Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them. Insomuch that they brought forth the sick - This verse is a continuation of the subject begun in the 12th. The following is the order in which all these verses should be read, from the 11th to the 15th.
Acts 5:11. And great fear came upon all the Church, and upon as many as heard these things.
Acts 5:13. And of the rest durst no man join himself to them; but the people magnified them:
Acts 5:14. And believers were the more added to the Lord, both men and women.
Acts 5:12. (last clause.) And they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch.
Acts 5:12. (first clause.) And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people;
Acts 5:15. Insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, etc., etc.
How these different verses and clauses of verses, got so intermingled and confounded as they are now in our common text, I cannot tell; but the above will appear at once to be the natural order in which they should be placed.
That - the shadow of Peter passing by - I cannot see all the miraculous influence here that others profess to see. The people who had seen the miracles wrought by the apostles pressed with their sick to share the healing benefit: as there must have been many diseased people, it is not likely that the apostles, who generally addressed such persons, prayed and used imposition of hands, could reach all those that were brought to them, as fast as the solicitude of their friends could wish. As, therefore, they could not get Peter or the other apostles, personally, to all their sick, they thought if they placed them on that side of the way where the shadow was projected, (the sun probably now declining, and consequently the shadow lengthening), they should be healed by the shadow of the man passing over them, in whose person such miraculous powers were lodged. But it does not appear that the persons who thus thought and acted were of the number of those converts already made to the faith of Christ; nor does it appear that any person was healed in this way. The sacred penman simply relates the impression made on the people's minds; and how they acted in consequence of this impression. A popish writer, assuming that the shadow of Peter actually cured all on which it was projected, argues from this precarious principle in favor of the wonderful efficacy of relics! For, says he, "if the shadow of a saint can do so much, how much more may his bones, or any thing that was in contact with his person, perform!" Now, before this conclusion can be valid, it must be proved:
1. That the shadow of Peter did actually cure the sick;
2. That this was a virtue common to all the apostles;
3. That all eminent saints possess the same virtue;
4. That the bones, etc., of the dead, possess the same virtue with the shadow of the living;
5. That those whom they term saints were actually such;
6. That miracles of healing have been wrought by their relics;
7. That touching these relics as necessarily produces the miraculous healing as they suppose the shadow of Peter to have done.
I think there is not sufficient evidence here that Peter's shadow healed any one, though the people thought it could; but, allowing that it did, no evidence can be drawn from this that any virtue is resident in the relics of reputed or real saints, by which miraculous influence may be conveyed. It was only in rare cases that God enabled even an apostle to work a miracle.
After the words, might overshadow some of them, the Vulgate adds, et liberarentur ab infirmitatibus suis; a Greek MS. (E) has nearly the same words, και ῥυσθωσιν απο πασης ασθενειας ἡς ειχον, and that they might be freed from all the infirmities which they had: a few other MSS. agree in the main with this reading.