Acts 4:3 (DBY)

Passage

and they laid hands on them, and put them in ward till the morrow; for it was already evening.

Nearby Context

Acts 4:1 And as they were speaking to the people, the priests and captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them,

Acts 4:2 being distressed on account of their teaching the people and preaching by Jesus the resurrection from among [the] dead;

Acts 4:3 and they laid hands on them, and put them in ward till the morrow; for it was already evening.

Acts 4:4 But many of those who had heard the word believed; and the number of the men had become [about] five thousand.

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

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "laid", "hands", "ward", "till", "morrow", "already", and "evening". 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 distressed on account of their teaching..." into verse 4's "But many of those who had heard...", 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.