Acts 7 - Introduction
Acts 7:1. Stephen's Defence... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:1. Stephen's Defence... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then said the high priest, Are these things so?_ Read, _And the high priest said_, &c. Thus he called upon Stephen to answer the charges laid against him.... [ Continue Reading ]
_And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken_ Omit _men_. Cp. Acts 1:16, note. For an account of the argument in Stephen's speech and its connection with the whole design of the writer of the Acts, see _Introduction_pp. ix. x. _The God of glory_ A not very common expression (see Psalms 29:3),... [ Continue Reading ]
_and said unto him_ It does not appear from the narrative in Genesis whether there had been some Divine communication which caused the first removal from Ur to Haran. We are only told (Genesis 11:31) that Terah took his family and removed, but as it is there added "to go into the land of Canaan," an... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran_ The Chaldæans were the people of that country which had Babylon for its capital. The extent of the country signified by "the land of the Chaldæans" must have varied at different periods. _when his father was dead_ According to the... [ Continue Reading ]
_And he gave him none inheritance in it_ The first settlement of Abraham in Canaan is said (Genesis 12:6) to have been at the place of Sichem [Shechem] at the plain [rather, _oak_ of Moreh. He next dwelt on the east of Bethel, and in both these places he probably purchased land, for he built an alta... [ Continue Reading ]
_And God spake on this wise_ The words are substantially those which we find in Genesis 15:13-14. _four hundred years_ This number agrees with the number stated in Genesis; but in Exodus 12:40, and also by St Paul (Galatians 3:17), the time is said to have been _four hundred and thirty_years. The pe... [ Continue Reading ]
_after that shall they come forth_ The first prophecy (Genesis 15:14) of this Exodus adds "with great substance." _and serve me in this place_ These words are not in the promise given to Abraham, but are taken from Exodus 3:12, where the original promise is repeated and sent to the Israelites throu... [ Continue Reading ]
_the covenant of circumcision_ Given the year before Isaac was born (Genesis 17:21).... [ Continue Reading ]
_the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph_ The same word is used (Acts 17:5) of the hostile feelings of the Jews at Thessalonica against Paul and Silas. In the history (Genesis 37:4-5) it is said "his brethren hated him," and (Genesis 37:11) "they envied him." _sold Joseph into Egypt_ See Genes... [ Continue Reading ]
For the history see Genesis 39-41.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Canaan_, &c. The oldest MSS. omit "the land of." _our fathers found no sustenance_ The noun in Greek is generally used of food for cattle rather than men. See LXX. Genesis 24:25; Genesis 24:32, &c. But we must suppose that, though in the histo... [ Continue Reading ]
_he sent out our fathers first_ i.e. before he himself went away from Canaan into Egypt.... [ Continue Reading ]
_was made known_ The original is not the same in the two clauses for this expression. Read in the latter "Joseph's kindred _became known_," &c.... [ Continue Reading ]
_threescore and fifteen souls_ This number is taken from the LXX. In the Hebrew (Genesis 46:8-27) the number is but seventy including Jacob himself. The five additional names given in the LXX. are Machir the son and Galaad the grandson of Manasseh, and the two sons of Ephraim, Taam and Soutalaam, wi... [ Continue Reading ]
_So Jacob went down into Egypt_ Now the whole race whom God had chosen to Himself was in Egypt, away from the land of promise, and remained there for a long period, yet God was with them in their exile, and His worship was preserved for the whole time. This seems the point which Stephen desires to e... [ Continue Reading ]
_and were carried over into Sychem_, &c. This Sychem is the Old Test. _Shechem_. The oldest authorities give for the latter part of the verse "_of the sons of Emmor_ IN _Shechem_." The statement in this verse appears incapable of being reconciled with the record of the Old Testament There we find ... [ Continue Reading ]
_But when_[AS] _the time of the promise drew nigh_ i.e. for its fulfilment. The fathers "all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off" (Hebrews 11:13). _which God had sworn_, &c. The oldest authorities give HAD VOUCHSAFED (ὡμολόγησεν), The same word is used (Ma... [ Continue Reading ]
_till another king arose, which knew not Joseph_ The oldest authorities have, _till there arose another king_ OVER EGYPT, &c.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The same dealt subtilly with our kindred_[RACE] The word is from the LXX. (Exodus 1:10), "Let us deal wisely (i.e. craftily) with them" are the words of the new king. _and evil entreated our fathers_ Beside the hard tasks put upon the people according to the record in Exodus, Josephus adds (_Antiq... [ Continue Reading ]
