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Acts 4:26-27

The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take council together, against the Lord, and against his Christ.’

“For truly, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed,

World English Bible · Public Domain
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Acts 4:26-27 sits inside this longer paragraph.

The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take council together, against the Lord, and against his Christ.’

“For truly, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed, to do whatever your hand and your council foreordained to happen. Now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy Servant Jesus.”

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Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take council together, against the Lord, and against his Christ.’

    “For truly, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together against your holy servant, Jesus, whom you anointed,

  • TYNDALE Tyndale New Testament (1534)

    The kynges of the erth stode vp and the rulars came to gedder agaynst the Lorde and agaynst his Christ.

    For of a trueth agaynst thy holy chylde Iesus whom thou hast annoynted bothe Herode and also Poncius Pylate with the Gentils and the people of Israel gaddered them selves to gedder

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  • GNV Geneva Bible (1599)

    The Kings of the earth assembled, and the rulers came together against the Lord, and against his Christ.

    For doutlesse, against thine holy Sonne Iesus, whome thou haddest anoynted, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel gathered themselues together,

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Examined in Scripture Analysis

Contradictions (1)

Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.

  • Should you obey your rulers?

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Cross-references (58)

  • Psalms 2:2 (vv26–27) The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against Yahweh, and against his Anointed, saying,
  • Revelation 17:12-14 (v26) The ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one…
  • Daniel 9:24 (v26) “Seventy weeks are decreed on your people and on your holy city, to finish disobedience, and to make an end of sins, and to make…
  • Psalms 83:2-8 (v26) For, behold, your enemies are stirred up. Those who hate you have lifted up their heads. They conspire with cunning against your people.…
  • Matthew 27:2 (v27) and they bound him, and led him away, and delivered him up to Pontius Pilate, the governor.
Show all 55 cross-references
  • Acts 10:38 (vv26–27) even Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were…
  • Acts 4:30 (v27) while you stretch out your hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy Servant Jesus.”
  • Luke 9:22 (v27) saying, “The Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and the third…
  • Hebrews 1:9 (v26) You have loved righteousness and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.”
  • Luke 4:18 (vv26–27) “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to…
  • Joel 3:9-14 (v26) Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war! Stir up the mighty men. Let all the warriors draw near. Let them come up. Beat your…
  • Revelation 17:17 (v26) For God has put in their hearts to do what he has in mind, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of…
  • Job 14:4 (v27) Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.
  • Job 15:14 (v27) What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
  • Job 25:4 (v27) How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?
  • Psalms 2:6 (v27) “Yet I have set my King on my holy hill of Zion.”
  • Psalms 45:7 (v27) You have loved righteousness, and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness above your fellows.
  • Isaiah 49:7 (v27) Yahweh, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, says to him whom man despises, to him whom the nation abhors, to a servant of rulers:…
  • Isaiah 53:3 (v27) He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face;…
  • Isaiah 61:1 (v27) The Lord Yahweh’s Spirit is on me, because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken…
  • Zechariah 11:7-8 (v27) So I fed the flock of slaughter, especially the oppressed of the flock. I took for myself two staffs. The one I called “Favor”, and the…
  • Matthew 2:13-16 (v27) Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise and take the young child and his…
  • Matthew 14:1 (v27) At that time, Herod the tetrarch heard the report concerning Jesus,
  • Matthew 20:18-19 (v27) “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to…
  • Matthew 21:28 (v27) But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first, and said, ‘Son, go work today in my vineyard.’
  • Matthew 23:37 (v27) “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets, and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children…
  • Matthew 26:3-4 (v27) Then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people were gathered together in the court of the high priest, who was called…
  • Matthew 26:59-68 (v27) Now the chief priests, the elders, and the whole council sought false testimony against Jesus, that they might put him to death; and they…
  • Matthew 27:11-36 (v27) Now Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said to him, “So you say.”…
  • Matthew 27:40-43 (v27) and saying, “You who destroy the temple, and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!”…
  • Mark 10:33 (v27) “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes. They will condemn him to…
  • Mark 14:1-2 (v27) It was now two days before the feast of the Passover and the unleavened bread, and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might…
  • Mark 14:43-65 (v27) Immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, came—and with him a multitude with swords and clubs, from the chief…
  • Mark 15:1-27 (v27) Immediately in the morning the chief priests, with the elders and scribes, and the whole council, held a consultation, bound Jesus, carried…
  • Mark 15:31 (v27) Likewise, also the chief priests mocking among themselves with the scribes said, “He saved others. He can’t save himself.
  • Luke 1:35 (v27) The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one…
  • Luke 13:31-33 (v27) On that same day, some Pharisees came, saying to him, “Get out of here, and go away, for Herod wants to kill you.” He said to them, “Go and…
  • Luke 18:31-33 (v27) He took the twelve aside, and said to them, “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all the things that are written through the prophets…
  • Luke 20:13-19 (v27) The lord of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son. It may be that seeing him, they will respect him.’ “But when…
  • Luke 22:1-6 (v27) Now the feast of unleavened bread, which is called the Passover, was approaching. The chief priests and the scribes sought how they might…
  • Luke 22:47-52 (v27) While he was still speaking, behold, a multitude, and he who was called Judas, one of the twelve, was leading them. He came near to Jesus…
  • Luke 22:63–23:5 (v27) The men who held Jesus mocked him and beat him. Having blindfolded him, they struck him on the face and asked him, “Prophesy! Who is the…
  • Luke 23:7-38 (v27) When he found out that he was in Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem during those days. Now when Herod…
  • John 1:11 (v27) He came to his own, and those who were his own didn’t receive him.
  • John 10:36 (v27) do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God?’
  • John 18:19-24 (v27) The high priest therefore asked Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching. Jesus answered him, “I spoke openly to the world. I…
  • John 18:28–19:24 (v27) They led Jesus therefore from Caiaphas into the Praetorium. It was early, and they themselves didn’t enter into the Praetorium, that they…
  • John 19:34 (v27) However one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out.
  • Acts 2:27 (v27) because you will not leave my soul in Hades, neither will you allow your Holy One to see decay.
  • Acts 3:13-14 (v27) The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up, and denied in the…
  • Hebrews 7:26 (v27) For such a high priest was fitting for us: holy, guiltless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
  • Revelation 11:15 (v26) The seventh angel sounded, and great voices in heaven followed, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the Kingdom of our Lord, and…
  • Revelation 12:10 (v26) I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, the power, and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ has…
  • John 18:1-14 (v27) When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples over the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, into which he and his…
  • Revelation 19:16-21 (v26) He has on his garment and on his thigh a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” I saw an angel standing in the sun. He cried…

