Acts 9
TFGActs 9:1
(14) For we have heard him saying, that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.
The general charge against Stephen was speaking blasphemy “against Moses and God” [#Acts 6:11|], otherwise expressed, “against this holy place, and the law” [#Acts 6:13|]. The change of phraseology arises from the fact that the temple and law were the visible representatives of Moses and of God. The specifications under this charge were these: “We have heard him saying that this Jesus will destroy this place, and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.” It is quite likely that Stephen was guilty of the specifications; but they fell very far short of the crime of blasphemy against Moses and against God. In thus teaching, he was really honoring Moses, by insisting upon the very termination which Moses himself had assigned to his own law, while he honored God by receiving him whom God had sent.
(OCA 80-81)
Acts 9:2
- As Stephen stood before the Sanhedrim, thus falsely and hypocritically accused, and fully aware of a determination to condemn him without regard to evidence or justice, he could but remember the similar accusation of Jesus, of Peter and John, then of all the apostles; and his heart must have swelled at the thought of being identified with them in suffering. The baseness of his persecutors– who, under pretense of zeal for Moses and the law, were violating the one and dishonoring the other, by seeking the lives of the only men who believed his words–must have filled him with indignation, while love for the truth which he was defending, and for the Redeemer for whom he was suffering, was kindled afresh, and the power of a glorious hope inspired him with the most invincible courage. Emotions so intense and so lofty spread a glow upon his countenance which attracted the attention of the whole audience.
(15) And all who sat in the Sanhedrim, looking earnestly upon him, saw his face as if it were the face of an angel.
There is no need to suppose anything supernatural in his appearance, such as a halo of light enveloping his countenance; for a countenance naturally fine and expressive, when lit up by emotions so intense and heavenly as those which must then have swelled the breast of Stephen, would be sufficient to suggest such a comparison. If there were any brethren present, with what tearful delight they must then have gazed upon the hero of faith! And if any of the members of the Sanhedrim were still capable of nobler sentiments, how intense must have been their agitation! The trial proceeds:
(OCA 81)
Acts 9:4
#Acts 7:1|
VII:1. (1) Then said the high priest, Are these things so?
Stephen responds in a long and powerful discourse.
There is great diversity of opinion among commentators, as to the logical bearing and connection of this discourse. We would naturally expect to find in it–if we regard it as properly a defense–a formal response to the charge which had been preferred. But it contains no direct answer to any of the specifications. He neither admits nor denies what was charged in reference to the destruction of the temple by Jesus and the changing of the customs delivered by Moses; though his silence may be regarded as an admission that the witnesses had spoken the truth on these points. Neither does he formally answer to the charge of blasphemy against Moses and against God, or against the holy temple and the law. The only thing in the discourse that has even an indirect bearing in this way, is his frequent reference to facts contained in the writings of Moses, which has been understood, by some commentators, as intended to indicate a degree of respect for Moses inconsistent with a disposition to speak blasphemy against him. But if such was his purpose, it is unaccountable that he should have pursued so indirect a course, instead of distinctly avowing the sentiments he intended to indicate. Again, this supposition can not account for the introduction of so many facts connected with the persecution of various individuals.
The best statement of the drift of the discourse, I think, is this: The charge against him was hypocritically preferred, and his judges had no intention to investigate it, but were using it merely as an excuse for his predetermined condemnation to death. They were now giving him somewhat the form for a trial, to keep up appearances before the people. Under such circumstances, Stephen knew that it would be useless to offer a formal defense; and, therefore, he does not undertake it. He sees, however, that his persecutors were identifying themselves, by their proceedings, with the unbelieving and persecuting portion of their forefathers, and he determines to make them stand forth to the people in this their true position. In prosecuting this purpose he selects his material from the writings of Moses, and shows that his accusers are with the persecuting party, while his Master and himself are side by side with Moses and others whom they had persecuted: Thus he hurls back upon them, and fastens on them, effectually, the charge which they had falsely preferred against him.
