INTRODUCTION. THE SPEECH OF STEPHEN BEFORE THE SANHEDRIM. _The Main Argument._ The speech began with a grave and earnest defence of himself and his teaching, in the form of an elaborate historical argument, and passed imperceptibly into a passionate attack on his accusers and judges. He represente... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:1. Then said the high priest, Are these things so? A hush seems to have fallen on the council as they watched that strange unearthly brightness light up the countenance of the accused, and in silence all gazed on the rapt expression of that face which seemed to his enemies the face of an ange... [ Continue Reading ]
_First Division of the Speech,_ 2-16. _The Age of the Patriarchs Abraham and Joseph._ (a) Acts 7:2-8. _ABRAHAM THE FATHER OF THE FAITHFUL._ Stephen relates the well-known incident, fraught with such mighty consequences for the chosen people, of the appearance of the visible glory of the Lord to the... [ Continue Reading ]
EXCURSUS. On certain alleged Discrepancies in Stephen's Speech. A great deal has been written upon certain supposed inaccuracies which occur in the speech of Stephen, as given in the seventh chapter of the Acts. The case stands thus. In his rapid review of Old Testament history, some few statement... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:2 _._ THE GOD OF GLORY APPEARED UNTO OUR FATHER ABRAHAM. That is, this God whose peculiar characteristic in the eyes of the Hebrew people was that visible shining brightness, that outward expression of majesty, the celestial splendour, which as a pillar of fire guided the desert wanderings, w... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:4. WHEN HIS FATHER WAS DEAD. For remarks upon this and the other alleged discrepancies between the statements advanced by Stephen and those contained in the Old Testament history, see the detailed remarks on the short Excursus below. A strange interpretation of the expression ‘was dead,' has... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:5. AND HE GAVE HIM NONE INHERITANCE IN IT, NO, NOT SO MUCH AS TO SET HIS FOOT ON. This is confirmed by the circumstances related in Acts 7:16, where we read how the very grave of the patriarchs in the Promised Land was purchased by Abraham from the possessors and princes of the country.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:6. AND GOD SPAKE ON THIS WISE. Stephen here quotes the passage to which he had been previously alluding, with a very slight variation, from the LXX. of Genesis 15:14-15, the very words spoken by the Eternal to Abraham His friend, containing the promise, and also an intimation that its fulfilm... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:7. AND SERVE ME IN THIS PLACE. A quotation from the words of the Eternal spoken to Moses in the burning bush on Mount Horeb: ‘In this place' that is, where I now speak to thee. In the passage of Exodus 3:12, the words are: ‘Ye shall serve God upon the mountain,' again reminding the elders of... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:8. AND HE GAVE HIM THE COVENANT OF CIRCUMCISION: AND SO ABRAHAM BEGAT ISAAC. That is, God made with him the covenant, of which circumcision is the outward sign; and so (οὕτως _thus),_ in accordance with the terms of the covenant, God gave a son to Abraham, and Abraham, on his part, circumcise... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:9. THE PATRIARCHS. The sons of Jacob received the title of ‘patriarchs' as being the ancestors of the twelve tribes (πατρεαί, LXX.). This is the first mention of that jealous, hardhearted spirit in Israel which, as Stephen proceeds with the story of the chosen people, becomes so sorrowfully p... [ Continue Reading ]
_(b) Acts 7:9-16_. _Joseph._ Passing from the first appearance of the visible glory to the great ancestor, and the promise made by the Eternal to him, a wanderer without land and without a home, after glancing at the fortunes of his immediate descendants, who still enjoyed the special protection of... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:10. AND WISDOM. This, of course, includes Joseph's interpretation of the royal dreams, but has more especial reference to his wisdom in striking out a new system of governing the land of Egypt, and of administering and developing the finances of that great kingdom. PHARAOH. This is not a pr... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:12. THERE WAS CORN IN EGYPT. Egypt was the great corn-growing country of the old world. In later times it became the principal granary of Rome (see Acts 27:6-38).... