RSV ~ Acts 7 Notes
Acts 7:1-53 | ISB Notes
Stephen’s defense speech rehearses covenant history from Genesis to his own generation. He stresses that much of the story of Israel is a story of stubborn rebellion, highlighting the rejection of Joseph (7:9), Moses (7:27-29), the Law (7:53), the prophets (7:52), and finally Jesus the Messiah (7:52). He also undermines Jewish reverence for the land of Israel and the Temple of Jerusalem by stressing that God has shown himself present and active in other places, such as Mesopotamia (7:2), Haran (7:4), Egypt (7:9), Midian (7:29), Mt. Sinai (7:30), and the Red Sea (7:36). The speech ends with a searing indictment of the Jerusalem court (7:5152).
Acts 7:2-8 | ISB Notes
A summary of the patriarchal age of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
• The biblical backdrop is Gen 12-36. References and allusions to key events in the speech include Gen 12:1 (7:3), Gen 11:31 and 12:5 (7:4), Gen 15:13 (7:6), and Gen 17:9-14 (7:8).
Acts 7:2 | ISB Notes
Abraham: The great-grandfather of the tribal family of Israel.
Mesopotamia: Abraham hails from the ancient city of Ur (Gen 11:31), along the Euphrates River (in modern Iraq).
Acts 7:4 | ISB Notes
this land: Palestine, earlier called Canaan (Gen 12:5).
Acts 7:7 | ISB Notes
worship me in this place: A promise of the Exodus (Ex 3:12).
Acts 7:9-16 | ISB Notes
A summary of the Joseph story. It receives attention because of its anticipation of the Gospel story: both Joseph and Jesus were rejected by their kinsmen, rescued by God, and made redeemers of the family of Israel.
• The biblical backdrop is Gen 37-47. Allusions to key events are drawn from Gen 37:11, 25-28 (7:9); Gen 41:39-44 (7:10); and Gen 41:53-47:28 (7:11-15).
Acts 7:14 | ISB Notes
seventy-five souls: This figure follows the Greek versions of Gen 46:27 and Ex 1:5. The Hebrew OT counts only 70 persons in Egypt, possibly omitting the descendants of Ephraim (two sons, one grandson) and Manasseh (two sons).
Acts 7:16 | ISB Notes
Shechem: According to the Hebrew OT, the patriarchs were buried at Mach-pelah (Gen 49:29-32) near Hebron (Gen 23:19), and Joseph alone was buried at Shechem (Josh 24:32). Here Stephen follows a Samaritan tradition that locates the tombs of all the patriarchs in Shechem.
Acts 7:17-41 | ISB Notes
The central part of the speech abbreviates the story of Moses. His life prefigures the life of Jesus according to the same pattern of rejection, rescue, and redemption that also stands out in the preceding Joseph story. See note on Acts 7:9-16.
• The biblical backdrop is Ex 1-32. Allusions to key events are drawn from Ex 1-2 (7:17-29); Ex 3 (7:30-34); Ex 12-14 (7:36); Ex 19-24 (7:38); and Ex 32 (7:39-41).
Acts 7:22 | ISB Notes
wisdom of the Egyptians: The Egyptian education of Moses is unmentioned in the OT but part of Jewish tradition, possibly as an inference from his upbringing in the royal house of Pharaoh (Ex 2:10). Contemporary Jewish writers, such as Josephus and Philo, praise him as a man of great learning. mighty …
words and deeds: One of the many ways that Moses prefigures Jesus (Lk 24:19).
Acts 7:23 | ISB Notes
forty years old: Moses ultimately lived to be 120 years old (Deut 34:7), which Stephen breaks down into three equal periods of 40 years (7:23, 30, 36).
Acts 7:37 | ISB Notes
God will raise up: A direct quote from Deut 18:15. See note on Acts 3:22.
Acts 7:39 | ISB Notes
they turned to Egypt: The generation of Israel liberated from Egypt remained slaves of the idols they had worshiped during their stay (Josh 24:14; Ezek 20:7-8).
