Bible Strands
Acts 5:29
But Peter and the other apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than men.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Peter and the other apostles address the Sanhedrin, who have just accused them of defying a direct prohibition and of making the council responsible for Jesus' death (v. 28). This is the second of two confrontations; the first (Acts 4:13–22) ended with a warning, this one carries the threat of blood.
The words — Ἀποκριθεὶς (apokritheis), "answering," is a one-time aorist participle that frames the reply as a single, deliberate act of speech rather than an ongoing exchange — the apostles are not negotiating.
The thread — Acts 4:19 states the same principle a chapter earlier; 1 Samuel 15:24 shows the reverse failure, where Saul subordinates God's command to human pressure and calls it sin. Mark 7:7 names the error being resisted: teaching "the precepts of men" as doctrine.
Why it lands — The verse offers no middle path; it forces the reader to name which authority they are actually obeying when the two pull in opposite directions.
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
Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.
Cross-references
- Acts 4:19 But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than God.
- 1 Samuel 15:24 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned; I have transgressed the LORD’s commandment and your instructions, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.
- Mark 7:7 They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’
- Genesis 3:17 And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
- Revelation 14:8 Then a second angel followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, who has made all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her immorality.”