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:13. JOSEPH'S KINDRED WAS MADE KNOWN UNTO PHARAOH. The name of Joseph is repeated (it occurred before in this verse) with some pride by Stephen. The fact of these wandering shepherd ancestors of the Jews being presented at the court of the magnificent Pharaoh of Egypt as the near kinsfolk of t... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:14. AND CALLED HIS FATHER JACOB, AND ALL HIS KINDRED, THREESCORE AND FIFTEEN SOULS. Another memory of Divine favour which Stephen knew would be very grateful to the zealous Jews who sat as judges in that stern council. How the Eternal must have loved the people and prospered them! for from th... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:17. THE PEOPLE GREW AND MULTIPLIED IN EGYPT. They increased so rapidly in power as well as in numbers, that the jealousy of the reigning dynasty was excited against them. The marvellous increase of the little shepherd family, who had been settled in Egypt some two hundred years previously by... [ Continue Reading ]
_Second Division of the Speech,_ 17-36. _The Age of Moses._ The second part of the defence commences with the long-looked-for approach of the time when ‘the promise,' now centuries old, should be fulfilled. Nothing apparently seemed less likely than that that vast horde of enslaved dispirited childr... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:18. TILL ANOTHER KING AROSE, WHICH KNEW NOT JOSEPH. This new king was Amasis or Ahmes, the first of the eighteenth dynasty, or that of the Diospolitans from Thebes. It is probable that this oppressor of the Hebrews was the first native prince who reigned after the expulsion of the Hyksos or s... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:19. THE SAME DEALT SUBTILELY WITH OUR KINDRED, AND EVIL ENTREATED OUR FATHERS, SO THAT THEY CAST OUT THEIR YOUNG CHILDREN, TO THE END THEY MIGHT NOT LIVE. Meyer and Hackett understand the language of this verse as setting forth the cruel policy of Pharaoh towards the children of Israel; in ot... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:20. IN WHICH TIME. That is, in this season of terror and of bitter oppression. MOSES WAS born, and was exceeding fair. Tradition writes of him as ‘being beautiful as an angel.' Josephus speaks of his Divine beauty. Philo also called especial attention to it, and tells as how ‘those who met... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:21. PHARAOH'S DAUGHTER. Josephus tells that the name of this princess was Thermutis. TOOK HIM UP surely signifies, ‘lifted him up out of the water.' This is better than to understand the words, as does de Wette, and also Hackett, in the sense of ‘adopted.' The next sentence goes on with the... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:22. AND MOSES WAS LEARNED IN ALL THE WISDOM OF THE EGYPTIANS. Egypt was even at that early period famed for her learning, for her proficiency in art and science. We find the wisest of the Greeks visiting this land in search of wisdom. It is reasonable to suppose that ‘the adopted' of Pharaoh'... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:23. AND, WHEN HE WAS FULL FORTY YEARS OLD. The Hebrews lived in a separate district of their own, and Moses, one of the royal family, the adopted son of the daughter of the Pharaoh, no doubt during these first forty years of his life had little to do with his kinsmen. In this verse and in Act... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:24. SUFFER WRONG. That is, injured by blows, as in Exodus 2:11. AND SMOTE THE EGYPTIAN. He struck the Egyptian who did the wrong so as to kill him. ‘The Egyptian,' simply without any previous allusion, because the story was so well known.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:25. HE SUPPOSED HIS BRETHREN WOULD HAVE UNDERSTOOD. Some communication had probably taken place between him and his kinsmen since the time when it had first come into Moses' heart to visit his brethren; and now such an act on the part of a kinsman holding so exalted a rank in Egypt ought to h... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:27. WHO MADE THEE A RULER AND A JUDGE OVER US? The words of these Israelites evidently express the general feelings of all the people toward Moses at this juncture, and so he understood them.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:28-29. WILT THOU KILL ME, AS THOU DIDDEST THE EGYPTIAN YESTERDAY? THEN FLED MOSES AT THIS SAYING. De Wette calls attention here to the history of Exodus, which relates how Moses, after his public act of rebellion against the state policy towards the Hebrews, fled from the face of Pharaoh, who... