What does Acts Chapter 7 mean?
In Acts 6:12–14, Jews accused a Jesus-follower named Stephen of speaking against the temple, Moses, and the Law. Acts 7 is Stephen’s defense. It can be difficult for modern readers to follow because he intermingles truth about the Mosaic law, the prophets of Israel, and the role of the temple in and around Old Testament Jewish history. Ultimately, he explains that God never asked for the temple, and the Israelites didn’t need one to follow Him; Moses wasn’t always perfect; the Israelites never properly followed Moses or the Law; and in fact, they killed the very prophets who told them how to recognize the Messiah.
First, Stephen sets the stage. He talks about how God called Abraham out of Mesopotamia and eventually sent him to Canaan. There, God promised Abraham that his descendants would own the land, though he himself would not. As a sign of promise, God told Abraham to circumcise the males in his clan. God called Abraham and gave him the rite of circumcision—the identifying mark of God’s people—long before He gave the Mosaic law or allowed the temple to be built (Acts 7:1–8).
Next is the description of how the Israelites came to Egypt and were enslaved for four hundred years. They went to Egypt to escape a famine and grew into a nation while in slavery. For four hundred years, the Israelites had no law, no temple, and no freedom to worship God as they should, but they were still God’s chosen people (Acts 7:9–19).
Stephen then references Moses. The great prophet who spoke to God as a friend, gave the Israelites their identifying law, and led the people from slavery to the gate of the Promised Land, started as a murderer. And yet, God was still with him and His people (Acts 7:20–29).
The powerful defense of Jesus’ role as Messiah then turns to God’s call to Moses. As God called Abraham in Mesopotamia and Haran, He called Moses in Midian. God is not limited by geography (Acts 7:30–34).
God empowered Moses to lead His people out of Egypt to Mt. Sinai where God gave the Israelites the Law. Stephen subtly points out that the Israelites didn’t revere Moses, they rebelled against him. And, again, God is not bound by place; He gave His people the Law in the middle of the wilderness between Egypt and the Promised Land (In Acts 7:35–43).
At this point, Stephen somewhat shifts the attention from the Law to the temple. God didn’t ask Moses to build a temple, He asked him to build a tabernacle or tent. This tabernacle and its successors served the Israelites into the Promised Land, throughout their campaign, past the time of the judges, and throughout the reigns of King Saul and King David. In fact, the tabernacle didn’t even dwell in Jerusalem until David’s reign (Acts 7:44–46).
In an important point, Stephen shows proper perspective regarding the temple. God didn’t ask for it, David asked to build it. David, Israel’s most beloved king, didn’t build it, his son Solomon did. And as Solomon dedicated it, he fully acknowledged it could not contain God. The temple is sacred because God allowed and blessed it, not because it is necessary (Acts 7:47–50).
Possibly sensing that the crowd is turning violent and that he’s running out of time, Stephen rapidly pulls everything together and relates the main point to his audience. His opponents rejected Jesus, Moses’ promised prophet. They killed Jesus, just like their forefathers killed the prophets God sent throughout history. Stephen doesn’t want to see the temple destroyed, but anyone who values the temple over the Messiah is an idolater (Acts 7:51–53).
Stephen’s opponents respond by dragging him from the temple courtyard and stoning him. As he dies, he sees Jesus standing at God’s right hand. In the crowd is a young Pharisee named Saul. Soon, Saul will be the greatest persecutor of Christians in Jerusalem. But not long after, he will be the greatest Christian missionary in history (Acts 7:54–60).
Chapter Context
Chapter 7 is one of the pivot points of the book of Acts. Until recently, the early church has seen favor from the people and indifference from the Sanhedrin. Now, the Sanhedrin has beaten the apostles and ordered them not to preach about Jesus (Acts 5:40), and the people are starting to realize how different Christianity is. In Jerusalem, a Hellenist Jewish Jesus-follower named Stephen has been in a debate with other foreign Jews who finally accuse him of wishing to destroy the temple, like Jesus (Acts 6:8–15). This is Stephen’s defense, which leads to his death and the introduction of Paul.
Verse by Verse
Verse 1. And the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
Stephen is a Hellenist Jew: he is not from Judea and probably speaks more Greek than Aramaic. He is also a strong Jesus-follower and one of the first deacons of the early church (Acts 6:1–7). He has been arguing with other Hellenist Jews. We don’t know what, exactly, the argument is about, but his opponents cannot overcome his logic or the power of the Holy Spirit in him, so they falsely accuse him of disrespecting the Mosaic law and the temple (Acts 6:8–15).
The Hellenist Jews bring Stephen to the Sanhedrin where the high priest asks him to make his defense. In Acts 4:6, when Peter and John were arrested, Annas is named as the high priest. It’s unclear how much later this event in Acts 7 takes place. According to Jewish records, Caiaphas was the high priest until AD 36, Jonathan until AD 37, and Theophilus until AD 41. Important to understand is that Caiaphas was Annas’ son-in-law, and Jonathan and Theophilus were Annas’ sons. So it seems Annas held significant control over the priesthood from his own period, starting in AD 6, until AD 44, Jonathan’s second term.
The last recorded time the Sanhedrin tried Jesus-followers, they told the apostles to stop preaching about Jesus and then beat them (Acts 5:40). This didn’t deter the apostles. Not only did they continue preaching in the temple (Acts 5:42), several priests came to faith in Christ (Acts 6:7). But even though more and more Jews were following Jesus, the Jesus-followers were losing favor with the people.
Context Summary
Acts 7:1–8 is the beginning of Stephen’s defense before the Sanhedrin. Jews from outside Judea have accused Stephen, a follower of Jesus, of speaking against Moses, the Law, and the temple (Acts 6:8–15). Stephen uses the history of Israel to show how hypocritical the charges are. In Abraham’s story, alone, Stephen shows how God is sovereign over His people outside Israel and outside the Mosaic law. God called Abraham hundreds of miles from Jerusalem in Mesopotamia and made a covenant with him hundreds of years before the Israelites received the Law. This story is told in full in Genesis 11:27—30:24.
Verse 2. And Stephen said: “Brothers and fathers, hear me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,
Stephen is giving his defense before the Sanhedrin (Acts 6:12). He starts by addressing the crowd which includes “fathers,” or the priests, scribes, and elders of the court, and “brothers,” or the other Jews in the audience—particularly the Hellenist Jews who have accused him (Acts 6:8–15). In this section, he shows how God’s favor is not confined by geography.
Israelite leaders recited their history to teach or remind the people of God’s faithfulness throughout the ages (Joshua 24:1–13; Nehemiah 9:6–15). In this case, Stephen uses the historical account to confirm his own Jewish faith and to prove a point: the Jewish forefather, Abraham, experienced God’s glory far from Judea and hundreds of years before the temple was built.
Where Stephen mentions Mesopotamia, Genesis 11:31 says Abraham started in “Ur of the Chaldeans.” Ur was a city-state on the Euphrates near the Persian Gulf. The Chaldeans are a people group that in Abraham’s time settled along the two rivers from the Persian Gulf up to modern-day Mosul. Nebuchadnezzar was a Chaldean. Mesopotamia is the geographic area along the Euphrates and the Tigris, extending from the Persian Gulf, northwest to modern-day Turkey, and down along the coast of the Mediterranean. Mesopotamia is also known as the Fertile Crescent.
Abraham left Ur with his wife Sarah, his father Terah, and his nephew Lot. Lot was the son of Terah’s late son Haran who was also Sarah’s brother. They traveled up the Euphrates to the northern-most point where they stopped at the city of Haran. After Terah died, God called Abraham to continue his journey to Canaan (Genesis 11:27–12:1).
Verse 3. and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’
The Jesus-follower Stephen is answering accusations that he disrespects the temple. Stephen is on trial before the Sanhedrin whose members live in and around Jerusalem. But his accusers are from Alexandria, Cyrene, and modern-day Asia Minor (Acts 6:9). These mostly Greek-speaking people are referred to as Hellenists. They have traveled to or moved to Jerusalem, and the city and the temple are precious to them. There is nothing like the temple outside of Jerusalem where God meets with His people…or so they think.
The Jews felt this acutely centuries before. Because of their rebellion and idolatry, God called Nebuchadnezzar to conquer the Jews and exile most of them in Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:1–21). When Stephen’s audience would think of Babylon, they would think of their shame, their disconnection from God, and the burned temple left behind (Daniel 9:3–15; Jeremiah 52:12–23). But Stephen reminds them that the great exile was not the first time the Jews were in the area of Babylon.
Stephen is quoting Genesis 12:1. When Abraham heard from God, he lived in places like Ur, on the Euphrates river not far from the Persian Gulf, and Haran, in modern-day Turkey. Babylon sits between these two cities. Stephen is showing that God doesn’t need Jerusalem or the temple to speak to His people. First the tabernacle, and then the temple in Jerusalem, are the places God ordained for the Jews to worship Him. But, in Abraham, the Jews first worshiped Him in Ur and Abraham would have passed through Babylon as he followed God’s calling.
Verse 4. Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living.
Stephen is one of the first deacons in the church and a committed Jesus-follower. His close relationship with and submission to the Holy Spirit has made him a very powerful apologist for Jesus. So powerful, in fact, that his opponents lose every debate. They have resorted to falsely accusing him of disrespecting the Mosaic law and the temple. Stephen’s defense goes in an interesting direction: he points out that God has been with the Jewish people since long before the Law or the temple. The Jews should worship God, not the Law which they cannot follow or the temple which cannot contain God.
The explanation Stephen offers starts with the story of God calling Abraham. Abraham was one of three sons (one died) of a man named Terah who lived in a town called Ur on the Euphrates river in modern-day Iraq. Ur was home to the Chaldeans, a people-group that included Nebuchadnezzar several hundred years later. God called Abraham in Ur and told him to go to another land that God would give Abraham’s descendants. Abraham, his wife Sarah, Terah, and Abraham’s nephew Lot left Ur and traveled up the Euphrates to a settlement in modern-day eastern Turkey. There, Terah died (Genesis 11:27–32).
After Terah’s death, Abraham followed God’s call to leave Haran and head south into the land of Canaan. Eventually, this land became Israel, but not yet. God promised Abraham his descendants would possess this land even though he had no son and would never possess it in his lifetime (Genesis 12:1–3). Abraham traveled as a sojourner around the area, and he did buy land for a tomb for Sarah when she died (Genesis 23:1–20). But his descendants didn’t own the area God promised until the time of Joshua.
Abraham worshipped God in the land where Stephen and his accusers stand, but he had no Law and no temple—not even a tabernacle. Neither was necessary to follow God.
Verse 5. Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot ‘s length, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, though he had no child.
The Jesus-follower Stephen is explaining to the Sanhedrin and a crowd that God’s people do not require the Mosaic law or the temple to worship Him. His first example is Abraham.
God had promised Abraham that his descendants would one day possess the land of Canaan (Genesis 12:7). Abraham would never inherit it, but his offspring would. This promise was given despite the fact that at the time, Abraham didn’t have any offspring. His wife, Sarah, was infertile.
Modern-day Bible-readers have made a game of nit-picking the stories in the Bible to discover “contradictions.” It’s worth pointing out that what’s recorded here is Stephen’s speech; even if it were incorrect in some fact, Scripture is merely recording what was said. Nevertheless, this part of Abraham’s story benefits from two clarifications.
First, Abraham did not inherit any land, but he did own some. After his wife, Sarah, died, Abraham bought a cave and a field for her tomb (Genesis 23:1–20). In fact, Abraham and his grandson Jacob were buried there, as well (Genesis 25:8–9; 50:12–13). But Abraham did not inherit this plot of land, he purchased it. It wasn’t until the time of Joshua that God gave Canaan to the Israelites as their inheritance.
Second, Abraham’s offspring inherited the land, but not all of them. Before Sarah could have a child, she had her handmaid bear Abraham’s child. After Sarah died, Abraham took a wife named Keturah who bore six sons. Abraham gave an inheritance to Ishmael and Keturah’s sons and sent them away; from the start God chose Isaac, Sarah’s son, to receive Abraham’s blessings (Genesis 17:19–21; 25:1–6).
Verse 6. And God spoke to this effect — that his offspring would be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them four hundred years.
Stephen is explaining to the Sanhedrin and a crowd in Jerusalem that neither the Mosaic law nor the temple are required for Jews to worship God. The first Jewish God-worshiper, Abraham, did not inherit the land where his descendants were to worship God. He did not have a temple to worship in. And he did not have a law to tell him how to worship. And, yet, he is the founding patriarch from whom all God-worshiping Jews come, including Stephen’s accusers.
Stephen continues his narrative about God’s promises to Abraham. Some of God’s covenant with Abraham was positive: Abraham’s wife Sarah would have a son, that son’s descendants would inherit the land of Canaan, and through Abraham’s offspring all the nations of the world would be blessed (Genesis 15:4–7, 18–20; 12:2–3, 7). But Abraham, himself, would not inherit the land, and his descendants would be enslaved for four hundred years (Genesis 15:13).
Events progressed as God promised. Long after Abraham and his son Isaac had died, Abraham’s great-grandson Joseph saved Egypt from a famine that affected Canaan as well. Joseph brought his father and brothers down to Egypt. After Joseph’s death, however, a new Pharaoh enslaved his family. Four hundred years later, God called up Moses to announce terrible curses on the Egyptians and rescue for the Israelites (Genesis 46:1–7; Exodus 12:33–42).
A “sojourner” is a resident foreigner. The Israelites were sojourners in their four hundred years in Egypt, but Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’s families were also sojourners before the Israelites went to Egypt (Exodus 6:4).
