ACC ~ Acts 7 v1 - 8

OVERVIEW:

In Luke’s structuring of Acts, Stephen’s speech and subsequent martyrdom mark the initial breaking point between the old and the new Israel. Tracing the history of God’s people through three of its greatest figures, Stephen gives the story of Abraham (Acts 7:1-8), Joseph (Acts 7:9-19) and Moses (Acts 7:20-40), and then he points to Israel’s chronic infidelity (Acts 7:41-50), concluding with a stinging indictment of his hearers, whom he accuses of bringing the rebellion of their ancestors to its culmination (Acts 7:51-53). We see in some of Bede’s comments how the Fathers would note or reconcile contradictions between the books of Scripture, as well as how the New Testament was the rule for interpreting the Old. Here, however, the Fathers stress an allegorical reading of the call of Abraham and his descendants. His departure outwardly enacts an inward renunciation (CASSIAN), while God’s revelation shows a predilection based on no previous merit, prior to all that the law asked, with a reward obtained through obedience (CHRYSOSTOM). This reward is the resurrection that Abraham and his seed, the God-fearing faithful, will receive (IRENAEUS). The passage of time has proven God true to his word and shown the great faith of Abraham, and it should teach us that we too will suffer trials and testing here before entering the kingdom, and that even in these will God’s bounty overflow (CHRYSOSTOM).

7:2 | God Appeared to Abraham

GOD APPEARED TO ABRAHAM. BEDE: It must be noted “according to the words of Stephen, that God did not (as appears in Genesis) speak to Abraham after the death of his father, who certainly died in Haran, where his son also lived with him; but [he spoke to him] before he lived in that city, although he was already in the region of Mesopotamia,” of which Haran was a city. COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 7.2.

7:3 | Leaving Land and Family

DO AS GOD BIDS. CHRYSOSTOM: He shows that these were types, as was Abraham’s leaving of his home country, at God’s command, not against the law (for home and country is where God shall lead): “Then he departed,” he says, “from the land of the Chaldeans.” He shows that the Jews, if one looks closely into the matter, are of Persian origin and that, even without miracles, one must do as God says, whatever hardships may result. For even the patriarch left the grave of his father and all that he had in obedience to God’s command. If Abraham’s father had no part in the migration because he was unworthy, much more unworthy were the children, even though they came much of the way. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 15.

MENTAL DEPARTURE. BEDE: Therefore the following words, “Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans,” do not signify a physical but a mental departure, by which he separated himself forever from association with the Chaldeans and their nation. According to the belief of the chronicles, in one and the same year he left Chaldea, entered Mesopotamia, tarried in Haran and was brought into the land of the promise. COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 7.3.

THE THREE RENUNCIATIONS. JOHN CASSIAN: [Paphnutius said,] “We read that the Lord commanded Abraham to do these three things all at once when he said to him, ‘Leave your country and your kinsfolk and your father’s house.’” First he spoke of “your country,” namely, of the resources of this world and of earthly wealth; second, of “your kinsfolk,” namely, of the former way of life and behavior and vices that have been related to us from our birth by a connection as it were of a certain affinity or consanguinity; third, of “your father’s house,” namely, of every vestige of this world which the eyes gaze upon. CONFERENCE 3.6.2.

7:5 | Promised to Abraham

THE REWARD OF OBEDIENCE. CHRYSOSTOM: He shows here that the promise had been made before the place, before the circumcision, before sacrifice and before the temple. He also shows that it was not by merit that these people received either circumcision or law, but that obedience alone secured the land as its reward. And even though the circumcision has been given, the promise is not yet fulfilled. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 15.

AWAITING THE PROMISE OF GOD. IRENAEUS: Thus did [Abraham] await patiently the promise of God and was unwilling to appear to receive from people what God had promised to give him, when he said again to him as follows, “I will give this land to your seed, from the river of Egypt even to the great river Euphrates.” If, then, God promised him the inheritance of the land, yet he did not receive it during all the time of his sojourn there, it must be, that together with his seed, that is, those who fear God and believe in him, he shall receive it at the resurrection of the just. For his seed is the church, which receives the adoption to God through the Lord, as John the Baptist said, “For God is able from the stones to raise up children to Abraham.” AGAINST HERESIES 5.32.2.

THE RIGHTEOUS DO NOT STAGGER. CHRYSOSTOM: Do you see how what occurred contradicted the promise? Again he said, “In Isaac will your seed be named,” and Abraham believed. Then he says, “Offer to me as sacrifice this,” while this was the one who was to fill all the world from his seed. Did you notice the contradiction between the commands and the promise? He commanded what was in opposition to the promises. Yet not even so did the just man lose his head or say that he had been deceived. ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS 25.1.

7:6 | His Descendants Would Be Aliens

GOD ALLOWS US TO BE TRIED. CHRYSOSTOM: Notice how many years ago was the promise made and the way in which it was made, and no mention of sacrifice anywhere, or of circumcision. Here he shows how God himself allowed them to suffer terribly, and yet he had no complaint against them. Nevertheless their enemies did act with impunity. “‘But I will judge the nation which they serve,’ said God.” For it was to prevent them from judging people as pious according to the saying, “He puts his trust in God; now let God rescue him” that he, who promised and who gave the land, first permits the sufferings. Likewise also now, even though he had promised a kingdom, he allows us to practice obedience through trial. It was only after four hundred years that the freedom came, so is it any wonder that one has to wait in the case of the kingdom? Nonetheless he did what he promised, and time did not prevail to cast into falsehood his word. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 16.

SOJOURNERS IN A STRANGE COUNTRY. BEDE: This is not to be understood as meaning that he said that this offspring was to be mistreated or subjected to slavery for four hundred years. Rather, by hyperbaton it should be read in the sense that his offspring would be wanderers for four hundred years, and during part of that time slavery too would fall to their lot. “Because it is written, ‘In Isaac your offspring will be called,’ there are counted from the year of Isaac’s birth to the year of the departure from Egypt 405 years (which Scripture according to its usual practice calls 400), during which that offspring would be wanderers, either in the land of Canaan or in Egypt.” It can thus be understood that the hardship of 400 years may be counted from Isaac’s fifth year, during which he began to be ill-treated by the son of the slave girl. COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 7.6.

7:7 | They Shall Worship God

GOD IS RICH IN WAYS TO LIFT US UP. CHRYSOSTOM: It is fitting to say here that God is rich in ways to lift us up, since the resourcefulness of God was especially clear here. For even as it suffered reverses—enslavement, maltreatment, slaughter—the nation increased. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 16.