midst” (v. 7) implies that the judges were seated in a semicircle so that they could see one another, as the Jewish tradition states (the Mishnah, cited in Knowling, Expos. Greek Test., II, p. 125). They were asking, the imperfect tense, indicates a stern session of grilling. “By what power or by what name did you do this?” The word order in Greek puts the you at the very end of the sentence for scornful emphasis (“people like you,” F. F. Bruce, Acts, NIC, p. 99). There was no formal charge against the
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