1Tedy řekl nejvyšší kněz {biskup}: Jestli-liž to tak? 2A on řekl: Muži bratří a otcové, slyšte. Bůh slávy ukázal se otci našemu Abrahamovi, když byl v Mezopotamii, prvé než bydlil v Cháran. 3A řekl jemu: Vyjdi z země své a z příbuznosti své, a poď do země, kterouž ukáži tobě. 4Tedy vyšed z země Kaldejské, bydlil v Cháran. A odtud, když umřel otec jeho, přestěhoval jej do země této, v kteréž vy nyní bydlíte. 5A nedal jemu dědictví v ní, ani šlepěje nožné, ač byl jemu ji slíbil dáti k vládařství, i semeni jeho po něm, když ještě neměl syna. 6Mluvil pak Bůh takto: Budeť símě tvé pohostinu v zemi cizí, a bude v službu podrobeno, a zle s ním budou nakládati za čtyři sta let. 7Ale národ ten, jemuž sloužiti budou, já souditi budu, pravíť Bůh. A potom zase vyjdou, a sloužiti mi budou na tomto místě. 8I vydal jemu smlouvu obřízky. A tak zplodil Izáka, a obřezal jej osmého dne, a Izák Jákoba, a Jákob dvanácte patriarchů. 9A patriarchové v nenávisti měvše Jozefa, prodali jej do Egypta. Ale Bůh byl s ním. 10A vysvobodil ho ze všech úzkostí jeho, a dal jemu milost a moudrost před tváří Faraona, krále Egyptského, kterýž ho ustanovil úředníkem nad Egyptem a nade vším domem svým. 11Potom přišel hlad na všecku zemi Egyptskou i Kananejskou, a ssoužení veliké, aniž měli pokrmů otcové naši. 12A uslyšev Jákob, že by obilé bylo v Egyptě, poslal otce naše jednou. 13A podruhé poznán jest Jozef od bratří svých, a zjevena jest Faraonovi rodina Jozefova. 14Tedy poslav Jozef, přistěhoval otce svého Jákoba, i všecku rodinu svou v osobách sedmdesáti pěti. 15I vstoupil Jákob do Egypta, a umřel on i otcové naši. 16I přeneseni jsou do Sichem, a pochováni v hrobě, kterýž byl koupil Abraham za stříbro od synů Emorových, otce Sichemova. 17Když se pak přibližoval čas zaslíbení, o kterémž byl přisáhl Bůh Abrahamovi, rostl lid a množil se v Egyptě, 18Až v tom povstal jiný král, kterýž neznal Jozefa. 19Ten lstivě nakládaje s pokolením naším, trápil otce naše, tak že musili vyhazovati nemluvňátka svá, aby se nerozplozovali. 20V tom času narodil se Mojžíš, a byl velmi krásný, kterýž chován jest za tři měsíce v domě otce svého. 21A když vyložen byl, vzala jej dcera Faraonova, a vychovala jej sobě za syna. 22I vyučen jest Mojžíš vší moudrosti Egyptské, a byl mocný v řečech i v skutcích. 23A když jemu bylo čtyřidceti let, vstoupilo na srdce jeho, aby navštívil bratří své, syny Izraelské. 24A uzřev jednoho, an bezpráví trpí, zastal ho, a pomstil toho, kterýž bezpráví trpěl, zabiv Egyptského. 25Domníval se zajisté, že bratří jeho rozumějí, že skrze ruku jeho chce jim dáti Bůh vysvobození, ale oni nerozuměli. 26Druhého pak dne ukázal se jim, když se vadili, i vedl je ku pokoji, řka: Muži bratří jste, i proč křivdu činíte sobě vespolek? 27Ten pak, kterýž činil křivdu bližnímu, odehnal ho, řka: Kdo tě ustanovil knížetem a soudcím nad námi? 28Což ty mne chceš zamordovati, jako jsi včera zabil Egyptského? 29I utekl Mojžíš pro to slovo, a bydlil pohostinu v zemi Madianské, kdež zplodil dva syny. 30A když se vyplnilo let čtyřidceti, ukázal se jemu na poušti hory Sinai anděl Páně, v plameni ohně ve kři. 31A Mojžíš uzřev, divil se tomu vidění. A když blíže přistoupil, aby to pilněji spatřil, stal se k němu hlas Páně: 32Jáť jsem Bůh otců tvých, Bůh Abrahamův, a Bůh Izákův, a Bůh Jákobův. I zhroziv se Mojžíš, nesměl patřiti. 