In another attempt to throw doubt on the inerrancy of the Bible, critics point out that Exodus 12:40–42 claims the Israelites were enslaved for 430 years. A closer examination will show the text says they “lived in Egypt” for 430 years. Apparently, after Jacob brought his sons and their families to Egypt to escape the famine, they lived in peace for thirty years. Then the new Pharaoh enslaved them (Exodus 1:8–14). Or, Stephen is simply speaking in the same rounded numbers people have always used in conversation.
Verse 7. ‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.’
Jews from Libya, Egypt, and modern-day Asia Minor have charged Stephen with speaking against the temple and the Mosaic law (Acts 6:13). Here, he continues his defense, reminding them that for centuries the patriarchs of the Jewish people didn’t have land, the Mosaic law, or the temple to worship in. In fact, the Egyptians enslaved them for four hundred years. If God still considered them chosen people, then it follows that as important as the Law and the temple are, they are not required to follow God.
Stephen is reciting God’s promises to Abraham. God would give Abraham’s descendants the land of Canaan but not until after his people had been enslaved for four hundred years (Genesis 15:13–14). At the end of that time, God would judge His people’s enslavers (Exodus 7:14—12:32), the Egyptians, and Abraham’s descendants would return to Canaan to worship Him.
God did, indeed, judge Egypt. When Pharaoh continually refused to let the Israelites go, God inflicted ten plagues on the Egyptians. Some think each plague specifically attacked the “power” of one or more Egyptian god. After the last affliction, the deaths of the first-borns, the Israelites escaped and eventually made it back to Canaan. There, Joshua led them in battle—they “inherited” the land because God fought for them; they didn’t purchase it.
And the Israelites did worship God in “this place” of Canaan, but they did not initially worship God in Jerusalem. For many generations, the Israelites worshiped and sacrificed to God in Shiloh, north of Jerusalem (Joshua 18:1). The Israelites didn’t make Jerusalem their capital until seven and a half years into David’s reign (2 Samuel 5:5). And even when David built a tent for the ark of the covenant on the temple Mount (2 Samuel 6:17), the priestly sacrifices continued in Shiloh until Solomon built the temple in Jerusalem.
This is consistent with what Jesus explained to the Samaritan woman. She asked where she should worship God, in Jerusalem or on the mountain where Samaritans traditionally worshiped (John 4:20). Jesus responded, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father…God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:21, 24). Stephen is preparing the Jews for a radical departure from their manmade traditions, and it will not end well.
Verse 8. And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
Stephen the Jesus-follower continues his defense that true God-worship does not require the Mosaic law or the temple. He does so by reciting the history of Israel, pointing out that through Abraham, the Jews have worshiped God since long before God gave them the Law.
The temple in Jerusalem had become a defining emblem of the united Jewish people. They rejoiced when it was built (1 Kings 8:62–66), mourned deeply when the Babylonians destroyed it (Jeremiah 52:17–23), and worked hard to build it again (Ezra 3). The presence of the temple, even without the ark of the covenant, represented the fact that God still blessed His people, even through the Roman occupation.
To speak against the temple, as Stephen is accused of doing (Acts 6:13), is to deny the special and holy relationship the Jews have with God. But Stephen reminds his audience that in the time of their forefathers, including Abraham, the twelve patriarchs, and the Jews who spent four hundred years in Egyptian slavery, the temple didn’t exist. The defining symbol of the Jews’ separateness from the world was always circumcision (Genesis 17:9–14). The tabernacle and the temple came later, to confine the worship of God in a way meant to exclude any pagan practices. But circumcision was a mark on the Jewish men that was meant to be universal and personal.
Soon, the Jews will understand this more thoroughly. In only a few decades, in AD 70, the Roman army will destroy Jerusalem, burn the temple, and send the Jews into an exile they will not return from until 1948. Even now, as of this writing, the temple is not rebuilt. Nearly two thousand years after the temple was last destroyed, the identifying mark of a Jewish male is still circumcision.
With this verse, Stephen concludes the account of God’s interaction with Abraham and begins to give an account of the patriarchs and the conditions that led to the sojourn to Egypt.
Verse 9. “And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him
Stephen is a “Hellenist,” someone who is highly influenced by Greek culture. It’s likely he was at the synagogue of the Freedmen (Acts 6:9) because he is not from Judea and he can reach Greek-speaking Jews there with the good news about Jesus. Even for Jews who lived throughout the Roman Empire, Judea, Jerusalem, and the temple are very important. They are the center of their identity as Jews. Stephen probably found Christ because he made the voyage to Jerusalem to worship at the temple.
So, Stephen understands his accusers’ veneration of the temple. He values the temple, and he still identifies as a Jew. He would never blaspheme the temple, as his accusers have claimed. But he more fully understands that following God is more about faith than place. And of all the patriarchs, it was Joseph who exemplified faith in God despite situation or location.
The “patriarchs,” here, aren’t Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, rather this refers to Jacob’s sons. Specifically, those sons born before Joseph, so not including Benjamin or Joseph’s two sons whom Jacob adopted: Manasseh and Ephraim. Joseph’s older brothers, jealous of Jacob’s regard toward him, sold him to slave traders and told Jacob a wild animal had killed him. The slavers sold him to a nobleman in Egypt. Despite Joseph’s time in slavery and then prison in Egypt, God was with him. God blessed Joseph with training, wisdom, and positions of power and responsibility. While Jacob mourned, Joseph’s brothers had no idea God would use their sin to rescue them and the surrounding nations from famine. This part of their story is in Genesis 37.
Context Summary
Acts 7:9–16 describes one of the church’s first deacons, Stephen, during his trial before the Sanhedrin. A crowd of Jews has accused him of speaking against Moses, the Mosaic law, and the temple (Acts 6:8–15). Stephen uses his defense to show how Abraham’s descendants have been God’s people since long before the Law or the temple. In Acts 7:1–8, he gave a summary of how God called Abraham far from the land his people would later inherit. Stephen continues showing how God cared for His people without a place, adding that they didn’t respect His prophets, starting with Joseph. Joseph’s story is in Genesis 37—Exodus 1.
Verse 10. and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.
Stephen continues his defense against charges that he blasphemed the temple. Here, he puts the building into proper perspective. Joseph, son of Jacob, spent years in slavery and prison in Egypt, yet God was “with him” (Acts 7:9). Stephen quickly skips over Joseph’s hardships during his initial years in Egypt. He doesn’t need to go over Potiphar’s wife’s false accusation or Joseph’s ensuing years in prison (Genesis 39:1–41:36). Stephen’s audience knows the stories well. Stephen is just pointing out how God was with Joseph, even though he left the land God had promised Abraham’s descendants and lived his life in Egypt.
God elevated His servant and prophet despite Joseph’s rejection and betrayal by his brothers. Joseph was verified as a prophet through his own dreams (Genesis 37:1–11) and by his God-given ability to interpret others’ dreams (Genesis 40:1—41:36). Joseph eventually rose to be the second most powerful man in Egypt.
Stephen has been showing how Jews were God’s people without a nation or a temple. Now he starts to show how their rejection of God’s prophets was a rejection of Him. Despite God’s obvious hand on their brother in his younger years, nine of Jacob’s oldest sons had sold Joseph into slavery (Genesis 37:12–36). Although Stephen’s accusers claim to honor Moses and the other prophets of Israel, the Israelites have a long history of ignoring, rejecting, and even killing prophets. They rejected Moses before he led them out of Egypt and after (Acts 7:35, 39–40), they killed many of the prophets God sent throughout their history (Acts 7:52), and they killed the Prophet Moses promised would follow him: Jesus (Acts 7:37, 52).
Verse 11. Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food.
The account of the Jewish “fathers,” meaning the patriarchs of the tribes, as they escaped to Egypt during a famine shows that God does not need His people to gather in a temple to recognize them. Jacob’s older sons had sold their younger brother Joseph to slave traders. In the ensuing years, God arranged for Joseph to spend time in slavery and prison, predict a famine, rise to be second in command of all Egypt, and prepare for the famine. Despite being away from the land God had promised Abraham, God was with Joseph.
Back in Canaan, Joseph’s family had sensed no warning of the famine, and the people and livestock were in threat of starvation (Genesis 41:37–57). Jacob hears there is grain for sale in Egypt (Genesis 42:1–2). He has no idea that his lost son has control of it. He doesn’t even know Joseph is still alive.
Stephen’s recounting of Joseph’s story also helps demonstrate to his audience that despite their claimed reverence of Moses, the Israelites have a long history of rejecting God’s prophets. In this, Joseph parallels Jesus’ identification as the stone the builders rejected that became the cornerstone (Matthew 21:42). Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, but God used him as the foundation for survival for nations caught in famine. The Sanhedrin, to whom Stephen is speaking, killed Jesus, but His sacrifice is the foundation for their salvation, if they will only believe.
Verse 12. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit.
One effective method to help us better understand the Bible is to interpret it according to the literary genre of the passage. The account of how the Israelites came to Egypt falls under the category of narrative. This part of the story uses the tool of poetic justice.
Nine of Jacob’s older sons attacked their younger brother Joseph and sold him to slavers (Genesis 37:12–36). The slavers took Joseph to Egypt and sold him to a nobleman. After serving in a house and then serving time in prison, Joseph rose to the rank of second in command of Egypt. As God’s prophet, he knew a famine would come on the land, and Pharaoh empowered him to prepare (Genesis 39—41). As the seven years of famine progressed, Canaan grew desperate while Egypt had food. In another example of God’s poetic justice, Joseph’s brothers were starving while Joseph had authority over the largest stockpile of grain in the area. When they came to Egypt to buy grain, Joseph hid his identity and thoroughly tested his brothers to make sure they were treating his youngest brother, Benjamin, with more kindness (Genesis 42).
Stephen is using this story to show how throughout Israel’s history, they have persecuted those God sent to save them. First, Joseph. Later, Moses (Acts 7:35, 39–40). Most recently, Jesus, the great Prophet Moses said God would raise up—the Messiah (Acts 7:37). God’s plans are not thwarted by His people’s rejection of His messengers, but Stephen’s accusers show the greatest hypocrisy when they claim to follow Moses and his awaited heir but do neither (Acts 6:11–14).
Verse 13. And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph ‘s family became known to Pharaoh.
Stephen, one of the church’s first deacons and a gifted apologist, is defending himself against the charge that he disrespects Moses, the Mosaic law, and the temple (Acts 6:12–14). In his story about Joseph, he shows that the Israelites have a long tradition of rejecting the prophets God sends them.
At this point, Joseph was second in command of Egypt and had spent seven years accumulating grain in preparation for a multi-regional famine (Genesis 41:37–57). To his shock, the brothers who sold him into slavery appeared to buy grain from him (Genesis 42). On their second visit, when he was assured his younger brother Benjamin was safe, he revealed himself.
In Stephen’s audience is a young Pharisee named Saul (Acts 7:58). After a rocky start, Saul/Paul will follow Jesus and bring Jesus’ story to the Gentiles (Acts 9:3–19). It’s possible he has this part of Joseph’s story in mind when he writes 1 Corinthians 15:5–7. After Jesus’ resurrection, He revealed Himself to Peter, the rest of the twelve disciples, over five hundred “brothers,” then to James, then to all the apostles. James was Jesus’ half-brother. James had rejected the idea that Jesus was the Messiah, thought He was crazy (Mark 3:21), and openly mocked Him (John 7:2–5). This is the same James who became the pastor of the church in Jerusalem and, according to tradition, died for the name of his Brother.
Like James, Joseph’s brothers realized that the one they rejected has the power to save them. Stephen would have been encouraged to know at least one in the audience would come to that same realization.
Verse 14. And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all.
A follower of Jesus and talented speaker, Stephen, is countering a claim from his accusers. Though they suggest he rejects Moses (Acts 6:11–14), it is they who continue the long line of Jews who persecute God’s prophets. When Joseph was a boy, he had a dream to the effect that his father, mother, and brothers would one day bow down to him. At the time, Jacob was incredulous, but he kept the prophecy in the back of his mind (Genesis 37:9–11).
Years later, Joseph’s dream came true. God had worked in his life so that he was second in command of Egypt and in charge of the only significant food stockpile in a seven-year famine. His position meant he could bring his father’s family to Egypt where they would have everything they needed. Joseph’s brothers, the patriarchs of the tribes of Israel, sold their brother, God’s prophet, into slavery, just as later Israelites rejected Moses, killed many other prophets, and crucified Jesus (Acts 7:35, 39–40, 51–52).
Despite Stephen’s gifted weaving of prophets, the Mosaic law, and the temple into a stunning defense, many people get to this verse and get hung up on the claim that “seventy-five persons” came to Egypt. The issue is that after everyone is counted, the original account claims seventy people came to Egypt (Genesis 46:27). Most of the quotations of the Hebrew Scriptures in the New Testament are taken from the Septuagint, the Greek translation. Where the ESV reads, “And the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two,” the Septuagint says, “And the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in the land of Egypt, were nine souls.” The original counts Joseph and his sons Manasseh and Ephraim. The Septuagint includes Manasseh’s son and grandson and Ephraim’s two sons and one grandson for an additional five. In all, Joseph was responsible for the presence of his father’s family of seventy-five in Egypt.
Verse 15. And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers,
Jews from Egypt, Libya, and modern-day Asia Minor have accused Stephen, a Jewish Jesus-follower, of disrespecting Moses, the Mosaic law, and the temple (Acts 6:11–14). In his trial before the Sanhedrin, he uses the history of Israel to weave together a defense of those three charges and show the hypocrisy of his accusers and the Jewish people as a whole.
He starts by showing that Abraham worshiped God long before the Mosaic law or the temple—in fact, he worshiped God outside the confines of what came to be Israel (Acts 7:1–8). It was circumcision, not the Law or temple that set the Jews apart.
