1A najvyšší kňaz povedal: Či je teda tomu tak? 2A on riekol: Mužovia bratia a otcovia, počujte! Bôh slávy sa ukázal nášmu otcovi Abrahámovi, keď bol v Mezopotámii, prv ako býval v Chárane, 3a povedal mu: Vyjdi zo svojej zeme a zo svojho príbuzenstva a poď do zeme, ktorú ti ukážem. 4Vtedy vyšiel zo zeme Chaldejov a býval v Chárane, a odtiaľ, keď zomrel jeho otec, ho prestehoval do tejto zeme, v ktorej teraz vy bývate. 5A nedal mu v nej dedičstva ani na stopu nohy a zasľúbil, že mu ju dá do vlastníctva i jeho semenu po ňom, vtedy, keď ešte nemal dieťaťa. 6A takto povedal Bôh, že totiž jeho semä bude pohostínom v cudzej zemi, a zotročia ho a budú s ním zle nakladať štyristo rokov. 7Ale národ, ktorému budú slúžiť, budem ja súdiť, povedal Bôh, a potom vyjdú a budú mi svätoslúžiť na tomto mieste. 8A dal mu smluvu obriezky, a tak splodil Izáka a obrezal ho ôsmeho dňa, a Izák splodil Jakoba a Jakob dvanástich patriarchov. 9A patriarchovia závidiac Jozefovi predali ho do Egypta, ale Bôh bol s ním 10a vytrhol si ho zo všetkých jeho súžení a dal mu milosť a múdrosť pred faraonom, kráľom Egypta, a ustanovil ho za správcu nad Egyptom i nad celým svojím domom. 11Potom prišiel hlad na celý Egypt a na Kanaán a veľké súženie, a naši otcovia nachádzali potravín. 12A keď počul Jakob, že je obilie v Egypte, vyslal najprv našich otcov, 13a po druhé sa dal Jozef poznať svojim bratom, a faraon sa dozvedel o rode Jozefovom. 14Vtedy poslal Jozef povolať k sebe Jakoba, svojho otca, a celú svoju rodinu v sedemdesiatich piatich dušiach. 15A Jakob sišiel dolu do Egypta a zomrel on i naši otcovia, 16a preniesli ich do Sichema a pochovali v hrobe, ktorý bol kúpil Abrahám za cenu striebra od synov Emora, otca Sichemovho. 17Ale jako sa blížil čas zasľúbenia, ktoré s prísahou dal Bôh Abrahámovi, rástol ľud a množil sa v Egypte, 18dokiaľ nepovstal iný kráľ nad Egyptom, ktorý neznal Jozefa. 19Ten preľstil náš rod a tak trápil našich otcov, že museli vyhadzovať svoje nemluvňatá, aby nezostaly nažive. 20V tom čase sa narodil Mojžiš a bol krásny Bohu, a chovali ho tri mesiace v dome jeho otca. 21A keď ho vyložili, zdvihla a vzala ho dcéra faraonova a vychovala si ho sebe za syna. 22A vyučili Mojžiša všetkej múdrosti Egypťanov, a bol mocný vo svojich slovách i skutkoch. 23A keď mu bolo štyridsať rokov, vzišlo na jeho srdce, aby navštívil svojich bratov, synov Izraelových. 24A vidiac ktoréhosi z nich, že sa mu krivdí, zastal sa ho a pomstil toho, ktorému sa diala krivda, zabijúc Egypťana. 25A domnieval sa, že jeho bratia rozumejú, že im Bôh skrze jeho ruku podáva záchranu. Ale oni neporozumeli. 26Potom nasledujúceho dňa sa im ukázal, keď sa vadili, a hnal ich k pokoju a povedal: Mužovia, bratia ste, prečo si navzájom krivdíte? 27Ale ten, ktorý krivdil blížnemu, odsotil ho a povedal: Kto teba ustanovil za knieža alebo za sudcu nad nami? 28Či ma ty chceš zabiť, ako si včera zabil toho Egypťana? 29A Mojžiš utiekol pre to slovo a stal sa pohostínom v Madiansku, kde splodil dvoch synov. 30A keď sa naplnilo zase štyridsať rokov, ukázal sa mu anjel Pánov na púšti vrchu Sinai v plameni ohňa, vystupujúcom z kra. 31A keď to videl Mojžiš, divil sa videniu a keď sa išiel podívať na to, povedal mu hlas JeHoVaHov: 32Ja som Bôh tvojich otcov, Bôh Abrahámov, Bôh Izákov a Bôh Jakobov. A Mojžiš sa zhrozil, až sa triasol od strachu a neopovážil sa pozrieť. 