_Are these things so? The high priest speaks after this mild manner, being either terrified, or charmed with his angelical countenance. St. Stephen's design in this discourse, was to shew them, first, that he was falsely accused of speaking either against Moses, or the law, for which he shews so gre... [ Continue Reading ]
_Not the pace of a foot; not so much as a foot of land, that is, to dwell in, though he bought there a place to bury in. (Genesis xxiii. 9.) (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_For four hundred years, counting from the birth of Isaac, which was twenty-five years after the call and promises made to Abraham. It is certainly the Israelites were not four hundred years in Egypt. (Witham) --- Four hundred. These words are taken from the fifteenth chapter of Genesis, in which Mo... [ Continue Reading ]
_The nation which they shall serve, I will judge. The meaning is, that God would afflict the Egyptians with divers plagues, or visible punishments, before they dismissed the Israelites. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_The covenant, or the testament, [1] and alliance of circumcision, by which the Israelites should be known to be the elect people of God. (Witham) --- Literally, he gave them the alliance of circumcision; he made with him an alliance, of which circumcision was the seal. (Bible de Vence)_ [BIBLIOGRA... [ Continue Reading ]
_Gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharao. Some understand divine graces, and gifts of prophecy, and the like: others, that he made him find favour in the sight of king Pharao, who appointed him to be governor of Egypt. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
Which Abraham bought... of the sons of Hemor, the son of Sichem. This purchase made by Abraham must be different from the purchase of a field made afterwards by Jacob. (Genesis xxxiii. 19.) See a Lapide, the author of the Analysis, dissert. 23. P. Alleman, &c. (Witham) --- Abraham bought. There must... [ Continue Reading ]
_Dealing craftily, circumventing craftily, afflicting, and endeavouring to extirpate the race of the Israelites. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Moses... was acceptable to God. [2] Greatly favoured both with gifts of nature and grace. Some expound it, was extremely fair or beautiful. (Witham)_ [BIBLIOGRAPHY] Gratus Deo, _Greek: asteios to theo. Acceptable to God. It may also signify, beautiful in the sight of God, that is, in the style of... [ Continue Reading ]
Philo believes that the princess feigned him to be her own child; Moses denied that he was, and would not take advantage of this adoption. (Hebrews xi. 24.)... [ Continue Reading ]
_In words and in deeds. Moses was persuasive and powerful in reasoning; but had an impediment in his speech, as we know from Exodus iv. 10. and iv. 12. He possessed, moreover, strength, energy, and grandeur, in his discourse. Of this we have abundant proofs in his books. He is inimitable in narratin... [ Continue Reading ]
_Moses fled upon this word; because he perceived the murder he had committed was become public, though he thought it to be secret. (Menochius) He fled, to avoid the anger of the king, into Madian, where during his sojourning, he had tow sons of Sephora, whom he married there. (Bible de Vence) --- Mo... [ Continue Reading ]
_In a flame of fire, in a bush. [3] Literally, in the fire of a flame of the bush. The sense must be, that the bush seemed on fire, and in a flame, and yet was not consumed. (Witham)_ [BIBLIOGRAPHY] In igne flammæ rubi,_ Greek: en phlogi puros batou. In flamma ignis rubi._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Loose the shoes. This was a method of testifying respect among the eastern nations. The Mahometans do not wear their shoes in their mosques. The Jewish priests served in the temple with their shoes off. The angel who appeared to Josue ordered him also to take off his shoes. (Josue v. 16.) If the ap... [ Continue Reading ]
Moses, whom they refused. Literally, denied. So have you rejected, and denied Jesus, of whom Moses prophesied, when he said that God would raise up to them a prophet like to himself, and commanded them to hear him. (Witham) --- Redeemer. In the Greek Lutroten; Protestant version, Deliverer; though t... [ Continue Reading ]
_This is he who was in the Church [4] in the wilderness, after God had by him delivered their Fathers out of their slavery in Egypt. --- An angel spoke to him on Mount Sinai. By this St. Stephen owns that the law was given by an angel to Moses: and also shews how falsely he was accused to have spoke... [ Continue Reading ]
_Whom our Fathers would not obey, murmuring, and rebelling from time to time. And in their hearts turned back into Egypt, as they shewed, by wishing themselves there again. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Saying to Aaron, make us gods: forcing him, in a manner, to make them the golden calf, while Moses was receiving the law from God. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_And God turned. Turned as it were from them, punishing them, by permitting them to serve the host of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_And you, that is, your forefathers, took unto you the tabernacle of Moloch. He reproaches the Jews with their idolatry and worship of different false gods, from time to time, notwithstanding God's comminations by the prophets, of which he puts them in mind by these words, and I will translate you b... [ Continue Reading ]
_The tabernacle of the testimony, in which was the ark of the covenant, as they were made by Moses, which were moved from place to place with the Israelites in the wilderness; and which Jesus, or Josue, brought with the people, into the possessions of the Gentiles, that is, into the land of Chanaan,... [ Continue Reading ]
But the most High dwelleth not in houses made by hands. God is every where, nor is his presence confined to the temple, which was already once destroyed; and what if it be destroyed again, as Christ foretold? God must still be adored, worshipped and served, as he was before the temple was first buil... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ye stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart. St. Stephen, inspired by the Holy Ghost, knowing he should die a martyr, boldly reproaches them for persecuting the prophets, for putting to death the just one, that is, the Messias, foretold by the prophets. (Witham) --- Observe the holy indignation of... [ Continue Reading ]
_They were cut to the heart: exasperated even to rage and madness. See chap. v, ver. 33. gnashing their teeth with indignation. (Witham)_... [ Continue Reading ]
This is the comfort of all martyrs. (Bristow) --- This the support of every Christian under the severest trials of either mind or body: this the sweetener of every burthen and cross.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Stopped their ears, crying out, blasphemy: and they stoned him to death. He praying for them, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit, in imitation of his Lord and Master, our Saviour Christ. And[5] reposed in the Lord. Literally, slept. In most Greek copies, are now wanting, in the Lord; but it... [ Continue Reading ]
_Invoking. See with what arms St. Stephen defended himself against the fury of his enemies. He puts on charity for a breast-place, and by that came off victorious. By his love of God, he resisted the enraged Jews; by the love he bore his neighbour, he prayed for those that stoned him. Through charit... [ Continue Reading ]