Next, Stephen uses the story of Joseph to show that far from revering God’s prophets, the Israelites started their tradition of persecuting God’s messengers very early on (Acts 7:9–14). He will later tie in the fact that Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery with the Israelite’s rejection of Moses, other prophets, and Jesus (Acts 7:35, 39–40, 51–52).
Now, in preparation of his story of Moses, Stephen returns to the idea of place. God promised Abraham that his descendants would inherit the land of Canaan. Far from it, Abraham’s great-grandson and his twelve sons all die in Egypt. They are no less God’s people because they are on another continent. Jerusalem and the temple are important to Stephen and to the other Jesus-followers. But those locations mean nothing without the God, and His Son, who give them significance.
Verse 16. and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
Stephen is finishing his story of how the Israelites came to Egypt. In the beginning, he showed how the Israelites were far from respecting God’s prophets. In truth, they have a long habit of persecuting them, starting with the tribal patriarchs who sold their brother Joseph into slavery (Acts 7:9–14). Now, Stephen returns to the historical proof that God is with His people no matter where they live—including Egypt. Soon, he will return to the idea of rejected prophets, focusing on Moses (Acts 7:35–43).
There is some confusion about the geographical locations mentioned here. Abraham bought a field in Machpelah from the Hittites, west of the Dead Sea at Hebron, to bury Sarah (Genesis 23). Abraham and Jacob were later buried in the same place (Genesis 25:9–10; 50:12–13). Jacob bought a piece of land to pitch his tent near Shechem, north of Hebron, about half-way between the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee (Genesis 33:16–20). This is where Joshua 24:32 says Joseph was buried.
So, why is Stephen saying Abraham bought the land where Joseph is buried? There are two possible explanations: 1. Stephen has very little time to explain, so he combines the two events and locations. His Jewish audience would know what he meant. 2. Abraham did buy the land initially, in an unrecorded transaction, and Jacob reaffirmed that purchase as Isaac did when he reclaimed the well of Beersheba (Genesis 26:26–33) which Abraham had dug (Genesis 21:22–31). It’s even possible that Abraham bought the land when he built his first altar to God there (Genesis 12:6–7).
Verse 17. “But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had granted to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt
Stephen has already covered “the promise” in his account about Abraham (Acts 7:7). God promised Abraham that his descendants would one day inherit the land of Canaan (Genesis 15:18–21). God specifically told Abraham that he would not inherit the land. And yet still Abraham worshiped God.
It is unclear why God chose Egypt as the incubator for the nation of Israel. For three generations, the Israelites lived as nomads in Canaan, owning very little land of their own. When the Israelites came to Egypt, Joseph, by permission of the pharaoh, set them up in a separated territory, Goshen. The Egyptians hated sheep, so at the beginning, the Israelites were left alone (Genesis 46:28–34). With twelve families finally settled in a single place with sufficient resources, the clan grew quickly. So quickly, the new Egyptian administration got worried.
Stephen is reminding his audience that one of the periods of God’s greatest blessing came without the Law, the temple, or even the land He had promised. It came in exile. The practices of Judaism were still important to the Jewish Jesus-followers (Acts 3:1), but neither group—Jesus-follower or traditional Jew—must confuse the worship of God with the worship of His blessings.
Context Summary
Acts 7:17–22 continues Stephen’s defense against charges that he speaks against Moses, the Mosaic law, and the temple (Acts 6:11–14). In this part, he subtly shows that God’s work is not confined to a building, city, or even nation. God used a hostile foreign government to prepare the greatest prophet of the Old Testament and the bringer of the Law that made the Israelites a nation. Solomon admitted during the dedication of the temple that even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain God, much less a building made by human hands (2 Chronicles 6:18). The truth is, neither can a single nation, or even the world.
Verse 18. until there arose over Egypt another king who did not know Joseph.
Despite his accusers’ claims, Stephen and other Jewish Jesus-followers hold the Mosaic law, the temple, and Moses in the highest respect. But they hold an evenhigher view of how God has worked in the people of Israel. God’s prophets didn’t start with Moses. His blessing didn’t start with the Law. And His worship certainly didn’t start with the construction of the temple. The Jews first worshiped God and received His blessings through His first prophet, Abraham.
Stephen has already reminded his audience how Joseph’s rejection by his brothers led the Israelites to Egypt where Joseph was able to provide for their needs (Acts 7:9–16). He has also reminded them how that stability and protection led to a population boom in the families of the twelve brothers (Acts 7:17). But both Joseph and the pharaoh he served died, and the new pharaoh merely saw the Israelites as a threat, not as the family of the man who rescued Egypt from famine (Exodus 1:6–10).
God revealed to Abraham some of these details of the Israelites’ time in Egypt. He said, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years” (Genesis 15:13). God didn’t always use Moses, the Law, or the temple to bless His people. Some of His greatest blessings occurred in Egypt while His people suffered in slavery for four hundred years.
Verse 19. He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive.
In the time of the early church, Jews claimed absolute loyalty to Moses, his Law, and the temple. They still remembered how hundreds of years before, their ancestors’ neglect of the law led to exile to Babylon and the destruction of the temple. Even under Roman rule, the Jews tried hard to follow the Law Moses gave them as well as extra manmade traditions meant to give more weight to the Law. Despite this deep devotion, most of the Jews completely missed that God’s promised Messiah has come: Jesus. In fact, they claimed that Jesus’ followers disrespect Moses, the Law, and the temple. Stephen is showing how just as the traditional Jews are short-sighted in their understanding of Jesus, they also misunderstand God’s work in their own history and the meanings of these three pillars of Jewish faith.
God didn’t need the land, the Law, or the temple to develop the clan of Abraham into a nation. He used four hundred years of slavery in Egypt to build up the population of His people. Even when Pharaoh demanded all the baby Israelite boys be either killed by their midwives or “exposed”—thrown into the Nile River (Exodus 1:15–22)—God rescued His chosen leader, Moses (Exodus 2:1–10).
In the hundreds of years since that time, God often used foreign nations to discipline the rebellious Israelites. In Stephen’s time, the scattered Jews—even his accusers from Africa and modern-day Asian Minor—cling to Moses, the Law, and the temple to define them during their subjugation to the Roman Empire. They miss the truth that they have placed their faith in the tools God gave them to encourage their faith in Him.
Verse 20. At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God ‘s sight. And he was brought up for three months in his father ‘s house,
Jews from Egypt, Libya, and modern-day Asia Minor have accused the Jewish Jesus-follower Stephen of disrespecting Moses, among other things (Acts 6:11–14). Using the story of Israel’s history, Stephen is putting each of these things in proper perspective. In the Jews’ minds, Moses is almost synonymous with the law he received from God on Mount Sinai. To blaspheme Moses is to reject his law, and to reject his law invites the threat of exile. In Acts 7:20–22, Stephen shows how little Moses had to do with his own qualifications.
The word translated “beautiful” means well-bred and refined. God chose Moses at his birth, when the baby certainly had nothing to do with how the world perceived him. At the time, by law of the pharaoh, his parents should have surrendered him to be thrown into the Nile. Instead, they hid him from their Egyptian oppressors (Exodus 2:1–2).
In the following verses, Stephen will remind his audience how the pharaoh’s daughter rescued and raised Moses, and had him trained by Egyptian scholars. Then, Stephen will point out how Moses murdered an Egyptian and ran away to Midian to hide in fear (Acts 7:29). It is true that God chose Moses, and Moses became one of the greatest Jews in history. But it is because of God’s work, not Moses’. And anyone who reveres Moses more than God misses the point of Moses’ life.
Verse 21. and when he was exposed, Pharaoh ‘s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.
While slaves in Egypt, the Israelites continued to grow in number. First, Pharaoh forced them into hard labor. Then he ordered the midwives to kill all the newborn baby boys. When they claimed the Hebrew women gave birth before they could get there, Pharaoh order the Egyptians to throw the Hebrew baby boys into the Nile (Exodus 1:8–22).
This would have been Moses’ fate, but God led his parents to first hide him for three months and then place him in the river in a waterproofed reed basket. The pharaoh’s daughter found him and raised him as her own (Exodus 2:1–10). In her household, Moses was educated like the finest of Egyptians.
Although Moses grew up as an Egyptian, he knew he was a Hebrew. When he was forty years old, he defended one of his people and killed an Egyptian. He then ran to Midian, which is presently western Saudi Arabia and southern Jordan along the Gulf of Aqaba, fearful the pharaoh would kill him (Exodus 2:11–15).
Some of the Jews from outside Judea have come to Jerusalem to worship at the temple. They have accused Stephen, a Jesus-follower, of disrespecting Moses (Acts 6:9–11). This story about Moses’ early life is part of Stephen’s defense. Yes, Moses is one of the greatest Jews ever. But he also lived an undeservedly privileged early life and ran away in fear after committing murder. Better to give glory to God than a man.
Verse 22. And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds.
Traditional Jews have accused the Jewish Jesus-follower Stephen of speaking against Moses (Acts 6:11). Stephen’s defense on this count is three-fold:
First, he shows how all the advantages Moses received growing up were because of God’s providence, not anything Moses did or deserved (Exodus 2:1–10). Moses had nothing to do with his looks or his personality at birth. He had no conscious effect on his parents to save him from Pharaoh’s edict to kill the baby Hebrew boys (Acts 7:17–22).
Next, Stephen will remind his audience that when their great hero acted on his own initiative under his own wisdom, he murdered an Egyptian and then ran away in fear, hiding for forty years (Acts 7:23–29). The man God called “beautiful” (Acts 7:20), who was blessed with wisdom and might, returned with no confidence, “slow of speech and of tongue” (Exodus 4:10).
Finally, Stephen will acknowledge Moses was a great, God-fearing man, but argue that his accusers’ ancestors were not always so reverent. In fact, the very people Moses rescued continually rebelled against him (Acts 7:35), up to and including denying Moses’ God and worshiping a statue of a calf (Acts 7:39–40; Exodus 32).
Stephen’s accusers follow in their footsteps. Moses promised that God would “raise up for you a prophet like” him (Acts 7:37), and He did, in Jesus. But like the Israelites rejected Moses, Joseph (Acts 7:9–16), and the long list of prophets after, “God’s people” rejected His Prophet—the Messiah (Acts 7:52). Stephen doesn’t speak against Moses. He holds Moses in proper perspective, with respect, but not on a level with the Messiah Moses promised.
Verse 23. “When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.
Moses’ life was divided into three periods of forty years. For his first forty years, he grew up in the home of the pharaoh’s daughter, receiving the education of the Egyptian nobility (Acts 7:21–22). His birthmother had nursed him as a child (Exodus 2:4–10), and it’s evident he still remembered not only his people (Exodus 2:11) but also his birth family (Exodus 4:14, 27–28). Moses spent the middle forty-year period in exile in Midian. In the last third of his life, he rescued the Israelites from slavery and led them through the wilderness to the doorstep of the Promised Land.
The phrase “children of Israel” means the same thing as “Israelites.” Abraham is the father of the Israelites. His son Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob. Jacob left his homeland to find a wife among his mother’s family (Genesis 28:1–5). On his return trip, twenty years later with his wives and children, he literally wrestled with God—possibly a pre-incarnate Christ. God told him, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed” (Genesis 32:28). Throughout the rest of the Bible, Jacob is sometimes referred to as “Jacob” and sometimes as “Israel.”
While with his mother’s family, Jacob married two sisters, Leah and Rachel, who gave their handmaidens, Bilhah and Zilpah, to him as concubines. Between the four women, Jacob had twelve sons and one daughter. The older sons sold Joseph, the second youngest, to slave traders (Genesis 37:12–28). Joseph was taken to Egypt where he eventually became the second in command of the entire nation (Genesis 41:38–45). During a famine, Joseph was able to bring his father and his brothers’ families to Egypt where they would have sufficient provisions (Genesis 46). After Joseph’s and Pharaoh’s deaths, the new pharaoh enslaved the families.
So, the people from whom Moses came are the “children of Israel,” not because they came from the nation of Israel, which didn’t exist in Joseph’s or Moses’ time, but because their single common patriarch was named Israel.
Context Summary
Acts 7:23–29 furthers Stephen’s defense against allegations that he disrespects the Law, the temple, and Moses (Acts 6:8–15). He has obliquely reminded his audience that God was the God of the Jews before they had a temple or even a homeland (Acts 7:1–16). Now, he outlines their beloved Moses’ not-so-honorable beginnings. Their most-respected prophet and leader started as a murderer. Stephen is recounting the story originally given in Exodus 2:11–22.
Verse 24. And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian.
After Moses had been weaned, he grew up in the home of the pharaoh’s daughter with all the privileges afforded a royal child, including a formal Egyptian education (Acts 7:22). He never forgot who his people were, however. It’s unclear if he knew the harsh slavery conditions Pharaoh had put them under—as a nursing child, he wouldn’t have been able to understand the full extent of their suffering. And as an adult in Pharaoh’s palace, he may or may not have fully realized the brutality of what was happening, as the Israelites lived in a separate area, Goshen (Genesis 45:10; Exodus 8:20–22).
When he was forty, Moses went to visit his people and saw an Egyptian beating an Israelite. Moses immediately identified with the victim. Thinking they were alone, he killed the Egyptian, then buried the body in the sand (Exodus 2:11–12).
Contemporary culture tends to glamorize vengeful killings done in the name of justice. Moses’ murder of the Egyptian is a full forty years before God gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments, but the prohibition of murder is one of the oldest laws in creation. After Noah left the ark, God told him that not only humans but even animals needed to be executed if they killed a person: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image” (Genesis 9:6).
