Acts 7

Chap. VII. Ver. 1—29. Stephen’s defence before the sanhedrim.—Stephen being now called upon to make his defence before the highest court of the Jews, proceeds as follows: First, he begins by endeavouring to convince the Jews of their mistake relative to the promise given to Abraham and his seed, which they interpreted solely in relation to temporal blessings; but he endeavours to demonstrate to them, by ‘a recapitulation of the history of the patriarchs, that such could not have been the meaning of the prediction; for even their father, Abraham, (he argues,) to whom the land [of Canaan] was first promised, had none inheritance in it; no, not so much as to set his foot on.” The orlies [or others] see in the same manner, passed a life of pilgrimage and affliction, and never attained to the blessed inheritance.

Abraham, the father of the faithful, and the friend of God, had no possession till his death; then only he began to take possession of his purchase, [i. e. “the grave which he had bought.” (Genesis 25:9):] clearly intimating the spiritual signification of the promised Canaan. Moses had a prospect of that land, but he we BYUBRE Sat “Sea peae 1g; ett 2p a a ee Oe EOE VS ther Terah was 130 years old; and that he is merely mentioned first in (Genesis 11)of Egypt with him, without even a glimpse of it, fell through unbelief in the wilderness. The righteous only hath hope in his death. The eminent characters here brought forward by Stephen, may be considered (as Mr. Jones, of Nayland, remarks) as signs so exactly suited to the thing signified, as if the truth itself had been acted beforehand.

In Joseph, says Preb. Townsend, we see a man wise, innocent, and great, hated by his brethren, and sold for a slave to heathen Egyptians. In his humiliation he was exalted. Heathens, to whom he had been given over, bowed the knee before him—his own family were preserved from perishing—he became the Saviour of all—administering to them bread, the emblem of life; and to him every knee bowed, both of his own kindred and of strangers. He was tempted, and triumphed; he was persecuted and imprisoned under a malicious and false accusation; he was not actually crucified, but he suffered with two malefactors, and promised life to one of them, and delivered himself by the Divine Spirit that was given to him.

He was seen twice by his brethren: the first time they knew him not, but the second he was made known unto them. And thus, we trust, it will be at some future day, when the brethren of Jesus Christ shall become like the brethren of Joseph, sensible of their crime, and say with them, in the bitterness of their souls, ‘We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul…. and we would not hear: therefore have all our evils come upon us.”’—(Townsend’s New Test. Arr.) This strain of typical reasoning may seem strange to us, but was perfectly familiar to Jewish Priests and Rabbies, and would have been received as demonstration on any point that did not oppose their worldly prejudices and preconceived opinions.

Of this we have sufficient evidence in what follows respecting Moses; for when he avenged his countryman in Egypt, and smote the offender, ‘‘He (Moses) supposed his brethren would have understood, how that God by his hand would deliver them.” He intended it as an allegorical and but they,” having lost their Hebrew notions and modes of reasoning, “understood not’’ his design, but said, ‘*Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?’” as the Jews did virtually to the Messiah; and thus the fathers protracted their deliverance, as their descendants have since done, to a long future day. For though the Jews who crucified their Lord, as a nation ‘brought upon themselves swift destruction;” yet is there hope in Israel ‘t concerning this matter: for the Lord hath not” finally nor totally “cast away his [ancient] people.” ((Romans 11:1), &c.) Ver. 30—53. The continuation of Stephen’s defence.—Taking up this discourse where we left it, Stephen now comes to the delivery of the law at mount Sinai—their passage through the wilderness, and their entrance on the promised land; and he endeavours to prove to his persecutors, that they were following the same perverse course, by which their fathers had formerly brought the most awful judgments upon themselves. This they did in rejecting him whom God had sent to be “a Prophet like unto Moses”—“‘a Prince and a Saviour,”’ to deliver them from their sins. And whereas their fathers were perpetually falling back into idolatry, making to themselves gods of their own choice to worship; and this both when they knew Moses was gone up into the divine presence on mount Sinai, and even during all the forty years they were wandering through the wilderness; when, it seems, they secretly carried their idols with them, even as their mother Rachael had formerly done, unknown to Jacob, when she left her father’s house. ((Genesis 31:19), pene): “It is evident (says Preb. Townsend) that, through every part of this discourse, the object Stephen had in view was, to represent to his countrymen the nature of Christ’s religion, and to set before them, in the most touching manner, his sufferings, and their own conduct, which was an aggravated completion of the crimes of their ancestors. For which, says the martyr, with indignant eloquence, ‘Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before the coming of the Just One; of whom we have been now the betrayers and murderers.’ The truth and justice of the dying Stephen’s appeal was too severely felt, for the Jews not to have a perfect knowledge of its intention and individual application; and unless it is considered in this light, it will be difficult to account for the powerful sensation it occasioned.” The holy martyr having adverted to the temple built by Solomon; reminds them, that the Most High confines not his presence to temples made with hands; as he has said, ‘“‘Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me, saith the Lord, and where is the place of my rest?” Intimating that he was under no obligation to them for their temple, though it had been as splendid as that of Solomon; nor must they trust to it for protection, since it was built by human hands, and might be shivered to atoms in a moment, by Him who made “the earth his footstool.”

