Acts 5:12-16

Acts 5:12–16: Many Signs and Wonders Done

Passage

A short passage, once again calling out some of the power exhibited by the Holy Spirit during these early days of the Church; short enough that I’ll just include the whole thing:

Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed. verses 12–16

Thoughts

I have a few, disconnected thoughts on the passage, though it’s pretty straightforward. Mostly.

Solomon’s Portico

It’s probably the least important part to note, but I don’t know anything about Solomon’s Portico, or if it’s significant. The ESV Study Bible doesn’t say anything about it, other than that Christians often witnessed there.

Of course, if that location is significant, maybe this isn’t the least important part to note… Maybe I’m missing something huge…

Miracles

Obviously the focus of this passage is on the power and workings of the Holy Spirit at a particular moment in the life of the Church. It might be jarring to modern readers, because the Spirit doesn’t do all of this in the modern Church! You don’t see Christian leaders walking around hospitals, letting their shadows fall on sick and injured people to heal them¹.

I think there are two main reactions to the difference between Acts 5 and the Church in 2022 (when I wrote this):

1. This passage took place at a particular moment in time, when the Spirit was specifically showing His power to the Church, not intended to be a permanent thing for the Church, or
2. The reason the Church isn’t displaying miracles of the Spirit on a regular basis is that we don’t have faith, but if we did, He is the same Spirit now that He was in Acts 5, so why wouldn’t He be performing miracles?

And while I have sympathy for the second approach—He is the same Spirit He was 2,000 years ago!—I personally subscribe to the first viewpoint: in this moment in history God was starting something new—the Christian Church—and part of that was a display of His power that He doesn’t typically exhibit, before or after this moment in time.

We should probably also examine our motives on this point. God was demonstrating His power through the new Church, but that power has now been demonstrated. He doesn’t need to demonstrate it over and over. We should be careful, when we’re yearning for miracles, that it isn’t a lack of faith on our part. There can sometimes be a hint of, “I’d believe in God if…” or “my faith would be stronger if…” or “I’m sure others would believe if…”

“None of the rest dared join them”

Verses 12–13 are confusing because of the ambiguity, especially in verse 13 (highlighted below):

Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem.

This phrase is ambiguous in English, and, according to the ESV Study Bible notes, I guess it’s ambiguous in Greek, too. Who are “the rest”? Who is “them”? The answers to those questions change the meaning of the passage:

If “the rest” means…	And “them” means…	The passage means…
The rest of the disciples	The Apostles	The majority of the disciples were afraid to join the Apostles where they were.
The non-Christians	The entire Church	Everyone held the Church in high regard, but that didn’t mean that the non-Christians were going to join with the Christians!

(As usual I’m using the term “Christians” for convenience, though they weren’t yet calling themselves that.)

I don’t even have an opinion on this one. I don’t speak Greek—let alone ancient Greek—so I doubt I’ll be able to disentangle something the professional translators aren’t sure about. 🙂

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1. It leads to the question of how often you see Christian leaders walking around hospitals at all, miracles or not. But let me not throw stones. ↩︎