33A JeHoVaH mu povedal: Sozuj svoju obuv so svojich nôh, lebo miesto, na ktorom stojíš, je svätá zem. 34Videl, áno videl som trápenie svojho ľudu, ktorý je v Egypte, a počul som ich vzdychanie a sostúpil som, aby som ich vyslobodil. A tak teraz poď, nech ťa pošlem do Egypta. 35Toho Mojžiša, ktorého zapreli povediac: Kto teba ustanovil za knieža alebo za sudcu? práve toho poslal Bôh ako knieža a vykupiteľa prostredníctvom anjela, ktorý sa mu ukázal v kre. 36Ten ich vyviedol učiniac zázraky a divy v Egypte i na Červenom mori i na púšti, a tak to robil štyridsať rokov. 37To je ten Mojžiš, ktorý povedal synom Izraelovým: Proroka vám vzbudí JeHoVaH, váš Bôh, zpomedzi vašich bratov, ako mňa, toho budete poslúchať. 38To je ten, ktorý to bol v sbore ľudu na púšti s anjelom, ktorý mu hovoril na vrchu Sinai, i s našimi otcami, ktorý prijal živé slová, aby ich dal nám, 39ktorého nechceli poslúchať naši otcovia, ale ho odsotili a obrátili sa svojimi srdcami do Egypta 40povediac Áronovi: Sprav nám bohov, ktorí pojdú pred nami, lebo ten Mojžiš, ktorý nás vyviedol s Egyptskej zeme, nevieme, čo sa mu stalo. 41A spravili si v tých dňoch teľa a obetovali modle obeť a veselili sa v dielach svojich rúk. 42Ale Bôh sa odvrátil a vydal ich, aby slúžili nebeskému vojsku, jako je napísané v knihe prorokov: Či ste mi azda za štyridsať rokov doniesli bitné a iné obeti na púšti, dome Izraelov? 43A vzali ste a nosili stán Molochov a hviezdu svojho boha Remfana, podoby, ktorých ste si narobili, aby ste sa im klaňali, a preto vás presídlim ta za Babylon. 44Stán svedoctva mali naši otcovia na púšti, jako bol nariadil ten, ktorý hovoril Mojžišovi, aby ho urobil podľa vzoru, ktorý bol videl, 45ktorý to stán prevzali naši otcovia i vniesli s Jozuom do zeme, ktorá bola vlastníctvom pohanov, ktorých Bôh vyhnal zpred tvári našich otcov, čo tak trvalo až do dní Dávida, 46ktorý našiel milosť pred Bohom a prosil, žeby smel najsť príbytok Bohu Jakobovmu. 47A Šalamún mu vystavil dom. 48Ale Najvyšší nebýva v chrámoch, učinených rukou, jako hovorí prorok: 49Nebo mi je trónom a zem podnožou mojim nohám; akýže mi vystavíte dom? hovorí JeHoVaH. Alebo kde jaké je miesto môjho odpočinku? 50Či toho všetkého neučinila moja ruka? 51Tvrdošijní a neobrezaného srdca aj uší, vy sa vždycky protivíte Svätému Duchu, jako vaši otcovia, tak aj vy. 52Ktoréhože z prorokov neprenasledovali vaši otcovia? A pobili tých, ktorí predzvestovali o príchode toho Spravedlivého, ktorého ste sa vy teraz stali zradcami a vrahmi, 53ktorí ste vzali zákon na nariadenia anjelov a nezachovali ste. 54A keď to počuli, bolo im, ako by ich bodnul do srdca, a zúriac v hneve škrípali zubami na neho. 55A on súc plný Svätého Ducha uprel zrak do neba a videl slávu Božiu a Ježiša stáť po pravici Božej 56a povedal: Hľa, vidím nebesia otvorené a Syna človeka stáť po pravici Božej! 57A oni skríkli velikým hlasom, zapchali si uši a jednomyseľne sa vrhli na neho 58a vyženúc ho von z mesta kameňovali. A svedkovia si složili svoje rúcha k nohám mládenca, ktorý sa volal Saul. 59A kameňovali Štefana, ktorý volal na Pána a hovoril: Pane Ježišu, prijmi môjho ducha! 60A skloniac kolená skríkol velikým hlasom: Pane, nepočítaj im tohoto hriechu! A keď to povedal, usnul. 61A Saul súhlasil s jeho zabitím.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 2 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
Gn 15:7 and
Neh 9:7; and the Jewish writers speak the same language.
