Acts 6:13

And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law: AND SET UP FALSE WITNESSES, WHICH SAID, THIS MAN CEASETH NOT - a testimony to his unflagging zeal and AND SET UP FALSE WITNESSES, WHICH SAID, THIS MAN CEASETH NOT - a testimony to his unflagging zeal and activity, TO SPEAK [BLASPHEMOUS] WORDS AGAINST THIS HOLY PLACE, AND THE LAW. The true reading here seems to be 'to speak words against the holy place and the law [ Blasfeema (G989) and toutou (G5127) being insufficiently attested]....

8-15 When they could not answer Stephen's arguments as a disputant, they prosecuted him as a criminal, and brought false witnesses against him. And it is next to a miracle of providence, that no greater number of religious persons have been murdered in the world, by the way of perjury and pretence of law, when so many thousands hate them, who make no conscience of false oaths. Wisdom and holiness make a man's face to shine, yet will not secure men from being treated badly. What shall we say of man, a rational being, yet attempting to uphold a religious system by false witness and murder! And this has been done in numberless instances. But the blame rests not so much upon the understanding, as upon the heart of a fallen creature, which is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Yet the servant of the Lord, possessing a clear conscience, cheerful hope, and Divine consolations, m...

Verse Acts 6:13. _AGAINST THIS HOLY PLACE_] The _temple_, that it shall be destroyed. _AND THE LAW_] That it _cannot_ give _life_, nor save from _death_. It is very likely that they had heard him speak words to this amount, which were all as true as the spirit from which they proceeded; but they gave them a very false colouring, as we see in the succeeding verse....

AND SET UP FALSE WITNESSES - It has been made a question why these persons are called “false” witnesses, since it is supposed by many that they reported merely the “words” of Stephen. It may be replied that if they did report merely his “words”; if Stephen had actually said what they affirmed, yet they perverted his meaning. They accused him of “blasphemy”; that is, of calumnious and reproachful words against Moses and against God That Stephen had spoken in such a manner, or had designed to “reproach” Moses, there is no evidence. What was said in the mildest manner, and in the way of cool argument, might easily be perverted so as in “their view” to amount to blasphemy. But there is no evidence whatever that Stephen had ever used these words on any occasion, and it is altogether improbable that he ever did, for the following reasons: * Jesus himself never affirmed that he would destroy...

EXPOSITION ACTS 6:1 _Now in these _for _and in those, _A.V. (it is not ἐκείναις_, _answering to מהֵהָ מימַיָבַּ, but ταύταις); _multiplying _for _multiplied, _A.V._; Grecian Jews _for _Grecians, _A.V._ _THE GRECIAN JEWS; _the Hellenists, _for this is the appellation of them in the Greek; it means properly those who spoke Greek or otherwise followed Greek usages, applied to foreigners, here of course to Jews. Of a similar form and meaning is the word "to Judaize," translated "to live as do the Jews" (A.V., Galatians 2:14), and the forms "to Demosthenize," "to Platonize," "to Atticize," etc. The Hellenists were those Jews of the dispersion who lived in countries where Greek was spoken, and who th

AND SET UP FALSE WITNESSES,.... Having hired them, they brought them and set them before the sanhedrim, to bear witness against Stephen: WHICH SAID, THIS MAN; meaning Stephen, who was now before the council, at whom they pointed, and whose name, through contempt, they would not mention: CEASETH NOT TO SPEAK BLASPHEMOUS WORDS AGAINST THIS HOLY PLACE; either the city of Jerusalem, which is sometimes called the holy city, and which was foretold by the angel to Daniel, and by Christ, that it should be destroyed, and which Stephen might speak of; or rather the temple, so the Ethiopic version; in a part of which, or in a place contiguous to it, the sanhedrim might now be sitting: AND THE LAW; the ceremonial law: the sense is, that Stephen was continually telling the people, that in a little time their temple would be destroyed, and an end be put to temple worship, and to all the rituals and...

ACTS 6:13 lalw/n r`h,mata Instead of lalw/n r`h,mata the Textus Receptus reads r`h,mata bla,sfhma lalw/n with E H P _al_ arm; bla,sfhma is an interpolation from ver. Acts 6:11....

CHAPTER 6 _ 1. The Murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews (Acts 6:1)._ 2. Stephen; His Ministry and Arrest (Acts 6:8). Another failure is brought before us. The enemy acts again. From without and from within Satan pressed upon that which was of God. While the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit acted in Grace and power, the enemy came in to disturb. It is still so. Whenever there is a door opened there are also many adversaries (1 Corinthians 16:9). The flesh manifested itself in murmuring. The assembly took care of the poor; widows being specially helpless, were the objects of daily ministrations. The Jews themselves in connection with the synagogue had special funds for them. They must h

ATTACK ON STEPHEN. This Hellenist Christian draws upon himself the attention of the people. He was full of grace; the inspiration which gave him his power led to disturbance from a synagogue or synagogues of foreign Jews from various countries settled at Jerusalem. Hellenistic Jews could be as narrow as those at Jerusalem (_cf._ 2 Corinthians 10-13). To the statement that they could not resist him _D_ adds: because they were boldly confuted by him and could not face the truth. These disputes not yielding any matter for a charge, they got others to come forward and accuse him of attacking Moses and God, and thus stirred up the people, till now so favourable to the believers. The elders and scribes are also worked upon; Stephen is brought before the Sanhedrin. The charges are, to some extent, borne out by the following speech (Acts 7:48), as the charge against Jesus ...

THE FIRST OFFICE-BEARERS (Acts 6:1-7)...