Bede : Finding out that these men were unlettered and ignorant, they marveled. Illiterate men are sent to preach, so that the faith of believers might not be thought to have been brought about by human eloquence and learning, but by the power of God, as the Apostle says: "Not in the wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect" (I Cor. I). For those were called idiotae who, content with their own language and natural knowledge, were unacquainted with the study of letters. Indeed, the Greeks call their own, ἴδιον. — Commentary on Acts Bede : But seeing the boldness of Peter and John, and realizing that they were unlettered and ordinary men, they marveled. "Unlettered" is said, not because they were ignorant of letters, but because they were not skilled in the art of grammar. For in Greek, it is more clearly, for this word, "ἀγράμματοι," that is, unlettered, and "idiotae" are called unskilled. Finally, in the Epistle to the Corinthians, where it is written: "And if unskilled in speech, yet not in knowledge" (2 Cor. XI), for "unskilled" in Greek it is "ἰδιώτης." — Retractions on Acts John Chrysostom : "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus." The two unlearned men beat down with their rhetoric them and the chief priests. For it was not they that spake, but the grace of the Spirit. — Homily on Acts 10 John Chrysostom : Behold another miracle not less than the former. "And beholding the boldness of Peter and John," etc. "And they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus." Not without a meaning has the Evangelist set down this passage; but in saying, "they recognized them that they had been with Jesus," he means, in His Passion: for only these were with Him at that time, and then indeed they had seen them humble, dejected: and this it was that most surprised them: the greatness of the change. For in fact Annas and Caiaphas with their company were there, and these then also had stood by Him, and their boldness now amazed them. "And beholding the boldness." For not only their words; their very bearing showed it; that they should stand there so intrepidly to be tried in a cause like this, and with uttermost peril impending over them! Not only by their words, but by their gesture also, and their look and voice, and, in short, by everything about them, they manifested the boldness with which they confronted the people. From the things they uttered, they marvelled, perhaps: "that they were unlearned and common men:" for one may be unlearned, yet not a common or private man, and a common man, yet not unlearned. "Having perceived," it says. Whence? From what they said? Peter does not draw out long speeches, but then by his very manner and method he declares his confidence. "And they recognized them that they had been with Jesus." Which circumstance made them believe that it was from Him they had learned these things, and that they did all in the character of His disciples. — Homily on Acts 10 Philoxenus of Mabbug : The chief priests of the Jews marvelled at the Apostles, because being simple and unlettered men they were making answers like wise men to questions concerning the life which is to come, and they became advocates of Christ through their simplicity. For Christ took foolish advocates to speak for Him, that through them He might the more proclaim the triumph of His wisdom, and that it might be known unto all men that it was not they who were speaking but He Who spoke in them; "They perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men; and they remembered that they had gone hither and thither with Jesus", and they marvelled at them. So then that simplicity should keep the commandments was also a marvellous thing, and that ignorant men should do what wise men could not was a thing to be wondered at. For if the priests had been acquainted with the Apostles before the time when they became wise men, and they had not spoken wisely, they would not have been greatly astonished at them, for they would have heard from them that which befitted their instruction; but they marvelled especially at them because they heard from them what they expected not, and they answered them with speech which was above the measure of all wise men, and through their simplicity Jesus triumphed, and His wisdom was proclaimed before all men. — 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 5 -- Second Discourse on Simplicity