4 when his father was dead, he removed into this land--Though Abraham was in Canaan before Terah's death, his settlement in it as the land of promise is here said to be after it, as being in no way dependent on the family movement, but a transaction purely between Jehovah and Abraham himself.
6 four hundred years--using round numbers, as in
Gn 15:13,
Gn 15:16 (see on
Gá 3:17).
7 after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place--Here the promise to Abraham (
Gn 15:16), and that to Moses (
Ex 3:12), are combined; Stephen's object being merely to give a rapid summary of the leading facts.
8 the covenant of circumcision--that is, the covenant of which circumcision was the token.
and so--that is, according to the terms of this covenant, on which Paul reasons (Gal. 3:1-26).
the twelve patriarchs--so called as the founders of the twelve tribes of Israel.
9 the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt, but God was with him--Here Stephen gives his first example of Israel's opposition to God's purposes, in spite of which and by means of which those purposes were accomplished.
14 threescore and fifteen souls--according to the Septuagint version of
Gn 46:27, which Stephen follows, including the five children and grandchildren of Joseph's two sons.
17 But when--rather, "as."
the time of the promise--that is, for its fulfilment.
the people grew and multiplied in Egypt--For more than two hundred years they amounted to no more than seventy-five souls; how prodigious, then, must have been their multiplication during the latter two centuries, when six hundred thousand men, fit for war, besides women and children, left Egypt!
20 In which time--of deepest depression.
Moses was born--the destined deliverer.
exceeding fair--literally, "fair to God" (Margin), or, perhaps, divinely "fair" (see on
He 11:23).
22 mighty in words--Though defective in utterance (
Ex 4:10); his recorded speeches fully bear out what is here said.
and deeds--referring probably to unrecorded circumstances in his early life. If we are to believe JOSEPHUS, his ability was acknowledged ere he left Egypt.
23 In
Hch 7:23,
Hch 7:30,
Hch 7:36, the life of Moses is represented as embracing three periods, of forty years each; the Jewish writers say the same; and though this is not expressly stated in the Old Testament, his age at death, one hundred twenty years (
Dt 34:7), agrees with it.
it came into his heart to visit his brethren--his heart yearning with love to them as God's chosen people, and heaving with the consciousness of a divine vocation to set them free.
24 avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian--going farther in the heat of his indignation than he probably intended.
25 For he supposed his brethren would have understood, &c.--and perhaps imagined this a suitable occasion for rousing and rallying them under him as their leader; thus anticipating his work, and so running unsent.
but they understood not--Reckoning on a spirit in them congenial with his own, he had the mortification to find it far otherwise. This furnishes to Stephen another example of Israel's slowness to apprehend and fall in with the divine purposes of love.
26 next day he showed himself unto them as they strove--Here, not an Israelite and an Egyptian, but two parties in Israel itself, are in collision with each other; Moses, grieved at the spectacle, interposes as a mediator; but his interference, as unauthorized, is resented by the party in the wrong, whom Stephen identifies with the mass of the nation (
Hch 7:35), just as Messiah's own interposition had been spurned.
28 Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?--Moses had thought the deed unseen (
Ex 2:12), but it now appeared he was mistaken.