(OCA 81-82)
Acts 9:5
2-4. We will now take up the different sections of the discourse, treating each separately, and showing their connected bearing upon his main purpose. Before exhibiting the manner in which Moses was treated by the ancestors of his audience, he first shows that the mission on which Moses came was a subject of prophesy: thus indicating, at the outset, an analogy between it and that of Christ. To do this, he must begin with Abraham, to whom this prophesy was first given; but his reference to Abraham is only for the historical introduction of his main theme.
(2) And he said: Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,
(OCA 82)
Acts 9:6
#Acts 7:3|
(3) and said to him, Get thee out from thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into a land which I will show thee.
Acts 9:7
#Acts 7:4|
(4) Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Haran: and thence, after his father died, he removed into this land in which you now dwell.
Acts 9:8
5-8. Having now introduced Abraham, and brought him into the land of Canaan, Stephen quotes the prophesy, connected with the fulfillment of which he is to find the chief points of his argument.
(5) And he gave him no inheritance in it, not a footprint: and he promised to give it for a possession to him and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.
(OCA 82)
Acts 9:9
#Acts 7:6|
(6) But God spoke thus: That his seed should sojourn in a strange land, and they should bring them into bondage, and afflict them four hundred years.
The period of four hundred years is taken by Stephen from #Genesis 15:13|, where God expresses himself, in round terms, of a period which was, more accurately, four hundred and thirty years, as we find in #Exodus 12:40,41|. This was not the period of their actual sojourn in Egypt; but, as we learn from Paul (#Galatians 3:17|), and from the genealogical tables in Genesis and Exodus, it extended from the call of Abraham to the departure from Egypt.
(OCA 82)
Acts 9:10
#Acts 7:7|
(7) And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage, I will judge, said God, and after these things they shall come forth, and serve me in this place.
Acts 9:11
#Acts 7:8|
(8) And he gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so he begot Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac, Jacob; and Jacob, the twelve patriarchs.
Acts 9:12
9-16. The speaker next proceeds to recount the circumstances which brought the people down into Egypt, in order that the rejection of Joseph, and the final salvation of the whole family through him, might stand out before his hearers, and be made to bear upon his final conclusion.
(9) And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt. And God was with him,
(OCA 82)
Acts 9:13
(10) and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
Acts 9:14
(11) Now, there came a famine on all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction; and our fathers found no sustenance.
Acts 9:15
(12) But Jacob, having heard that there was grain in Egypt, sent out our fathers the first time.
Acts 9:16
(13) And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph’s kindred was made known to Pharaoh.
Acts 9:17
(14) Then Joseph sent and called to him his father Jacob and all his kindred, seventy-five souls.
There is a numerical discrepancy between moses and Stephen, in reference to the number of Jacob’s family when they went into Egypt. Stephen makes then seventy-five, while Moses states them at seventy, including Joseph’s family and himself (see #Genesis 46:26,27|). The Septuagint translation of Genesis agrees with Stephen. Various methods of reconciling these statements are proposed, of which the only satisfactory one is this. The number given by Moses includes all “who came out of his loins, besides Jacob’s sons’ wives” (#Genesis 46:26|). The number given by Stephen must, then, include five of their wives, who were, probably, all that were then living. The translators of the Septuagint, having some historical evidence, now lost to us, that five of their wives went with them, saw fit to fill up the number in their translation, and Stephen followed their enumeration.
(OCA 83)
Acts 9:18
(15) And Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he and our fathers,
Acts 9:19
(16) and were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulcher which Jacob bought for a sum of money from the sons of Emmor, the father of Sychem.
It was Jacob, and not Abraham, who purchased the sepulcher from the sons of Emmor, as is certain from the history given in #Genesis 33:19,20|; yet it is attributed to Abraham here in the common version, and most of the Greek manuscripts. It is far more likely, however, that the manuscripts should err, in a case of this kind, than that the error should have been committed by Stephen or by Luke. I have, therefore, not hesitated to insert the name of Jacob, instead of Abraham, in the text. Dr. Bloomfield says, “The best critics are of the opinion that Abraham is spurious.”
