Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men. By the one word х agrammatoi (G62)] they mean 'men uninstructed in the learning of the Jewish schools;' and by the other х idiootai (G2399)], 'men of the common sort,' from whom such intelligence and such a bearing were not to be looked for.
They took knowledge of them, [ epeginooskon (G1921 ), or 'recognized them,'] that they had been with Jesus - or identified them as persons whom they had seen before in company with Jesus; their wonder sharpening their recollection. So Meyer, Alford, Baumgarten, Hackett, Lechler, etc., understand this remarkable statement; and perhaps they are right. But the historian's remark may mean rather, that in the whole demeanour of these men the Council observed what irresistibly brought Jesus Himself before their view, as He had stood before them but a few weeks before, and convinced them that their contact with Him was what had stamped upon them this calm, lofty heroism: 'We thought we had gotten rid of Him; but, lo! He re-appears in these men, and all that troubled us in the Nazarene Himself has yet to be put down in these His disciples.' What a testimony to these primitive witnesses! Would that the same could be said of their successors!