Acts 4:20
18 Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus.
19 But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to listen to you rather than God.
For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
21 After further threats they let them go. They could not find a way to punish them, because all the people were glorifying God for what had happened.
22 For the man who was miraculously healed was over forty years old.
Here the Bible tells a story about someone else. Ask yourself what it can say to us today. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- For we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”
- KJV
- For we can not but speak the things which we have seen and heard.
- WEB
- for we can’t help telling the things which we saw and heard.”
- ASV
- for we cannot but speak the things which we saw and heard.
- DARBY
- for as for us *we* cannot refrain from speaking of the things which we have seen and heard.
- BLB
- For we are unable to stop speaking [about] what we saw and heard.”
- ÅB
- for vi kan ikke la være å tale om det som vi har sett og hørt.
- OTB
- For vi kan ikke la være å fortelle om det vi har sett og hørt.»
- B1930
- for vi kan ikke la være å tale om det som vi har sett og hørt.
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
Jeremiah 20:9
If I say, “I will not mention Him or speak any more in His name,” His message becomes a fire burning in my heart, shut up in my bones, and I become weary of holding it in, and I cannot prevail.
Read in contextActs 22:15
You will be His witness to everyone of what you have seen and heard.
Read in context1 Corinthians 9:16–17
Yet when I preach the gospel, I have no reason to boast, because I am obligated to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!
Read in context1 John 1:1–3
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have gazed upon and touched with our own hands—this is the Word of life.
Read in contextEzekiel 3:11
Go to your people, the exiles; speak to them and tell them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says,’ whether they listen or refuse to listen.”
Read in contextActs 5:32
We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him.”
Read in contextActs 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Read in contextActs 10:39–41
We are witnesses of all that He did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. And although they put Him to death by hanging Him on a tree,
Read in context