“The destruction of the Jewish temple imparts this impressive lesson to every christian nation and individual, that the trueness of a church does not constitute its safety; but that the continuance of the divine blessing is only secured by the maintenance of a pure faith and consistent conduct. The temple itself was to be esteemed and valued as the habitation of the divine presence, making the building holy—in the same way that our bodies are sanctified and purified, and are made the temples of the Holy Ghost, by the Spirit of grace within us. If, with the Jews, we resist the holy influences of God, his presence will be withdrawn from us, and we shall bring down on our earthly tabernacle the same fearful and inevitable destruction which was poured down upon the temple of Jerusalem.

We shall be delivered over to the hand of the enemy.” (New Test. Arr.) Ver. 54—60. The death of Stephen.—The last sentence Stephen was allowed to utter was in connexion with the charge of murdering the Son of God; and this was done by you (as if he had said) who “received the law by the disposition of angels, and (et) have not kept it.” —That is, though the law was delivered with so much awful majesty that Moses “exceedingly quaked and trembled;” ((Hebrews 12:21);) yet no sooner had the thunder ceased and the lightnings been withdrawn, than they totally neglected the commands that had been delivered. And thus, at the death of our Lord, though the most stout-hearted must have been appalled, as the Roman centurion was, at the earthquake and the thick darkness; yet, perhaps, they so far misinterpreted the signs of heaven, as to consider these indicative of the frowns of God upon the illustrious sufferer.

However this might be, no sooner was the awful scene closed, than these hardened priests went to Pilate, to obtain means to secure the body which they had crucified. This charge of obduracy and rebellion against God, roused all their evil passions. They were “sawn (as it were) to the heart, and gnashed on him with their teeth;” while he, “full of the Holy Ghost,” and favoured with a celestial vision, calmly said—“Behold! I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God!” They could now refrain no “longer, but with a loud voice, and stopping their ears against reply, rushed upon him with one accord, and driving him without the gates of the city, stoned him. So “they stoned Stephen, calling upon, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” and then “kneeling down, he added, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.”

after this he asleep, and thus died, in the very act of worshipping Jesus. The eccentric, but admirable Lavater, thus depicts the feelings of Saul on this occasion:— ‘Stephen, I confess, was such a man as I never before beheld: he appeared as innocent as a child, wise as gray-headed age, courageous as a hero, and true to what he deemed the truth as a prophet of old. His learning was great, his eloquence powerful, his conviction inflexible, his fortitude unshaken. His love for Jesus, the Son of man, (as he called him,) was most pure. Could I have forgotten he was a Nazarene, I would have fallen on his neck and kissed him. What most affected me (I tell thee all, even what appears to make against me) was his look in the assemblies of priests; still more when he was led out to death: but, above all, when the witnesses against him took off their garments; that look which he cast on those, who, as I believe, were with justice most inveterate against him.

On me, in particular, he turned his eyes more than once with such affection, so sorrowfully tender, so tremblingly compassionate, as if he would have called me with his looks, from the brink of an ae [abyss]. I cannot, I will not deny, that this look pierced me to the heart; that for a moment I seemed to forget myself, and shuddered, while the thought darted like a flash of rag hay through my mind: ‘Thus a holy one of God might look: thus one of the prophets, whom Israel put to death.’ But as we instantly draw back our foot when we see an adder in the path, I shuddered at these thoughts and feelings, the natural effects of humanity. I collected all the strength of religion and virtue I possessed, to quell whatever might move me toward the worshipper of one who denied God: for a mere man, who makes himself a god, denies God.”

