1Velekněz řekl: „Je tomu skutečně tak?“ 2A on začal mluvit: „Muži bratři a otcové, poslyšte: Bůh slávy se ukázal našemu otci Abrahamovi, když byl v Mezopotámii, dříve než se usadil v Cháranu, 3a řekl mu: ‚Vyjdi ze své země a ze svého příbuzenstva a jdi do země, kterou ti ukážu.‘ 4Potom vyšel z Chaldejské země a usadil se v Cháranu. A odtud jej Bůh po smrti jeho otce přestěhoval do této země, ve které vy nyní bydlíte. 5A nedal mu v ní za dědictví ani píď země, ale slíbil ji dát do vlastnictví jemu a po něm jeho potomstvu, ačkoliv ještě neměl dítě. 6Bůh promluvil takto: ‚Jeho potomci budou žít jako cizinci v cizí zemi; tam je zotročí a čtyři sta let s nimi budou zle nakládat. 7Ale národ, jemuž budou otročit, budu soudit já,‘ řekl Bůh, ‚a potom vyjdou a budou mi sloužit na tomto místě.‘ 8I dal mu smlouvu obřízky. A tak, když zplodil Izáka, osmý den ho obřezal; podobně i Izák obřezal Jákoba a Jákob dvanáct patriarchů. 9Patriarchové žárlili na Josefa a prodali ho do Egypta; ale Bůh byl s ním, 10vysvobodil ho ze všech jeho soužení a dal mu milost i moudrost před faraonem, egyptským králem, a ten ho ustanovil vládcem nad Egyptem i nad celým svým domem. 11Potom přišel na celý Egypt i Kanaán hlad a veliké soužení, a naši otcové nenalézali obživu. 12Když Jákob uslyšel, že v Egyptě je obilí, vyslal tam naše otce poprvé. 13Při druhé návštěvě se Josef dal svým bratřím poznat a Josefův rod se stal faraonovi známým. 14Josef poslal vzkaz a zavolal k sobě svého otce Jákoba a celé příbuzenstvo v počtu sedmdesáti pěti duší. 15A sestoupil Jákob do Egypta a zemřel on i naši otcové. 16Přenesli je do Sichemu a uložili v hrobce, kterou Abraham koupil za stříbro od synů Emorových v Sichemu. 17Jak se však přibližoval čas zaslíbení, které Bůh vyhlásil Abrahamovi, lid v Egyptě rostl a množil se, 18dokud v Egyptě nepovstal jiný král, který Josefa neznal. 19Ten s naším rodem jednal lstivě a zle a přinutil naše otce odkládat své novorozence, aby nezůstávali naživu. 20V té době se narodil Mojžíš a byl krásný před Bohem. Tři měsíce byl chován v domě svého otce. 21A když ho odložili, vzala si jej faraonova dcera a starala se o něj jako o svého syna. 22Mojžíš byl vychován ve vší egyptské moudrosti a byl mocný ve slovech i ve svých skutcích. 23A když se dovršoval jeho čtyřicátý rok, vstoupila mu na srdce myšlenka, aby se podíval na své bratry, syny Izraele. 24A uviděl, jak se jednomu z nich děje křivda; zastal se ho a pomstil utiskovaného tím, že Egypťana zabil. 25Domníval se, že jeho bratři pochopí, že jim Bůh dává skrze jeho ruku vysvobození, ale oni to nepochopili. 26Druhého dne se u nich objevil, když se hádali; snažil se je přivést k pokoji slovy: ‚Muži, jste bratři, proč ubližujete jeden druhému?‘ 27Ale ten, který ubližoval svému bližnímu, ho odstrčil a řekl: ‚Kdo tě ustanovil nad námi vládcem a soudcem? 28Snad mě nechceš zabít, jako jsi včera zabil toho Egypťana?‘ 29Kvůli těm slovům Mojžíš utekl a bydlel jako cizinec v zemi madiánské, kde zplodil dva syny. 30A když se dovršilo čtyřicet let, ukázal se mu v pustině u hory Sinaj Pánův anděl v plameni hořícího keře. 31Když to Mojžíš uviděl, divil se tomu vidění; šel blíž, aby se pozorně podíval, a tu zazněl Pánův hlas: 32‚Já jsem Bůh tvých otců, Bůh Abrahamův, Bůh Izákův a Bůh Jákobův.‘ Mojžíš se roztřásl a neodvažoval se podívat. 33Pán mu řekl: ‚Zuj si z nohou sandály, neboť místo, na kterém stojíš, je země svatá. 