Bible Strands
Acts 3:1
One afternoon Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Narrative, not speech. Peter and John are en route to the temple at the ninth hour (3 PM), one of the three fixed daily prayer times, and the moment immediately precedes their encounter with the lame man at the gate.
The words — anebainon (ἀνέβαινον), imperfect of anabainō, "were going up." The imperfect tense marks habitual action: this was not a one-time trip but a regular practice of ascending to the temple.
The thread — The ninth-hour prayer echoes the three-times-daily pattern in Psalms 55:17 and recurs in Acts 10:3, where Cornelius prays at the same hour. The "going up" to the temple is the apostles' repeated pattern throughout Acts (2:46; 5:20-21).
Why it lands — The miracle in verse 3 is not a spontaneous event but the product of a disciplined rhythm of prayer and presence. The verse asks the reader to notice that opportunity meets those who are already in motion toward God.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour.
Cross-references
- Psalms 55:17 Morning, noon, and night, I cry out in distress, and He hears my voice.
- Acts 10:3 One day at about the ninth hour, he had a clear vision of an angel of God who came to him and said, “Cornelius!”
- Acts 4:13 When they saw the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they marveled and took note that these men had been with Jesus.
- Luke 1:10 And at the hour of the incense offering, the whole congregation was praying outside.
- Luke 24:53 praising God continually in the temple.
- Acts 5:25 Then someone came in and announced, “Look, the men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people!”
- Daniel 6:10 Now when Daniel learned that the document had been signed, he went into his house, where the windows of his upper room opened toward Jerusalem, and three times a day he got down on his knees, prayed, and gave thanks to his God, just as he had done before.
- Acts 8:14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.
- Matthew 17:1 After six days Jesus took with Him Peter, James, and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
- Matthew 26:37 He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.