Acts 4:21 (LSB)

Passage

And when they had threatened them further, they let them go (finding no basis on which to punish them) on account of the people, because they were all glorifying God for what had happened;

Nearby Context

Acts 4:19 But Peter and John answered and said to them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to hear you rather than God, you be the judge;

Acts 4:20 for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

Acts 4:21 And when they had threatened them further, they let them go (finding no basis on which to punish them) on account of the people, because they were all glorifying God for what had happened;

Acts 4:22 for the man was more than forty years old on whom this sign of healing had occurred.

Acts 4:23 So when they were released, they went to their own companions and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said to them.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "threatened", "further", "finding", "basis", "punish", "account", "people", and "glorifying". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "threatened" and "further", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 20's "for we cannot stop speaking about what..." into verse 22's "for the man was more than forty...", so "threatened" and "further" 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 "threatened" and "further" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.