(Lavater’s Letters of St. Paul.) If such were the feelings of Stephen’s persecutors, they must naturally consider him as a blasphemer, when they heard his prayer to the Lord Jesus. ‘I shall always insist (says Bp. Horsley in his answer to Priestley) that the blessed Stephen died a martyr to the Deity of Christ. The accusation against him was ‘his speaking blasphemous things against the temple and the law.’ You have forgotten to add the charge of blasphemy ‘against Moses and against God.’ The blasphemy against the temple and the law, probably consisted in a prediction that the temple was to be destroyed, and the ritual law, of course, abolished. The blasphemy against Moses was, probably, his assertion that the authority of Moses was inferior to that of Christ.

But what could be the blasphemy against God? What was there in the doctrine of the apostles which could be interpreted as blasphemy against God, except it was this, that they ascribed divinity to one who had suffered publicly as a malefactor? That this was the blessed Stephen’s crime, none can doubt who attends to the conclusion of the story:—‘He looked up steadfastly into heaven,’ says the inspired historian, ‘and saw the glory of God, (that is, he saw the oe [shechinah] of the Shechinah; for that is what is meant when the glory of God is mentioned, as something to be seen,) and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.’ He saw the man Jesus in the midst of this divine light. His declaring what he saw, the Jewish rabble understood as an assertion of the divinity of Jesus.

They stopped their ears; they overpowered his voice with their own clamours; and they hurried him out of the city, to inflict upon him the death which the law appointed for blasphemers. He died as he had lived, attesting the Deity of our crucified Master. His last breath was uttered in a prayer to Jesus; first for himself, and then for his murderers. ‘They stoned Stephen, calling upon (God) and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit: and he cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.’” Only one other circumstance in this chapter calls for our remark, namely, the vision which Stephen had of the Lord Jesus, which we consider of a nature similar with those of the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel, and certainly intended for his support and encouragement in the hour of death; and it is remarkable that, in this instance, the Lord Jesus is not represented in the usual posture of sitting, but as standing, as if in the act of intercession; or, perhaps, as intimating to the dying martyr, that he was ready to receive the precious deposit he was committing to his hands.

Notes on the verses

Chap. VII. Ver. 2. When he was in Mesopotamia.—[Both Ur of the Chaldees, and Haran, were, properly speaking, in Mesopotamia, though Haran was much nearer to Canaan than Ur was.]—Bagster.—Charran—Or “Haran,” (Genesis 11:31-32). 3; Ver. 4. When his father was dead.—[From (Genesis 11:26), it appears that Abra-, was born when Terah was 70 years of age; and he departed from Haran when 75, ((Genesis 12:4);) while Terah lived to the age of 205 years, ((Genesis 11:32).) Instead of 205, however, the Samaritan has 145, which reconciles this discrepancy; but it is not improbable, that Abram was in reality born when his fa 26. by way of dignity.]—Bagster.; Ver. 5. So much as to set his foot on.—To this it is objected, that he purchased a family grave of the sons of Heth; (Genesis 25:17). ‘True; but, 1. A grave is a place for a man to lay his bones, and not to set his feet. 2. Even this he bought, notwithstanding the whole country had been made over to him by Divine promise. 3. The expression is evidently proverbial, and means that he had no ground whereon he might either build or walk. Ver. 6. Four hundred years.—[Stephen here uses the round number 400, leaving out the odd tens; for it is evident, from the parallel passages, as well as Josephus, that the real number of years was 430.]—Bagster. Ver. 14. Threescore and fifteen.—[In the Hebrew, the number of persons is threescore and ten; but Stephen quotes from the Septuagint, which adds the five sons of Ephraim and Manasseh to the account.]

—Bagster. Ver. 16. That Abraham bought.—[Of the two burying places of the patriarchs, one was at Hebron, the cave and field which Abraham purchased of Ephron the Hittite, (Gen, xxiii. 16, &c.;) the other in Sychem, which Jacob (not Abraham) bought of the sons of Emmor, ((Genesis 33:19).) ‘To remove this glaring discrepancy, Markland interprets para, from, as it frequently signifies with a genitive, and renders, ‘“And were carried over to Sychem; and afterwards from among the descendants of Emmor, the father, or son, of Sychem, they were laid in the sepulchre which Abraham bought for a sum of money.”’ This agrees with the account which Josephus gives of the patriarchs; that they were carried out of Egypt, first to Sychem, and then to Hebron, where they were buried.

