Acts 7

Acts 7:1

And the chief priest asked him, Whether this, whereof he was accused, ch. vi. 14, of foretelling the destruction of this people, and religion of the Jews, were true or no?

Acts 7:2

And fitting his speech to the point in hand, (that is, to prove the approaching destruction of the temple, by shewing the little merit and great provocations of that people, and the no reason why they should be preferred before other nations, the free choice, and thereupon free promise of God, being the only ground of all the mercy that befell them,) he said, I beseech you to give audience; The one eternal God of heaven and earth appeared, and spake to our father Abraham, whilst he was in Mesopotamia, (as that (see Judith v. 3.) in a wider notion contains that whole region on the other side of Euphrates from Canaan, ver. 2, Syria, *Chaldea, Mesopotamia, and Babylonia,) that is, whilst he was in the place of his birth, Ur of the Chaldees, Gen. xv. 7, and xi. 31, before the time that his father Terah and he dwelt in Haran, Gen. xi. 31, (where in the way from Ur to Canaan they stayed some years, till Terah’s death, ver. 32.)

• Ur in Mesopotamia fuit in via e Tigri Nisibem. Ammian.

Acts 7:3

And when he appeared, he commanded him, saying, The country where thou art is overrun with all villany; and therefore, that thou mayest keep thyself free from their idolatries, and other vices accompanying them, I command thee to forsake that place, and thy father’s house, Gen. xii. 1, and remove into another land, which I shall appoint and direct thee to, viz., the land of Canaan, which though now possessed by others, yet I will give unto thee, and to thy seed entirely, Gen. xiii. 14; and by thy readiness to take this journey on this command, I shall discern thy obedience to me.

Acts 7:4

Then, in obedience to that command, he went out of that country of his (and his father Terah with him, as far as Haran, Gen. xi. 31); and after he had dwelt in Haran some years, according to God’s command, he removed into Canaan, Gen. xii. 5.

Acts 7:5

And there he pitched his tent, and built an altar, vv. 7, 8, (but was soon fain to remove into Egypt, ver. 10, and there to sojourn,) having received a promise of God, that he would give him this whole land of Canaan, ch. xii. 7, for him and his seed to possess, when as yet he had no child, nor likelihood to have any, nor any kind of estate in the land, but was a stranger or sojourner there, Gen. xvii. 18, and xx. 1, and xxi. 34, and xxiii. 4.

Acts 7:6

And, Gen. xv. 13, God spake to him again concerning this matter, that before this promise should be performed to him, his posterity should first sojourn in Canaan, and then go down to sojourn in Egypt, and there should suffer, and be for some time oppressed like slaves, till the end of four hundred years from the time of the birth of Isaac (not from the time of the going into Egypt), until the time that the iniquity of the seven nations, all concluded there (as Amos ii. 9, 10.) under the general name of the Amorites, which inhabited this promised land, should be filled up, and so they fit for God in justice to destroy them, and give away their land from them, Gen. xv. 16.

[a] four hundred years] That the four hundred years here mentioned, as also Gen. xv. 13, or the four hundred and thirty, Exod. xii. 40, are not to be interpreted of the space wherein the Israelites continued in Egypt, so as to begin at Jacob’s and his sons’ coming thither, and to end at Moses’s carrying them out, is sufficiently manifest by all story of those times. The Chaldee Paraphrast, and the generality of the Jews determining that space to be but “two hundred and ten,” only Josephus defining it “two hundred and fifteen years.” First then it must be observed, that the words here, and in those other places, being not strictly restrained to their dwelling in Egypt, but so as to contain also their sojourning in Canaan, the γῆ ἀλλοτρία, strange land, here may fitly comprehend both of them, and the πάροικον ἵσται, shall sojourn, may do so too; for Abraham sojourned in Canaan before his posterity were sojourners in Egypt, yea and himself first sojourned in Egypt, Gen. xii. 10. And so the words in Gen. xv. 13 are in the same latitude, thy seed shall be a stranger in a land which is not theirs, and shall serve them; where the land which is not theirs, distinctly the γῆ ἀλλοτρία, a strange land here, is common to both those lands where they sojourned, and where they were servants. And in the place Exod. xii. 40, the words in our English, the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt, are reconcilable with this also, their sojourning being defined to be so many years, part of which they dwelt in Egypt, but not their sojourning in Egypt so many years. And therefore when the Septuagint read it Ἡ δὲ παροίκησις τῶν υἱῶν Ἰσραήλ, ἦν παρφκησαν ἐν γῇ λιγύπτῳ, the sojourning of the children of Israel which they sojourned in Egypt, they add by way of necessary paraphrase, καὶ ἐν γῇ Χαναάν, and in the land of Canaan, and so the Samaritan Pentateuch read, and Solomon Jarchi, et in terris aliis, “and in other lands,” instead of it. Secondly, it must be observed what latitude belongs in that place of Exodus xii. 40 to that phrase children of Israel, not so as to denote the posterity of Jacob only, but

