Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 6:13

οὗτος : here and in Acts 6:14 used contemptuously, iste, so Vulgate; cf. Acts 7:40; Acts 18:18; Acts 19:26, ὁ Παῦλος οὗτος. οὐ παύεται λαλῶν : the words in themselves are sufficient to indicate the exaggerated and biassed character of the testimony brought against Stephen “invidiam facere conantur,” Bengel, βλάσφημα omitted, see above. μάρτυρας ψευδεῖς, “false,” inasmuch as they perverted the meaning of Stephen's words, which were no blasphemy against Moses or against God, although no doubt he had taught the transitory nature of the Mosaic law, and that the true worship of God was not confined to the Temple (see Weizsäcker, Apostolic Age, i., 64, 83, E.T., and Wendt, p. 148 (1899)). So also in the very same manner Christ's words had been perverted (John 2:21, cf. Mark 14:56; Matthew 27:63), and it is likely enough that the spirit of His teaching as to the Sabbath, the laws of purifying, the fulfilling of the law, breathed again in the words of His disciples. But such utterances were blasphemous in the eyes of the Jewish legalists, and Stephen's own words, Acts 7:48-49, might well seem to them an affirmation rather than a denial of the charges brought against him. κατἀ τοῦ τόπου τοῦ ἁγίου τούτου : if τούτου is retained (W.H [198]), phrase could refer not only to the Temple as the holy place, but also to the place of assembly of the Sanhedrim, where according to Acts 6:15 the charge was brought, which was probably situated on the Temple Mount on the western side of the enclosing wall, Schürer, Jewish People, div. ii., vol. i., p. 190, E.T., so Hilgenfeld and Wendt, and also Blass, who adds “itaque etiam τούτου (, cf. 14) recte se habet,” although he omits the word in his own text. Weiss thinks that the word dropped out because it could have no reference to a scene in the Sanhedrim.

[198] Westcott and Hort's The New Testament in Greek: Critical Text and Notes.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

Acts 6:13

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