Acts 9

Acts 9:1

We have heard him say - So they might. But yet the consequence they drew would not follow.

Acts 9:2

As the face of an angel - Covered with supernatural lustre. They reckoned his preaching of Jesus to be the Christ was destroying Moses and the law; and God bears witness to him, with the same glory as he did to Moses, when he gave the law by him.

Acts 9:4

As the face of an angel - Covered with supernatural lustre. They reckoned his preaching of Jesus to be the Christ was destroying Moses and the law; and God bears witness to him, with the same glory as he did to Moses, when he gave the law by him.

Acts 9:5

And he said - St. Stephen had been accused of blasphemy against Moses, and even against God; and of speaking against the temple and the law, threatening that Jesus would destroy the one, and change the other. In answer to this accusation, rehearsing as it were the articles of his historical creed, he speaks of God with high reverence, and a grateful sense of a long series of acts of goodness to the Israelites, and of Moses with great respect, on account of his important and honourable employments under God: of the temple with regard, as being built to the honour of God; yet not with such superstition as the Jews; putting them in mind, that no temple could comprehend God. And he was going on, no doubt, when he was interrupted by their clamour, to speak to the last point, the destruction of the temple, and the change of the law by Christ. Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken - The sum of his discourse is this: I acknowledge the glory of God revealed to the fathers, ver. 2; Acts 7:2 the calling of Moses, ver. 34, 7:34 &c; the dignity of the law, verses 8,38,44 Acts 7:8,38,44; the holiness of this place, verses 7,45,47. Acts 7:7,45,47 And indeed the law is more ancient than the temple; the promise more ancient than the law.

For God showed himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their children freely, ver. 2, &c; 9, &c; 17,&c; 32,34,35; Acts 7:2,9,17,32,34,35 and they showed faith and obedience to God, ver. 4, 20, &c, 23, Acts 7:4,20,23 particularly by their regard for the law, ver. 8, Acts 7:8 and the promised land, ver. 16. 7:16 Meantime, God never confined his presence to this one place or to the observers of the law. For he hath been acceptably worshipped before the law was given, or the temple built, and out of this land, ver. 2, 9, 33, 44. Acts 7:2,9,33,44 And that our fathers and their posterity were not tied down to this land, their various sojournings, ver. 4, &c; 14, 29, 44, Acts 7:4,14,29,44 and exile, ver. 43, show. Acts 7:43 But you and your fathers have always been evil, ver. 9; Acts 7:9 have withstood Moses, ver. 25, &c, 39, &c; Acts 7:25,39 have despised the land, ver. 39, Acts 7:39 forsaken God, ver. 40, &c, Acts 7:40 superstitiously honoured the temple, ver. 48, Acts 7:48 resisted God and his Spirit, ver 50, Acts 7:50 killed the prophets and the Messiah himself, ver. 51, Acts 7:51 and kept not the law for which ye contend, ver. 53. Acts 7:53 Therefore God is not bound to you; much less to you alone. And truly this solemn testimony of Stephen is most worthy of his character, as a man full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith and power: in which, though he does not advance so many regular propositions, contradictory to those of his adversaries, yet he closely and nervously answers them all.

Nor can we doubt but he would, from these premises, have drawn inferences touching the destruction of the temple, the abrogation of the Mosaic law, the punishment of that rebellious people; and above all, touching Jesus of Nazareth, the true Messiah, had not his discourse been interrupted by the clamours of the multitude, stopping their ears, and rushing upon him. Men, brethren, and fathers - All who are here present, whether ye are my equals in years, or of more advanced age. The word which in this and in many other places is rendered men is a mere expletive. The God of glory - The glorious God, appeared to Abraham before he dwelt in Haran - Therefore Abraham knew God, long before he was in this land. Genesis 12:1.

Acts 9:6

Which I will show thee - Abraham knew not where he went.

Acts 9:7

After his father was dead - While Terah lived, Abraham lived partly with him, partly in Canaan: but after he died, altogether in Canaan.

Acts 9:8

No, not to set his foot on - For the field mentioned, Acts 7:16, he did not receive by a Divine donation, but bought it; even thereby showing that he was a stranger in the land.

Acts 9:9

Genesis 15:13.

Acts 9:10

They shall serve me - Not the Egyptians.

