Acts 7:50

Hath not my hand made all these things? HATH NOT MY HAND MADE ALL THESE THINGS? The prophet goes on to say that the chosen and proper resting-place of Yahweh is the "contrite heart that trembleth at His word," and that the time was coming when those who clung to the temple and its ritual would be objects of divine abhorrence, as great as the rankest idolaters; while the true spiritual worshippers, though but a despised and excommunicated remnant, would find the Lord upon their side, and interposing gloriously in their behalf (Acts 7:2). From this it will be seen how singularly apposite to Stephen's case was this reference. He contents himself, however, with quoting the first verse and part of the second, condemning that idolatrous attachment to the material temple and its external services which was the cause of all their rage at his preaching, and...

50._Hath not mine hand? _The prophet telleth the people in these words, that God hath no need either of gold, either of precious furniture of the temple, either of the sacrifices; whereupon it followeth that his true worship is not contained in ceremonies. For he desireth none of all these things which we offer unto him, for his own sake, but only that he may exercise us in the study of godliness; which argument is handled more at large, Psalms 1:0. For although this be a shameful foolishness to go about to feed God with sacrifices, yet unless hypocrites were drowned in the same, they would make no such account of toys, because all that is unsavory before God which dissenteth from the spiritual worship; therefore, let us know that God seeketh us and not ours, which we have only at pleasure; and hereby it appeareth also what great difference there is between true religion and the carnal

42-50 Stephen upbraids the Jews with the idolatry of their fathers, to which God gave them up as a punishment for their early forsaking him. It was no dishonour, but an honour to God, that the tabernacle gave way to the temple; so it is now, that the earthly temple gives way to the spiritual one; and so it will be when, at last, the spiritual shall give way to the eternal one. The whole world is God's temple, in which he is every where present, and fills it with his glory; what occasion has he then for a temple to manifest himself in? And these things show his eternal power and Godhead. But as heaven is his throne, and the earth his footstool, so none of our services can profit Him who made all things. Next to the human nature of Christ, the broken and spiritual heart is his most valued temple....

Verse 50. _HATH NOT MY HAND MADE ALL THESE THINGS?_] Stephen certainly had not finished his discourse, nor drawn his inferences from the facts already stated; but it is likely that, as they perceived he was about to draw conclusions unfavourable to the temple and its ritual, they immediately raised up a clamour against him, which was the cause of the following very cutting address....

EXPOSITION ACTS 7:1 _And the high priest said _for then _said the high priest, _A.V. The high priest spoke as president of the Sanhedrim (see Acts 9:1. Acts 9:1 and Matthew 26:62). Theophilus the son of Annas or his brother Jonathan is probably meant. ACTS 7:2 _Brethren and fathers _for _men, brethren, and fathers, _A.V. _Haran _for _Charran, _A.V. BRETHREN AND FATHERS. The Greek is ἄνδρες ἀδελφοὶ (_i.e. _"men who are also my brethren") καὶ πατέρες. H

HATH NOT MY HAND MADE ALL THESE THINGS? The heaven, and the earth, and all that is in them; the Arabic version renders it, "all these creatures"; and therefore what can be made for God? or what house built for him? in Isaiah the words are read without an interrogation, and affirm that his hand had made all these things, and therefore nothing could be made for him suitable to him, by the hands of men....

ACTS 7:3-51 In addition to several direct quotations from the Septuagint, Stephen’s speech consists of a series of allusions to and summaries of Israelitish history. In these phrases drawn from the Old Testament about thirty variants between B and D occur in which one agrees with the Septuagint against the other. In most of the cases it is codex Bezae that has been conformed to the text of the Septuagint; according to Ropes’s judgment, 156 in only one instance (h;|dei in ver. Acts 7:18) is there reason to suspect that the B-text has been conformed to the Septuagint. ------------------------- 156 The Text of Acts,...

CHAPTER 7 _ 1. The Address of Stephen (Acts 7:1)._ 2. The Martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 7:54). This is the largest chapter in this book and concludes the first section. Stephen is the chosen instrument to deliver the final testimony to the nation. He was not permitted to finish it. We notice at once a marked difference between the previous preaching by the Apostle Peter and the address of Stephen. The testimony of Peter was marked on the day of Pentecost and at the other occasions by great brevity. Stephen's address is the longest discourse reported in the New Testament. The name of Jesus is prominent in all the addresses of Peter. The fact that He was rejected by the people, crucified and that He rose from the dead, and the call to repentance, were the leading features of Peter's preaching.

The speech comes nearer the charge it is to refute. The Temple itself is wrong. Moses acted on direct Divine injunction as to the tabernacle of witness which he made according to the pattern showed him and which the fathers carried with them in the wilderness (Exodus 25; especially Exodus 25:9; Exodus 25:40). This Tabernacle is contrasted on the one hand with the tent of Moloch, on the other with the Temple of Solomon. While the fathers carried it, they were successful. Joshua (Gr. Jesus) thrust out the nations before them from the promised land, which they possessed and occupied till the times of David. David asked that he might find a habitation for the God of Jacob. Instead of this the Temple was built by Solomon, who was less favoured by God than David; and the Temple was not a tabernacle, such as David would have

STEPHEN'S DEFENCE (Acts 7:1-7) When Oliver Cromwell was outlining the education he thought necessary for his son Richard, he said, "I would have him know a little history." It was to the lesson of history that Stephen appealed. Clearly believing that the best form of defence was attack, he took a bird's eye view of the history of the Jewish people and cited certain truths as condemnation of his own nation. (i) He saw that the men who played a really great part in the history of Israel were the men who heard God's command, "Get thee out," and were not afraid to obey it. With that adventurous spirit Stephen implicitly contrasted the spirit of the Jews of his own day, whose one desire was to keep things as they were and who regarded Jesus and his followers as dangerous innovators. (ii) He insisted that men had worshipped God long before there ever was a Temple. To the Jews the Te