38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel2 which spake to him3 in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:

39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,

40 Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

41 And they made a calf in those

days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.

42 Then God turned, and gaves them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written10 in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts, and sacrifices, by the space of forty years in the wilderness?

43 Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made, to worship them and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

PARALLEL PASSAGES.-1Heb. 3:2. 21s. 63:9. Gal. 3:19.

Ex. 19:3, 17. Deut. 5:27, 31. John

1:17. Rom. 3:2, Ex. 32:1. Deut. 9:16. Ps. 106:19, 20. Ps. 81: 12. Deut. 4:19. 2 Kings 17:16. Jer. 19:13. 10 Amos 5:25, 26.

38. With the angel, and with our fathers. The meaning is, that he brought the parties into association with each other, acted as mediator between God and the people. (See Gal. 3:19.) This fact is mentioned to show how exalted a service Moses performed, in contrast with the indignity which he experienced at the hands of his countrymen. He was a type, Stephen would say, of the Jesus despised, crucified by those whom he would reconcile unto God. In the congregation, i. e. of the Hebrews assembled at Sinai at the time of the promulgation of the law. Hackett.-Moses was in the church in the wilderness, but it was with the angel that spake to him. That angel went before him and was a guide to him, else he could not have been a guide to Israel. But Christ is himself that Angel which was with the church in the wilderness. Henry. - Lively oracles. The law of Moses is here styled "the lively oracles," because they were oracles proceeding not from dumb idols, but from the living God, and promising a prosperous and happy life in Canaan to all that obeyed them. (Lev. 18:5.) Whitby.

40. Ex. 32:1.

41. And they made a calf. This was made of the ear-rings and ornaments which they had brought from Egypt. (Ex. 32:2-4.) Stephen introduces this to remind them how prone the nation had been to reject God, and walk in the ways of sin.

42. Then God turned. That is, turned away from them, abandoned them to their own desires. The host of heaven. The stars or heavenly bodies. The word "host" means armies. It is applied to the heavenly bodies because they are very numerous, and appear to be marshalled or arrayed in military order. It is from this that God is called Jehovah of hosts, as being the ruler of these wellarranged heavenly bodies. (Isa. 1:9.) The proof that they did this, Stephen proceeds to allege by a quotation from the prophets. In the book of the prophets. (Amos 5:25, 26.) The twelve minor prophets were commonly written in one volume, and were called the Book of the Prophets. This passage is not quoted literally; it is evidently made from memory; and though in its main spirit it coincides with the passage in Amos, yet in some important respects it varies from it. Barnes.

43. Tabernacle of Moloch. The fire-god Moloch was the tutelary deity of the children of Ammon. According to Jewish tradition the image of Moloch was of brass, hollow within. Kimchi describes it as set within seven chapels. "And his face was that of a calf, and his hands stretched forth like a man who opens his hands to receive something of his neighbor. And they kindled it with fire, and the priest took the babe and put it into the hands of Moloch, and the babe gave up the ghost. And why was it (the place) called Tophet? Because they used to make a noise with drums (tophim) that the father might not hear the cry of his child." The tabernacle was probably the shrine or ark in which the figure of the god was carried in processions. Smith's Bib. Dic.—And the star. An image of a star worshipped as God. The Hebrew reads, "Chiun your images, the star of your god." The Greek translators use the Coptic name Remphan (or Rephan), for the Arabic name Chiun. (Amos 5:25.) This seems to have been a star which was worshipped, probably Saturn, which was so called in Arabic. Some take Chiun to mean a framework or carriage for transporting the idol. Remphan in the Coptic means "light-giver," "king of heaven," and hence understood of the sun. Jacobus.

44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had

seen.

45 Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom3 God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;

46 Who found favour before God,

and desired5 to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.

47 But Solomon built him a house.

48 Howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands ; as saith the prophet,

49 Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord: or what is the place of my rest?

50 Hath not my hand made all these things?

1Ex. 25:40; 26:30. Heb. 8:5.