Acts 9:11

And so he begat Isaac - After the covenant was given, of which circumcision was the seal. Genesis 17:10.

Acts 9:12

But God was with him - Though he was not in this land. Genesis 37:28.

Acts 9:15

Sent our fathers first - Without Benjamin.

Acts 9:17

Seventy - five souls - So the seventy interpreters, (whom St. Stephen follows,) one son and a grandson of Manasseh, and three children of Ephraim, being added to the seventy persons mentioned Genesis 46:27.

Acts 9:19

And were carried over to Shechem - It seems that St. Stephen, rapidly running over so many circumstances of history, has not leisure (nor was it needful where they were so well known) to recite them all distinctly. Therefore he here contracts into one, two different sepulchres, places, and purchases, so as in the former history, to name the buyer, omitting the seller, in the latter, to name the seller, omitting the buyer. Abraham bought a burying place of the children of Heth, Gen. xxiii. Genesis 23:1 - 20 There Jacob was buried. Jacob bought a field of the children of Hamor.

There Joseph was buried. You see here, how St. Stephen contracts these two purchases into one. This concise manner of speaking, strange as it seems to us, was common among the Hebrews; particularly, when in a case notoriously known, the speaker mentioned but part of the story, and left the rest, which would have interrupted the current of his discourse, to be supplied in the mind of the hearer. And laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought - The first land which these strangers bought was for a sepulchre. They sought for a country in heaven.

Perhaps the whole sentence might be rendered thus: So Jacob went down into Egypt and died, he and our fathers, and were carried over to Shechem, and laid by the sons (that is, decendants) of Hamor, the father of Shechem, in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money.

Acts 9:20

Exodus 1:7.

Acts 9:21

Another king - Probably of another family.

Acts 9:22

Exposed - Cast out to perish by hunger or wild beasts.

Acts 9:23

In which time - A sad but a seasonable time. Exodus 2:2.

Acts 9:24

Pharaoh’s daughter took him up - By which means, being designed for a kingdom, he had all those advantages of education, which he could not have had, if he had not been exposed.

Acts 9:25

In all the wisdom of the Egyptians - Which was then celebrated in all the world, and for many ages after. And mighty in words - Deep, solid, weighty, though not of a ready utterance.

Acts 9:26

It came into his heart - Probably by an impulse from God.

Acts 9:27

Seeing one wronged - Probably by one of the task masters.

Acts 9:28

They understood it not - Such was their stupidity and sloth; which made him afterward unwilling to go to them.

Acts 9:29

He showed himself - Of his own accord, unexpectedly.

Acts 9:30

Who appointed thee - “Under the presence of the want of a call by man, the instruments of God are often rejected.”

Acts 9:33

The angel - The Son of God; as appears from his styling himself Jehovah. In a flame of fire - Signifying the majesty of God then present. Exodus 3:2.

Acts 9:36

Then said the Lord, Loose thy shoes - An ancient token of reverence; for the place is holy ground - The holiness of places depends on the peculiar presence of God there.

Acts 9:38

This Moses whom they refused - Namely, forty years before. Probably, not they, but their fathers did it, and God imputes it to them. So God frequently imputes the sins of the fathers to those of their children who are of the same spirit. Him did God send to be a deliverer - Which is much more than a judge; by the hand of - That is, by means of the angel - This angel who spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai expressly called himself Jehovah, a name which cannot, without the highest presumption, be assumed by any created angel, since he whose name alone is Jehovah, is the Most High over all the earth, Psalm lxxxiii, 18. Psalms 83:18. It was therefore the Son of God who delivered the law to Moses, under the character of Jehovah, and who is here spoken of as the angel of the covenant, in respect of his mediatorial office.

Acts 9:40

The Lord will raise you up a prophet - St. Stephen here shows that there is no opposition between Moses and Christ. Deuteronomy 18:15

Acts 9:41

This is he - Moses. With the angel, and with our fathers - As a mediator between them. Who received the living oracles - Every period beginning with, And the Lord said unto Moses, is properly an oracle. But the oracles here intended are chiefly the ten commandments. These are termed living, because all the word of God, applied by his Spirit, is living and powerful, Hebrews 4:12, enlightening the eyes, rejoicing the heart, converting the soul, raising the dead. Exodus 19:3.

Acts 9:43

Make us gods to go before us - Back into Egypt. Exodus 32:1.