Acts 7

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1The high priest said, “Are these things so?”

2He said, “Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

3and said to him, ‘Get out of your land, and from your relatives, and come into a land which I will show you.’

4Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and lived in Haran. From there, when his father was dead, God moved him into this land, where you are now living.

5He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his offspring after him, when he still had no child.

6God spoke in this way: that his offspring would live as aliens in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.

7‘I will judge the nation to which they will be in bondage,’ said God, ‘and after that will they come out, and serve me in this place.’

8He gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

9“The patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt. God was with him,

10and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

11Now a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction. Our fathers found no food.

12But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers the first time.

13On the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph’s race was revealed to Pharaoh.

14Joseph sent, and summoned Jacob, his father, and all his relatives, seventy-five souls.

15Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, himself and our fathers,

16and they were brought back to Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver from the children of Hamor of Shechem.

17“But as the time of the promise came close which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,

18until there arose a different king, who didn’t know Joseph.

19The same took advantage of our race, and mistreated our fathers, and forced them to throw out their babies, so that they wouldn’t stay alive.

20At that time Moses was born, and was exceedingly handsome. He was nourished three months in his father’s house.

21When he was thrown out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and reared him as her own son.

22Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was mighty in his words and works.

23But when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.

24Seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him who was oppressed, striking the Egyptian.

25He supposed that his brothers understood that God, by his hand, was giving them deliverance; but they didn’t understand.

26“The day following, he appeared to them as they fought, and urged them to be at peace again, saying, ‘Sirs, you are brothers. Why do you wrong one another?’

27But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?

28Do you want to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’

29Moses fled at this saying, and became a stranger in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

30“When forty years were fulfilled, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.

31When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight. As he came close to see, a voice of the Lord came to him,

32‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ Moses trembled, and dared not look.

33The Lord said to him, ‘Take your sandals off of your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.

34I have surely seen the affliction of my people that is in Egypt, and have heard their groaning. I have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you into Egypt.’

35“This Moses, whom they refused, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—God has sent him as both a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

36This man led them out, having worked wonders and signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.

37This is that Moses, who said to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord our God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me.’

38This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living oracles to give to us,

39to whom our fathers wouldn’t be obedient, but rejected him, and turned back in their hearts to Egypt,

40saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.’

41They made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.

42But God turned, and gave them up to serve the army of the sky, as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘Did you offer to me slain animals and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

43You took up the tabernacle of Moloch, the star of your god Rephan, the figures which you made to worship. I will carry you away beyond Babylon.’

44“Our fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern that he had seen;

45which also our fathers, in their turn, brought in with Joshua when they entered into the possession of the nations, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers, to the days of David,

46who found favor in the sight of God, and asked to find a habitation for the God of Jacob.

47But Solomon built him a house.

48However, the Most High doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says,

49‘heaven is my throne, and the earth a footstool for my feet. What kind of house will you build me?’ says the Lord; ‘or what is the place of my rest?

50Didn’t my hand make all these things?’

51“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do.

52Which of the prophets didn’t your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers.

53You received the law as it was ordained by angels, and didn’t keep it!”

54Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.

55But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,

56and said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

57But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed at him with one accord.

58They threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

59They stoned Stephen as he called out, saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”

60He kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them!” When he had said this, he fell asleep.

Commentary

CHAPTER 7Ac 7:1-60. Defense and Martyrdom of Stephen.In this long defense Stephen takes a much wider range, and goes less directly into the point raised by his accusers, than we should have expected. His object seems to have been to show (1) that so far from disparaging, he deeply reverenced, and was intimately conversant with, the whole history of the ancient economy; and (2) that in resisting the erection of the Gospel kingdom they were but treading in their fathers' footsteps, the whole history of their nation being little else than one continued misapprehension of God's high designs towards fallen man and rebellion against them.