]—Bagster. Ver. 20. Moses—The illustrious legislator and prophet of the Hebrews, who led the Israelites to the borders of the promised land.—Exceeding fair.— “Fair to God;” where the name of God is considered as an adjective, and might perhaps be rendered ‘‘divinely fair.’ See (Exodus 2:2). Ver. 22. All the wisdom of the Egyptians.—This may be fairly inferred, from his being educated as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. See (Hebrews 11:24). Ver, 23. Forty years old.—[This was a general tradition among the Jews:– “Moses was forty years in Pharaoh’s court, forty years in the land of Midian, and forty years he served Israel.”]—Bagster. Ver. 29. Midian—Or, ‘‘Midian.” (Exodus 2:16). Ver. 30. Mount Sinai—Or “Sinai.” See Ex.

iii, 2, &c.; called also Horeb; a mountain of Arabia the Rocky, thought to be about 10,000 feet in Ver. 34. I have seen.—[Literally, ‘“Seeing I have seen;’’ a Hebraism for ‘I have surely seen.” This varies considerably from the Septuagint, and also from the Hebrew; but gives the general meaning very clearly and faith- Ver. 38. This is he.—Compare (Exodus 19:19-20). Ver. 40. Wot not—i. e. “Know not.”” Ver. 43. Moloch.—A heathen deity worshipped by the Ammonites, whose principal sacrifices were human victims.—Remphan.—The Coptic name of Saturn.—Babylon.—[In the passage of Amos, to which Stephen refers, it is Beyond Damascus; but as Assyria and Media, to which they were carried, were not only beyond Damascus, but beyond Babylon itself, he states that fact, and thus fixes more precisely the place of their captivity.]—Bagster.

Ver. 45. Brought in with Jesus—Meaning Joshua.—Into the possession the Gentiles—i. e. into Canaan, then in possession of the Canaanites. Ver. 51. Uncircumcised in heart and ears.—To circumcise the heart, is to remove its obduracy; Ezek, xxxvi. 26. To circumcise the ears, to remove the backwardness in men to attend to divine things: it is compared to removing the hardened wax, which sometimes destroys the hearing. ‘To circumcise these, is to give “‘the hearing ear, and the understanding heart.”—— Ye do always resist.—Sinners resist and provoke the Holy Spirit, and Christians grieve Ver. 53. By the disposition of angels.—Wesley, ‘by the ministration of angels.” Doddridge, “through ranks of angels.” See (Galatians 3:19). Ver. 54. Cut to the heart.—The same word which is used in ch. v. 33, with the words, ‘‘to the heart,” inserted in the original, which in the former passage have been supplied. Ver. 59. They stoned Stephen.—Dr. Lardner, whose opinion we have before cited, (John 18:31), considers this and all other similar instances, as riotous and unlawful acts. He says, ‘‘The Jewish people, at this time, seem to have made no scruple of stoning a man immediately, without any trial.” Mr. Milner accounts for their conduct in the following manner. He says, Pilate having been disgraced, Judea seems at this time to have been without a procurator; and Vitellius, the governor of Syria, was a man of great moderation toward the Jews who were now left to themselves, at least in religious concerns, and Stephen was their first Christian victim.” Chap. VIII. Ver. 1. And Saul.—[This clause evidently belongs to the conclusion of the preceding chapter: there is scarcely a worse division of chapters than this.]—Bagster. Ver. 3. He made havoc of the church.—The word which our translators have rendered “made havoc,” properly signifies to ravage as a wild beast. It is thus used in the Septuagint, (Daniel 6:22), of lions; and in (Psalms 79:14), of the wild boar.—Townsend. Ver. 5. The city of Samaria.—(Rather, “To a city of Samaria,” for the city of Samaria had been utterly destroyed by Hyrcanus, and the city built by Herod on its site in i.e. Augusta, in honour of Augustus.

