Bible Strands
Acts 4:20
For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Peter and John, speaking to the Sanhedrin, who has just ordered them to stop speaking in Jesus' name (v. 18). They have been released from prison and are defending their testimony before the council.
The words — δυνάμεθα (dunametha), "we are able," is the hinge: the negation οὐ δυνάμεθα frames the point not as unwillingness but as incapacity. The compulsion is presented as inability to do otherwise.
The thread — Jeremiah 20:9 describes the word as fire burning in the heart; 1 Corinthians 9:16 calls silence a woe. Acts 22:15 echoes the same "seen and heard" language as a commission.
Why it lands — The verse removes silence as a neutral option. If you have seen and heard, the claim is that withholding is not a decision but a failure.
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
For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 20:9 If I say, “I will not mention Him or speak any more in His name,” His message becomes a fire burning in my heart, shut up in my bones, and I become weary of holding it in, and I cannot prevail.
- Acts 22:15 You will be His witness to everyone of what you have seen and heard.
- 1 Corinthians 9:16 Yet when I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast, because I am obligated to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
- 1 John 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have gazed upon and touched with our own hands—this is the Word of life.
- Ezekiel 3:11 Go to your people, the exiles; speak to them and tell them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says,’ whether they listen or refuse to listen.”
- Acts 5:32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”
- Jeremiah 1:17 Get yourself ready. Stand up and tell them everything that I command you. Do not be intimidated by them, or I will terrify you before them.
- Acts 1:8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
- Acts 10:39 We are witnesses of all that He did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. And although they put Him to death by hanging Him on a tree,
- Numbers 22:38 “See, I have come to you,” Balaam replied, “but can I say just anything? I must speak only the word that God puts in my mouth.”