Acts 7:7

And then in the fourth generation (Gen. xv. 16.) after Jacob, (Moses and Aaron, which brought them out, being the sons of Amram, the son of Cohath, the son of Levi, one of Jacob’s sons that went down with him into Egypt,) when the time comes of bringing them out of their Egyptian slavery, and giving them this land, I will, saith God, Gen. xv. 14, lay heavy punishments on the Egyptians, and by that means

Acts 7:8

And God made a covenant with him, and appointed circumcision as a seal of it; and accordingly Abraham, when Isaac was born, circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat and circumcised Jacob, and Jacob his twelve sons, the heads of the twelve tribes, of which this people consisted.

Acts 7:9

And those sons of Jacob were much displeased with one of their brethren, viz., Joseph, and sold him into Egypt; but when he was there, God protected, and provided for, and advanced him miraculously.

Acts 7:10

And when he was cast into prison there, God brought him out, and at the same time brought him into favour and estimation, for deep wisdom, with Pharaoh the king of Egypt: and he intrusted the affairs of his whole household, yea and the whole kingdom, to his managery.

Acts 7:11

At this time of Joseph’s power with Pharaoh there came a terrible famine upon Egypt and Canaan for seven years’ space, and our father Jacob and his children, being then in Canaan, were like to have perished for want of food.

12, 13. And Jacob, understanding that, though the famine was as great at present in Egypt as in Canaan, yet there was a magazine of corn reserved from the former years’ plenty, and so there was now sufficient for themselves and to sell to others, sent his sons twice into Egypt to buy corn; and though the first time Joseph dealt a little harshly with them, yet the second time he made himself known to be their brother, and made it known also to Pharaoh.

Acts 7:12

And having incensed the sanhedrim against him, and also the people at Jerusalem, they apprehended and carried him before the sanhedrim.

Acts 7:13

And brought those witnesses which they had hired or suborned, ver. 11, to give in their testimony; which was thus: This Stephen is continually a foretelling destruction to the temple, and threatening the change of all the Mosaical rites.

b rites, ceremonies, which Moses delivered us.

Acts 7:14

And by Pharaoh’s appointment, Joseph sent for his father and brethren, and their wives and children, which, reckoning in some of their children born in Egypt, together with Joseph and his sons, and sons’ sons, made up seventy-five persons.

[b] threescore and fifteen] The difference of the number of those which are here said to have gone down into Egypt, from that computation which we find Gen. xlvi. 27, and Deut. x. 22, where they are but threescore and ten, hath made some writers think fit to change the reading. Th. Beza, from Cor. Bertram, is willing to believe πίντε,

Acts 7:15

And all the judges that were present in the sanhedrim, as they looked on him, saw a great splendour about him, just as it is when an angel appeareth.

CHAP. VII.

And accordingly Jacob went down to him with his whole family; and he and all his sons died there.

Acts 7:16

And Joseph and some (say the ancients) of his brethren, being first buried in Egypt, were after, at the Israelites’ going out, removed to Sichem, Jos. xxiv. 32, and buried in the field bought by Jacob of the children of Hamor; and Jacob himself never buried in Egypt, but by his sons carried and buried, Gen. l. 13, in the field of Machpelah, bought by Abraham of

I being enraged, ζηλώσαντες.

