Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Acts 7:58

ἔξω τῆς πόλεως, out of the city. In accordance with the Law (Leviticus 24:14) the person to be stoned must be carried without the camp, and to the people of Jerusalem the walls of the city were as the limits of the camp. Though there was much popular excitement exhibited in this proceeding, we are not to think that it was looked upon by those who were actors in it as other than the carrying out of the law.

There was a place set apart for such punishment. The person to be stoned was placed on an elevation twice the height of a man, from whence with his hands bound he was thrown down, and then a stone as much as two men could carry was rolled down upon him by the witnesses, after which all the people present cast stones upon him.

καὶ οἱ μάρτυρες, and the witnesses, who must take a prominent part in the infliction of the penalty.

τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτῶν, their clothes, i.e. their loose outer garments, that they might be more ready for the task which they had to discharge. The law which ordained that the first stone should be thrown by the witnesses (Deuteronomy 17:7) was meant to restrain hasty accusation. Men would only bring an accusation for grave reasons when they knew that their own hands must be first upon the condemned person.

νεανίου, of a young man. Saul was already of such an age that the authorities could entrust him (Acts 9:2) with the duty of going to Damascus to arrest the Christians in that city. The Greek word is applied to persons up to the age of forty. In the Epistle to Philemon (9) St Paul speaks of himself as aged. That Epistle was probably written about A. D. 63, and the death of Stephen took place about A.D. 35, therefore Saul may well have been then between 30 and 40 years of age.

καλουμένου Σαύλου, called Saul. The name is the same as that of the first King of Israel, and signifies ‘one asked for’ (i.e. in prayer). This Saul was also of the tribe of Benjamin, and had come from his home at Tarsus in Cilicia to attend on the lessons of the great teacher Gamaliel (Philippians 3:5-6; Acts 22:3).

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

Acts 7:58

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