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:30. IN THE WILDERNESS OF MOUNT SINAI. In Exodus 3:1, the flaming fire in the bush appeared to Moses at Horeb. In the Pentateuch, the names of Sinai and Horeb appear to be used indiscriminately. In the New Testament and in Josephus, the name Sinai only occurs. Horeb appears really to be the ge... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:33. PUT OFF THY SHOES FROM THY FEET: FOR THE PLACE WHERE THOU STANDEST IS HOLY GROUND. It was, and is still, in the East a mark of reverence to take off the shoes or sandals in the presence of a superior. The manifestation of the Deity made the space round the bush holy ground. In our own tim... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:34. AND AM COME DOWN TO DELIVER THEM. That is, from His throne in heaven. This is the ordinary language used when speaking of the Eternal in His relations with men. So Isaiah 66:1: ‘Thus saith the Lord, Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool.'... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:35. THIS MOSES. Very impressively and with marked emphasis, Stephen, in Acts 7:35-38, four times repeats the demonstrative pronoun thus: ‘This Moses,' ‘This is that Moses,' ‘This is he,' etc., whom the children of Israel refused, but whom God marked with such distinguished honour. By men reje... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:36. HE BROUGHT THEM OUT, AFTER THAT HE SHOWED WONDERS AND SIGNS. Drawing the noble picture contained in this and the preceding verses of Moses ‘our Rabbi,' as the Jews love to call him, of whom they are so proud, Stephen shows how utterly absurd was any charge brought against him of blasphemy... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:37. THIS IS THAT MOSES, WHICH SAID UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, A PROPHET SHALL THE LORD YOUR GOD RAISE UP UNTO YOU, LIKE UNTO ME (see note on Acts 3:22). While speaking generally of the singular favour which Moses enjoyed, Stephen instances, Acts 7:37-38, two circumstances of that Divine fav... [ Continue Reading ]
_Third Division of Stephens Speech._ Acts 7:37-53. _Moses and the Prophets._ Moses is again the central figure of the history, but now he stands forward as the great deliverer of the people. Stephen has described (Acts 7:36) his marvellous powers, and now shows how, in his constant communion with un... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:38. THIS IS HE, THAT WAS IN THE CHURCH IN THE WILDERNESS. ‘God's church,' writes Wordsworth here, ‘is not limited to _Judæ._ It was in the _wilderness;_ and _there_ Moses, your great lawgiver, was with it; and remember he _died_ there in the wilderness, and was never permitted to enter the Pr... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:39. AND IN THEIR HEARTS TURNED BACK AGAIN INTO EGYPT. They were weary of the severe restraints imposed by the worship of Jehovah, and longed for the idol service of Egypt, and the enjoyment of the licence which was permitted and even sanctioned in most of those ancient systems of idolatry.... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:40. GODS TO GO BEFORE US. As the glory of Jehovah had done in the pillar of cloud and fire, and had guided them and led them up through the Red Sea, out of the land of Egypt. AS FOR THIS MOSES... WE WOT NOT WHAT IS BECOME OF HIM. This was spoken during Moses' stay in the mount of God, when,... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:41. AND THEY MADE A CALF IN THOSE DAYS. The famous golden calf, made originally under the direction of the high priest Aaron, while his brother was in the mount of God, and which was subsequently destroyed by Moses, seems to have been a representation not of a calf, but of a full-grown bull,... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:42. THEN GOD TURNED. That is, changed towards them, withdrew from them His favour, laid no check upon their passions and follies (see Acts 14:16); and they, abandoned by their God and left to themselves, sunk into a more degraded form of idolatry still. THE HOST OF HEAVEN. The stars and the... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:43. YEA, YE TOOK UP THE TABERNACLE OF MOLOCH. This Tabernacle was a small portable tent which sheltered the image of the idol; this they carried about with them from one place of encampment to another in solemn procession, in imitation of the Tabernacle constructed by Moses after the pattern... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:44. OUR FATHERS HAD THE TABERNACLE OF WITNESS IN THE WILDERNESS. The mention of this Tabernacle of Moloch reminds Stephen that he has not yet spoken of the true Tabernacle, where the Eternal had borne witness of Himself, and of the holy Temple, which occupied subsequently the place of the Tab... