, such is true, deep, pure" Wesley.
The verse also says where the gospel is heard: in the public courts where anyone may listen, and around ordinary tables at home. A court order and a flogging did not stop it, because the news itself had not changed. The Christ is Jesus.