Apostles arrested, put on trial
Early Church · Draft · BSB
Content revision: 821f42e28b279fc0 · No editorial review date recorded
Date: c. AD 30–35. Between Pentecost and the conversion of Saul; Acts gives no exact dates.
The apostles are jailed, but an angel opens the prison doors at night and sends them back to teach in the temple. Brought before the council, Peter answers, “We must obey God rather than men,” and the leaders want to put them to death.
Primary Scripture
5:18 and arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail.
5:19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out, saying,
5:20 “Go, stand in the temple courts and tell the people the full message of this new life.”
5:21 At daybreak the apostles entered the temple courts as they had been told and began to teach the people. When the high priest and his associates arrived, they convened the Sanhedrin—the full assembly of the elders of Israel—and sent to the jail for the apostles.
5:22 But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they returned with the report:
5:23 “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards posted at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.”
5:24 When the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests heard this account, they were perplexed as to what was happening.
5:25 Then someone came in and announced, “Look, the men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people!”
5:26 At that point, the captain went with the officers and brought the apostles—but not by force, for fear the people would stone them.
5:27 They brought them in and made them stand before the Sanhedrin, where the high priest interrogated them.
5:28 “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us responsible for this man’s blood.”
5:29 But Peter and the other apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than men.
5:30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by hanging Him on a tree.
5:31 God exalted Him to His right hand as Prince and Savior, in order to grant repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.
5:32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”
5:33 When the Council members heard this, they were enraged, and they resolved to put the apostles to death.
Location evidence
Event map marker: Identified site; [longitude, latitude] = [35.23494, 31.77744]. This is a teaching marker, not an exact event venue.
Jerusalem: Identified site. Coordinates [longitude, latitude]: [35.23494, 31.77744]. Classification source: rule.
Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire
Digital Atlas of the Roman Empire
Interpretation and reuse
Narrative order is a reading arrangement, not a proven chronology. Dates retain their stated uncertainty. An identified locality does not establish the exact venue or prove an event. Region extents and routes are illustrative, not surveyed boundaries or ancient roads. Draft material has not completed editorial review.
Record source: theographic (317)
Record source: editorial
Events and places adapted from Theographic Bible Metadata (github.com/robertrouse/theographic-bible-metadata), CC BY-SA 4.0. This adapted data is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Place coordinates from OpenBible.info Bible Geocoding Data, CC BY 4.0.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. https://berean.bible/licensing.htm