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:45. WHICH ALSO OUR FATHERS... BROUGHT IN WITH JOSHUA. Stephen is here rapidly sketching the history of the sacred tent of the Witness, which continued to be the sanctuary not merely in the wilderness, but in the land of Canaan, until the age of King Solomon. Our fathers, he says, received it... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:47. BUT SOLOMON BUILT HIM AN HOUSE. The argument of Stephen here may be paraphrased thus: ‘The Temple, against which you accuse me of having spoken blasphemous words, because I pointed out [as did my Master] that it was a building which would not endure for ever, was first built, not by David... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:48. HOWBEIT THE MOST HIGH DWELLETH NOT IN TEMPLES. The temple was built at last, but the wise king, its builder, at the solemn dedication, seemed to foresee the superstitious reverence with which they afterwards came to regard this work of man's hand, when, in his beautiful prayer to Jehovah,... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:51. YE STIFF-NECKED AND UNCIRCUMCISED IN HEART AND EARS. Thus far had Stephen pursued his great argument calmly and without passion, though, as one great division of the history after the other passed before him in review, his style became more fervid, and the reproachful allusions less and l... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:52. THE JUST ONE. This title was used by the Jews as a designation of the Messiah. ‘This sentence (of Stephen's) seems to have been in the mind of the second apostolic martyr at Jerusalem, St. James, when he wrote his epistle a little before his own martyrdom,' James 5:6 (Wordsworth).... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:53. WHO HAVE RECEIVED THE LAW BY THE DISPOSITION OF ANGELS. That is to say, ‘the Divine law of Moses was announced to Israel, in the first place, by the holy angels acting as the ministers of the Eternal King of heaven; and this glorious law, written by Jehovah and specially communicated to t... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:54. AND THEY GNASHED ON HIM WITH THEIR TEETH. Bitterly as the Sanhedrim felt the sting of Stephen's reproachful words, as yet they had not proceeded to open violence; this was not used until the open adoration of the Crucified, occasioned by the vision of glory (related in Acts 7:55-56), move... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:55. AND SAW THE GLORY OF GOD, AND JESUS. ‘The scene before his eyes was no longer the council hall at Jerusalem, and the circle of his infuriated judges; but he gazed up into the endless courts of the celestial Jerusalem, with its innumerable company of angels, and saw Jesus, in whose righteo... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:56. THE SON OF MAN. This Messianic name, which first appears in the vision of Daniel (Acts 7:13), was a title which Christ often gave to Himself when on earth, but which was never applied to Him after His resurrection by any of the apostles or evangelists, except by Stephen here (Revelation 1... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:57. THEN THEY CRIED OUT WITH A LOUD VOICE. When they heard Stephen in his awful joy saying that he beheld ‘the Crucified' encircled with the visible glory, thus boldly confessing that the Shekinah belonged to Jesus of Nazareth, they could contain themselves no longer; the purport of their cri... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:58. AND CAST HIM OUT OF THE CITY. By the law of Moses (Leviticus 24:14-16), these executions were to take place _outside the camp._ When the people had settled in the land of Canaan, each walled town was considered as representing the camp. For an example of this custom, see the account of th... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:59. AND THEY STONED STEPHEN. Twice the writer of the ‘Acts' tells us this, a remarkable repetition in a history usually so sparing in its details. It would seem to point (as perhaps also does the tense of the Greek verb used here) to a somewhat lengthened duration of the agony. No mortal inju... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:60. AND HE KNEELED DOWN. Some would explain these words as though this kneeling posture was caused by the stones falling thickly around and upon him; so the writer in the well-known _Diet, of the Bible_ (Dr. Smith's): ‘As the first volley of stones burst upon him, he called upon the Master...... [ Continue Reading ]