Acts 7:38

οὗτός : again emphatic use. ἐκκλησίᾳ : “in the congregation,” R.V. margin: held in the wilderness for the giving of the law, although the word does not occur in Exodus 19, but cf. Deuteronomy 31:30; Joshua 8:35 (Acts 9:2). By Wycliffe the word was translated “Church” here, but afterwards “congregation,” so in Tynd., Cranm., Gen., until A.V. again rendered “Church,” cf. Hebrews 2:12, and on the word see above on Acts 5:11, Hort, Ecclesia, p. 3 ff., and B.D. 2 “Church”. In Hebrews 2:12, R.V. reads “congregation” in text (but “Church” in margin), following Tynd. and Cranm., and Psalms 22:22 from which the quotation is made (where both A. and R.V. have “congregation”). Schmiedel would dismiss the word as a later gloss, which has been inserted here in a wrong place, see Wendt (edit. 1899), p. 160, note. γενόμ.… μετὰ, cf. Acts 9:19; Acts 20:18 (Mark 16:10); no Hebraism, cf. σύν in Luke 2:13. τοῦ ἀγγέλου τοῦ λαλ., but in Exodus Moses is said to speak with God, cf. Acts 7:30 above, and see also Acts 7:53, “who was with the angel … and with our fathers,” i.e., who acted as the mediator between the two parties, who had relations with them both, cf. Galatians 3:19, and Philo, Vit. Moys., iii., 19, where Moses is called μεσίτης καὶ διαλλακτής, cf. also Hebrews 2:2, and Jos., Ant., xv., 5, 3; the latter passage represents Herod as saying that the Jews learned all that was most holy in their law διʼ ἀγγέλων παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ (see Westcott Hebrews, and Wetstein on Galatians 3:19). On the title μεσίτης as given to Moses, see further Assumption of Moses, i., 14, and Charles' note and introd. lxiii., but it does not follow that the inference is justified that the Apocryphal Book in question was known to the writer of St. Stephen's speech. Dr. Charles maintains this on the ground of three passages, but of (1) it may be said that the term μεσίτης evidently could have been known from other sources than Acts, (2) the parallel between Acts 7:36 and Assumption of Moses, iii., 11, is, as Dr. Charles admits, an agreement verbally “for the most part,” but the words “Egypt, the Red Sea, and the wilderness for forty years” might often be used as a summary of the history of Israel at a particular period, whilst the context with which the words are here associated is quite different from that in Assumption of Moses, l.c., and (3) there is no close resemblance between the prophecy from Amos quoted in Acts 7:43 below and the prophecy in Assumption of Moses, ii., 1 3; in both the phraseology is quite general. Perhaps the omission of the word μετά before τῶν πατέρων gives emphasis to the privilege of “our fathers,” when one can speak of being with the angel and with them, Simcox, Language of the N. T., p. 159. Thus Moses prefigures the Mediator of the new coventant, cf. Hebrews 8:5; Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 12:24, and the mention of this honour bestowed upon Moses emphasises still more fully the indignity which he received from his countrymen, cf. St. Chrysostom on the force of οὗτος in this verse. λόγια, cf. Romans 3:2, as in LXX of the words of God, cf. Numbers 24:4; Numbers 24:16, and chiefly for any utterance of God whether precept or promise, only once of human words (Psalms 18 (19):14); so Philo speaks of the decalogue as τὰ δέκα λόγια, and Jos., B. J., vi., 5, 4, of the prophecies of God in the O.T., and Philo writes τὸ λόγιον τοῦ προφήτου (i.e., Moses), Vit. Moys., iii., 35, see Grimm-Thayer, sub v., λόγιον, lit [208], a little word, from the brevity of oracular responses. ζῶντα : “vim vitalem habentia,” Blass, cf. Hebrews 4:12; 1 Peter 1:23, cf. Deuteronomy 32:47. The words again show how far St. Stephen was from despising the Law of Moses, cf. Hebrews 4:12, “living,” R.V. (“quick,” A.V.); 1 Peter 1:3; 1 Peter 2:5, where R.V. has “living” instead of “lively”; in Psalms 38:19 “lively” is retained in R.V. (see also in Exodus 1:19, in contrast to feeble, languid), cf. Spenser, Faërie Queene, iii., 8, 5. Here the word has the sense of living, i.e., enduring, abiding, cf. “thy true and lively [living] word” in prayer for the Church Militant, cf. 1 Peter 1:23, R.V.

[208] literal, literally.