Moses knew it was wrong, and not just because the law would have favored a free Egyptian over a foreign slave. He had some understanding that God had chosen him to rescue the people (Acts 7:25), but he didn’t wait for God’s timing. God had told Abraham his descendants would be in slavery for four hundred years (Genesis 15:13) and they had forty more years to go.
Verse 25. He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was giving them salvation by his hand, but they did not understand.
Stephen, in his defense against those who claim he doesn’t respect Moses or the Mosaic law, recounts the story of Moses murdering a man and fleeing for his life. Moses wanted to save the Israelites, but he tried to do so by his own power (Zechariah 4:6). He also tried to do so forty years before the four hundred years of slavery was complete (Genesis 15:13).
While speaking of Moses, Stephen makes some assertions that aren’t found in the original text (Exodus 2:1–15). He says that when Moses was born, God found him “beautiful” or well-bred (Acts 7:20). He explains Moses’ education in the house of Pharaoh’s daughter (Acts 7:22). And he gives an indication that Moses knew God planned to use him to rescue the Israelites before the conversation at the burning bush (see Exodus 3:1–4:17). Moses’ education is a pretty safe assumption since he was raised in the Pharaoh’s court. The other claims come from the Talmud.
The Jewish Scriptures are our Old Testament. When Moses led the Israelites to Mount Sinai, God gave him the Law to write down; the record of the Law and the story from creation to the Israelites’ journey to the Promised Land are the first five books of the Bible. Throughout the centuries, Jewish scholars have insisted that God also gave Moses the oral law which provides more specific information. After the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70, scholars realized that without the central authority of the temple, the oral law needed to be recorded and they wrote down the different debates and explanations given throughout the centuries. The Babylonian Talmud is the compilation of these writings by scribes who lived in Babylon. It is more comprehensive and more widely used than the Jerusalem Talmud, and it contains a lot of information that is not included in the Scriptures.
The Talmud, in the Nashim Order, Tactrate Sotah 12b, says that Pharaoh’s astrologers “saw that the savior of the Jewish people would be stricken by water” and reacted by ordering that the Israelite newborn boys should be thrown into the river. The text explains that the prophecy was actually pointing toward Moses’ failure at Meribah (Numbers 20:2–13). The text also explains that after Jochebed, Moses’ mother, put Moses in the water, the astrologers sensed that Israel’s redeemer was “in the water,” and Pharaoh repealed the order, not realizing his daughter had saved the baby he had tried to destroy.
Sotah 13a says that before Moses’ birth, Miriam prophesied that her mother would “give birth to a son who will save the Jewish people. When Moses was born, the entire house was filled with light.” Sotah 12a suggests that the passage that says Jochebed found Moses to be a “fine child” (Exodus 2:2) means he was “fit for prophecy” or fit to fulfill the prophecy given by his sister.
The Talmud is not the inspired Word of God and other passages prove this. Nashim Sotah 12a says righteous women do not have pain in childbirth. Sotah 11b says that when the Egyptians came to the fields to look for the Israelite infants, the earth would absorb the babies. It claims that after the Egyptians plowed the fields and found nothing, the babies would grow out of the ground like grass.
Exodus 1—2 doesn’t mention any prophecy about a baby being born that would rescue the Israelites, and it gives the reason for Pharaoh’s infanticide as the fertility of the Hebrew women (Exodus 1:12). So, is Stephen reciting historically accurate information, or is he repeating what he was taught from the oral law? It is notable that he doesn’t recall any of the more fantastical entries of the Talmud. God certainly never promises us that He will give every detail of every story mentioned in the Bible. And Miriam is called a prophetess in Exodus 15:20.
There are two possibilities. The first is that the Holy Spirit allowed Stephen to recount what parts of the oral law were actually true, that Moses somehow knew it was his job to save the Israelites from the Egyptians. The second possibility is that Luke, inspired by the Holy Spirit as to what to record, wrote what Stephen said even though Stephen was misinformed—this would explain the confusion of Acts 7:16, as well. The former is more likely, although the latter would not infer the narrative recorded in the passage is not inspired, nor would it adversely affect Stephen’s argument.
Verse 26. And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong each other?’
Jews from northern Africa and modern-day Asia Minor have wrongly accused Stephen of disrespecting Moses, the Law God gave him, and the temple (Acts 6:11–14). Stephen’s defense before the Sanhedrin is a short review of Jewish history which organically touches on the charges in different ways. The story of Abraham subtly points out that the Jews’ greatest forefather worshiped God through circumcision, without temple, nation, or Law (Acts 7:1–8). Joseph’s account shows that, far from immediately giving the Israelites the land God had promised, God first took them down to Egypt (Acts 7:9–16). Then Stephen reminds them that the great Moses started trying to rescue his people by murdering an Egyptian (Acts 7:23–24).
Now, Stephen returns to a point he also made with Joseph (Acts 7:9): the Israelites didn’t respect Moses (Exodus 2:13–14). This contempt for God’s prophet is a Jewish tradition, in practice if not in intent. The Israelites rejected Moses’ God and asked Aaron to make them idols to worship (Acts 7:39–41). The people of the Old Testament ignored the prophets God sent—or killed them (Acts 7:52). And Stephen’s audience is ignoring Moses’ prophecy that God would send another prophet like him—who would be the Messiah (Acts 7:37). This prophet is Jesus, and the Sanhedrin had Him crucified (Acts 7:52).
Moses’ words quoted here (Exodus 2:13) were a fitting accusation for Stephen’s audience. With their access to the Old Testament prophecies, there’s no reason intelligent Jews couldn’t figure out how Jesus of Nazareth fit as God’s promised Messiah, come to save His people. The Jews and the Jesus-followers in Jerusalem are brothers. There should be no quarreling. But Jesus came bringing a message that separates families like a sword (Matthew 10:34–36). Even Christ knew the sting of being rejected by His brothers (Mark 3:21; John 7:1–5). The Jesus-followers will have to embrace Jesus’ words that the family is now anyone who obeys God (Mark 3:34–35), whether that be Jew, Samaritan, or Gentile (Acts 1:8; 8:4–13; 10).
Like Jesus’ words, Stephen’s prove divisive—to the point that the Sanhedrin orders the persecution of Jesus-followers (Acts 8:1–3). And like both Jesus and the Old Testament prophets, Stephen’s “brothers” reject him to the point of murder (Acts 7:54–60).
Verse 27. But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?
Jews visiting Jerusalem have accused Stephen of several crimes, including “speak[ing] blasphemous words against Moses” (Acts 6:11). In this part of Stephen’s defense, he points out that 1. Moses was a murderer (Acts 7:24), and 2. Moses’ contemporaries didn’t respect him (Acts 7:28, 38–41). During his first attempt to rescue his people from persecution, Moses killed a violent Egyptian. Instead of being thankful, the Israelite slaves rejected him (Exodus 2:11–14).
This charge against Moses is particularly ironic. Moses had spent forty years being raised as an Egyptian official (Acts 7:22). He probably did look like a “ruler.” God would make him a true ruler and judge. God would give him the Law, and Moses would lead the Israelites spiritually and politically for forty years. After God rescued the Israelites from Egypt, while Moses was on Mount Sinai communicating with God, the people grew tired of waiting and asked Aaron to make gods for them. They gave gold to Aaron, who formed a statue of a golden calf that the people worshipped. God suggested He would consume the people and make a great nation out of Moses instead, but Moses interceded for the people (Exodus 32). Later, after the men who had been sent to spy out the land of Canaan returned with a good report of the land and a frightening report of the inhabitants (Numbers 13), the people rebelled against Moses and Aaron, proposing they find a new leader and return to Egypt. They even wanted to stone their leaders. God again suggested He would kill and disinherit the people and make Moses a great nation, but Moses, again, interceded for the people (Numbers 14). Not only did Moses function as a ruler over the people, he was a judge between them—so much so that his father-in-law advised him to appoint other judges for smaller matters (Exodus 18).
And yet, time after time, the people rejected Moses. They complained they should have stayed in Egypt or just died when they ran short of water (Exodus 17:1–4). They said they should have stayed in slavery since at least then they had cucumbers, melons, onions, and garlic (Numbers 11:5). They insisted they should have died in the wilderness when they ran out of figs and pomegranates (Numbers 20:3–5). They complained they had no food (Exodus 16:3). When God sent manna, they complained they had no meat (Numbers 11:4). Then they complained about “this worthless food” (Numbers 21:5). They even refused to go into the Promised Land when God prepared it for them (Numbers 14:1–4).
Stephen is one of many spreading stories of how Jesus was crucified and raised again and how belief in Him brings forgiveness from God. To devout Jews, this sounds like a rejection of the Law Moses gave them. But Moses prophesied that Jesus would come (Acts 7:37). It is not Stephen and the other Jesus-followers who blaspheme Moses, it’s those who don’t listen to him.
Verse 28. Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’
Devout Jews visiting Jerusalem from northern Africa and modern-day Asia Minor have accused Stephen of blasphemy against Moses and God and speaking words against the temple and the Mosaic law (Acts 6:8–14). Stephen is defending himself in front of a crowd and the Sanhedrin by applying a short history of Israel to the accusations.
In the middle of his testimony, Stephen reminds his audience that before Moses was a spiritual giant who provided the Law and rescued the Israelites, he neither received nor deserved respect. He knew he would be responsible for bringing the Israelites out of slavery, but he acted too soon and under his own power. When he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave, Moses secretly killed and buried the Egyptian. But the next day, when he saw two Israelites fighting, the aggressor revealed that Moses had been seen. The Israelites were right to distance themselves from him; as soon as Pharaoh learned what Moses had done, he tried to kill him (Exodus 2:11–15).
Evidence would suggest that the quarreling Israelites didn’t reject Moses because he killed their oppressor. They rejected Moses because they didn’t trust he was in a position to get them what they wanted. Moses fled after this altercation and returned after forty years with miraculous evidence from God that he would rescue his people. But even after Moses led them out of Egypt and Pharaoh’s oppression, and even with multiple miracles of protection and provision from God, the people rejected Moses, insisting they were better off in slavery in Egypt with leeks and pomegranates than traveling through the wilderness to a place full of milk and honey where they could be free (Numbers 14; 20:3–13).
Stephen’s audience is acting the same way. They would rather remain slaves to their sin and the Mosaic law than follow Jesus: the Prophet Moses promised—the Messiah (Acts 7:37). They would rather remain in Jerusalem with their sacrifices and temple than be freed from geographical restraints and the mediation of priests that separate them from a more personal relationship with their God. Stephen’s defense here is exquisite and complex: he may not revere Moses like his accusers, but Moses wasn’t always worthy of being revered. And regarding Moses’ greatest prophecy, they are in complete rebellion while Stephen is about to lay down his life because he believes.
Verse 29. At this retort Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
This is a very short synopsis of Exodus 2:15–22 which summarizes Moses’ second forty years. Moses, an Israelite who was raised as an Egyptian, murdered an Egyptian who was beating an Israelite. The next day, he came upon one Israelite abusing another and asked why they would fight since they were of the same people. The aggressor mocked Moses, asking if he was going to kill him, too. When Pharaoh discovered Moses had killed someone, he tried to kill Moses in return. Moses fled to Midian where he met and married Zipporah and had two sons, Gershom and Eliezer (Exodus 2:15–22; 18:3–4; Acts 7:23–28).
Midian is a region about the size of the Sinai Peninsula that sits on the Arabian Peninsula at the mouth where the Gulf of Aqaba feeds into the Red Sea. It was settled by the descendants of Midian, the son of Abraham and his second wife Keturah (Genesis 25:1–4). Moses’ father-in-law was Jethro who is described as “a priest of Midian” (Exodus 2:16). Jethro is also called “Reuel,” which means “friend of God,” so it’s possible Midian continued the worship of God as his father Abraham taught him. Unfortunately, the Israelites will have problems with the Midianites on their way to the Promised Land (Numbers 22; 25; 31).
Hebrews 11:24–27 gives an account that seems to contradict Moses’ actions here. It says that Moses chose to identify with the Israelites over the Egyptians and left Egypt without fear. Hebrews 11:28, however, explains that the description is of Moses at the time of the exodus when he led the Israelites out of Egypt.
Verse 30. “Now when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.
The Jews of Stephen’s time claim to be extremely devout. Those accusing him have come all the way from northern Africa and modern-day Asia Minor to worship at the temple in Jerusalem. They arrived to find a new sect has grown around a man named Jesus who had been crucified and whom His followers attest rose again. Stephen, one of the first deacons in the church, has been debating them, and they have no way to counter his arguments. So they resort to false accusations, claiming that he is blaspheming God and Moses and that he is encouraging the disrespect of the temple and the Mosaic law (Acts 6:8–14).
Stephen is countering with the argument that God worked in the lives of the Israelites centuries before they had Moses, the Law, the temple, or even a place to call their own. In addition, not even the Israelites of Moses’ time respected him.
In that context, Stephen has explained how in Moses’ earlier years he wasn’t worthy of respect because he murdered an Egyptian. He did so in an attempt to rescue an Israelite, but the action proved to increase the distance between him and his people even more—not to mention incite the Pharaoh to put a price on his head. To save his life, Moses fled to Midian on the western coast of the Arabian Peninsula where he married Zipporah and became father to two sons (Acts 7:23–29).
Now, Stephen reminds his audience of the supernatural event that accompanied God’s call. While tending his father-in-law’s sheep, Moses encountered the angel of the Lord in a flame that engulfed a bush without burning it. Stephen’s accusers know this story, that Moses trembled in fear before the fire, and that he gave several excuses as to why he wasn’t fit to serve God. All of this points to something Moses and Stephen were well aware of but the Jews seemed to have forgotten: it is not Moses who is worthy of worship but the God Who is speaking to him (Exodus 3:1–2).
