Acts 8:2

‘And devout men buried Stephen, and made great lamentation over him.'

Meanwhile some very brave and devout men obtained the body of Stephen for burial. For ‘devout men' compare Acts 2:5. They may have been supporters of Stephen, or of those pious Jews who like Joseph of Arimathea sought to disassociate themselves from the acts of their fellow Jews on such occasions (compare Luke 23:50), on a similar basis to that of the Jewish women who saw it as their duty to provide wine to executed criminals (Mark 15:23). To make great lamentation over a recognised heretic who had been stoned for blasphemy required great bravery. Public mourning for such was probably even at this time forbidden (as it certainly was later). Thus in ‘coming together to bury' him they were taking both their reputations and their lives in their hands. But Luke wants us to recognise that Stephen was honoured in his death, and was deeply mourned. For these mourners, whether they knew it or not, were acting on behalf of the whole church. His body was not tossed onto the burning rubbish heap outside Jerusalem in the valley of Hinnom. It was given decent burial. And the man it represented was deeply mourned.