Acts 7:55

Acts 7:55. And saw the glory of God, and Jesus. ‘The scene before his eyes was no longer the council hall at Jerusalem, and the circle of his infuriated judges; but he gazed up into the endless courts of the celestial Jerusalem, with its innumerable company of angels, and saw Jesus, in whose righteous cause he was about to die' (Conybeare and Howson, St. Paul).

This vision of the splendour of the glory of the Shekinah, Stephen might have beheld as he gazed through the window of the judgment hall, shining through the deep blue arch of sky which overhung Jerusalem; but though it is possible the material heavens may be referred to here in the words ‘looked stedfastly up into heaven,' yet as the vision was supernatural, and to him for a brief space the heaven of heavens was opened, and his eyes saw clearly into its glorious courts, it is by no means necessary to assume that he was gazing into the open sky at all. Many rationalistic attempts have been made to explain away this vision of Stephen, by suggesting it was a bright luminous cloud, or a thunderstorm accompanied by vivid lightning; but such attempts have all signally failed, and only contradict the plain text.