_In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair_ The last phrase is literally "fair unto (i.e. in the sight of) God." This is a Hebrew mode of expressing a high degree of any quality. Thus (Jonah 3:3) "Nineveh was an exceeding great city," is "a city great unto God." Similar instances are foun... [ Continue Reading ]
_nourished him for her own son_ Jewish tradition says that the king had no son, and so Moses was designed by the king's daughter to succeed to the kingdom. Josephus (_Antiq_. ii. 9. 7), where she speaks of him as "a _child of a divine form_and generous mind.... [ Continue Reading ]
_And Moses was learned_[instructed] _in all the wisdom of the Egyptians_ As was to be expected if he were designed for the kingdom. The wisdom on which the Jewish traditions most dwell is the power of magic, and such knowledge as Pharaoh's wise men are represented as having in the book of Exodus. _... [ Continue Reading ]
_And when he was full forty years old_ Better, _But when he was well-nigh forty years old_. The verb in the original intimates that the forty years were just being completed. For the fixing of this time we have no authority in the Old Testament. We learn thence that Moses was eighty years old when h... [ Continue Reading ]
_and smote the Egyptian_ i.e. killed him. See Exodus 2:12.... [ Continue Reading ]
_for he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them_ Better, AND _he supposed that his brethren_ UNDERSTOOD _how that God by his hand_ WAS GIVING THEM DELIVERANCE. There is no condition in the sentence. The traditions, in the atmosphere of which Stephen mo... [ Continue Reading ]
_And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove_ i.e. to "two men of the Hebrews" (Exodus 2:13). This quotation from Exodus is but a forcible way of representing what up to this point had been left unexplained, that the persons contending in this second case were Israelites.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?_ For _didst_read KILLEDST. The verb is repeated in the original.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then_[AND] _fled Moses at this saying_ Josephus (_Antiq_. ii. 11. 1) makes no mention of this reason for the flight of Moses, but says that the Egyptians were jealous of him, and told the king "that he would raise a sedition, and bring innovations" into the land. In consequence of the plots against... [ Continue Reading ]
_And when forty years were expired_ Thus making, with the forty years mentioned in Acts 7:23, eighty years, the age at which Moses went unto Pharaoh (Exodus 7:7). _there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord_ It is better to conform the New Testament orthography in fa... [ Continue Reading ]
Here we have in substance the history as given in Exodus 3:2-10.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob_ The oldest authorities omit "the God" in the second and third places.... [ Continue Reading ]
_I have seen, I have seen_ The Greek is an attempt to imitate an emphatic Hebrew construction, and is literally "having seen, I have seen," which in idiomatic English = "I have surely seen," by which words the Hebrew is rendered (Exodus 3:7).... [ Continue Reading ]
Stephen here begins to point out how in old time the people had rejected Moses, though he had the witness of God that his commission was Divine, that he may shew his hearers how they are acting in the same manner toward Jesus. _This Moses … the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the... [ Continue Reading ]
_He brought_[LED] _them out_ Having God's power with him in all these wanderings. _after that he had skewed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt_ The oldest MSS. omit "the land of." Read, _having wrought wonders and signs in Egypt_. _and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years_ The Jewi... [ Continue Reading ]
The prophecy is in Deuteronomy 18:15, and has been already quoted by St Peter (Acts 3:12) as referring ultimately to the Messiah. Its quotation to those who had rejected Jesus is the key-note of what is more openly expressed in Acts 7:51, "as your fathers did, so do ye.... [ Continue Reading ]
_This is he, that was in the church_[CONGREGATION] _in the wilderness_ i.e. with the congregation of Israel assembled at Mount Sinai. _with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina_[SINAI] As in Acts 7:35, the angel is God Himself; just so in Acts 7:31 the voice which spake is called "a voice... [ Continue Reading ]
_to whom our fathers would not obey_[be obedient], _but thrust him from them_ For they said (Numbers 14:4), "Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt." This was after the return of the spies, when the people became discontented with the leadership of Moses and Aaron. _and in their hearts... [ Continue Reading ]
_saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us_ Lit. _which shall go before us_. The passage is almost word for word the report given in Exodus 32:1.... [ Continue Reading ]
_and rejoiced_ It was not the voice of them that shout for the mastery, nor of them that cry for being overcome, but the _noise of them that sing_which Moses (Exodus 32:18) heard when he came down from the mount.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then God turned_ Read, BUT. Cp. Joshua 24:20, "If ye forsake the Lord and serve strange gods, then he will _turn_and do you hurt." _and gave them up to worship_[serve] _the host of heaven_ God had previously warned them against this kind of idolatry (Deuteronomy 4:19), but we learn from the record... [ Continue Reading ]
