"We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29). That is the theme of our passage and, indeed, of this whole section of Acts, chapters 3-8. After the resurrection of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is sweeping through Jerusalem with power to enable Peter and John and the other followers of Jesus to heal, to convert multitudes, and to speak boldly. The result is that Jerusalem is in an uproar, and the disciples are repeatedly hauled before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish religious and political council, to account for what is happening.

Apparently the council or Sanhedrin (synhedrion in the Greek) was a rather fluid body, made up of those who happened to be in power as leaders of the community at the moment. In Acts, it consists of the high priest and his family members, various rulers, elders, scribes, S…