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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
6:8-8:3 Stephen Bears the Ultimate Witness. The Greek word for "witness" is martys, which came to be associated with witnessing to the point of death, from which the word "martyr" derives. Stephen became the first such "ultimate" witness in the early church ().
6:8-15 The Arrest of Stephen. Stephen was the first listed of the seven Hellenists selected to minister to the widows (v. 5). Like the apostles, he not only ministered to the needy but was primarily concerned with the ministry of the Word. He preached Christ in the Greek-speaking synagogues of Jerusalem, where he was seized and dragged before the Sanhedrin.
6:8 Stephen is described as being filled with faith, the Holy Spirit (v. 5), grace, power, and wisdom (v. 10). He is the first person after the apostles said to have performed wonders and signs. His "power" was not physical strength or worldly knowledge or influence but the power of the Holy Spirit (see 1:8).
6:9 Those to whom Stephen preached were Diaspora Jews (see note on v. 1) and Greek-speakers like himself. There may have been only the one synagogue of the Freedmen, with the various names designating its constituency, or those names may represent individual synagogues. "Freedmen" would refer to Jews who had been enslaved and then granted freedom. The place names all point to the Diaspora: Cyrenians and Alexandrians represent North Africa, while those in Cilicia and Asia represent the area covered by modern Turkey, also a part of the Diaspora.
6:11 Secretly instigated (Gk. hypoballō) implies putting words in someone's mouth or making false suggestions. The basic charge was blasphemy, speaking against Moses (the Law) and against God (that is, against the temple, God's dwelling place; cf. vv. 13-14). Jesus was accused of the same thing (Mark 14:63-64).
6:13 The use of false witnesses is reminiscent of what happened at Jesus' trial (Matt. 26:59-60) and confirms Jesus' prediction that his followers would be persecuted as he was (John 15:18-21).
6:14 Stephen must have referred to what Jesus said about destroying the temple and rebuilding it in (Mark 14:58), which John clarified as referring to the temple of Jesus' body (John 2:19-21).
6:15 Stephen's face is described as being like the face of an angel. There was apparently a visible manifestation of the brightness of the glory of God on his face, as there had been with Moses (Ex. 34:29-30, 35) and, to an even greater extent, with Jesus at his transfiguration (Matt. 17:2).
7:1-53 Stephen's Address before the Sanhedrin. Stephen's defense is the longest discourse in Acts. It is a selective recital of OT history, including sections on Abraham (vv. 2-8), Joseph (vv. 9-16), Moses (vv. 17-34), and Israel's apostasy (vv. 35-50). It was cut short when Stephen applied his history lesson to Israel's present rejection of the Messiah (vv. 51-53). Stephen responded to the charges by turning them on his accusers: they were the ones who were really disobeying God because they rejected his appointed leaders.
7:4 after his father died. See note on Gen. 11:32.
7:5 Abraham himself was given no possession in the Promised Land, not even the length of a foot, showing that God was working even when a temple did not yet exist.
7:6 four hundred years. That is, the time Israel spent in Egypt.
7:7 Combining Gen. 15:13-14 with Ex. 3:12, Stephen spoke of God's assurances to Abraham that even after a long exile his descendants would come to Canaan and worship God in this place. Stephen's emphasis was on how God revealed himself outside the holy land and how he promised a place of true worship to come.
7:9 The Joseph history contrasts how the patriarchs were blessed by the brother whom they rejected. Israel's rejection of God's chosen leaders is a theme that runs throughout Stephen's speech, culminating in the rejection of Jesus. God was with him. God's presence with Joseph in Egypt shows that God can bless those outside the Promised Land, and therefore a physical temple is not crucial for his saving purposes.
7:14 When Stephen cites the number of Jacob's kindred at seventy-five, he is following the Septuagint rather than Hebrew text for Ex. 1:5, which follows a different calculation and arrives at the number
7:15 Israel's presence in Egypt for (v. 6) again indicates that the Lord is with his people even when they are not in the Promised Land (cf. notes on vv. 5, 9).
7:16 the tomb that Abraham had bought . . . from the sons of Hamor in Shechem. The OT shows that it was actually Jacob who bought a tomb "from the sons of Hamor" in Shechem (Gen. 33:19) and this is where Joseph was buried (Josh. 24:32). It seems that Stephen is using the name "Abraham" to refer to all of Abraham's family or descendants, including Jacob (cf. Heb. 7:9-10). Another possible explanation is that Abraham had earlier bought the same piece of land when he built an altar in Shechem (Gen. 12:6-7), but Jacob later had to repurchase it just as Isaac had needed to renegotiate his rights to a well that Abraham had earlier bought in Beersheba (cf. Gen. 21:27-31 with Gen. 26:23-33).
7:20 Stephen's recital of the story of Moses is in three parts, covering each: birth and years in Pharaoh's court (vv. 17-22), flight from Egypt and sojourn in Midian (vv. 23-29), and divine commissioning at Sinai and wandering in the wilderness (vv. 30-43).
7:22 Moses' education in Egyptian wisdom is not mentioned in the OT but was well established in Jewish tradition. Stephen emphasizes that the one who delivered Israel was educated in a secular setting, hence God accomplished salvation in an unexpected way, as he has now done through Jesus of Nazareth.
7:23 Stephen highlighted Moses' middle years by relating his avenging of an abused Israelite and the subsequent rejection of his attempt to reconcile two quarreling Israelites (Ex. 2:11-15). The was spent primarily in Midian (Acts 7:29), but Stephen chose to emphasize the single incident because it illustrated Israel's constant rejection of its God-sent leaders (see v. 35).
