Acts 7:41 Kommentar

When our Lord Jesus called his apostles out to be employed in services and sufferings for him, he told them that yet the last should be first, and the first last, which was remarkably fulfilled in St. Stephen and St. Paul, who were both of them late converts, in comparison of the apostles, and yet got the start of them both in services and sufferings; for God, in conferring honours and favours, often crosses hands. In this chapter we have the martyrdom of Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian church, who led the van in the noble army. And therefore his sufferings and death are more largely related than those of any other, for direction and encouragement to all those who are called out to resist unto blood, as he did. Here is, I. His defence of himself before the council, in answer to the matters and things he stood charged with, the scope of which is to show that it was no blasphemy against God, nor any injury at all to the glory of his name, to say that the temple should be destroyed and the customs of the ceremonial law changed. And, 1. He shows this by going over the history of the Old Testament, and observing that God never intended to confine his favours to that place, or that ceremonial law; and that they had no reason to expect he should, for the people of the Jews had always been a provoking people, and had forfeited the privileges of their peculiarity: nay, that that holy place and that law were but figures of good things to come, and it was no disparagement at all to them to say that they must give place to better things (v. 1-50). And then, 2. He applies this to those that prosecuted him, and sat in judgment upon him, sharply reproving them for their wickedness, by which they had brought upon themselves the ruin of their place and nation, and then could not bear to hear of it (Act 7:51-53). II. The putting of him to death by stoning him, and his patient, cheerful, pious submission to it (Act 7:54-60).

Then said the high priest,.... The Ethiopic version adds, "to him"; that is, to Stephen; for to him he addressed himself: or he "asked him", as the Syriac version renders it; he put the following question to him: are these things so? is it true what they say, that thou hast spoken blasphemous words against the temple, and the law, and hast said that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the one, and change the other? what hast thou to say for thyself, and in thine own defence? this high priest was either Annas, or rather Caiaphas; See Gill on Act 4:6.

And they made a calf in those days,.... Whilst Moses was in the mount; this was done in imitation of the Egyptian idol Apis or Serapis, which was an ox or a bullock; and it was made of the golden earnings of the people, which were melted down, and cast into the form of a calf, and graved by Aaron with a graving tool, Exo 32:2 And so the Syriac version here reads in the singular number, "and he made them a calf"; this was a most shameful and scandalous piece of idolatry. The Jews themselves are so sensible of the horribleness of it, and of the guilt of it, and of the reproach that lies on them for it, that it is common for them to say (c), "there is not a generation, or an age, in which there is not an ounce of the sin of the calf.'' Or, as elsewhere (d) expressed, "no punishment befalls thee, O Israel, in "which there is not an ounce of the sin of the calf".'' And offered sacrifice unto the idol; an altar was built, and proclamation made, that the next day would be the feast of the Lord; and accordingly early in the morning the people rose, and offered both burnt offerings and peace offerings, Exo 32:5 and rejoiceth in the works of their own hands; for so the calf was; and which rejoicing they showed by eating, and drinking, and singing, and dancing. (c) T. Hieros. Taaniot, fol. 68. 3. (d) Vid. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 102. 1.

"Make us gods"-they did not say, "a God."-And yet one may well wonder at this, that they do not even know.-"And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifices unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands": for which they ought to have hid their faces. What wonder that ye know not Christ, seeing ye knew not Moses, and God Who was manifested by such wonders? But they not only knew Him not: they also insulted in another way, by their idol making.

Hence these same "customs" date their origin, hence the sacrifices: they were themselves the first that made sacrifices to their idols! For that is why it is marked, "They made a calf in Horeb, and offered sacrifices to the idol:" seeing that, before this the name of sacrifice is nowhere mentioned, but only lively ordinances, and "lively oracles. And rejoiced"-that is the reason for the feasts.

Consider that at first they brought them offering sacrifices, and then that they offered them to idols. For previously the name "sacrifices" is nowhere found, but there were precepts concerning living and rational animals. The testimony, however, does not introduce this randomly, but so as to show that there is no necessity for sacrifices, in that he says: "Did you not offer me victims and sacrifices," etc., as if he says: You cannot say that when you were sacrificing to God you also offered them to those idols, but that you first slaughtered them for those idols. And this indeed was in the desert where your delay was longest. See moreover the whole discourse, how boldly and without malice he perseveres throughout the accusation of them, almost saying: And if I were to say the temple ought to be dissolved, and the instituted sacrifices to be changed, I have said nothing new. For Moses, in whom you seem to boast most, for forty years neither offered sacrifices nor built a temple, nor did David, nor any one of the others placed in the midst of you, although the land was given to you. But the prophets also pronounce concerning these things as about unnecessary matters. In what way then do you now pretend to avenge Moses, whom both your fathers and you rejected? And to say it in one word, the whole discourse shows how wisely and at the same time modestly and keenly their accusation is unraveled.

"And they made a calf in those days." The same is found in David: "and they made a calf at Horeb" (Ps. 106:19). And Horeb is not mentioned without purpose, but in order to show the extreme madness of the Israelites: here God appeared to Moses, and here they made idols and offered sacrifices to them.

Stephen, being permitted to answer for himself relative to the charge of blasphemy brought against him by his accusers, gives a circumstantial relation of the call of Abraham, when he dwelt in Mesopotamia, in Charran, etc., Act 7:1-8. The history of Jacob and Joseph, Act 7:9-17. The persecution of their fathers in Egypt, Act 7:18, Act 7:19. The history of Moses and his acts till the exodus from Egypt, vv. 20-37. The rebellion and idolatry of the Israelites in the wilderness, Act 7:38-43 The erection of the tabernacle of witness, which continued till the time of David, Act 7:44-46. Of the temple built by Solomon for that God who cannot be confined to temples built by hands, Act 7:47-50. Being probably interrupted in the prosecution of his discourse, he urges home the charge of rebellion against God, persecution of his prophets, the murder of Christ, and neglect of their own law against them, Act 7:51-53. They are filled with indignation, and proceed to violence, Act 7:54. He sees the glory of God, and Christ at the right hand of the Father; and declares the glorious vision, Act 7:55, Act 7:56. They rush upon him, drag him out of the city, and stone him, Act 7:57, Act 7:58. He involves the Lord Jesus, prays for his murderers, and expires, Act 7:59, Act 7:60.

DEFENSE AND MARTYRDOM OF STEPHEN. (Acts 7:1-60) The God of glory--A magnificent appellation, fitted at the very outset to rivet the devout attention of his audience; denoting not that visible glory which attended many of the divine manifestations, but the glory of those manifestations themselves, of which this was regarded by every Jew as the fundamental one. It is the glory of absolutely free grace. appeared unto our father Abraham before he dwelt in Charran, and said, &c.--Though this first call is not expressly recorded in Genesis, it is clearly implied in Gen 15:7 and Neh 9:7; and the Jewish writers speak the same language.