(OCA 83)
Acts 9:20
17-29. From this glance at the leading points in the history of Joseph, Stephen advances to the case of Moses, showing that his brethren rejected him in like manner, and were also finally delivered by him.
(17) But when the time of the promise of which God had sworn to Abraham was drawing near, the people increased and were multiplied in Egypt,
(OCA 83)
Acts 9:21
(18) until another king arose who knew not Joseph.
Acts 9:22
(19) The same dealt craftily with our kindred, and afflicted our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, in order that they might not live.
Acts 9:23
(20) In which time Moses was born, and was exceedingly beautiful. He was nourished in his his father’s house three months.
Acts 9:24
(21) And when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.
Acts 9:25
(22) And Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, and was powerful in words and in deeds.
Acts 9:26
(23) And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to look after his brethren, the children of Israel.
Acts 9:27
(24) And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, smiting the Egyptian.
Acts 9:28
(25) Now he thought that his brethren would understand that God would, by his hand, give them salvation; but they did not understand.
Acts 9:29
(26) The next day he appeared to them as they were fighting, and would have brought them to peace, saying, Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?
Acts 9:30
(27) But he who was wronging his neighbor thrust him away, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?
Acts 9:31
(28) Do you wish to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?
Acts 9:32
(29) Then Moses fled at this word, and became a sojourner in the land of Midian where he begot two sons.
In the rejection of Moses by his countrymen, when he was seeking to deliver them from bondage, according to the promise of God, Stephen has before the minds of the Sanhedrim another case bearing upon his final conclusion. It is true, that as yet they could not anticipate the use he intended to make of it, but the obscurity of his design awakened their curiosity, and rendered their mortification the more intense when at last it was suddenly developed. If they could have anticipated it, they would have stopped his mouth at the beginning.
(OCA 84)
Acts 9:33
30-37. There were other incidents in the life of Moses fully as much to his purpose as this; and to these he proceeds to advert.
(30) And when forty years were completed, there appeared to him, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.
(OCA 84)
Acts 9:34
(31) When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight, and as he drew near to observe it, the voice of the Lord came to him.
Acts 9:35
(32) I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and did not dare to observe it.
Acts 9:36
(33) And the Lord said to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet; for the place on which thou standest is holy ground.
Acts 9:37
(34) I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and have come down to deliver them; and now, come, I will send thee into Egypt.
Acts 9:38
(35) The same Moses whom they rejected, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer, by the hand of the angel who appeared to him at the bush.
Acts 9:39
(36) He led them out, after doing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
Acts 9:40
(37) This is the same Moses who said to the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up to you from your brethren like me; him shall ye hear.
In this passage, the speaker has not only presented, in a most emphatic manner, the contrast between the rejection of Moses by his brethren, and his appointment by God to the very office of ruler and deliverer, which they refused him, but has also made a further advance toward his final purpose, by introducing the prophesy uttered by this same Moses concerning the Messiah. This prophesy was still more apposite, because it refuted the charge that he had spoken blasphemy against Moses, in saying that Christ would change the customs appointed by him. If Moses himself foretold the coming of a successor who should supersede him, he alone pays proper respect to Moses who submits to his successor.
(OCA 84)
Acts 9:41
38-40. To keep prominent the ill treatment received by Moses at the hands of the people, the speaker proceeds to note their conduct in the wilderness.
(38) This is he that was in the congregation in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received the living oracles to give to us.
(OCA 84-85)
Acts 9:42
(39) Whom our fathers were not willing to obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back into Egypt,
Acts 9:43
(40) saying to Aaron, Make us Gods who shall go before us; for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him.
This instance of their rejection of Moses was much more flagrant than the first, seeing that it occurred immediately after the most splendid manifestations of God’s presence with him; and that, in the very words which they addressed to Aaron, they acknowledged that it was he who had brought them out of Egypt. These circumstances also render more striking the analogy which Stephen is about to develop between him and Jesus; for he also had been rejected, notwithstanding the admission, by his enemies, that he had wrought miracles.
(OCA 85)