34Dobře jsem viděl soužení svého lidu, který je v Egyptě, a slyšel jsem jejich sténání. I sestoupil jsem, abych je vysvobodil. A teď jdi, posílám tě do Egypta.‘ 35Toho Mojžíše, kterého zavrhli, když řekli: ‚Kdo tě nad námi ustanovil vládcem a soudcem?‘, toho Bůh poslal jako vůdce a vysvoboditele prostřednictvím anděla, který se mu ukázal v tom keři. 36Ten je vyvedl a činil divy a znamení v egyptské zemi, při Rudém moři i v pustině po čtyřicet let. 37To je ten Mojžíš, který řekl synům Izraele: ‚ Bůh vám z vašich bratrů vzbudí proroka, tak jako mne. Toho poslouchejte.‘ 38To je ten, který byl ve shromáždění v pustině prostředníkem mezi andělem, který k němu mluvil na hoře Sinaj, a našimi otci. On přijal živá slova, aby nám je dal. 39Jemu se naši otcové nechtěli poddat, ale zavrhli ho a obrátili se ve svých srdcích do Egypta 40a řekli Áronovi: ‚Udělej nám bohy, kteří půjdou před námi, neboť nevíme, co se stalo s Mojžíšem, který nás vyvedl z Egyptské země.‘ 41I udělali v těch dnech tele, přinesli té modle oběť a veselili se ze skutků svých rukou. 42Bůh se od nich odvrátil a vydal je, aby sloužili nebeskému vojsku, jak je napsáno v knize Proroků: ‚Což jste mně po těch čtyřicet let na pustině přinášeli krvavé oběti a dary, dome izraelský? 43Nosili jste stánek Molocha a hvězdu vašeho boha Remfana, obrazy, které jste si udělali, abyste se jim klaněli. Přestěhuji vás až za Babylon.‘ 44Naši otcové měli v pustině stánek svědectví, jak nařídil ten, jenž mluvil k Mojžíšovi, aby jej udělal podle vzoru, který uviděl. 45Ten také naši otcové převzali a vnesli s Jozuem do země pohanů, které Bůh zahnal před našimi otci. Tak to bylo až do dnů Davidových, 46který nalezl milost před Bohem a žádal, aby směl vyhledat příbytek pro Boha Jákobova. 47Teprve Šalomoun mu však vystavěl dům. 48Ale Nejvyšší nebydlí v domech zhotovených lidskýma rukama, jak praví prorok: 49‚Nebe je mým trůnem, země podnoží mých nohou. Jaký dům mi vystavíte, praví Pán, nebo jaké bude místo mého spočinutí? 50Což to všechno neučinila má ruka?‘ 51Vy tvrdošíjní, vy lidé neobřezaného srdce i uší, stále vzdorujete Duchu Svatému; jak vaši otcové, tak i vy! 52Kterého z proroků vaši otcové nepronásledovali? Zabili ty, kteří předpověděli příchod Spravedlivého; vy jste se nyní stali jeho zrádci a vrahy, 53vy, kteří jste přijali Zákon skrze anděly, ale nezachovali jste jej.“ 54Když to slyšeli, běsnili ve svých srdcích a skřípali proti němu zuby. 55Ale on, plný Ducha Svatého, upřeně pohlédl k nebi a spatřil Boží slávu a Ježíše, jak stojí po pravici Boží, 56a řekl: „Hle, vidím nebesa rozevřená a Syna člověka, jak stojí po pravici Boží.“ 57Oni však vykřikli velikým hlasem, zacpali si uši a společně se na něho vrhli. 58Vyhnali ho ven z města a kamenovali. Svědkové odložili své pláště k nohám mladíka, který se jmenoval Saul. 59A kamenovali Štěpána, který vzýval Pána a říkal: „Pane Ježíši, přijmi mého ducha.“ 60Pak klesl na kolena a zvolal velikým hlasem: „Pane, nepočítej jim tento hřích.“ Když to řekl, zesnul.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 2 DEFENSE AND MARTYRDOM OF STEPHEN. (Acts 7:1-60)
The God of glory--A magnificent appellation, fitted at the very outset to rivet the devout attention of his audience; denoting not that visible glory which attended many of the divine manifestations, but the glory of those manifestations themselves, of which this was regarded by every Jew as the fundamental one. It is the glory of absolutely free grace.