Context Summary
Acts 7:30–34 records Stephen as he continues the story of Moses. He is instructing the Sanhedrin and a crowd of Jews with a short version of Israel’s history to show them how to put the things they love, like the Law and the temple, into proper perspective. The account of God calling Moses to rescue his people sets up Stephen’s argument that neither the Israelites in Moses’ time nor those in Stephen’s ever really respected Moses. This is a quick synopsis of Exodus 3:1—4:23.
Verse 31. When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look, there came the voice of the Lord:
In the previous section, Stephen tore down the argument that Moses was always worthy of respect. He murdered an Egyptian, earned the derision of the Israelites, and fled from Pharaoh for forty years (Acts 7:23–29). Now, Stephen shows why Moses became worthy of respect: because God chose him to be. While tending his father-in-law’s sheep, Moses came upon a bush, on fire but not burned, and “the angel of the LORD” in the midst of the flames. The Old Testament seems to make a distinction between “an angel of the LORD” and “the angel of the LORD.” Scholars believe the latter is often the pre-incarnate Christ. That makes sense as the angel of the Lord is in the fire in the bush and God called out to Moses from the bush (Exodus 3:1–4).
It is this voice of God that gives Moses authority. He says, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt” (Acts 7:34). The Jews in Stephen’s audience think they respect Moses, but Stephen reminds them: God commissioned Moses to rescue the Israelites and the Israelites rebelled against him (Acts 7:39–41). In the same way, this Moses told them that God would send another prophet like him (who would be the Messiah), and this same voice of God validated Jesus (Mark 1:9–11; John 1:32–34; 12:28). But Stephen’s audience killed Him (Acts 7:52).
Stephen’s accusers are devout Jews from northern Africa and modern-day Asia Minor. They have traveled at great expense to come to Jerusalem to worship at the temple. They should know Samuel’s words: “Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams” (1 Samuel 15:22). And the words of Jeremiah who quoted God: “For in that day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you’” (Jeremiah 7:22–23). It was never the burnt offerings, the temple, or even the Law that pleased God; it was always having faith in His words.
His words, throughout Israel’s history, pointed to Jesus.
Verse 32. ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and did not dare to look.
Stephen is a Jewish Jesus-follower from somewhere outside of Judea. He is one of the first deacons and a Spirit-filled apologist for the fact that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah. He had been debating other foreign-born Jews who found his arguments so water-tight, they resorted to falsely accusing him of blasphemy against Moses, the Law, and the temple (Acts 6:8–15). Stephen is now giving his defense before the Sanhedrin (Acts 7:1–53). His main points are that Abraham and his descendants followed God before they received the Law or the temple. And that even though the Israelites claimed to respect the Law and God’s prophets, historically they had a pattern of breaking the Law and disrespecting the prophets God sent them.
Stephen has already explained that God called Abraham from Ur and took the Israelites to Egypt (Acts 7:2–16). He now reminds them how God introduced Himself to Moses in the midst of the burning bush in the foreign country of Midian. God didn’t tell Moses He was the God of the nation of Israel or of the temple or of the Law. None of those things existed yet. But He is the God of the three primary patriarchs of the Israelite people, and thus the people, themselves.
God gave Moses the Law as a way to solidify the nation and teach them how to worship Him. He gave Moses the plans for the tabernacle and allowed Solomon to later build a temple (1 Kings 6). Stephen’s audience has made idols of the Law and the temple. They would rather follow the strict regulations and sacrifices than look for the promised blessing—the Messiah. Like the servant whose master gave him one talent to invest, they choose to bury the blessing for fear their master will punish them if they misuse the freedom (Matthew 25:14–30). Like them, when we concentrate more on our responsibilities than God’s words, we will miss out on what He has for us.
Verse 33. Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.
Jews who have traveled hundreds of miles to worship at the temple are accusing Stephen of following a teacher who threatened to destroy the temple (Acts 6:14). The claim is like a conspiracy theory or rumor that won’t die.
Jesus never threatened to destroy the temple. Early in Jesus’ ministry He had arrived in the temple courtyard to find it filled with animal merchants and money-changers. Besides engaging in dishonorable business practices, they were taking up the space God set aside for the Gentiles to worship. So He threw over their tables and drove them out with a whip (John 2:13–17). The Jewish leadership confronted Him, asking who gave Him the authority to do this. Jesus responded, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (John 2:18–19). First, He dared the Sanhedrin to destroy the temple; He never claimed He was going to. Second, He meant His body, prophetically alluding to the Sanhedrin having Him crucified and His resurrection three days later (John 2:20–22).
There’s a pretty strong indication that the Sanhedrin knew what He was talking about, even if the disciples didn’t. As Jesus hanged on the cross, people mocked Him, saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself!” (Matthew 27:40). Yet, earlier, the council brought out men who agreed to falsely accuse Jesus of threatening the temple (Matthew 26:59–61). This was not because they believed the charge, but because threatening a religious structure was against Roman law and punishable by death. The Sanhedrin didn’t want to look like they were behind Jesus’ death because they were afraid of the people (Matthew 26:3–5). But if they could get Pilate, the Roman governor, to kill Jesus, they would be fine. When trying to get Rome to kill Jesus, they acted as if His words targeted the temple. When Jesus was dying, they acted as if they knew His words pointed to His own body.
Stephen doesn’t use this example of hypocrisy to defend Jesus or himself. Instead, he goes deeper. Where God is, is sacred. If God is in the temple, the temple is sacred. But God appeared to His servants in many different places away from the temple and Jerusalem, including a hill in the territory around Midian where Moses had gone to tend his father-in-law’s sheep. The purpose of the temple was to establish a worship format that was protected from the influence of paganism. But the temple is not sacred in and of itself. It is only as sacred as God declares it to be.
In less than forty years after Stephen’s speech, there will be no temple. The Romans will siege Jerusalem, tear it down, and burn the temple. The flames will be so hot the gold will melt in between the paving stones. The Jews will scatter all over the world and will not regather as a nation until 1948. Jews today still long for a temple. Most cannot see that God’s presence makes a place sacred, and the coming of the Holy Spirit makes sacred the heart of everyone who follows Jesus.
Verse 34. I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you to Egypt.’
Stephen has been accused of disrespecting Moses, among other things (Acts 6:11–14). In his quick history of Israel, Stephen shows how the Israelites have a long tradition of rejecting Moses and the other prophets God has sent.
Stephen sets the stage here. Four hundred and thirty years before God called Moses, Joseph, son of Jacob, was second-in-command of Egypt and was able to settle his father’s large family in a good land during a terrible famine. Thirty years later, after Joseph and the Pharaoh he served had died, a new Pharaoh arrived and saw the fertile Israelites as a threat. He enslaved them, hoping to control their population. When that didn’t work, another Pharaoh demanded all the baby boys be killed (Exodus 1). At this point in Stephen’s story, God had determined it was time for Moses to free his people from slavery and lead them to the land God had promised Abraham (Exodus 2:23–25).
Forty years before, Moses had taken it upon himself to kill an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. The next day, Moses confronted two Israelites who were fighting with each other. The aggressor rejected his intervention and any authority over them, asking Moses if he was going to kill him, as well. Realizing that if these men knew he had killed the Egyptian Pharaoh would know, too, Moses fled to Midian (Acts 7:25–29).
Forty years later, God told Moses to return to Egypt and save his people. This verse glosses over Exodus 3:7–4:17. The confidence Moses had when he came to his people’s aid the first time was shattered. He gave excuse after excuse as to why he wasn’t worthy. God gave encouragement, signs, and finally an angry concession before Moses agreed to move.
The Israelites didn’t have any more confidence in Moses than he did. They spent the next forty years rebelling against his direction. God’s signs had little effect on their attitude (Acts 7:35–41). This continued beyond Moses. Stephen points out how the Israelites abused and killed God’s other prophets, up to and including the Prophet (the Messiah) Moses promised would follow him—Jesus (Acts 7:51–53). The Jews accuse Stephen of rejecting Moses. Stephen shows how they reject God.
Verse 35. “This Moses, whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ — this man God sent as both ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
Moses was a Hebrew man who had been raised by an Egyptian princess (Exodus 2:1–10). Somehow, in a way that the original account does not explain, he knew God had sent him to free his people from slavery (Acts 7:25). During his first attempt, Moses killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. The next day, he realized the Israelites not only rejected his help and authority, they knew about the murder. Moses fled to Midian before Pharaoh could execute him (Exodus 2:11–15).
In Midian, Moses married the daughter of a priest and cared for his father-in-law’s sheep. Forty years after his arrival, he realized a bush was on fire but not burning. The angel of the Lord was in the bush, and God spoke to Moses. Moses’ authority came from that angel’s “hand,” that is, by the angel’s authority.
The original passage says “the angel of the LORD” was in the flaming bush (Exodus 3:2). Stephen just says, “an angel” (Acts 7:30). It’s thought that when the Old Testament refers to “the angel of the LORD,” it means the pre-incarnate Christ. It would be helpful if Stephen would clarify that, here, but he doesn’t.
Before Moses fled to Midian, an Israelite man asked him, “Who made you a prince and a judge over us?” (Exodus 2:14). “Prince” refers to an official or a representative of the king (Pharaoh). A “judge” is someone authorized to make a legal ruling. Stephen points out that Moses was, indeed, an official ruler, a representative of God. More than that, God chose him to be the Israelites’ redeemer, to rescue them. The arguing Israelites derisively rejected Moses’ position as a judicial representative of Pharaoh, not realizing Moses was sent by God to rescue them.
Context Summary
Acts 7:35–38 reminds a Jewish audience of Moses’ credentials. These words are spoken by Stephen, a Jewish follower of Jesus and leader in the church in Jerusalem. Devout Jews are accusing Stephen of blaspheming against Moses and the Mosaic law (Acts 6:11–14). Stephen is showing that his accusers’ forefathers directly rebelled against Moses and many other prophets who came after him. Here, he reminds them how Moses was in direct contact with God, and how he prophesied about Jesus.
Verse 36.This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.
Stephen continues to remind his audience of Moses’ place in Israel’s history. God sent him to rescue the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. God used him to send ten plagues on Egypt until Pharaoh agreed to let them go (Exodus 7—12). At God’s direction, Moses raised his staff, and the Red Sea parted, letting the Israelites flee and the Egyptian army drown (Exodus 14). For forty years, Moses continued to do miracles through the power of God, including providing water and food in the barren desert (Exodus 15:22–27; 16; 17:1–7).
Stephen points out that this is the Moses to whom God gave the Law that defined Israel as a nation (Acts 7:38). But it is also the Moses whom the Israelites rejected the first time he tried to help them (Exodus 2:14). And they continued to reject him throughout the forty years he led them and kept them safe. In fact, while Moses was on Mount Sinai, receiving the Law, the people pushed his brother Aaron to make a golden calf to worship (Acts 7:39–41).
The narrative reveals something obliquely. When Joseph told his brothers he had a dream inferring he would rule over them, they sold him into slavery (Acts 7:9). When Moses first tried to lead his people, he had to flee to another country (Acts 7:29). When Jesus first came to the Jews, in fact, a week after they heralded Him as king, they killed Him (Acts 7:52). When Joseph’s brothers met up with him again, he was able to provide for them (Acts 7:11–14). When Moses returned to Egypt, he was able to lead the Israelites into freedom. When Jesus returns, He will rescue the Jews who follow Him and deliver them into the millennial kingdom (Revelation 20:1–6).
Verse 37. This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’
After Moses rescued the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, they wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Near the end of that time, as they prepared to enter the land God had promised Abraham, Moses took some time to reiterate the laws God had given them at the beginning of their journey. He also prophesied that God would send them a prophet like him, specifically, one who would stand between them and the terrible holiness of God (Deuteronomy 18:15–18). This is understood to be a messianic prophecy, meaning the Prophet of whom Moses spoke is Messiah.
In Deuteronomy 18:16 Moses refers to something that happened at Horeb. He is speaking of an event that happened shortly after the Israelites reached Mount Sinai. God directed the people to go through extensive measures to purify themselves before He descended on the mountain in fire and smoke (Exodus 19). After He gave the Ten Commandments, the people begged Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die” (Exodus 20:19). Forty years later, Moses revealed that God had approved of the people’s caution (Deuteronomy 18:15–17), but as a concession. God intends all His followers to have the faith to be a “royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9) and “draw near to the throne of grace” (Hebrews 4:16), needing no other liaison than His Son, the Prophet who followed Moses (Deuteronomy 18:18).
Stephen wants the Jews to understand that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise (Acts 7:52). Jesus stands between God and God’s people, giving us God’s words and protecting us from God’s holiness. But just as the Israelites rejected Moses’ instruction (Acts 7:39–41) and killed the prophets (Acts 7:52), they also killed the Prophet promised by Moses to take his place. The Sanhedrin is familiar with the line of thinking. Peter has already tied Jesus to Moses’ prophecy in his own defense (Acts 3:22–26).
Verse 38. This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living oracles to give to us.
Jews from outside Judea have accused Stephen of disrespecting Moses and the Law. Stephen is explaining exactly what he thinks about Moses: he was sent by God as a ruler and redeemer, given authority by God, performed wonders and signs in Egypt and for forty years in the wilderness acted as a liaison between the Israelites and God, and received the Law from God that made the descendants of Jacob into a nation (Acts 7:35–37).
Shortly after Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, they camped around Mount Sinai (Exodus 19). Moses climbed the mountain and spent forty days with God, receiving the Law that would take Moses’ name. “Congregation” means a group with a common identity, in this case the Israelites. The “wilderness” is the Sinai Peninsula.