[c] carried over into Sychem] Some difficulty there is in reconciling this passage of the burying-place of the patriarchs with that which is said in Genesis. There it is clear there were two burying-places; one, bought by Abraham of Ephron the Hittite, Gen. xxiii, in Machpelah before Mamre, that is, in Hebron, which is in the land of Canaan, ver. 19, and this cost four hundred shekels of silver, ver. 15; the other, bought by Jacob of the children of Emor in Salem, a city of Shechem, in Canaan also, Gen. xxxiii. 19, and that cost an hundred lambs, or pieces of money with that signature. If we refer to that which Abraham bought, then that was not bought of the children of Emor or Hamor; if to that which was bought of the children of Hamor, then the name of Abraham cannot be retained. Hence it is that Andr. Masius (a learned man) on Joshua xxiv. 32 hath thought necessary to

B b

Acts 7:19

(Who therefore did all that he could to keep the Israelites from flourishing or increasing, and among other things, commanded all their male children to be put to death, Exod. i.)

20, 21. At this point of time Moses was born, and being a very beautiful child, he was first kept close in his father’s house three months, Exod. ii.; but when that could no longer be done, he was put in a cradle of bulrushes by a river’s brink; and being there left and exposed, the providence of God preserved him. For it happened that Pharaoh’s daughter found him there, and took him, and put him to nurse to his own mother, Exod. ii. 9, and so afterwards educated and brought him up as her own son.

[d] they cast out] What ποιεῖν ἵκθετα signifies there can be small doubt. It is after the Hebrew idiom no more than ἐκτιθέναι, to expose, or cast out helpless, to certain ruin, in the same manner as ποιῆσαι ἔλεος, to do mercy, Luke i. 72, is ἔλειν, to pity or commiserate. All that is here to be taken care of is, that τοῦ ποιεῖν be so rendered as that it may with

Cod. Talm. de Novi Anni initio c. 3. fol. 26.

Acts 7:20

[e] exceeding fair] Ἀστειος τῷ Θεῷ, fair to God, may be an Hebrew phrase for exceeding fair; for so the word God may sometime import an αὔξησις or increase. But it is possible that the τῷ Θεῷ here may be a mistake of the scribe for τῇ διᾷ, to see or look on; for so Exod. ii. 2, where this is related, it is said, when she saw him, that he was a goodly child, and Heb. xi. 23, εἶδον ἀστειον, they saw him a fair or comely child.

Acts 7:22

By which means he was instructed in all the learning of the Egyptians, in mathematics, and physic, &c., (see note [a] 2 Tim. iii.,) and was thereby a person of great abilities above other men, both for speaking (viz., in respect of eloquence and power of speech, though for the manner of utterance he had some stammering in his speech) and also for managery of business; very able both to give counsel, and to act any great affairs.

Acts 7:23

And when he was forty years old, God having some way revealed unto him (see note [a] 2 Tim. iii.) his purpose of delivering the Israelites out of their slavery by his hands, and making him their leader and instrument of his vengeance on their oppressors the Egyptians, (see ver. 25,) thereupon he resolved to visit them, and see how it was with them.

Acts 7:24

And seeing an Egyptian do injury to an Israelite, he took the Israelite’s part against him, and in defence of the Israelite killed the Egyptian.

Acts 7:25

This he did as an act of that office to which God had designed him, that of a saviour or deliverer of his countrymen; and although he had not yet re-

Acts 7:26

The next day he interposed himself again as a pacifier or composer of controversies among them, to see how that would be accepted by them, whether they would be likely to receive him as a judge, to go in and out before them, which was another part of the office to which he was designed.

Acts 7:29

And Moses seeing himself thus repulsed, and, on the other side, fearing that what he had done already might by being known bring hazard on him, (as it did, Exod. ii. 15, when Pharaoh heard of it he sought to kill him,) he fled from thence to Midian, and there sojourned with Revel, Exod. ii. 18, or, which is all one, with Jethro, ch. iii. 1, the priest or prince of Midian, Exod. ii. 16, and he kept his sheep, and married his daughter Zipporah, by whom he had two children, Gershom, so named for his being a stranger or sojourner there, and Eliezer, from God’s helping him or delivering him from the hand of Pharaoh, that sought his life, Exod. xviii. 2—4.