appeared unto our father Abraham before he dwelt in Charran, and said, &c.--Though this first call is not expressly recorded in Genesis, it is clearly implied in
Gen 15:7 and
Neh 9:7; and the Jewish writers speak the same language.
4 when his father was dead, he removed into this land--Though Abraham was in Canaan before Terah's death, his settlement in it as the land of promise is here said to be after it, as being in no way dependent on the family movement, but a transaction purely between Jehovah and Abraham himself.
6 four hundred years--using round numbers, as in
Gen 15:13,
Gen 15:16 (see on
Gal 3:17).
7 after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place--Here the promise to Abraham (
Gen 15:16), and that to Moses (
Exod 3:12), are combined; Stephen's object being merely to give a rapid summary of the leading facts.
8 the covenant of circumcision--that is, the covenant of which circumcision was the token.
and so--that is, according to the terms of this covenant, on which Paul reasons (Gal. 3:1-26).
the twelve patriarchs--so called as the founders of the twelve tribes of Israel.
9 the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt, but God was with him--Here Stephen gives his first example of Israel's opposition to God's purposes, in spite of which and by means of which those purposes were accomplished.
14 threescore and fifteen souls--according to the Septuagint version of
Gen 46:27, which Stephen follows, including the five children and grandchildren of Joseph's two sons.
17 But when--rather, "as."
the time of the promise--that is, for its fulfilment.
the people grew and multiplied in Egypt--For more than two hundred years they amounted to no more than seventy-five souls; how prodigious, then, must have been their multiplication during the latter two centuries, when six hundred thousand men, fit for war, besides women and children, left Egypt!
20 In which time--of deepest depression.
Moses was born--the destined deliverer.
exceeding fair--literally, "fair to God" (Margin), or, perhaps, divinely "fair" (see on
Heb 11:23).
22 mighty in words--Though defective in utterance (
Exod 4:10); his recorded speeches fully bear out what is here said.
and deeds--referring probably to unrecorded circumstances in his early life. If we are to believe JOSEPHUS, his ability was acknowledged ere he left Egypt.
23 In
Acts 7:23,
Acts 7:30,
Acts 7:36, the life of Moses is represented as embracing three periods, of forty years each; the Jewish writers say the same; and though this is not expressly stated in the Old Testament, his age at death, one hundred twenty years (
Deut 34:7), agrees with it.
it came into his heart to visit his brethren--his heart yearning with love to them as God's chosen people, and heaving with the consciousness of a divine vocation to set them free.
24 avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian--going farther in the heat of his indignation than he probably intended.
25 For he supposed his brethren would have understood, &c.--and perhaps imagined this a suitable occasion for rousing and rallying them under him as their leader; thus anticipating his work, and so running unsent.
but they understood not--Reckoning on a spirit in them congenial with his own, he had the mortification to find it far otherwise. This furnishes to Stephen another example of Israel's slowness to apprehend and fall in with the divine purposes of love.
26 next day he showed himself unto them as they strove--Here, not an Israelite and an Egyptian, but two parties in Israel itself, are in collision with each other; Moses, grieved at the spectacle, interposes as a mediator; but his interference, as unauthorized, is resented by the party in the wrong, whom Stephen identifies with the mass of the nation (
Acts 7:35), just as Messiah's own interposition had been spurned.
28 Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?--Moses had thought the deed unseen (
Exod 2:12), but it now appeared he was mistaken.