When the Israelites first came to Mount Sinai, Moses and Aaron climbed the mountain while the people stood around the base. Although the people had consecrated themselves, they could not touch the mountain. But they witnessed “thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled” (Exodus 19:16). These “fathers” of Stephen’s audience insisted that they would listen to Moses, but they did not want to hear from God directly (Exodus 20:18–19).
Exodus doesn’t mention an angel on Mount Sinai, but it does say that God spoke to Moses directly. In the Old Testament, when “the angel of the LORD” is mentioned in the text, scholars think the “angel” is actually Jesus before He received His human body. It’s possible this is what Stephen means.
An “oracle” is a spoken revelation. “Living” means that they offer life. The Mosaic law was words that brought physical and spiritual life to the Israelites, if they followed it. Today, Jesus is the living Word that brings us life (John 1:1–5).
Stephen is going over Moses’ history because Jews have accused him of disrespecting Moses, the Law, and “this place,” or the temple (Acts 6:11–14). Here, he proves that the Israelites received their national independence, the Law, and God’s presence in the wilderness, far in time and place from the temple and Jerusalem. God does not need the temple to meet His people, and the Israelites of Moses’ time didn’t follow the law, anyway (Acts 7:39–41, 49–50).
Verse 39. Our fathers refused to obey him, but thrust him aside, and in their hearts they turned to Egypt,
Stephen has argued that God chose the Israelites as His people outside of the formally-established nation of Israel (Acts 7:2, 34). Later, he will show they worship a temple that could never hold God (Acts 7:44–50) and that they reject God’s prophets (Acts 7:51–53), up to and including Jesus. In this section, Stephen reminds them that the Mosaic law which they claim to revere so faithfully has always been a stumbling block to their people.
Here, Stephen is giving the account of the forty days when Moses climbed Mount Sinai to receive the Law from God while the Israelites below pushed Aaron to make a golden calf to worship. It seems the Israelites “turned to Egypt” by worshiping the Egyptian god Apis, which was associated with fertility. Apis took the form of a bull with a solar disk and vipers between his horns. The bull god was not unique to Egypt. Moloch, the Canaanite god, took the form of a bull; the ancient Akkadians had Gugalanna, the “Bull of Heaven;” and even today, rooftops in Peru often have small statues of bulls on either side of a Christian cross.
The Israelites also longed for the food (Numbers 11:5; 20:3–5) and water (Exodus 17:1–3) they had in Egypt. Moses promised the Israelites he would lead them to freedom and blessing if they only followed him. His successor, Jesus (Acts 7:37), promises the same to Stephen’s audience. Stephen’s accusers claim to honor the law Moses gave (Acts 6:11) when they really follow in the footsteps of the Israelites who rejected that Law.
Context Summary
Acts 7:39–43 records Stephen reminding his accusers that the Jews they claim to follow have a long history of idolatry. Stephen, a Jewish deacon of the early church in Jerusalem, is defending himself against false charges that he disrespects Moses, the Mosaic law, and the temple (Acts 6:8–15). He shows that throughout history, God has met the Jews without the Law, which the Israelites never satisfactorily followed, or the temple, which God allowed but never requested. Like those long-ago Israelites, Stephen’s accusers have fallen into idolatry, although instead of foreign gods, they worship Moses, the Law, and the temple.
Verse 40. saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’
Stephen has been accused of rejecting Moses and his Law. In truth, the charges are intentional falsehoods, created by Jews from northern Africa and modern-day Asia Minor who have come to Jerusalem to worship (Acts 6:8–15). The Jews have heard a little about Jesus but don’t have the patience, the understanding, or the faith in God to accept that Jesus is their Messiah. Stephen compares them to the Israelites in Moses’ day.
After the escape from Egypt, God led the Israelites to Mount Sinai in the Sinai Peninsula (Exodus 19:1–3). God revealed Himself to the Israelites with thunder, lightning, a thick cloud, and a sound like a trumpet blast. In fear, the people begged Moses to be the liaison between themselves and God; he agreed and climbed the top of the mountain where God gave him the laws for the people (Exodus 20:18–21).
The first law God gave the Israelites, while in their hearing, was “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2–3). The very first law God gave Moses on Mount Sinai was the command to not make idols of silver and gold, but to make an altar to sacrifice only to God (Exodus 20:22–26). God gave a few more laws, then requested Aaron, his sons, and the seventy elders of Israel to affirm the people’s covenant with Him. God then called Moses to the mountain top for forty days to receive more of the Law (Exodus 24).
At the very moment God was giving Moses instructions on the tabernacle, the consecration of the priests, and the proper way to worship Him, the people were at the base of the mountain pushing Aaron to “make us gods who shall go before us” (Exodus 32:1). They didn’t have the patience to wait forty days for Moses to return. Aaron requested their gold jewelry and made an idol of a calf out of it, possibly similar to the Egyptian fertility god Apis or other bull gods of the surrounding cultures. The people credited it as the gods who brought them out of Egypt. The people didn’t have the understanding that when God told them not to make idols of gold, that meant don’t make idols of gold. And they didn’t have the faith to reject the gods of their enslavers and return to the God of their forefather Abraham, the God who rescued them from slavery.
The parallel Stephen is making to his audience is striking. Even as Aaron, the high priest, made the golden calf, so the high priest stands before Stephen (Acts 7:1), rejecting the very prophet Moses promised (Acts 7:37). Stephen proves that their faith in Moses, the Law, and the temple suffer from the same idolatry as the Israelites and the calf.
Verse 41. And they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.
Stephen is comparing the Jews in Jerusalem who refuse to see the truth about Jesus to the Israelites at Mount Sinai who refused to accept the truth about God.
Weeks after their escape from Egypt, the Israelites had gathered around the base of Mount Sinai and trembled in fear in the presence of the God who had rescued them (Exodus 19:16–19). When Moses spent forty days on the mountaintop receiving the Law from God, however, the people grew restless and demanded Aaron, the man God had chosen to be His high priest, to make an idol. Aaron did so, and the people proclaimed, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” (Exodus 32:4). Aaron built an altar in front of it and declared a feast the next day (Exodus 32:5–6).
The irony is intense. While the Israelites were worshiping the calf, God was giving Moses instructions on how to build the tabernacle, the implements for worship, and the sacred articles for the priests who would lead the worship (Exodus 25—31). God even ordained two artists, Oholiab and Bezalel, to make the more intricate pieces by hand (Exodus 31:1–11).
Multiple generations later, the Jews do not worship pagan gods. They do not make idols of living things and claim to revere them (Romans 1:21–23). Instead, they effectively worship the Law, the man who gave them the Law, and the temple. Like the golden calf, the temple was made with human hands, in cooperation with the high priest. As the Israelites had looked back to their past in Egypt for something to worship, so the Jews look back to the golden ideal of worship at the temple. Both groups missed that God was calling them to more: a renewed relationship with Him and a greater faith that would lead to greater freedom.
Verse 42. But God turned away and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: “‘Did you bring to me slain beasts and sacrifices,during the forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
The Jewish Jesus-follower Stephen continues his comparison of the Jews who accuse him of disrespecting Moses and the Law to the Israelites who truly rejected Moses and his Law. He has reminded his accusers of the golden calf the Israelites worshiped at the base of Mount Sinai (Acts 7:39–41; Exodus 32), and now mentions the further idolatry Israel as a nation willingly adopted.
The claim in this verse is a bit confusing. The “host of heaven” means foreign gods. After the account with the golden calf, the next major idolatry mentioned is the Baal worship at Peor, not long before the Israelites were to enter the Promised Land (Numbers 25).
At Mount Sinai, in the first year of the forty-year trek through the wilderness, God gave the Israelites specific instructions about how and when to offer sacrifices. However, there is no record of sacrifices or festivals being performed—other than the consecration ritual of Aaron and his sons—until Passover after the Israelites crossed the Jordan into Israel (Joshua 5:10–12).
Verse 42 and 43 from this chapter are a quote of Amos 5:25–27. The NET Bible commentary explains that Acts 7:42 and Amos 5:25 are rhetorical questions which expect a negative reply, but that the question and reply are probably hyperbole. The point isn’t that not one Israelite, ever, in any way sacrificed to God during the forty years. Rather, it’s that the sacrifices were of negligible importance compared to God’s expectation that they wouldn’t sacrifice to false gods. In fact, scholars posit that many of the strict regulations about sacrifices were aimed at that goal: requiring that all sheep, goats, and oxen were sacrificed by the priests at the tabernacle would ensure the Israelites didn’t sacrifice to goat demons (Leviticus 17:7).
In one of his last addresses to the Israelites, Moses told them that idolatry would lead to exile where they would have little choice but to worship foreign gods, but God would always rescue His people if they truly repented (Deuteronomy 4:25–31). The people were taken into exile, first to Assyria and then to Babylon. It is the bitter memory of exile that led the Jews of Stephen’s time to so revere the Law and the temple. But their reverence turned to idolatry.
Verse 43. You took up the tent of Molochand the star of your god Rephan,the images that you made to worship;and I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’
Jews who have traveled from northern Africa and modern-day Asia Minor to worship at the temple in Jerusalem have falsely accused Stephen, a Jewish Jesus-follower, of disrespecting Moses, the Mosaic law, and the temple. Stephen is giving a history of Israel to demonstrate the proper place of Moses, the Law, and the temple in Jewish worship: namely, that the Jews followed God for hundreds of years before they had any of these revered pillars. In this section, Stephen goes even further, quoting Amos 5:25–27 to compare the Jews’ worship of religious trappings to their ancestors’ worship of foreign gods.
Amos uses “Sikkuth” for “Moloch”. Sikkuth was a Mesopotamian god. Melekh is Akkadian for “king”; most modern Bible readers are more familiar with the Canaanite “Moloch.” Where Stephen used “Rephan,” Amos used “Kiyyun.” Kiyyun seems to be the Aramaic for the Akkadian god Kajamanu and the Assyrian Ka-ai-va-nu, who was associated with the Roman god Saturn. False gods traveled and changed names, often starting in Akkadian and changing as they went west into Canaan, Egypt, Greece, and Rome; for instance, the Akkadian Ishtar became the Babylonian Ashtoreth and the Greek Aphrodite. Stephen is not butchering Amos’ text, he’s just using more familiar terms for the false gods.
God warned the Israelites that idolatry would lead to exile before they entered the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 4:25–31). First, the northern kingdoms were taken to Assyria (1 Chronicles 5:26; 2 Kings 17:1–23), and then the southern tribes were taken to Babylon (2 Kings 24—25). Later the Babylonians conquered the Assyrians, and then the Persians conquered the Babylonians. The last phrase of Stephen’s quote pairs with Amos 5:27. Amos was a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel, and his prophecy that they would be taken “beyond Damascus” matches with the exile to Assyria. Stephen has the advantage of living several hundred years after the southern kingdom of Judah was taken to exile in Babylon and takes liberty with the passage to include this second exile. He is right that the Jews traveled “beyond Babylon,” as because of the Babylonian exile, they settled farther east, into Iran and even India.
In Assyria, the Israelites of the northern kingdom intermarried and adopted some of the worship practices of those around them. Some of the mixed-Jews returned to their homeland and their descendants became the Samaritans whom the Jews reviled in Jesus’ day (John 4:9). The Israelites who were exiled to Babylon returned after only seventy years. After several mis-starts, by the time of Jesus, they held the Mosaic law in high honor. Unfortunately, instead of worshiping God, they worshiped the worship of God.
Verse 44. “Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it, according to the pattern that he had seen.
The “tent of witness,” or tabernacle, was a large tent in a courtyard that housed the smaller items of worship, such as the lampstand, the holy bread, and the altar of incense, as well as the ark of the covenant. In front of the tent was the altar where the Israelites gave their sacrifices. When the Israelites were at Mount Sinai, shortly after their escape from Egypt, Moses would go to the top of the mountain and speak with God. God ordained that Moses would supervise the building of the tabernacle and gave him specific plans to follow (Exodus 25—27). The plans ensured the people only sacrificed to God and excluded worship of goat demons and other Egyptian gods. Moses built the tabernacle according to the plans (Exodus 38—40) and ordained his brother Aaron and Aaron’s sons as the priests who performed the sacrifices and the rituals inside.
The tabernacle was a “tent of witness” or “testimony” because it provided proof God was with the Israelites. While at Mount Sinai, Moses spoke to God on Mount Sinai, but once the Israelites left, God spoke to him in the tent of meeting (Exodus 33:11). The tabernacle and its successors served as the legitimate home of the ark of the covenant and the sacrifices until Solomon built the temple, almost five hundred years later (1 Kings 6).
Stephen is laying down his defense against the Jews who claim he disrespects the temple: God didn’t ask for the temple and He had no problem speaking to the priests in a tent. The building is not sacred unless God’s presence is actually there.
Context Summary
Acts 7:44–50 points out that while God accepted the temple, He never asked for it and it can’t contain Him. Jews from northern Africa and modern Asia Minor have accused Jesus-follower Stephen of blaspheming Moses, the Mosaic law, and the temple (Acts 6:8–15). Stephen has already proved that the patriarchs worshiped God without a temple, the Law, or even a homeland (7:2–16). Even Solomon, who built the temple, knew it couldn’t contain God. Moses, the Law, and the temple have effectively become idols to the Jews.
Verse 45. Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it was until the days of David,
Shortly after God rescued the Israelites from slavery in the Nile Delta of Egypt, they traveled to the southern part of the Sinai Peninsula and camped around Mount Sinai. They stayed there while God gave Moses the Law He wanted the Israelites to live by. The Law mostly specified proper worship practices and how to treat others, but it also included specific plans for the structure God wanted them to build to worship in.