PARALLEL PASSAGES. 2Josh. 3:14. Neh. 9:24. Ps. 44:2; 78: 55. 41 Sam. 16:1. 51 Chron. 22:7. 1 Kings 6:1, etc; 8:20. 7Ch. 17:24. 1 Kings 8:27. Is. 66:1, 2.

44. Tabernacle of witness. The tabernacle of the testimony, or law, so called because it contained the ark in which the tables of the decalogue were kept. The law is termed a testimony, because it testifies or declares the divine will. Bähr's explanation is different: the tabernacle was a testimony or witness of the covenant between God and his people, "that he should make it according to the pattern which he had seen," viz. on Mount Sinai. (See Ex. 25:9, 40.) By this reference Stephen reminds the Jews of the emblematical import, consequently the subordinate value, of the ancient worship. Moses, under the divine guidance, constructed the earthly tabernacle so as to have it image forth certain heavenly or spiritual realities that were to be accomplished under "the better covenant of which Jesus is the Mediator." Here we have the rudiments of the view which pervades the Epistle to the Hebrews. (See especially Heb. 8:5.) What was true of the tabernacle was true also of the first and the second temple; they were built after the same model. That application of the remark could be left to suggest itself. Hackett.

45. Our fathers that came after. None of the generation that came out of Egypt were permitted to enter into the land of Canaan on account of their rebellion except Caleb and Joshua. (Num. 14:22-24; 32: 11, 12.) Hence it is said that their fathers "who came after," i. e. after the generation when the tabernacle was built. Stephen means that it was not brought in by that generation but by the next. With Jesus. This should have been rendered "with Joshua." Jesus is the Greek mode of writing the name Joshua; but the Hebrew name should by all means have been retained here, as also in Heb. 4:8. Into the possession of the Gentiles. Into the land possessed by the Gentiles; that is, into the promised land then occupied by the Canaanites. Barnes.

46. He sought to build an house, where the ark, that had been carried about in their wanderings and wars, might be deposited. (1 Chron. 22:7.) The inference is, that as David, the favored one of God, was denied this request, it was not at all essential to the divine worship; and that God has all along exercised his sovereign pleasure in the plan for his sanctuary.

47. But Solomon, though inferior to David, was allowed this privilege, altogether according to God's sovereign pleasure (2 Chron. 6:7, 8), and for so long a time the covenant people were without a temple. Solomon was indeed the prince of peace, as his name imports, under whose peaceful reign the kingdom of Christ was set forth. (Ps. 72:17.) He was the son of David, and so he was the type of great David's greater Son. David was denied this privilege because he had been a man of war. (1 Chron. 22:8.)

48. Howbeit. Though Solomon did build for God so grand a sanctuary as that first temple on Mount Moriah, yet he himself declared that this did not imply that any material structure could contain God, or that he is confined to any earthly locality. (1 Kings 8:27.) Besides, the gospel prophet Isaiah, at the close of his prophecy, looking forward to this very time of the transition from Judaism to Christianity, predicted this very change from the temple worship to a universal extension of the true religion. (Is. 66:1, 2.) Jacobus.

49. This is the saying of the prophet cited at the close of the preceding verse. The unskilful divis. ion of the text throws the whole into confusion. The true division would have been as follows: "47. And Solomon built him a house, but (Solomon knew and publicly declared that) the Most High dwelleth not in hand-made (temples). 48. As (likewise) saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne," ctc. The prophet quoted is Isaiah (66:1, 2), and the passage that in which he winds up all his prophecies with an express prediction of the change of dispensations, of the time when Jehovah would no longer dwell in

temples (verse 1), but in human hearts (verse 2); when the ritual, though divinely instituted, would be no less hateful than idolatry itself (verse 5). This remarkable prophecy is doubly appropriate to Stephen's purpose: first, as a declaration of the general truth affirmed by Solomon; and then, as a direct and pointed prediction of the very changes that were taking place when Stephen spoke. Alexander.