29 Then fled Moses, &c.--for "when Pharaoh heard this thing, he sought to slay Moses" (
Exod 2:15).
30 an angel of the Lord--rather, "the Angel of the Covenant," who immediately calls Himself JEHOVAH (Compare
Acts 7:38).
35 This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge, &c.--Here, again, "the stone which the builders refused is made the head of the corner" (
Ps 118:22).
37 This is that Moses which said . . . A prophet . . . him shall ye hear--This is quoted to remind his Moses-worshipping audience of the grand testimony of their faithful lawgiver, that he himself was not the last and proper object of the Church's faith, but only a humble precursor and small model of Him to whom their absolute submission was due.
38 in the church--the collective body of God's chosen people; hence used to denote the whole body of the faithful under the Gospel, or particular sections of them.
This is he that was in the church in the wilderness, with the angel . . . and with our fathers--alike near to the Angel of the Covenant, from whom he received all the institutions of the ancient economy, and to the people, to whom he faithfully reported the living oracles and among whom he set up the prescribed institutions. By this high testimony to Moses, Stephen rebuts the main charge for which he was on trial.
39 To whom our fathers would not obey, &c.--Here he shows that the deepest dishonor done to Moses came from the nation that now professed the greatest jealousy for his honor.
in their hearts turned back . . . into Egypt--"In this Stephen would have his hearers read the downward career on which they were themselves entering."
42 gave them up--judicially.
as . . . written in the book of the prophets--the twelve minor prophets, reckoned as one: the passage is from
Amos 5:25.
have ye offered to me . . . sacrifices?--The answer is, Yes, but as if ye did it not; for "neither did ye offer to Me only, nor always, nor with a perfect and willing heart" [BENGEL].
43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Molech, &c.--Two kinds of idolatry are charged upon the Israelites: that of the golden calf and that of the heavenly bodies; Molech and Remphan being deities, representing apparently the divine powers ascribed to nature, under different aspects.
carry you beyond Babylon--the well-known region of the captivity of Judah; while "Damascus" is used by the prophet (
Amos 5:27), whither the ten tribes were carried.
44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness--which aggravated the guilt of that idolatry in which they indulged, with the tokens of the divine presence constantly in the midst of them.
45 which . . . our fathers that came after--rather, "having received it by succession" (Margin), that is, the custody of the tabernacle from their ancestors.
brought in with Jesus--or Joshua.
into the possession--rather, "at the taking possession of [the territory of] the Gentiles."
unto the days of David--for till then Jerusalem continued in the hands of the Jebusites. But Stephen's object in mentioning David is to hasten from the tabernacle which he set up, to the temple which his son built, in Jerusalem; and this only to show, from their own Scripture (
Isa 66:1-
Isa 66:2), that even that temple, magnificent though it was, was not the proper resting-place of Jehovah upon earth; as his audience and the nations had all along been prone to imagine. (What that resting-place was, even "the contrite heart, that trembleth at God's word," he leaves to be gathered from the prophet referred to).
51 Ye stiffnecked . . . ye do always resist the Holy Ghost, &c.--It has been thought that symptoms of impatience and irritation in the audience induced Stephen to cut short his historical sketch. But as little farther light could have been thrown upon Israel's obstinacy from subsequent periods of the national history on the testimony of their own Scriptures, we should view this as the summing up, the brief import of the whole Israelitish history--grossness of heart, spiritual deafness, continuous resistance of the Holy Ghost, down to the very council before whom Stephen was pleading.
52 Which of, &c.--Deadly hostility to the messengers of God, whose high office it was to tell of "the Righteous One," that well-known prophetic title of Messiah (
Isa 53:11;
Jer 23:6, &c.), and this consummated by the betrayal and murder of Messiah Himself, on the part of those now sitting in judgment on the speaker, are the still darker features of the national character depicted in these withering words.
53 Who have received the law by the disposition--"at the appointment" or "ordination," that is, by the ministry.
of angels, and have not kept it--This closing word is designed to shut up those idolizers of the law under the guilt of high disobedience to it, aggravated by the august manner in which they had received it.
54 When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, &c.--If they could have answered him, how different would have been their temper of mind!