7:30 Moses' final forty years cover the period of the exodus and wilderness wandering (the narrative of this period will continue through v. 43).
7:35-36 Stephen continued the story of Moses, emphasizing Israel's rejection of his leadership. He implicitly presented Moses as a type of Christ: both were men whom God sent, both served as a redeemer (see Luke 24:21), and both performed wonders and signs (see Acts 2:22).
7:37 Christ is the prophet whom Moses predicted (see Deut. 18:15; Acts 3:22).
7:38 The Greek word for congregation is ekklēsia, the characteristic NT word for "church," and it provides a comparison between Moses' presence with the Israelites and Christ's presence in the church. The word refers to an assembled group. The idea that the law was mediated by angels was well established in Judaism and is repeated in v. 53 and also by Paul in Gal. 3:19 and the author of Hebrews in Heb. 2:2. Stephen employed the Moses/Christ typology to show how both were God-sent deliverers and how Israel rejected the message of both.
7:40-41 The golden calf incident illustrates Israel's continuing rejection of Moses' leadership (we do not know what has become of him) and their sinful idolatry.
7:42-43 Stephen carried the accusation of Israel's idolatry on down to their occupation of the Promised Land, when they began worshiping heavenly bodies (the host of heaven). To establish this he quoted the Greek (Septuagint) version of Amos 5:25-27. Moloch was the Canaanite sun god. The identity of Rephan is uncertain, but it possibly refers to Repa, the Egyptian name for Saturn.
7:44 Stephen turned to the charge made against him regarding the temple (6:12-14). He contrasted the tabernacle (or tent) with the temple. The temple is not necessary for God's purposes, for in the wilderness God directed the construction of the tabernacle (Ex. 25:40). In distinction from the temple, it was movable, and it contained the witness, the stone tablets inscribed with God's law. It continued as Israel's place of worship through the period of the conquest on down to the time of David, who was the first to request a temple (2 Sam. 7:1-17). However, Stephen should not be understood as saying that the building of the temple was wrong, for he narrates this event without any hint of disapproval. (Acts 7:48 merely affirms that God cannot be contained in or confined to any earthly temple; cf. 17:24-25.) His point was not to make too much of the temple.
7:48 Stephen quoted Isa. 66:1-2 to establish that God does not dwell in houses, a point Solomon himself made in 1 Kings 8:27. Israel's error was in confining God to the temple. Further, Stephen suggested that neither the tabernacle nor the temple were intended to last forever. Both pointed to something greater that was to come.
7:51 Stephen concluded with a direct attack on Israel for rejecting the Messiah. While this may seem harsh, Luke will soon say that Stephen was "full of the Holy Spirit" (v. 55; cf. 6:10, 15) and he was no doubt led by the Spirit, who knew the hearts of Stephen's listeners, to make this accusation. Using the language of the OT he accused them of being stiff-necked (see Ex. 33:3, 5; 34:9; Deut. 9:6, 13), uncircumcised in heart and ears (Lev. 26:41; Deut. 10:16; Jer. 4:4, 6:10, 9:26; Ezek. 44:7, 9), and resisting the Holy Spirit (Isa. 63:10). In fact, the repeated rejection of God's will is the point of his story, justifying the charge that prophets also made of the nation.
7:52 Like Jesus, Stephen accused his Jewish listeners of killing the prophets (cf. Luke 11:47-51; 13:34) and now rejecting their ultimate God-sent deliverer, the Righteous One (see Acts 3:14-15).
7:53 It was not Stephen but his accusers who were the ultimate rejecters of the law. In rejecting their God-sent deliverers they rejected God himself.
7:54-8:3 The Martyrdom of Stephen. Stephen's testimony was cut short as the enraged Sanhedrin turned on him (7:54). Their anger intensified as he shared his vision of the exalted Christ (7:55-57). They stoned him (7:58), and he died praying for them (7:59-8:1a). His martyrdom triggered a general persecution against the church (8:1b-3).
7:56 On the Son of Man and the theme of vindication, see Dan. 7:13; Matt. 26:64.
7:58 It is debated whether Stephen was formally stoned by order of the Sanhedrin or killed by mob violence. The fact that he was appearing before that body (6:12) would favor the former, but the precipitous nature of the stoning suggests mob behavior. Also, under Roman rule the Sanhedrin did not have the legal right to execute without Roman concurrence (see John 18:31).
7:60 Stephen died with two prayers on his lips. The first ("Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," v. 59) recalls Jesus' dying words from the cross (Luke 23:46), and the second (Lord, do not hold this sin against them) recalls Jesus' earlier prayer for the forgiveness of those responsible for his death (Luke 23:34). Fell asleep is a Christian expression for death, reflecting assurance of a future resurrection. Stephen's death surely had a profound influence on Paul, who later alluded to that experience (Acts 22:20).
8:1 they were all scattered. The scattering or "dispersion" (Gk. diaspeirō, "to scatter, disperse") of the believers throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria was similar to the earlier diaspora ("dispersion") of Jews throughout the world (see note on John 7:35), but this "dispersion" led to the fulfillment of the promise in Acts 1:8 that the gospel would go to the end of the earth (cf. James 1:1; 1 Pet. 1:1).
8:3 Saul was instrumental in the persecution, as he testifies later in Acts (22:4-5; 26:10-11) and in his epistles (1 Cor. 15:9; Gal. 1:13, 23; Phil. 3:6; 1 Tim. 1:13).