Acts 7:30

And at the end of a second part of three of his life, i. e. of a second forty years, which was also the period of the four hundred years prefixed, ver. 6, as Moses was feeding his sheep about Horeb or Sinai, that mount, after so famous for God’s delivering the law out of it, and therefore called the flaming mountain of God, Exod. iii. 2, he saw a flame of fire in a bush, but the bush was not hurt nor consumed by it, which was the appearing of an angel, according as it was usual for angels to appear: (see note [k] Matt. iii.) a And this voice of God, by an angel speaking, (and perhaps, as it was usual, thunder joined with it,) was so terrible to him, and the flame that appeared in the bush so glorious and illustrious, that he durst not look upon it, but hid his face. Exod. iii. 6. b This appearance of an angel is an argument and persuaded them to peace, συνήλασεν αὐτοὺς εἰς εἰρήνην.

Acts 7:34

Now is the time come wherein I will certainly visit and relieve that people of mine, the children of Abraham, which, according to what I foretold him, (see ver. 6,) have been used like slaves in Egypt a long time; and to this purpose now I have sent down my angel, the only way of my peculiar presence in any one place, that I may commune with thee, and send thee on this message, as my commissioner to bring them out thence.

Acts 7:35

And so that Moses, that they would not receive to avenge their injuries or compose their quarrels, vv. 27, 28, was now sent by God to lead them and bring them out of Egypt, and to this end an angel sent to talk with him, and give him his commission, which was done in a glorious manner by a flame in (but not consuming) the bush.

Acts 7:36

And at last, after the working of many terrible prodigies, first in Egypt, then at their departure in the Red sea, he rescued them out of Pharaoh’s hands; and after forty years spent in the wilderness, to punish their murmuring, and to shew forth more of God’s power and miracles in sustaining them there, they were at last brought by Joshua into Canaan.

Acts 7:37

Now what was this Moses all this while but a prophet foretelling the purpose of God to send another great prophet to you in these later days, the Messias, which (though he were God from heaven, yet) should here be born in an ordinary condition of a daughter of Abraham, and warning you to be sure to receive and entertain him when he should come, assuring you, that if you hear not (receive not) him, you shall (which was the point in hand which Stephen was all this while a demonstrating, in answer to what was laid to his charge, ch. vi. 14.) be utterly destroyed? Acts iii. 32.

Acts 7:38

This Moses afterward, when the people were encamped in the wilderness, was called up to mount Sinai, where an angel spake to him and the Israelites, and delivered the law to them: see note [a] Rom. iii. 39, 40. And after all these prodigies and miracles used by God to give him authority among them, the Israelites murmured and rebelled against him still, ⁹ congregation, Ἰωαλισία. ¹⁰ living, ζώντα

Acts 7:41

And when they had made this calf, they very solemnly worshipped it, and by sacrifice and festivities celebrated that idol (which they themselves made) in the same manner as God himself is wont to be worshipped.

Acts 7:42

This provoked God to forsake them, to leave them to themselves, to permit them to follow their own hearts’ desires into all the madness they led them to, and so by not restraining, to deliver them up to worship the stars of heaven, instead of God, upon which it is that God expostulates with them, Amos v. 25—" Were the sacrifices which you offered up in the wilderness all those forty years, offered to me, O ye house of Israel?

Acts 7:43

“Nay, as the grossest idolatry, ye set up a chaplet or shrine with an image in it, (see note [c] ch. xix.,) and that image the image of one of the Egyptian kings, under the title of Mars; and again, the picture of Saturn, another planet denoting another Egyptian god; and these images of these false gods have been made by you on purpose to be worshipped by you: which idolatry, together with your consequent sins, hath brought that captivity upon you,” Amos v. 26.

[f] tabernacle of Moloch] That the word Μολόχ, Moloch, is originally the Hebrew מלך, a king, there is no doubt. And so here it notes some deified king of the Egyptians, that is, an idol, false god, worshipped and placed among the stars; and accordingly an old Egyptian alphabet, that sets down the names of the planets, hath for Mars, Μολόχ. See Kercher. Prodrom. Copt. c. 5. Now for the σκηνὴ here, the tabernacle of Moloch, that is sure some little cabinet wherein the image of this false god was kept, such as the ναοὶ ἀργυροὶ τῆς Ἀρτέμιδος, the silver chapels of Diana (see note [e] on ch. xix.) This is in Amos, ch. v. 26, טבות מלככם, the tabernacle, or soccoth, of your king or Moloch, that is, the chaplet where that image of your false god, called here τύπος, a figure made to be worshipped, was enshrined or dwelt; (so σκηνοῦν signifies;) and the like seems to be understood by soccoth benoth, “the tabernacle of Venus,” some little chapel or shrine where her image was kept and worshipped.