"\nAnd he said,.... Stephen replied, in answer to the high priest's question, and addressed himself to the whole sanhedrim, saying:\n\nmen, brethren, and fathers, hearken; to the following oration and defence; he calls them men, brethren, by an usual Hebraism, that is, "brethren"; and that, because they were of the same nation; for it was common with the Jews to call those of their own country and religion, brethren; and he calls them "fathers", because of their age and dignity, being the great council of the nation, and chosen out of the senior and wiser part of the people:\n\nthe God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham; he calls God "the God of glory", because he is glorious in himself, in all his persons, perfections, and works, and is to be glorified by his people; and his glory is to be sought by all his creatures, and to be the end of all their actions; and the rather he makes use of this epithet of him, to remove the calumny against him, that he had spoke blasphemous things against God; and because God appeared in a glorious manner to Abraham, either in a vision, or by an angel, or in some glorious form, or another; and it is observable, that when the Jews speak of Abraham's deliverance out of the fiery furnace, for so they interpret Ur of the Chaldees, they give to God much such a title; they say {r}\n\n""the King of glory" stretched out his right hand, and delivered him out of the fiery furnace, according to\nGe 15:7.''\n\nStephen uses a like epithet; and he calls Abraham "our father", he being a Jew, and according to the common usage of the nation: and this appearance of God to Abraham was "when he was in Mesopotamia"; a country that lay between the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates, from whence it had its name; and is the same with Aram Naharaim, the Scriptures speak of; [See comments on Ac 2:9]. Of this appearance of God to Abraham, mentioned by Stephen, the Scriptures are silent; but the Jewish writers seem to hint at it, when they say {s},\n\n"thus said the holy blessed God to Abraham, as thou hast enlightened for me Mesopotamia and its companions, come and give light before me in the land of Israel.''\n\nAnd again, mentioning those words in Isa 41:8 "the seed of Abraham my friend, whom I have taken from the ends of the earth"; add by way of explanation, from Mesopotamia and its companions {t}: and this was\n\nbefore he dwelt in Charan; or Haran; see Ge 11:31 where the Septuagint call it "Charan", as here; and by Herodish {u} it is called \u03ba\u03b1\u03c1\u03c1\u03b1\u03b9, where Antoninus was killed; and by Pliny {w}, "Carra"; and by Ptolomy {x}, "Carroe"; it was famous for the slaughter of M. Crassus, by the Parthians {y}. R. Benjamin gives this account of it in his time {z};\n\n"in two days I came to ancient Haran, and in it were about twenty Jews, and there was as it were a synagogue of Ezra; but in the place where was the house of Abraham our father, there was no building upon it; but the Ishmaelites (or Mahometans) honour that place, and come thither to pray.''\n\nStephanus {a} says it was a city of Mesopotamia, so called from "Carra", a river in Syria.\n\n{r} Pirke Eliezer, c. 26. {s} Bereshit Rabba, sect. 30. fol. 25. 1 {t} lb. sect. 44. fol. 38. 3. {u} L. 4. sect. 24. {w} L. 5. c. 24. {x} L. 5. c. 18. {y} ----Miserando funere Crassus Assyrias Latio maculavit sanguine Carrhas. Lucan. Pharsal. l. 1. v. 105. {z} Itinerar. p. 60. {a} De Urbibus.\n\n\n "

7:1-16 Stephen was charged as a blasphemer of God, and an apostate from the church; therefore he shows that he is a son of Abraham, and values himself on it. The slow steps by which the promise made to Abraham advanced toward performance, plainly show that it had a spiritual meaning, and that the land intended was the heavenly. God owned Joseph in his troubles, and was with him by the power of his Spirit, both on his own mind by giving him comfort, and on those he was concerned with, by giving him favour in their eyes. Stephen reminds the Jews of their mean beginning as a check to priding themselves in the glories of that nation. Likewise of the wickedness of the patriarchs of their tribes, in envying their brother Joseph; and the same spirit was still working in them toward Christ and his ministers. The faith of the patriarchs, in desiring to be buried in the land of Canaan, plainly showed they had regard to the heavenly country. It is well to recur to the first rise of usages, or sentiments, which have been perverted. Would we know the nature and effects of justifying faith, we should study the character of the father of the faithful. His calling shows the power and freeness of Divine grace, and the nature of conversion. Here also we see that outward forms and distinctions are as nothing, compared with separation from the world, and devotedness to God.

"\nAnd said unto him,....

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Translations8 · 5

AMHEVG ሊቀ ካህናቱም፦ “ይህ ነገር እንዲህ ነውን?” አለው፤ አማርኛ ENGNIV Then the high priest asked him, “Are these charges true?” English BCV እቲ ሊቀ ካህናት ንእስጢፋኖስ “እዝ ነገር ከምዙይ ድዩ?”(ሀ) ኢሉ ጠየቖ። ትግርኛ GAZBIB Angafni lubootaa yommus, ?Kun dhugumaan akkasii?? jedhee Isxifaanosiin in gaafate. Afaan Oromoo BCV GIZ ወይቤሎ ሊቀ ካህናት፦ “አማንኑ ከመዝ ትቤ?” giz GAZGAZ Angafni lubootaa yommus, ?Kun dhugumaan akkasii?? jedhee Isxifaanosiin in gaafate. Afaan Oromoo BCV aksum እቲ ሊቀ ካህናት ንእስጢፋኖስ “እዝ ነገር ከምዙይ ድዩ?”(ሀ) ኢሉ ጠየቖ። ትግርኛ AMHNIV ሊቀ ካህናቱም፣ “ይህ የቀረበብህ ክስ እውነት ነውን?” አለው። አማርኛ