Acts 7:41 | ISB Notes
they made a calf: Worship of the golden calf was the original sin of the nation of Israel, a sin that led to repeated idolatry.
• Literary analysis of the Pentateuch suggests the calf episode in Ex 32 was a pivotal event that made necessary what Yahweh never desired for his people in the first place—a sanctuary cult of continuous animal sacrifice. It was this act of apostasy that called forth an entire body of sacrificial laws and liturgies (Exodus, Leviticus) as a means of ordering the worship of Israel toward Yahweh and eradicating idolatry from the heart of the nation. Several OT texts stress that the ritual laws of the Temple are laws of secondary importance in the eyes of God (1 Sam 15:22; Ps 40:6-8; Jer 7:22-23; Hos 6:6). See note on Mk 12:33.
Acts 7:42 | ISB Notes
gave them over: A dreaded form of divine punishment. When God surrenders sinners over to their wickedness, as he did with the Exodus generation of Israel, he allows them to follow a path that leads to destruction without deterrence or merciful restraint. The same mystery of divine discipline is described by Paul in Rom 1:24, 26, 28.
Acts 7:42-43 | ISB Notes
Stephen quotes a Greek rendition of Amos 5:25-27.
• The oracle looks back on the idolatry of Israel during the Exodus and looks forward to the exile of northern Israel for the same sin. This tragic history repeats itself in the present context: Stephen is about to warn Jerusalem that its excessive reverence for the Temple also crosses the line of idolatry.
Acts 7:46 | ISB Notes
habitation … God of Jacob: Allusions to the Greek version of Ps 132:5.
Acts 7:48 | ISB Notes
made with hands: A subversive description of the Temple (Mk 14:58) that compares it with a handmade idol (7:41). Every occurrence of this expression in the Greek OT is associated with idols and idolatry (Lev 26:1; Wis 14:8; Dan 5:23, etc.).
• Israel is charged with failing to grasp what Solomon himself understood when he built the first Temple— that no earthly sanctuary could contain the Most High God (1 Kings 8:27). Centuries of devotion to the Temple led to a false perception of God and an exaggerated emphasis on the sacredness of the building itself.
Acts 7:49-50 | ISB Notes
A citation of Is 66:1-2.
• Yahweh rebukes the Israelites for their overattachment to the Temple and their presumptuous attitude toward its services. The Israelites had forgotten that the architectural Temple in Jerusalem was only a man-made structure, far outmatched by the macrotemple of heaven and earth that God had erected with his own hand (Ps 102:25). Stephen uses the text to draw a sharp contrast between the creative hand of God (7:50) and the corrupting hands of men (7:41, 48).
Acts 7:51 | ISB Notes
stiff-necked … resist the Holy Spirit: Stephen links his accusers with the long line of sinners from covenant history.
• The same charges were leveled against the generation of Israel that came out of Egypt (Ex 33:5; Is 63:10).
Acts 7:52 | ISB Notes
the Righteous One: Jesus, described as the Suffering Servant from Is 53:11. .
Acts 7:53 | ISB Notes
delivered by angels: Jewish tradition based on the Greek version of Deut 33:2 held that angels delivered the Torah to Moses on Mt. Sinai (Gal 3:19; CCC 332).
Acts 7:56 | ISB Notes
the Son of ma
n: Jesus, depicted as the messianic king from Dan 7:13. Though normally seated upon his throne, he stands up to give Stephen a royal welcome into his kingdom. See essay: Jesus, the Son of Man at Lk 17.
Acts 7:58 | ISB Notes
stoned him: A crude means of execution always staged outside Israelite camps and cities (Num 15:35). Although the Sanhedrin was formally prohibited from admin
istering this and other forms of capital punishment under Roman rule (Jn 18:31), the enraged mob took matters into their own hands. See note on Acts 6:8-7:60. Saul: The initial appearance of Saul prepares for his prominent role later in the book as Paul the Apostle. By ancient standards, he was a young man between 24 and 40 years old.