[g] Remphan] Diodorus Siculus, lib. 1, mentions Memphis, son of Cephna, as king of Egypt about the time that Jacob went down thither, and saith of him, that he gathered an infinite mass of wealth, and left behind him at his death 4,000,000 talents, which makes it probable that he was that prince which in the famine, by Joseph’s advice, got all the

B b 2

Acts 7:44

These fathers of ours in the wilderness had the tabernacle of the testimony, that is, the tabernacle with the ark in it, called the ark of the testimony, (because of the tables of the law put there, which were the testimonies and evidences of God’s will how he would be served,) or else the tabernacle where God promised to meet them, the place where he would record his name, Exod. xx. 24, where they were to commemorate his mercies to them, and where he would answer their prayers, bestow blessings on them, and this built exactly according to the pattern shewed Moses by God.

[h] tabernacle of witness] That which is rendered by the Septuagint σεηνή μαρτυρίου, the tabernacle of the testimony, (and so made use of here by St. Luke,) is generally in the Hebrew אהל מועד, Exod. xxvii. 21, xxx. 26, xxxi. 7, and xxxviii. 8, the tabernacle of meeting, viz. of meeting with God, whither every one that sought the Lord was to go, Exod. xxxiii. 7. This we render, the tabernacle of the congregation, (as if it referred to our meeting with one another,) but certainly it must be taken in that other sense of meeting with God, as appears Exod. xxix. 42, at the door of the tabernacle מועד, of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet you to speak there unto you. So ch. xxx. 36, the tabernacle of meeting where I will meet with thee, and so Numb. xvii. 4. Now this place of God’s meeting with men is so called in two respects: 1st, Because there he communicates his will, makes known his pleasure to them. 2dly, Because there by his appointment his name being recorded or commemorated by men, his acts of mercy praised and magnified,

Acts 7:45

This their successors under Joshua brought in-

Acts 7:46

Who having received special favour from God, desired earnestly to build a standing temple for his service.

Acts 7:47

But this temple was not thought fit to be built by him, because, though he were a very excellent person, yet he had had great wars, and shed much blood, 1 Chron. xxii. 8, and xxviii. 3, in which respect God would not permit him to have this honour of building the temple, a place destined to all peaceableness, purity and holiness: this therefore was reserved for Solomon, who accordingly built it in a most sumptuous manner.

48—51. But sure God doth not so dwell in this temple (who hath the whole world for his palace) as that he should be bound to preserve this for ever from being destroyed, when you have by crucifying his Son thus provoked his vengeance against you, (and this brings home Stephen’s discourse in this chapter to the point which he had in hand, ch. vi. 14,) and continue in the rebellions of your fathers: for sure if David’s bloodguiltiness made him uncapable of building it, yours will render you uncapable of having it continued to you.

52, 53. For as your fathers persecuted and slew all the old prophets, which foretold the coming of the Messias, so ye, now he is actually come, have betrayed and murdered him. A sin set out and heightened with the greatest aggravations imaginable, whether we consider the person thus used by you, or you that thus used him; he the holiest person in the world, that came to be your Saviour; and you the people of God, the very men for whose sakes the law was delivered by God to hosts of angels, and by them delivered to you, and yet you have not obeyed it, nor embraced him which came to perfect that law, but absolutely rebelled against all.

Acts 7:54

This whole sermon, but especially the close of it, foretelling their destruction for their bloody sins, wounded them deep; but instead of producing contrition, exasperated them the more, and put them into an horrible rage against Stephen, and that inflamed their zeal to set upon the stoning of him.

Acts 7:55

But he, full of courage, looked up far above all

¹⁶ Or, among host, or, troops, his blarayds: see note [f] ch. xlii. ¹⁷ mad in their heart, or, enraged: see note [c] ch. v.