Acts 3:11

Held Peter and John. There is some textual evidence (cf. p. 10) for the reading, “As Peter and John went out, he went along holding them; and those who were astonished stood in the porch called Solomon’s.” Such a reading helps to solve the problem of the location of the Beautiful Gate, and though probably not original, seems to be an early evidence in favor of its being identified as the Nicanor Gate (see on v. 2).

Porch. Gr. stoa, “portico,” “cloister.” No mention of a porch “that is called Solomon’s” is found in the original account of the building of the first Temple. Josephus (Antiquities xx. 9. 7) locates this porch on the east side of the Temple area. He says (War v. 5. 2 [190]) that it was distinguished by two rows of columns approximately 37 ft. (10.6 m.) high. This portico was named for Solomon probably because it included traces of the older building from Zerubbabel’s day. When Herod Agrippa I was completing his grandfather’s work the people sought to persuade him to raze this porch and to rebuild it, but he refused to do so.

Greatly wondering. It was from Solomon’s Porch, only a few months before, at the Feast of Dedication (John 10:22, 23), that Jesus had preached to the people on the works of God. The memory of what He had then said must have remained in the minds of the two disciples. The people had complained because Jesus did not frankly state whether He was the Christ (John 10:24-26), yet they were ready to stone Him when He claimed to be one with the Father (John 10:30-33). Now they hear Him proclaimed as “the Holy One and the Just,” as the “Prince of life,” as the very Christ, the Messiah of prophecy (Acts 3:14,15,18).