Paragraph 5:33–40

5:33a

When the Council members heard this: The word this refers to Peter’s reply in 5:29–32. In some languages “that” would indicate the correct meaning. For example:

When they heard that
-or-
When they heard those words

the Council members: This phrase refers to the Jewish leaders. In some languages that may be unclear. For example:

the leaders (New Century Version)

they were enraged: The word enraged means that they were very angry.

5:33b

they resolved:
The Greek tense indicates that it was not only at that moment that they decided to do this. They had wanted to do this from the time Peter spoke 5:29–32 until the time Gamaliel convinced them to not kill the apostles (5:40). For example:

were wanting (LEB)
-or-
began wanting

to put the apostles to death: The Greek word is more literally “remove them.” Here it is a figure of speech that means “kill as a punishment for a crime.” The apostles had not done anything worthy of a sentence of death, but the leaders were so angry that they wanted to kill them in this way. Here are some other ways to translate this:

execute (God’s Word)
-or-
kill (Revised Standard Version)

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