_Yea, ye took up_, &c. Read, AND _ye took up_. The conjunction is the ordinary copulative, and the thought is continuous, "Your hearts were after your idols, and ye took up their images," more truly than my ark. In the Hebrew the word for "took up" is that regularly employed for the "bearing" the ar... [ Continue Reading ]
_Our fathers had the tabernacle of Witness_[of the TESTIMONY] _in the wilderness_ The name is found first Exodus 38:21. The ark is also called the _ark of the testimony_, as Exodus 25:22, &c., and the name was no doubt given because all the contents of the ark, which was the most sacred part of the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Which also our fathers that came after_ Better, _having received it after_. For all the generation that came out of Egypt was dead at the entry into Canaan except Caleb and Joshua. _brought in with Jesus_[i.e. JOSHUA] It is better here and in Hebrews 4:8 to let the Greek orthography give place to... [ Continue Reading ]
_to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob_ referring to Psalms 132:5, "Until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob." A reading which is largely accepted gives, "for the _house_of Jacob," but in spite of the ancient authority for it, it is so unsuitable to the dr... [ Continue Reading ]
_Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet_ The oldest authorities omit _temples_. We must supply some English word to complete the sense; perhaps _houses_. Stephen allows that in the days of Solomon there seemed to be a more permanent abode appointed for Go... [ Continue Reading ]
_Heaven is my throne_, &c. The quotation is nearly verbatim from the LXX.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Ye stiffnecked_ A charge often brought against the Jews in the Old Testament, cp. Exodus 32:9; Exodus 33:3, &c., so that it is a very suitable expression when Stephen is declaring that the people of his time were "as their fathers." _and uncircumcised in heart and ears_ As the rite of circumcision... [ Continue Reading ]
_Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?_ Better, _did not your fathers persecute?_Cp. the history, 2 Chronicles 36:16, "They mocked the messengers of God and despised his words and misused his prophets." And Christ (Matthew 23:37) brought the same charge against Jerusalem, "thou tha... [ Continue Reading ]
_who have received_ Better, _ye who received_the Law from Sinai. _by the disposition of angels_ Better, _at the ministration of angels_. St Paul (Galatians 3:19) has the same expression concerning the Law, that it was "ministered by angels." The LXX. have in Deuteronomy 33:2, speaking of the giving... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 7:54 TO ACTS 8:1. Effect of the Speech. Death of Stephen 54. _When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart_ There is a conjunction in the original which is not expressed in the English. Read, Now _when_, &c. On the last verb, which is only found here and in Acts 7:33, see note ther... [ Continue Reading ]
_saw the glory of God_ Some visible sign of God's presence such as the Shechinah had been to the Jews of old. See Exodus 16:10; Exodus 24:17, in the latter of which passages it is described as like devouring fire. It is defined by the Jews as the concentration of God's omnipresence. _and Jesus stan... [ Continue Reading ]
_the Son of man_ This title, which in the Gospels is only used by Christ when speaking of Himself, is here first employed by another, and can fitly be so employed now, for the prophecy which Christ uttered of Himself (Matthew 26:64), "Hereafter ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand o... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then they cried out_ Better, BUT, &c. _and stopped their ears_ Thus shewing that they merited the description given in Acts 7:51. The verb signifies, to compress, to hold tight together. On the action thus described cp. T. B. _Kethuboth_5 b, "Wherefore is the whole ear hard but the flap soft? That... [ Continue Reading ]
_and cast him out of the city, and stoned him_ In accordance with the Law (Leviticus 24:14) the person to be stoned must be carried without the camp, and to the people of Jerusalem the walls of the city were as the limits of the camp. Though there was much popular excitement exhibited in this procee... [ Continue Reading ]
_And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God_ The last word is supplied to make the sense clear in English, but from the words which follow it is better to read "the Lord" instead of "God," for it is the Lord Jesus who is invoked. _and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit_ i.e. at its departure from... [ Continue Reading ]
_And he kneeled down_ in prayer, probably before the stoning had commenced. _Lord, lay not this sin to their charge_ i.e. Reckon it not against them. The original word is the same as in Romans 10:3, "going about to _establish_their own righteousness," as it were to shew a reckoning in their favour.... [ Continue Reading ]