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Acts 4:23-25
New Catholic Bible
Acts 4:23-25
New Catholic Bible
23 The Community’s Prayer for the Apostles.[a] As soon as they were released, they went back[b] to the community and reported everything that the chief priests and the elders had said to them. 24 When they heard it, they raised their voices to God with one accord and said, “Lord, maker of heaven and earth and the sea and of everything that is in them, 25 you said by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of our ancestor David, your servant,
‘Why do the Gentiles rage
and the peoples devise futile plots?
Footnotes
- Acts 4:23 The prayer begins with an invocation of the Creator, embracing the horizon of the world: heaven, earth, and sea. It follows the traditional practice of calling for God’s protection of his people. This community is the new people compelled to make a new Exodus; and this people needs strength from God for this departure and this journey. It is rejected by the Jews who act like the pagan nations as these are characterized by the Old Testament. The future of the people is going to be bleak if its authorities refuse to recognize the name of God’s holy Servant.
The invocation of the prayer for the apostles is made in the name of Jesus, and all the new people receive the gift of the word as at the first Pentecost, but in a situation of defense and interrogation. Such a prayer is the type of Christian prayer for times of crisis, for a community that must face an uncertain future and an unexpected road. - Acts 4:23 Went back: probably to the same Upper Room where the apostles had met (Acts 1:13) and where the community may have continued to meet (Acts 12:12).