PARALLEL PASSAGES.-1Ex. 32:9. Is. 48:4. 2Lev. 26:41. Jer. 9:26. Rom. 2:28, 29. 82 Chron. 36:16. 1 Thes. 2:15. Ch. 3:14. Gal. 3:19.

51. The speaker very suddenly changed the tone in which he had hitherto addressed his hearers. He had hitherto spoken in an unimpassioned style, but now addresses his hearers with irrepressible indignation and a flaming zeal; his language now assumes an aggressive character, and with all the fervor of a prophet he accuses his hearers of the grievous sins which they had committed. The transition is sudden, but by no means unnatural. There is consequently no reason for imagining that any external cause, any interruption on the part of the audience, such as threatening gestures or angry outcries, induced Stephen to adopt this severe style of address. Lechler. - Stiff-necked. This was a term often applied to the people by Moses and the prophets, Ex. 32:9; 32:3-5; and in Deut. 10: 16, associated with uncircumcision of heart. The term is taken from the resistance of oxen, that will not bend their necks to receive the yoke, and applies to rebellious, stubborn people. Uncircumcised in heart and ears, means, heathenish in feeling and in hearing or understanding. As the covenant people were circumcised, so the uncircumcised were aliens and heathen. Stephen therefore charges them, even the Sanhedrim, with being stubborn and rebellious against God, and aliens and heathen in thought and feeling, - the veriest opposite to all that they boasted. (See Rom. 2:29.) Jacobus. - Resist the Holy Ghost. (1) Their fathers resisted the Holy Ghost in the prophets that God raised up to them; and so did they, in Christ's apostles and ministers, who spake by the same Spirit. (2) They resisted the Holy Ghost striving with them by their own consciences, and would not comply with their convictions and dictates. Henry.→ When the heart is uncircumcised, the ears are in the same condition. When they repel the Word from their hearts, they also stop their ears, like the hearers of Stephen. Brandt.

52. Which of the prophets, etc. The interrogative form here is a strong mode of saying that they had persecuted all the prophets. It was the characteristic of the nation to persecute the messengers of God. This is not to be taken as literally and universally true; but it was a general truth; it was the national characteristic. (See Notes, Matt. 21:33-40; 23:29-35.) And they have slain them, etc. That is, they have slain the prophets, whose main message was that the Messiah was to come. It was a great aggravation of their offence that they put to death the messengers which foretold the greatest blessing that the nation could receive. Barnes. -He tells them that they acted in the same spirit with their fathers. Your fathers, said he, ill-treated those prophets that foretold and described the blessed times of the Messiah; but you, by a more desperate degree of wickedness, have betrayed and murdered the very Messiah himself. Pyle.

53. The presence of angels at the giving of the law is not expressly stated in the Old Testament, but is alluded to in Gal. 3:19, and Heb. 2:2. Philo and Josephus testify to the same tradition; the Seventy translate Deut. 33:2 in such a manner as to assert the same fact; it is implied perhaps in Ps. 68:18. The Jews regarded this angelic mediation as both ennobling the law and as conferring special honor on themselves, to whom the law was given. For a striking proof of this Jewish feeling, see Jos. Antt. 15. 5. 3. From another point of view, viz. that of Christ's superiority to angels, this

1

54 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.

55 But he, being2 full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God,

and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,

56 And said, Behold, I see the3 heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.

57 Then they cried out with a

PARALLEL PASSAGES.-1Ch. 5:33. 2Ch. 6:5. Ezek. 1:1. Dan. 7:13.

