“And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them,”
King James Version (KJV)
4:1 And as they were speaking to the people, the priests - came upon them - So wisely did God order, that they should first bear a full testimony to the truth in the temple, and then in the great council; to which they could have had no access, had they not been brought before it as criminals.
Ac 4:1 Peter and John Before the Sanhedrin SUMMARY OF ACTS 4: The Arrest. The Trial Before the Sanhedrin. Peter's Reply. The Counsel of the Sanhedrists. Their Charge to Peter and John. The Appeal of Peter and John to the Higher Law. The Meeting of the Church for Prayer. The Divine Blessing. As they spake. Peter and John were both speaking, to separate groups probably. The priests. Those of the course then on duty in the temple. See PNT "Lu 1:5". The captain of the temple. The head of the temple police, who were composed of Levites, and whose duty it was to guard the sacred precincts. See Lu 22:4. And the Sadducees. See notes on Mt 3:7 22:23. They were rationalists, and denied the resurrection of the dead. Annas and Caiaphas, the ex-high priest and the acting high priest, were of the sect, and hence, though the sect was not numerous, it was now very powerful.