The tent of witness (Acts 7:44), or tabernacle, was a tent sitting in a courtyard. The walls were fabric and leather, held up by clasps of gold and bronze, and frames set in bases of silver (Exodus 26). Inside were the ark of the covenant, the table for bread, and the golden lampstand (Exodus 25:10–40). Most of these were gold or wood covered in gold. Outside was an altar made of acacia wood covered in bronze (Exodus 27:1–8) and a washing basin. The courtyard was defined by linen panels held by bronze frames and silver hooks (Exodus 27:9–19).
Despite all the metal trappings, the tabernacle and its furnishings were relatively portable. The ark, bread table, wash basin, and altar were all fitted with poles so people could carry them. God specified how the clans of the Levites would be responsible for different areas, and how they would pack and transport the pieces (Numbers 4). God even provided the wagons and oxen for the heavier, less sacred pieces (Numbers 7).
Forty years later, when Joshua led the Israelites into the Promised Land, the tabernacle came with them. In fact, the ark of the covenant came into the water first (Joshua 3). Afterward, it appears the tabernacle was erected in Shechem (Joshua 8:30–35; 24:1–31), then possibly Gilgal. During the time of the Judges, it was installed at Shiloh (Judges 21:19; 1 Samuel 1:3, 21) and stayed there until David built a tent for the ark in Jerusalem. David asked God if he could build a permanent temple, instead; God told him that he had fought too many wars, but his son could build the temple (2 Samuel 7:1–17; 1 Chronicles 28:1–8).
This is all part of Stephen’s point. Although the temple was important to Jewish worship in the time of Jesus, God was never confined to it. The temple wasn’t a deciding factor in the partial fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant and the establishment of Israel as a landed nation, or for the kingdom of Israel’s greatest monarch. And it certainly wasn’t required to worship Jesus.
Verse 46. who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.
In the time of the Old Testament, pagan religions had temples, but they also were free to worship outside their temple; the Bible calls these areas “high places.” When God brought Israel out of Egypt, He wanted to focus their worship, keeping it separate from the influence of false faiths (Leviticus 17:7). To do so, He gave very specific instructions on how to worship and how the place of worship—the tabernacle—should be made.
The tabernacle served as the Israelites’ temple from the time of Moses until Solomon. It was a tent made of fabric and hide panels, hung from frames and surrounded by a courtyard defined by a wall of fabric and frames. God ordained it, and He presented Himself to the priests there. For years, it sat at Shiloh (Judges 21:19; 1 Samuel 1:3, 21) until David settled his capital in Jerusalem. After David was made king, he brought the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem and built a tent for it (2 Samuel 6:17). Before long, David realized God had blessed him with a house and rest from his enemies, but the ark still resided in a tent. David asked God, through the prophet Nathan, if he could build a temple for it. God told him no, but his son could (2 Samuel 7; 1 Chronicles 28:1–8).
As Stephen defends himself against disrespecting the temple (Acts 6:8–15), he points out that although God allowed the temple, He wasn’t desperate for it. When David offered to build it, God waited an entire generation (Acts 7:45–47). Both David (Psalm 11:4) and Isaiah (Isaiah 66:1–2) affirmed that God cannot be confined to a building made with human hands. When dedicating the newly built temple Solomon proclaimed that “heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain” God, much less the temple he had built (1 Kings 8:27).
In addition, David, the greatest monarch of Israel and the man after God’s own heart, asked to build God a temple around 1,100 years after God told Abraham to leave Haran. God did not allow David to do so. Instead, God promised to establish David’s house forever. He also said David’s son could build Him a temple. The temple was not essential for the existence or identity of the nation of Israel, nor for proper worship of God.
Verse 47. But it was Solomon who built a house for him.
Stephen, the Jewish Christian deacon, is defending himself against charges that he blasphemed Moses, God, the Mosaic law, and the temple, and that the man he follows, Jesus, claimed He would destroy the temple and abolish the Law (Acts 6:8–15). Stephen is tearing down their argument logically. In this section he points out that Moses had nothing to do with the temple. Solomon built it.
When the Israelites reached the Promised Land, the tabernacle settled in Shiloh. The tabernacle was a tent, built according to God’s strict specifications, that served as the center of worship for the Jews (Exodus 25—27). When David became king and made Jerusalem his capital, he brought the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem and set it in a tent (2 Samuel 6:17). Shortly after, he asked God if he could build a temple—a permanent structure where the priests could offer sacrifices and God could be present.
Surprisingly, God told him no. Despite calling David the man after His own heart, God told David, “You have shed much blood and have waged great wars. You shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed so much blood before me on the earth” (1 Chronicles 22:8). God went on to say David’s son Solomon would build the temple (1 Chronicles 22:9–10). Solomon did build the temple (1 Kings 5—8). And God accepted it, saying, “I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time” (1 Kings 9:3).
The temple was not built until more than four hundred years after God gave Moses the plans for the tabernacle. God blessed the temple, but He didn’t need it. Even more ironically, the temple was not built by Abraham or Moses or David but by Solomon. The structure designed to identify the proper way to worship God was built by the first king who drifted from God and worshiped idols and foreign gods (1 Kings 11:1–8).
Solomon built a house, but God inhabits eternity and dwells with “him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit” (Isaiah 57:15).
Verse 48. Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says,
At the time of Jesus, and Stephen’s speech, Herod’s temple sat on top of the Temple Mount. About forty years before, Herod the Great had decided to renovate the temple Zerubbabel had led the Jews to build upon their return from Babylon (Ezra 1:2). It was he who placed the huge blocks of stone and infilled the land to make the top of the temple mount so large and flat. Although Herod the Great was not a good man, the Jews were proud of their temple and very protective.
What they had forgotten was something Solomon had said upon the building of the first temple: “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27). God proved him right: “As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the LORD, because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD’S house” (2 Chronicles 7:1–2).
Stephen understands his accusers’ love of the temple. He is also a Jew, though a Hellenist who lived far from Jerusalem. Most likely, like them, he had traveled to Jerusalem to worship at the temple. But when he arrived, he found out about Jesus. And he knows that Moses, the Law, and the temple are nothing compared to worshiping the Son of God.
Jesus had explained this to a Samaritan woman a few years before. She asked Him if her people were right to worship on the local mountain, or if they should worship in Jerusalem (John 4:19–20). Jesus responded that, a time was coming when people no longer be obligated to worship at the temple. Instead, they would worship wherever they were, in spirit and in truth (John 4:21–24). The attitude of worship and the object of worship matter, not the location.
Verse 49. “‘Heaven is my throne,and the earth is my footstool.What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,or what is the place of my rest?
Stephen continues his defense against charges that both he and Jesus wanted to tear down the temple (Acts 6:13–14). The accusers know it’s a lie, just as the Sanhedrin knows Jesus never really threatened the temple (Mark 14:57–59). But in Roman law, destroying a place of religion carries the death penalty. If they can make this charge stick, they can get the Romans to execute Stephen. Never mind that their real problem is that they can’t defend their beliefs against Stephen’s truth (Acts 6:10).
Acts 7:49–50 is a quote from Isaiah 66:1 and the first line of verse 2. Stephen is pointing out that God created the stone, bronze, linen, gold, and wood from which the temple is made. The temple is only sacred if God dwells in it. When Solomon built and dedicated the Israelites’ first temple, God consecrated it, coming down to fill it with such glory the priests couldn’t even enter (2 Chronicles 7:1–2). More than 400 years before the temple was built, He had done the same to the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34–35).
Paul will use this same argument with Athenian philosophers, saying, “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:24–25). He will go on to quote a Greek philosopher who affirmed that God created humans (Acts 17:28).
At the time this commentary is being written, much of the world is under quarantine because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are coming to understand that with Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, the place where we worship isn’t so important. The Holy Spirit indwells believers (Romans 8:9), not buildings. Believers are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19–20). This is why Jesus could tell the Samaritan woman, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23).
Verse 50. Did not my hand make all these things?’
Stephen is defending himself against charges that he blasphemed God, Moses, the Mosaic law, and the temple (Acts 6:8–15). He is continuing a quote from Isaiah 66:1–2, which points out that God gave the Jews the temple as the location to worship, not the object of worship.
The temple itself had started as the building Zerubbabel and Ezra had built after the Jews returned from exile in Babylon (Ezra 1). Around 20 BC, Herod the Great started a massive renovation that lasted until AD 63. Even the top of the temple mount was enlarged. But the mount and the temple were still made of things—stone, dirt, bronze, gold, wood, and cloth—which were all God-made.
In fact, God made everything Stephen’s accusers are “defending.” He made Moses and called him to lead His people (Exodus 2—4). He made the Law and gave it to Moses. And it is His presence, not the stone and gold and linen, that makes the temple a place of worship.
This verse quotes the first line of Isaiah 66:2, but the last half of the verse is important for Stephen’s defense, and it’s possible he stopped where he did to challenge his audience. Heaven is God’s throne, and the earth is His footstool—the house is not significant (Isaiah 66:1). “But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word” (Isaiah 66:2). Stephen will finish his defense by reminding his accusers just how much their forebearers failed in being humble and contrite.
Verse 51. “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.
One of Stephen’s arguments addresses the accusation that he spoke words against the Law (Acts 6:13) and that Jesus preached that Jews did not have to follow the Mosaic law (Acts 6:14). Jesus, of course, preached against the man-made oral law (Matthew 23) and deeply respected the Mosaic law (Matthew 5:17–19). But here, Stephen gets further into his argument, showing that the Jewish leaders who claim to uphold the sanctity of the Law are descendants of those who rejected God’s messengers.
Circumcision was the ritual God gave Abraham to indicate that God chose Abraham to be the patriarch of His people. Abraham would have many descendants, and his people would own the land of Canaan and bless the world (Genesis 17:1–14). To be uncircumcised was to reject one’s place in God’s covenant. Stephen has already mentioned that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob’s sons were circumcised, taking their place in the Abrahamic covenant. In the same way, the men of Stephen’s audience have been circumcised and expect to take their place in God’s promise to Abraham.
But Stephen attacks their hypocrisy. They may be circumcised physically, but neither their hearts nor their ears are attuned to God. Instead of following God’s leading in their hearts through the Holy Spirit, they actively resist Him (John 16:8).
Stephen’s accusers and the members of the Sanhedrin are just like their fathers. Weeks after the Israelites escaped Egypt, while Moses was on Mount Sinai getting the Law that would teach them how to be God’s people, the Israelites built a golden calf and worshiped it as their rescuer (Exodus 32). Before Joshua died, he charged the Israelites to choose whom they would serve. They vowed to serve God. Joshua told them they wouldn’t (Joshua 24:16–20). He was right. Before and after the account of Joshua’s death, Judges 2 talks about the Israelites’ disobedience. They couldn’t even wait for Joshua to die. It’s no wonder Stephen’s audience is not faithful to the God they claim to serve.
Context Summary
Acts 7:51–53 reminds accusers of Stephen, the Jewish Christian deacon, that the Jews have a tradition of killing the prophets God sends to them. Stephen has been accused of blasphemy against Moses, the Mosaic law, and the temple (Acts 6:8–15). He’s already established that the Jews didn’t need the temple or the Law to worship God. Stephen’s final jab is that this neglect is in character with a people who claimed to live under a Law they could not keep.
Verse 52. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered,
Stephen is bringing his argument home. His accusers claim to defend the Mosaic law, but they don’t even have the hearts to understand it. They actively resist the leading of the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51), just as their forefathers did throughout the Old Testament. Now, Stephen declares the biggest irony of all. These same forefathers, whose legacy they claim to honor, persecuted the prophets God sent them to turn their hearts back to Him. Jezebel killed many prophets (1 Kings 19:10). God sent more, warning of the Babylonian captivity, and the people mocked them (2 Chronicles 36:15–16). Jesus accused the scribes and Pharisees—Jewish religious leaders—of continuing that legacy (Luke 11:47–48), a legacy Stephen’s audience continues as well.
The ironic part is that those prophets often spoke about the Messiah. It’s thought that the prophet described as “sawn in two” (Hebrews 11:37) was Isaiah, one of the most prolific writers about the coming Messiah. If Stephen’s audience had studied and accepted the prophets with hearts bent toward God and focused on understanding, they would have recognized that Jesus is the Messiah (Luke 24:26–27; John 5:39–40). Instead, they functionally “killed” the prophets by disregarding their words. Not only that, they had actually conspired to have Jesus crucified; they “betrayed and murdered” the Messiah, the Righteous One.
Verses 51 through 53 feel rather abrupt, compared to Stephen’s prior words. It’s possible that Stephen senses the crowd is getting agitated and he must cut his speech short. It’s also possible he realizes he is about to become one of those whom the “sons” will persecute and kill.
Verse 53. you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.”
This completes Stephen’s defense with a strong accusation. He is charged with blasphemy against God, Moses, the Mosaic law, and the temple (Acts 6:8–15). His accusers bring him before the high priest for trial. Stephen takes them through a history lesson of Israel. He shows them that the patriarchs didn’t need the temple or the Law. He demonstrates that Moses wasn’t always worth following, but when he was the Israelites rebelled against Moses and his God. Stephen recounts how God didn’t ask for the temple, but when He accepted and sanctified it, He proved it could not contain Him. Stephen finishes his defense by claiming that his accusers are no better than their forefathers who killed and persecuted the prophets who taught them about God and His Messiah. In fact, they had “betrayed and murdered” the Messiah.
Now, Stephen accuses his accusers and the Sanhedrin of rejecting the very Law God gave them.
Moses received the Law from God on Mount Sinai. The involvement of the angels is incidental; as God’s representatives, they would have acted with His authority, so there’s no contradiction if another passage says God gave Moses the Law directly. Galatians 3:19 and Hebrews 2:2 confirm angels had a part. It would be like saying a friend gave you a letter when it was the postal worker who put it in your box.