angelic intervention showed the inferiority of the law to the gospel, which is the view taken in Heb. 2:2, and probably in Gal. 3: 19,-"and yet ye kept it not." In this verse, therefore, we have the apostle's idea in Rom. 2:23, where he says that the Jews gloried in the law while they dishonored God by their violations of it. Hackett.-All we know is, that angels were ministers on that occasion, and that some of the solemn and impressive circumstances were carried on by their agency. The trumpets and thunderings and other attendant demonstrations may have been due to their agency. They are spoken of as being present" at Sinai in the holy place," and the Lord as being among them. (Ps. 68:17. See Deut. 33:2, 3.) Their agency may be referred to where the mount is spoken of as that" which burned with fire, with blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words," etc. (Heb. 12: 18, 19.) This allusion to so stupendous a demonstration, angelic and preternatural, in their history, at the giving of the law, when they were specially constituted as a nation chosen of God, forms the most stirring climax in the discourse of Stephen; and his bold and earnest enforcement of all these facts, to show the enormity of their disobedience, could no longer be endured by the Sanhedrim. Jacobs.

54. It is disputed whether Stephen finished his speech or not. The abrupt manner in which he closes and the exasperation of the Jews at that moment render it probable that he was interrupted. Hackett.-When they heard. Literally," and hearing these things," especially verses 51-53, but rather as the pungent, practical application of the whole discourse. Cut to the heart, as with a saw. (See Ch. 5:33, notes.) Tyndale: "Their hearts cleave asunder." Geneva: "Their hearts burst for anger." They were not "pricked in their hearts" with genuine conviction (as Ch. 2:37), but sawn through in the most irritating and mangling torture of their consciences and passions. Gnashed on him. Literally, "gnashed the teeth upon him." Wicliffe has it, "Grenneden (grinned) with teeth on him." This expresses their spite and violence and rage, in which they gnash the teeth not only at him but upon him, as if they would seize upon him with their teeth, snapping at him like a dog or beast of prey. Jacobus. 55, 56. But he, regardless of their rage, and "being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw" the splendor of the divine presence, and Jesus himself, the crucified Jesus, arrayed in glory, and in a posture of readiness to succor and receive him. As he saw he spoke, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God." Jesus is usually represented as sitting on the right hand of God; the difference here is therefore noticeable, as if the glorified Redeemer had risen from his seat in sign of his readiness to aid his servant. If these words do not mean to assert the divinity of Christ, they have no meaning; and that the Jews understood them in this sense is clear, for, hearing in them a confirmation and aggravation of the “blasphemy” which he had been before accused of "speaking against God," they raised a tremendous outcry, and rushing upon him with one accord, cast him out of the city and stoned him. Kitto.-Looked up steadfastly. Fixed his eyes intently on heaven. Forseeing his danger and the effect his speech had produced, he cast his eyes to heaven and sought protection there. When dangers threaten us, our hope of safety lies in heaven. When men threaten our persons, reputations, or lives, it becomes us to fix our eyes on the heavenly world; and we shall not look in vain. And saw the glory of God. This phrase is commonly used to denote the visible symbols of God. It means some magnificent representation, - a splendor, or light, that is the appropriate exhibition of the presence of God. In the case of Stephen there is every indication of a vision, or supernatural representation of the heavenly objects; something in advance of mere faith, such as dying Christians now have. What was its precise nature we have no means of ascertaining. It was such an elevation of view, such a representation of truth and of the glory of God, as to be denoted by the word "see." Barnes. - Nothing but a resemblance of Stephen's virtues can entitle us to Stephen's consolations. To enjoy the reviving prospects of a glorious eternity, it is necessary that we should with him look up steadfastly to heaven, - that our affections and hopes, our whole heart, our whole treasure should be there; and to sleep as he did, we must, as he did, commit our spirits into the hands of the Lord Jesus, and be solicitous for nothing but that "whether we live, we live unto the Lord, or whether we die we may die unto the Lord." Stanhope.

57. Stopped their ears. So as not to hear a word more in his defence. Hales. Ran upon

loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord. 58 And cast1 him out of the city,

PARALLEL PASSAGES.

and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was3 Saul.

1Luke 4:29. Heb. 13:12, 13. 2Ch. 6:13. Ch. 8:1, 3; 22:20.

him. This stoning of Stephen was an irregular, tumultuous act, not done in consequence of a sentence of the Sanhedrim. Bp. Tomline.