Samaria comprised the tract of country formerly occupied by the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh west of Jordan, lying between Judea and Galilee; beginning, says Joregen Ginea in the great plain, and ending at the toparchy of Acrabaent.)—Bagster. Ver. 7. Unclean spirits, crying, &c.—Compare Matthew x. 1. (Mark 3:11), &c. Ver. 9. And bewitched—Rather, “‘astonished.”” This is the same word that, in ver. 13, is rendered, ‘“wondered,” and implies, that he excited great astonishment, as magicians and conjurors are wont to do. Simon was affected by Philip’s miracles, as the people had been by Simon’s wonders; and perhaps thought him a practitioner in the same art, but of higher attainments. See ver.

19.—Some great one.—Probably wishing it to be understood, that he was the Messiah, in opposition to Jesus. Some of the fathers say, that to different characters he represented himself under the names of the persons of the pal y: but this, we conceive, must have been after his apostacy. See Dodd. Ver. 13. Then Simon.—[This Simon was probably, as several learned men suppose, the same who is mentioned by Josephus, as persuading Drusilla to leave her husband, and live with Felix.]—Bagster. Ver. 16. Baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.—So ch. ii. 38. Commentators are not agreed whether this is an abridged form of expression, instead of naming the three persons of the Trinity; or an abridged form of administering the ordinance to Jews, who had already been initiated into the doctrine of the Trinity in the Old Testament.

(See exposition of Gen, i. 26—31.) It is observable, that where the command is given to baptize in the name of the three persons, it seems to have particular reference to the Gentiles—‘“all nations.” (Matthew 28:19). Ver. 20. Thy money perish with thee.—Doddridge, ‘‘Thy money go with thee to destruction.” Not an imprecation, wishing it might do so, which he es to be impossible, but an expression of alarm and danger. See note on (Mark 2:7). Ver. 22. If perhaps.—This expression is thought to intimate, in Peter, a fear lest Simon should have committed the unpardonable sin—the sin against the Holy Ghost. See 1 John v. 16. Ver. 23. The gall of bitterness.—This is bitterness, or misery itself——The bond of iniquity—its slavery to lust, particularly the lust of covetousness, called the lust of the eye.

(1 John ii. 16.) The bond of iniquity is explained by Hammond of a league with Satan, probably referring to the magical arts which he had practised. Ver. 24. None of these things.—Peter probably enlarged upon the awful con- sequences Simon might expect. Ver. 26. Which is desert—i. e. the way through the desert, or wilderness of Judea. Doddridge. It is probable, that we should refer desert, not to Gaza, but to the way; though Gaza was situated at the entrance of the desert, and the ancient city was in ruins, being destroyed by Alexander. Strabo, 1. xvi. Ver. 27. A eunuch.—A term of office. See note on (Genesis 37:36).—Candace, queen of the Ethiopians.—‘Candace’ is said to be a name common to the queens of Ethiopia, as Cesar was of the Roman emperors.

—Ethiopia,—from Aithomai, to burn, and ops, the face. ‘The Ethiopia here mentioned is upper Ethiopia, or Habesch, lying south of Egypt, on the Nile, and including the island Meroé.’ Ver. 30. Heard him read.—A late respectable traveller, in allusion to this very passage, remarks, that in Syria “they usually go on reading aloud, with a kind of singing voice; moving their heads and bodies in time, and making kind of monotonous cadence at regular intervals.” Jowett’s Christian Researches. The ancient chariots were generally open, like our common chaises. Ver. 33. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away.—This, which is quoted from the Septuagint version of these verses, seems to mean, In his degraded state, justice was denied:”

but compare Isaiah as above. Prebend. Townsend proposes a change in the punctuation of the original, connecting verses 32 and 33 thus:— Like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth because of affliction; and his just judgment was taken away: “the learned reader will judge of this matter for pe New Test. Arr. Ver. 37. And Philip said, &c.—This verse is omitted in many (including the best) MSS., and Griesbach and other critics consider it only as a marginal gloss brought into the text. So Boothroyd: but Beza and Doddridge think it too important to be omitted; and Whitby suggests the probability of its are first omitted by some who approved of delaying baptism as long as pos- Ver.

38. Both into the water.—Doddridge says— Considering how frequent bathing was in those hot countries, it is not to be wondered that baptism was generally administered by immersion, though I see no proof that it was essential to the institution.” And the candid Lardner says, ‘I do not see any proof that the Eunuch was baptized by immersion.” How differently men view the same facts and circumstances! Ver. 40. Azotus—i. e. Ashdod, more than thirty miles from Gaza from whence he preached in all the cities along the coast of the Mediterranean.