ACC ~ Acts 7 v9 - 16

OVERVIEW:

The God of Abraham works through the process of victimization and makes the victims, those sold into slavery, those persecuted, hated and despised, the ones he exalts and through whom he works to bring about the salvation of all who are willing to repent and be reconciled (CHRYSOSTOM). The many manifestations of this through Israel’s history are complex, but the general pattern is what Stephen is attempting to convey to his audience (BEDE).

7:10 | God Rescued Joseph

AUTHORS OF SALVATION. CHRYSOSTOM: See how it demonstrates what Gamaliel said, “If it comes from God, you will not be able to destroy it.” See how the victims of plots became the authors of salvation to those plotting against them; how the word, plotting against itself and itself plotted against by others, was saved for all this. The famine did not destroy them. And not only that, but they were saved through him who was expected to perish. The royal edict did not destroy them. Their number at that time rather increased, because he died, the one who knew them. Their savior they wished to kill, but for all that, they had not the power to do it. Do you see how by the very means the devil tries to break the promise of God, the promise is increased? HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 16.

THE SLAVE REIGNS AS A KING. CHRYSOSTOM: Thus even the one who was sold as slave, he makes him reign as a king in the place where he was considered a slave. Just as Christ also in death shows his power, so he reigns there, where they sold him. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 16.

7:14 | Joseph Called Jacob

SEVENTY-FIVE SOULS. BEDE: In his discourse he [Stephen] followed the Septuagint. In the original Hebrew, however, we find only seventy souls. Even if you should wish to count up the same lineage of souls in Genesis, you would find only seventy souls, even with the addition of Jacob himself, and Joseph with his two sons who were in Egypt. COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 7.14.

7:15 | Jacob Went to Egypt

HIS BONES WERE TRANSFERRED TO SHECHEM. BEDE: In fact, it is only of Joseph that Scripture reports his bones being transferred from Egypt and buried in Shechem. However, from these words of the blessed Stephen and from the writings of Jerome, who was a resident of these very places, it is to be observed that other patriarchs were also buried in the same place, although the memory of Joseph is rightly held more famous, since it was he who commanded that this be done with his bones, and it is to his tribe that this city belonged. Indeed, in his history of the blessed Paula, Jerome reports thus, “She passed through Shechem (not Sychar as many erroneously read), which is now named Neapolis, and she entered the church built on the side of Mount Garizim, in the neighborhood of Jacob’s well, upon which the Lord sat.” And a little further on he says, “And turning away from there, she saw the tombs of the twelve patriarchs.” Likewise, in his [Jerome’s] book on the best sort of translating, “But the twelve patriarchs are not buried in Arboc but in Shechem.” COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 7.15.

7:16 | Carried Back to Shechem

BY THE LAW HE PREACHED CHRIST. BEDE: Truly when speaking to the populace the blessed Stephen followed the popular opinion in his discourse. In conflating the two accounts he concentrated less on the arrangement of the historical details than on the point with which he was concerned. For this man, who was accused of teaching against the holy place and the law, proceeded to show how it might be demonstrated from the law that Jesus Christ was the promised one and that they [the Jews] had been unwilling to be subject to Moses then, and they were unwilling to be subject to the Lord now. I have given the best explanation that I can, not [intending to] pass judgment in advance on a better opinion, if there should be one. Furthermore, the phrase “from the sons of Hamor, the son of Shechem” in the Greek exemplar is written “from the sons of Hamor, who was in Shechem.” This seems to be more in accord with the history in Genesis, although it could have been the case that the same Hamor had both a father and a son named Shechem. COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 7.16.