33I řekl jemu Pán: Zzuj obuv s noh svých; nebo místo, na kterémž stojíš, země svatá jest. 34Viděl jsem, viděl trápení lidu svého, kterýž jest v Egyptě, a vzdychání jejich uslyšel jsem, a sstoupil jsem, abych je vysvobodil. Protož nyní poď, pošli tě do Egypta. 35Toho Mojžíše, kteréhož se odepřeli, řkouce: Kdo tě ustanovil knížetem a soudcím? tohoť Bůh kníže a vysvoboditele poslal, skrze ruku anděla, kterýž se jemu ukázal ve kři. 36A ten je vyvedl, čině divy a zázraky v zemi Egyptské a na moři červeném, i na poušti za čtyřidceti let. 37Toť jest ten Mojžíš, kterýž řekl synům Izraelským: Proroka vám vzbudí Pán Bůh váš z bratří vašich, jako mne; toho poslouchejte. 38Onť jest, kterýž byl mezi lidem na poušti s andělem, kterýž mluvil k němu na hoře Sinai, i s otci našimi, kterýž přijal slova živá, aby je nám vydal. 39Jehož nechtěli poslušni býti otcové naši, ale zavrhli jej, a odvrátili se srdci svými do Egypta, 40Řkouce Aronovi: Učiň nám bohy, kteříž by šli před námi; nebo Mojžíšovi tomu, kterýž nás vyvedl z země Egyptské, nevíme, co se přihodilo. 41I udělali v těch dnech tele, a obětovali oběti té modle, a veselili se v díle rukou svých. 42I odvrátil se Bůh, a vydal je, aby sloužili vojsku nebeskému, jakož napsáno jest v knihách prorockých: Zdaliž jste mi oběti aneb dary obětovali za čtyřidceti let na poušti, dome Izraelský? 43Nýbrž nosili jste stánek Molochův, a hvězdu boha svého Remfan, ta podobenství, kteráž jste zdělali sobě, abyste se jim klaněli. Protož přestěhuji vás za Babylon. 44Stánek svědectví měli otcové naši na poušti, jakož byl nařídil ten, kterýž řekl Mojžíšovi, aby jej udělal podlé způsobu toho, kterýž byl viděl. 45Kterýž přijavše otcové naši, vnesli s Jozue tam, kdež bylo vládařství pohanů, kteréž vyhnal Bůh od tváři otců našich, až do dnů Davida. 46Kterýž nalezl milost před oblíčejem Božím, a prosil, aby nalezl stánek Bohu Jákobovu. 47Šalomoun pak udělal jemu dům. 48Ale Nejvyšší nebydlí v chrámích rukou udělaných, jakož dí prorok: 49Nebe jest mi stolice a země podnož noh mých, i jakýž mi dům uděláte? praví Pán. Aneb jaké jest místo odpočívání mého? 50Zdaliž ruka má všeho toho neučinila? 51Tvrdošijní a neobřezaného srdce i uší, vy jste se vždycky Duchu svatému protivili, jakž otcové vaši, tak i vy. 52Kterému z proroků otcové vaši se neprotivili? Zmordovali zajisté ty, kteříž předzvěstovali příchod spravedlivého tohoto, jehož vy nyní zrádci a vražedlníci jste. 53Kteříž jste vzali zákon působením andělským, a neostříhali jste. 54Tedy slyšíce to, rozzlobili se v srdcích svých, a škřipěli zuby na něho. 55On pak pln jsa Ducha svatého, pohleděv do nebe, uzřel slávu Boží a Ježíše stojícího na pravici Boží. 56I řekl: Aj, vidím, nebesa otevřená a Syna člověka stojícího na pravici Boží. 57A oni zkřikše hlasem velikým, zacpali uši své, a obořili se jednomyslně na něj. 58A vyvedše jej z města, kamenovali ho. A svědkové složili roucha svá u noh mládence, kterýž sloul Saul. 59I kamenovali Štěpána modlícího se a řkoucího: Pane Ježíši, přijmi ducha mého. 60A poklek na kolena, zvolal hlasem velikým: Pane, nepokládej jim toho za hřích. A to pověděv, usnul.
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!
