Ignorance and Acts 4:13

May 12, 2008

drevyev wrote:

I agree with the second half of your analysis. Regarding the first part of your analysis, the \"education of the day\" could refer to any number of kinds of education, pagan and otherwise. I think the reference to their lack of education refers specifically to the what type of education they lack, that is, that of the scribes and Pharisees.

I would further say that it is significant that their lack of scribal and priestly education seems to underscore their association with Jesus. I don't think that simple ignorance would help people understand that Peter and John were Jesus' companions. I can imagine ordinary, uneducated, bold people whom bystanders wouldn't associate with Jesus.

Agreed.

My main point was to counter the possible mis-conception that the temple authorities looked on Peter and John as stupid. Today many mistake \\"ignorant\\" to mean lacking a native intellectual ability.

What we should take from this passage is that, though as the Temple authorities observed, the two apostle\'s did not have the formal training, they authoritatively answered and refuted them on their \\"home turf\\" of religious discourse, not that they thought Peter and John to be dumb. The context infers the contrary, they recognized that they had ably answered, and knew that it was the training received from the Lord Jesus that had equipped the Apostles to withstand and best them, (again, leaving aside the probably more indespensable quickening influence of the Holy Ghost).

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