Scenes from Acts by Western Painters #4: Acts 3:1-10

St. Peter healing a lame man

Nathan N May 26, 2026

I describe the event and painting, give a new translation of the relevant text, and write a short reflection.

Event and Painting

Up until now, the depictions of the Acts in the paintings of the west have focused on Pentecost. We move now to a later time. I make two comments up front—one about the narrative development coming into Chapter 3 and one about its historical context.

As regards the narrative, Luke begins a “technique” here of storytelling which he will repeat in numerous places as his account unfolds. The method is first to summarize the state of things with respect to a certain reality (in this case, the working of many wonders through the hands of the apostles in Jerusalem—Acts 2:43), and then to offer a narration of a special example of the phenomenon (here, the miraculous healing of a lame man, Acts 3:1-10). This summary and expansion happens in numerous places as the narrative unfolds (many sell their properties in 4:32-35; then Barnabas, Ananias, and Sapphira are the focus in 4:36-5:11; seven are commissioned as servants among the Hellenists in 6:1-7, then Stephen, and later, Phillip, are the focus in Acts 7-8; etc.). These accounts stand in their own right as unique historical traditions, but then also as a typification of some experience in the earliest church. So, presently, many were being healed, but the account of this cripple takes on a special significance for its resonances with the ministry of Jesus and its occasioning of a collision between Peter and John and the Sanhedrin.

As regards the historical context, it is clear that the earliest forms of devotion to Jesus grow first under the auspices of the temple in Jerusalem. Of course, the temple had suffered indictments in the ministry of Jesus, but their separating force was latent at present, only to be fully revealed in time to come. For now, it is no surprise that Peter and John come into the temple for the prayer service, but what may surprise is their new span of attention. They cut no figure of subservience to the liturgies of temple worship which, like all liturgies, if attended to only religiously become spiritually arthritic.

Not so on this occasion. Amid the afternoon din of movement and voices, a would-be fixture in the background is called to the fore; what comes next is a marvel.

More than one Renaissance great tried his hand at depicting it. Raphael’s would be the most well-known, in tapestry form. There was also Masolino, whose work we have seen in the previous two paintings. We will move from Masolino and, alas, pass over the master too (Raphael’s cartoons will feature later; the influence of Raphael is clear and obvious in the present work in any event). And while I am but a dilettante, I share here the painting which evokes in me a sensitivity to the account.

It is by the seventeenth century French painter Nicolas Poussin, and is housed in New York at the MET.

Translation and Commentary (Acts 3:1-10)

Now Peter and John were going up into the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour, and a certain man, crippled from his mother’s womb, was being carried, who was laid every day at the gate of the temple called “Beautiful” to beg for alms from those going into the temple. When he saw Peter and John as they were about to enter into the temple, he asked them to give him alms. Staring intently at him, Peter, with John, said “look at us” and the man paid them heed, expecting to receive something from them. And Peter said: “There is no silver and gold with me, but what I have, I give to you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth—walk!” And taking his right hand, he raised him up. And immediately the man’s feet and ankles were made sound and, jumping up, he stood and began to walk around. And he went in with them into the temple, walking and leaping and praising God. And all the people saw him walking and praising God and they recognized him, that it was he who was sitting and begging for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple, and they were filled with awe and ecstasy at what happened to him.

Why would a beggar who “saw” Peter and John need to hearken to the following command to “look at us”? The answer reveals a realism that is obvious to any who have walked with crowds around such poor souls. They see you and everyone else, and even watch you, but pay you no real attention since they are attending to everyone and expecting nothing. Peter thus stares at him and commands his attention, and there may well be something to this in the different words used for seeing and looking.

Money time? How about a Gospel tract? It turns out that Peter carries no purse for offerings, and is not eager to pass the man away with any other tokens of mere goodwill. Yet he does not, for this reason, steal past the man with dismissal as so many do. The two come face to face, and in this slight the broader juxtapositions of what one has, and does not have, are on full display:

They are walking, he is lame;

all have money; he has none;

They move in and out, he stays fixed;

Peter and John have Jesus, he has no one.

And then: “what I have, I give to you. . .” The power of the name of Jesus Christ.

A spiritual drama unfolds, for there in the body of inert man is a picture of the souls of all others. The ring of historical truth will be found in the account that follows, as a crowd gathers under the colonnade named for Solomon and the ire of the Sanhedrin is kindled, resulting in oppression that begins to spell the end of the freedom of the believers in Jesus the temple.