The point here isn’t the angels. The point is that God called the Jews apart to be dedicated to Him. In return, He promised to bless them, and bless the world through them. But they have followed the tradition started by the Israelites at the base of Mount Sinai who grew impatient of Moses and transferred their affections to a golden calf.
This is a significant moment in the history of the church. Stephen’s defense is over. He has condemned the Jews of working against God. Now, the mob will lay their coats at Saul’s feet and kill Stephen (Acts 7:54–60). Saul will start a systematic assault on the Jesus-followers. But his efforts will serve to spread Jesus’ message all over Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Then, Saul will meet Jesus, assume the Greek form of his name (Paul), and accept the role of missionary and martyr for the Savior he once persecuted (Acts 9).
It’s unknown if anyone else in the mob accepted Christ, but Stephen’s sacrifice was not in vain.
Verse 54. Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him.
Stephen has finished his defense against false accusations that he blasphemed the Mosaic law and Moses and wished to destroy the temple. The rushed tempo in Acts 7:51–53 suggests the crowd’s anger has been quickly building and Stephen had to cut his speech short.
“They” is a reference to Jews from Cyrene, meaning Libya, Alexandria, meaning Egypt, and the provinces of Cilicia and Asia in modern-day Asia Minor, as well as Jews descended from freed slaves who apparently live in or are visiting Jerusalem (Acts 6:8–15). Many have traveled to Jerusalem to worship in the temple. Stephen, a Jewish Christian and one of the first deacons of the church, may be a member of the synagogue of the Freedmen; it’s there that he preached the gospel of Jesus.
It’s very possible that many members of his audience know little about Jesus, as Jews dwelling outside Judea didn’t make it to Jerusalem for all the required feasts. The men from northern Africa and Asia Minor have made a significant time and financial commitment to get to their homeland; the members of the Freedmen synagogue may be especially reverent since if they were the first free generation, they would be the first generation allowed to worship in the temple. The message that a man they know little about is the Son of God is not something they can accept.
To “ground” or “gnash” teeth is a sign of an imminent attack (Job 16:9; Psalm 35:16; 37:12; 112:10). The Jews who came to worship at the Pentecost seven weeks after the crucifixion had a better reaction. When Peter preached to them, they “were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’” (Acts 2:37).
God’s plan was always that once Jerusalem was sufficiently saturated with the gospel, Jesus-followers would spread throughout Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. He’s about to use persecution to do this.
Context Summary
Acts 7:54–60 finishes the story of the Jesus-follower Stephen. He has been falsely accused of blasphemy against God, Moses, the Mosaic law, and the temple (Acts 6:8–15). He has used the history of the Jews to show how over the years the Jews have come to worship Moses, the Law, and the temple like idols (Acts 7:1–53). His accusers are furious, but when Stephen claims to see Jesus standing next to God, the crowd goes mad, and Stephen becomes the first Christian martyr. His death sparks a great persecution against the church, but as the Jesus-followers flee Jerusalem, they take the gospel to the world (Acts 1:8).
Verse 55. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
Stephen is facing a furious mob bent on murder, but his attention is on Jesus. There is a difference between being notably “full of the Holy Spirit” and being indwelt by the Holy Spirit. All Christ-followers are permanently indwelt by the Holy Spirit (John 14:17). Being truly “filled with” the Holy Spirit means a total yielding of our thoughts and actions (Ephesians 5:18). Given our fallible human nature, this filling of the Holy Spirit doesn’t usually last, but it is a normal state for Stephen (Acts 6:3, 5).
One of the crimes Stephen is accused of is that he is continuing Jesus’ plan to destroy the temple (Acts 6:13–14). The charge is ridiculous, since the Sanhedrin knew Jesus was talking about His own body, not the actual temple (John 2:19–22; Matthew 27:40). The greater irony, however, is that Jesus was really crucified because He prophesied what Stephen is seeing: “And Jesus said, ‘I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven’” (Mark 14:62). It was those words that gave the chief priests, the elders, and the scribes justification in their own minds to take Jesus to Pilate (Mark 14:63–64).
There is a slight difference, however. Jesus said He will sit at God’s right hand, but Stephen sees Him standing. To stand in someone’s presence is to offer one’s services. It seems Jesus is letting Stephen know that He is there for him.
Verse 56. And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
Even before making his pointed speech, Stephen had already enraged his accusers. First, he argued so well that Jesus is the Messiah they couldn’t defend themselves and had to resort to lying (Acts 6:10, 13–14). Then he had the audacity to explain how the patriarchs worshiped God without a temple, the Law, or even a homeland. He explained that Moses wasn’t always a good leader, and that even when he was the people didn’t follow him well. Stephen rejected his accusers’ idolatry of the temple, reminding them that even Solomon, who built the first temple, knew it couldn’t contain God. Finally, he reminded them that throughout the ages Jews have rejected and killed God’s prophets and worshiped pagan idols (Acts 7:2–53).
All of that is nothing compared to what he says now. This is not the first time the heavens have opened up to reveal God (Matthew 3:16–17). And it is not the first time Jesus has been referred to as the “son of man,” as it was one of Jesus’ favorite titles for Himself. It is also the title of a figure in Daniel’s prophecy: the son of man would come “with the clouds of heaven.” The Ancient of Days would give the son of man “dominion and glory and a kingdom” over all nations forever (Daniel 7:13–14).
There are two common confusions tied to this verse. First, how could Stephen have seen God when God told Moses that no one could see Him and live (Exodus 33:20) and even Jesus said no one can see God (John 1:18)? It is true that no one has seen God’s face, that is, His countenance—His full glory. Being omnipotent, God the Father is well able to appear in a form that humans can see, He just doesn’t do it very often.
Second, why was Jesus standing when He prophesied that He would sit at God’s right hand (Mark 14:61–62)? It appears that the fact He is standing is a special case for Stephen’s situation. It may be that Jesus is acting as Stephen’s witness or advocate, or that He is prepared to serve Stephen in whatever way he needs. It could also be that “stand” just means that Jesus is in a fixed place. But just because the prophecies state Jesus would sit at God’s right hand doesn’t mean He can’t stand, as well.
This scene, Jesus at the right hand of God, echoes Jesus’ prophecy from when He was on trial before the Sanhedrin (Mark 14:62). It was the statement that the Sanhedrin took as justification to condemn Him to death. Stephen’s description seals his fate as Jesus’ had His. The Sanhedrin cannot indulge such a public confession that Jesus is God.
Verse 57. But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him.
Stephen’s accusers were angry that they couldn’t refute his arguments that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah (Acts 6:8–15). They were furious when he defended himself, using Jewish history to show how hypocritical they were. But now, Stephen has claimed that he sees Jesus—the man who was crucified—standing at the right hand of God. This is something they cannot let go unchallenged.
One of the false accusations Stephen is charged with is that he “will change the customs that Moses delivered” to the Jews (Acts 6:14). Stephen’s defense pointed out that the Jews were never good at following the Mosaic law, anyway. They much preferred worshiping foreign gods (Acts 7:39–43). Stephen’s accusers are now stopping their ears. The phrase is also used in Zechariah 7:11. It literally means “made their ears too heavy to hear.” In Zechariah 7, God is accusing the Jews of purposefully ignoring the parts of the Law aimed at protecting the vulnerable. But God also says, “They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the LORD of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets” (Zechariah 7:12). God responds to such resistance by allowing it to continue: “Make the heart of the people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed” (Isaiah 6:10).
The last part of Stephen’s defense is that the Jews would rather murder God’s prophets than listen to them (Acts 7:52), a conviction also held by Jesus (Luke 11:47). Stephen’s accusers are about to prove his point.
Verse 58. Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
A Jewish Christian and deacon, Stephen, has angered other Hellenistic Jews in Jerusalem by showing that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. His arguments were so unimpeachable that the men resorted to falsely accusing him of blasphemy against the Mosaic law and the temple (Acts 6:8–15). The specifics are hard to determine, but it’s believed that under Roman law, the Jews were not allowed to execute someone unless they threatened a religious structure, which was a capital offense anywhere (John 18:31). The Sanhedrin was unable to convincingly convict Jesus of such a charge (Mark 14:55–59), so they couldn’t kill Him outright. Plus, Jesus was so popular they didn’t want His blood on their hands (Mark 14:1–2), so they took him to Pilate, knowing that if the Roman government killed this teacher from Galilee, the attention would be off them.
So why does the mob feel free to kill Stephen? Although he has been performing miracles and signs (Acts 6:8), he’s still relatively unknown, and he certainly isn’t the leader of the movement, so he has no crowd of defenders. And his accusers are angry beyond reason. Not only has he successfully shown that the Jews are God’s people without the Law or the temple, he has claimed to see Jesus standing at the right hand of God (Acts 7:57). If Stephen is speaking falsely, this is the grossest blasphemy possible: to say that a man shares God’s glory. And because they’ve rejected Stephen’s message of the gospel, the accusers can’t accept Stephen might be telling the truth.
Although their execution of Stephen is against Roman law, although Stephen hasn’t been officially convicted, and although the charges are false, the mob is at least performing the execution according to Mosaic law. According to Leviticus 24:10–23, if someone blasphemes against God they should be taken outside of the city and the witnesses should stone him.
Jesus prophesied what is happening to Stephen. He told the disciples that the world would treat them the same way they treated Him. Jesus was almost stoned twice (John 8:59; 10:31) and was executed for the same reason as Stephen: for claiming Jesus is God.
But Jesus did not tell His disciples about the “young man” who stands with the mob’s coats at Stephen’s feet (Acts 22:20). He is a Jew who grew up in Tarsus, on the south-facing eastern coast of modern-day Asia Minor. He has been trained by one of the most revered Pharisees (Acts 22:3) and there is no one more zealous for the Law. Soon, he will persecute the Christians in Jerusalem (Acts 8:3). When they flee, he will get permission to chase them, even to Damascus, two hundred miles away. There he will meet Jesus. After years of growth, he will start to use the Greek version of his name—Paul—and be a missionary to the Gentiles (Acts 9).
Verse 59. And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
The process of stoning is more involved than simply throwing rocks. According to the Mishnah, Sanhedrin 6.1–4, the officials take the person out of the court, ask for defensive testimony, then ask the person to acknowledge his crime and that he deserves the punishment. The convict is thrown into a lower area off a cliff twice the height of a man, so that he falls face up. If he lands face down, he is flipped over; if he dies from the fall, the execution is over. If he doesn’t die from the fall, a witness slams a large stone into his heart. If this doesn’t kill him, the crowd throws stones on him until he is dead. So, it’s likely Stephen is saying these words as they are walking him to the place of stoning, not while they are throwing rocks at him.
It’s not known how long Stephen has been in Jerusalem, or if he was present at Jesus’ crucifixion, but he’s surely heard the stories. And so he knows that as Jesus breathed His last, He said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” (Luke 23:46). Stephen has just seen Jesus, standing at the right hand of God the Father (Acts 7:55). As painful as his circumstances are, he has full assurance that Jesus is waiting for him. He doesn’t fear dying, because he knows where he’s going (Matthew 10:28).
Very few of us today will see Jesus on earth, let alone see Him next to God as the skies open up. But if we trust Jesus’ sacrifice for the forgiveness of our sins, if we willingly accept Him as our Lord and Savior, we can have the same ending as Stephen: our souls in Christ’s hands where we will never be taken away (John 10:28).
Verse 60. And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
As Stephen is stoned, he paraphrases Jesus’ words from the cross (Luke 23:46; Acts 7:59). As Jesus hanged on the cross, He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). As Stephen dies, he echoes the sentiment. It’s not exactly clear what effect this has on God’s interaction with Stephen’s murderers. It doesn’t mean they are saved, because salvation only comes through faith in Jesus (Ephesians 2:8–9). But Stephen, at least, dies with no feeling of ill will.
In the New Testament, to “fall asleep” is a euphemism for dying (Matthew 9:24; Acts 13:36; 2 Peter 3:4). It reflects the fact that for the believer, death is not permanent. We will rise again, receive new bodies, and live for eternity with God (1 Corinthians 15:1–58; 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18).
Stephen’s death is a tragedy and a crime, and what happens next is more so. Saul, the young man watching the mob’s coats (Acts 7:58) will do everything in his power to destroy the church (Acts 8:3; 9:1–2). He will arrest believers, try to get them to blaspheme, and vote for their executions (Acts 26:10–11). But God works good out of Saul’s sadism. As the Christians flee Jerusalem, they take the gospel to Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). Philip goes north to Samaria where the first group of non-Jews accept Christ (Acts 8:4–8), then south where an Ethiopian court official is saved (Acts 8:26–40). Some of the believers in Jerusalem are from Cyprus and Cyrene. These second-generation Jesus-followers take the gospel to Antioch, near modern-day Antakya, Turkey, where Barnabas will find a thriving church (Acts 11:19–24).
After Saul meets Jesus and repents from his sins against the church and Christ, he will meet Barnabas in Antioch where they will make their headquarters (Acts 11:25–26). And it is in Antioch where Jesus-followers are first called Christians (Acts 11:26).
Stephen’s death is an illustration of a cryptic comment Paul will make several years later. He will write to the church in Colossae, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Colossians 1:24). Obviously, there is nothing we can do or experience that will add to Jesus’ sacrifice, and His sacrifice is fully sufficient for our salvation. Paul was saying that suffering is necessary to spread the gospel (Colossians 1:25–29). May we remember this as we suffer, whether with slight ridicule or by martyrdom. Jesus told the disciples that the world hates Him and will hate His followers (John 15:18–25). But God will redeem the hate we experience and use it for something good (Romans 8:28–30).
End of Chapter 7.
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Down to Earth But Heavenly Minded 
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