55 distinct cross-references across this passage (58 total citations).

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

Explain this passage (17 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv26–27 26. Against the Lord, and his Christ. The Spirit…

26. Against the Lord, and his Christ. The Spirit teacheth by this word, that all those do make war against God which refuse to submit themselves to Christ; they do full little think this oftentimes, notwithstanding it is so that because God will reign in the person of his Son alone, we refuse to obey him so often as we rebel against Christ, as the Lord himself saith in John, “He which honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father.” Wherefore let the hypocrites profess a thousand times that they mean nothing less than to make war against God, yet shall they find this true, that God is their open enemy, unless they embrace Christ with his gospel. The use of this doctrine is double, for it armeth us against all the terrors of the flesh, because we must not fear, lest they get the victory of God which withstand the gospel. Again, we must beware, lest, through the contempt of godly doctrine, we advance ourselves against God to our own destruction.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On v27 Although the people of Israel was but one people,…
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv26–27 26 The kings of the earth stood up, and…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv26–27 These words do not vary in sense from what…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv26–27 The kings of the earth stood up,.... Herod Antipas,…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v27 Whom thou hast anointed - To be king of…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv26–27 Verse 26. Against the Lord and against his Christ.]…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv26–27 The kings of the earth - The Psalmist specifies…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv26–27 26. Heathen, people, kings, rulers, are all in array…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On v27 27. For of a truth] Here the best MSS.…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv26–27 (26) And against his Christ.—The question whether the word…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv26–27 Set themselves in array for stood up, A.V.; Anointed…
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain On vv26–27 Act 4:19 - Act 4:31.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On vv26–27 See notes on verse 23
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On vv26–27 Lord Jehovah. Psa 2:2.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv26–27 Connecting Statement:
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v26 4:26 The Hebrew term Messiah (“anointed one”) originally referred…
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