58. Cast him out of the city. Probably because no man was to be put to death within the city. So Jesus was taken out of the city to be crucified. Bp. Pearce.. Stoned him. Stoning to death was the ordinary capital punishment among the Jews,' just as much as hanging is with us, decapitation in France and Germany, and strangulation in Spain. It is noticeable that it is in the deserts of stony Arabia we first hear of this form of punishment, having been suggested probably by the abund. ance of these missiles and the fatal effect with which they were often employed in broils among the people. It seems a very shocking form of death-punishment, but was less so than it may seem. Origi. nally it is likely the people merely pelted the bound criminal with the stones lying about till he died. But even in this crude form of its infliction the first stone that struck the bared head would generally close the painful scene. Latterly the punishment assumed a more orderly shape and was subjected to arrangements, the object of which was to bring the criminal to his end as expeditiously as possible and to divest the punishment of a tumultuary aspect. The particulars which the Jewish writers have left us describe a form of stoning materially different from the idea which is usually entertained of that pun. ishment, and which, as existing in the time of Stephen, deserves our attention. From these sources we learn that the manner of execution was this: A crier marched before the man who was to die, proclaiming his offence and the names of the witnesses on whose testimony he had been convicted. This was for the humane purpose of enabling any one possessing knowledge of the parties and the circumstances to come forward and arrest the execution. Arrived at the place the convict was divested of his clothing except a small covering about the loins; and his hands being bound, he was taken to the top of some eminence, ‚—a tower, a building, or a cliff, not less than twice a man's height. When the top was reached the witnesses laid their hands upon him and then cast off their upper clothing, that they might be the more ready for the active exertion their position imposed, being virtually that of executing the sentence which had been the result of their evidence. To prevent the clothes, of which they thus divested themselves, from being lost, they were consigned to the care of some friend; and in the case of Stephen, the executing witnesses gave their garments in charge of "a young man whose name was Saul." All being thus ready one of the witnesses cast the condemned down from that high place with great violence, endeavoring to do it so that he should fall on a large stone which was designedly placed below. This usually rendered him insensible, if it did not kill him; but if he was not dead, those below turned him upon his back, and then the other witnesses remaining above cast down a large stone aimed at the chest. This was generally mortal; but if not, the people below hastened to cast stones at him till no life remained. In this way the execution was quickly over, and was attended by fewer revolting circumstances than must have ensued from that indiscriminate pelting by the people which is commonly supposed to have constituted this form of capital punishment. It would seem that Stephen rose from his fall to his knees, and in that posture prayed for the forgiveness of his murderers, -a circumstance which imparts an additionally touching emphasis to his prayer. In the narrative of our Lord's death it is made plainly to appear that the Jewish tribunals had no power of inflicting the punishment of death without the sanction of the Romans; and it may be and has been asked, How is it that we have here what seems at the first view a regular trial before the Sanhedrim, with the deposition of witnesses, the prisoner's defence, and the ordinary capital punishment among the Jews inflicted, without any mention of the Romans? As to the trial merely, that is easily explained. The Jewish tribunal necessarily tried, the prisoner to find the nature of his offence; and if they found him guilty of a capital crime they pronounced sentence against him and reported it to the Roman governor for confirmation. If confirmed, the offender was given to them for execution by their own mode of stoning, unless the offence were of a political nature, as for sedition, when the Romans took the matter into their own hands and inflicted their punishment of crucifixion. In the case of Stephen, however, it is very doubtful if the trial even was complete. But supposing that all the forms of legal process were observed and sentence duly pronounced, it does not follow that they did not exceed the bounds of their authority in carrying their own sentence into effect before the Romans could interfere to prevent it. That it is reported as having taken place by no means proves that the act was legally performed. Kitto. A young man, a designation which the Greeks could apply to a person till he was forty years old, but perhaps in common speech would rarely extend beyond the age of thirty. This term, therefore, is very indefinite as an indication of Saul's age at the time of this occurrence. In all probability he was not far from thirty when he was