29 Then fled Moses, &c.--for "when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses" (
Ex 2:15).
30 an angel of the Lord--rather, "the Angel of the Covenant," who immediately calls Himself JEHOVAH (Compare
Hch 7:38).
35 This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge, &c.--Here, again, "the stone which the builders refused is made the head of the corner" (
Sal 118:22).
37 This is that Moses which said . . . A prophet . . . him shall ye hear--This is quoted to remind his Moses-worshipping audience of the grand testimony of their faithful lawgiver, that he himself was not the last and proper object of the Church's faith, but only a humble precursor and small model of Him to whom their absolute submission was due.
38 in the church--the collective body of God's chosen people; hence used to denote the whole body of the faithful under the Gospel, or particular sections of them.
This is he that was in the church in the wilderness, with the angel . . . and with our fathers--alike near to the Angel of the Covenant, from whom he received all the institutions of the ancient economy, and to the people, to whom he faithfully reported the living oracles and among whom he set up the prescribed institutions. By this high testimony to Moses, Stephen rebuts the main charge for which he was on trial.
39 To whom our fathers would not obey, &c.--Here he shows that the deepest dishonor done to Moses came from the nation that now professed the greatest jealousy for his honor.
in their hearts turned back . . . into Egypt--"In this Stephen would have his hearers read the downward career on which they were themselves entering."
42 gave them up--judicially.
as . . . written in the book of the prophets--the twelve minor prophets, reckoned as one: the passage is from
Am 5:25.
have ye offered to me . . . sacrifices?--The answer is, Yes, but as if ye did it not; for "neither did ye offer to Me only, nor always, nor with a perfect and willing heart" [BENGEL].
43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Molech, &c.--Two kinds of idolatry are charged upon the Israelites: that of the golden calf and that of the heavenly bodies; Molech and Remphan being deities, representing apparently the divine powers ascribed to nature, under different aspects.
carry you beyond Babylon--the well-known region of the captivity of Judah; while "Damascus" is used by the prophet (
Am 5:27), whither the ten tribes were carried.
44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness--which aggravated the guilt of that idolatry in which they indulged, with the tokens of the divine presence constantly in the midst of them.
45 which . . . our fathers that came after--rather, "having received it by succession" (Margin), that is, the custody of the tabernacle from their ancestors.
brought in with Jesus--or Joshua.
into the possession--rather, "at the taking possession of [the territory of] the Gentiles."
unto the days of David--for till then Jerusalem continued in the hands of the Jebusites. But Stephen's object in mentioning David is to hasten from the tabernacle which he set up, to the temple which his son built, in Jerusalem; and this only to show, from their own Scripture (
Is 66:1-
Is 66:2), that even that temple, magnificent though it was, was not the proper resting-place of Jehovah upon earth; as his audience and the nations had all along been prone to imagine. (What that resting-place was, even "the contrite heart, that trembleth at God's word," he leaves to be gathered from the prophet referred to).
51 Ye stiffnecked . . . ye do always resist the Holy Ghost, &c.--It has been thought that symptoms of impatience and irritation in the audience induced Stephen to cut short his historical sketch. But as little farther light could have been thrown upon Israel's obstinacy from subsequent periods of the national history on the testimony of their own Scriptures, we should view this as the summing up, the brief import of the whole Israelitish history--grossness of heart, spiritual deafness, continuous resistance of the Holy Ghost, down to the very council before whom Stephen was pleading.
52 Which of, &c.--Deadly hostility to the messengers of God, whose high office it was to tell of "the Righteous One," that well-known prophetic title of Messiah (
Is 53:11;
Jer 23:6, &c.), and this consummated by the betrayal and murder of Messiah Himself, on the part of those now sitting in judgment on the speaker, are the still darker features of the national character depicted in these withering words.
53 Who have received the law by the disposition--"at the appointment" or "ordination," that is, by the ministry.
of angels, and have not kept it--This closing word is designed to shut up those idolizers of the law under the guilt of high disobedience to it, aggravated by the august manner in which they had received it.