55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God--You who can transfer to canvas such scenes as these, in which the rage of hell grins horribly from men, as they sit condemned by a frail prisoner of their own, and see heaven beaming from his countenance and opening full upon his view--I envy you, for I find no words to paint what, in the majesty of the divine text, is here so simply told. "But how could Stephen, in the council-chamber, see heaven at all? I suppose this question never occurred but to critics of narrow soul, one of whom [MEYER] conjectures that he saw it through the window! and another, of better mould, that the scene lay in one of the courts of the temple" [ALFORD]. As the sight was witnessed by Stephen alone, the opened heavens are to be viewed as revealed to his bright beaming spirit.
and Jesus standing on the right hand of God--Why "standing," and not sitting, the posture in which the glorified Saviour is elsewhere represented? Clearly, to express the eager interest with which He watched from the skies the scene in that council chamber, and the full tide of His Spirit which He was at that moment engaged in pouring into the heart of His heroical witness, till it beamed in radiance from his very countenance.
56 I see . . . the Son of man standing, &c.--This is the only time that our Lord is by human lips called THE SON OF MAN after His ascension (
Rev 1:13;
Rev 14:14 are not instances). And why here? Stephen, full of the Holy Ghost, speaking now not of himself at all (
Acts 7:55), but entirely by the Spirit, is led to repeat the very words in which Jesus Himself, before this same council, had foretold His glorification (
Matt 26:64), assuring them that that exaltation of the SON OF MAN which they should hereafter witness to their dismay, was already begun and actual [ALFORD].
57 Then they cried out . . . and ran upon him with one accord--To men of their mould and in their temper, Stephen's last seraphic words could but bring matters to extremities, though that only revealed the diabolical spirit which they breathed.
58 cast him out of the city--according to
Lev 24:14;
Num 15:35;
1Kgs 21:13; and see
Heb 13:12.
and stoned--"proceeded to stone" him. The actual stoning is recorded in
Acts 7:59.
and the witnesses--whose hands were to be first upon the criminal (
Deut 17:7).
laid down their clothes--their loose outer garments, to have them taken charge of.
at a young man's feet whose name was Saul--How thrilling is this our first introduction to one to whom Christianity--whether as developed in the New Testament or as established in the world--owes more perhaps than to all the other apostles together! Here he is, having perhaps already a seat in the Sanhedrim, some thirty years of age, in the thick of this tumultuous murder of a distinguished witness for Christ, not only "consenting unto his death" (
Acts 8:1), but doing his own part of the dark deed.
59 calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, &c.--An unhappy supplement of our translators is the word "God" here; as if, while addressing the Son, he was really calling upon the Father. The sense is perfectly clear without any supplement at all--"calling upon [invoking] and saying, Lord Jesus"; Christ being the Person directly invoked and addressed by name (compare
Acts 9:14). Even GROTIUS, DE WETTE, MEYER, &c., admit this, adding several other examples of direct prayer to Christ; and PLINY, in his well-known letter to the Emperor Trajan (A.D. 110 or 111), says it was part of the regular Christian service to sing, in alternate strains, a hymn to Christ as God.
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit--In presenting to Jesus the identical prayer which He Himself had on the cross offered to His Father, Stephen renders to his glorified Lord absolute divine worship, in the most sublime form, and at the most solemn moment of his life. In this commitment of his spirit to Jesus, Paul afterwards followed his footsteps with a calm, exultant confidence that with Him it was safe for eternity (
2Tim 1:12).
60 cried with a loud voice--with something of the gathered energy of his dying Lord (see on
John 19:16-
John 19:30).
Lord--that is, JESUS, beyond doubt, whom he had just before addressed as Lord.
lay not this sin to their charge--Comparing this with nearly the same prayer of his dying Lord, it will be seen how very richly this martyr of Jesus had drunk into his Master's spirit, in its divinest form.
he fell asleep--never said of the death of Christ. (See on
1Thess 4:14). How bright the record of this first martyrdom for Christ, amidst all the darkness of its perpetrators; and how many have been cheered by it to like faithfulness even unto death!
