Acts 4:3 (ASV)

Passage

And they laid hands on them, and put them in ward unto the morrow: for it was now eventide.

Nearby Context

Acts 4:1 And as they spake unto the people, the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them,

Acts 4:2 being sore troubled because they taught the people, and proclaimed in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

Acts 4:3 And they laid hands on them, and put them in ward unto the morrow: for it was now eventide.

Acts 4:4 But many of them that heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.

Acts 4:5 And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers and elders and scribes were gathered together in Jerusalem;

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "laid", "hands", "ward", "morrow", and "eventide". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "laid" and "hands", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 2's "being sore troubled because they taught the..." into verse 4's "But many of them that heard the...", so "laid" and "hands" belong inside that flow. In Acts context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "laid" and "hands" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.