54 When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, &c.--If they could have answered him, how different would have been their temper of mind!
55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God--You who can transfer to canvas such scenes as these, in which the rage of hell grins horribly from men, as they sit condemned by a frail prisoner of their own, and see heaven beaming from his countenance and opening full upon his view--I envy you, for I find no words to paint what, in the majesty of the divine text, is here so simply told. "But how could Stephen, in the council-chamber, see heaven at all? I suppose this question never occurred but to critics of narrow soul, one of whom [MEYER] conjectures that he saw it through the window! and another, of better mould, that the scene lay in one of the courts of the temple" [ALFORD]. As the sight was witnessed by Stephen alone, the opened heavens are to be viewed as revealed to his bright beaming spirit.
and Jesus standing on the right hand of God--Why "standing," and not sitting, the posture in which the glorified Saviour is elsewhere represented? Clearly, to express the eager interest with which He watched from the skies the scene in that council chamber, and the full tide of His Spirit which He was at that moment engaged in pouring into the heart of His heroical witness, till it beamed in radiance from his very countenance.
56 I see . . . the Son of man standing, &c.--This is the only time that our Lord is by human lips called THE SON OF MAN after His ascension (
Ap 1:13;
Ap 14:14 are not instances). And why here? Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, speaking now not of himself at all (
Hch 7:55), but entirely by the Spirit, is led to repeat the very words in which Jesus Himself, before this same council, had foretold His glorification (
Mt 26:64), assuring them that that exaltation of the SON OF MAN which they should hereafter witness to their dismay, was already begun and actual [ALFORD].
57 Then they cried out . . . and ran upon him with one accord--To men of their mould and in their temper, Stephen's last seraphic words could but bring matters to extremities, though that only revealed the diabolical spirit which they breathed.
58 cast him out of the city--according to
Lv 24:14;
Nm 15:35;
1R 21:13; and see
He 13:12.
and stoned--"proceeded to stone" him. The actual stoning is recorded in
Hch 7:59.
and the witnesses--whose hands were to be first upon the criminal (
Dt 17:7).
laid down their clothes--their loose outer garments, to have them taken charge of.
at a young man's feet whose name was Saul--How thrilling is this our first introduction to one to whom Christianity--whether as developed in the New Testament or as established in the world--owes more perhaps than to all the other apostles together! Here he is, having perhaps already a seat in the Sanhedrim, some thirty years of age, in the thick of this tumultuous murder of a distinguished witness for Christ, not only "consenting unto his death" (
Hch 8:1), but doing his own part of the dark deed.
59 calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, &c.--An unhappy supplement of our translators is the word "God" here; as if, while addressing the Son, he was really calling upon the Father. The sense is perfectly clear without any supplement at all--"calling upon [invoking] and saying, Lord Jesus"; Christ being the Person directly invoked and addressed by name (compare
Hch 9:14). Even GROTIUS, DE WETTE, MEYER, &c., admit this, adding several other examples of direct prayer to Christ; and PLINY, in his well-known letter to the Emperor Trajan (A.D. 110 or 111), says it was part of the regular Christian service to sing, in alternate strains, a hymn to Christ as God.
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit--In presenting to Jesus the identical prayer which He Himself had on the cross offered to His Father, Stephen renders to his glorified Lord absolute divine worship, in the most sublime form, and at the most solemn moment of his life. In this commitment of his spirit to Jesus, Paul afterwards followed his footsteps with a calm, exultant confidence that with Him it was safe for eternity (
2Ti 1:12).
60 cried with a loud voice--with something of the gathered energy of his dying Lord (see on
Jn 19:16-
Jn 19:30).
Lord--that is, JESUS, beyond doubt, whom he had just before addressed as Lord.
lay not this sin to their charge--Comparing this with nearly the same prayer of his dying Lord, it will be seen how very richly this martyr of Jesus had drunk into his Master's spirit, in its divinest form.
he fell asleep--never said of the death of Christ. (See on
1Ts 4:14). How bright the record of this first martyrdom for Christ, amidst all the darkness of its perpetrators; and how many have been cheered by it to like faithfulness even unto death!