Atos 7

¹ ThenSteven is allowed to plead his cause, but for this reason and purpose, that under a disguise and pretence of the Law he might be condemned.said the high priest, Are these things so?

² Steven witnesses to the Jews that he acknowledges the true fathers, and the only true God, and more than this shows this that these are more ancient than the temple and all the temple service appointed by the Law, and therefore they ought to lay another foundation of true religion, that is to say, the free covenant that God made with the fathers.And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God ofThe mighty God full of glory and majesty.glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was inWhen he says afterwards in (Act_7:4) that Abraham came out of Chaldea, it is evident that Mesopotamia contained Chaldea which was near to it, and bordered upon it; and so writes Plinius, book 6, chap. 27.Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,

³ And said vnto him, Come out of thy countrey, and from thy kindred, and come into the land, which I shall shewe thee.

⁴ Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran; after that his father was dead, God brought him from thence into this land, wherein ye now dwell,

⁵ And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not [so much as] toNot enough ground to even set his foot upon.set his foot on: yet heThe promise of the possession was certain, and belonged to Abraham, though it was his posterity that enjoyed it a great while after his death: and this is the figure of speech synecdoche.promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when [as yet] he had no child.

⁶ And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat [them] evilFour hundred years are counted from the beginning of Abraham's progeny, which was at the birth of Isaac: and four hundred and thirty years which are spoken of by Paul in (Gal_3:17), from the time that Abraham and his father departed together out of Ur of the Chaldeans.four hundred years.

⁷ But the nation to whome they shall be in bondage, will I iudge, sayth God: and after that, they shall come forth and serue me in this place.

⁸ Hee gaue him also the couenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begate Isaac, and circumcised him the eight day: and Isaac begate Iacob, and Iacob the twelue Patriarkes.

⁹ Steven diligently recounts the horrible misdeeds of some of the fathers, to teach the Jews that they ought not rashly to rest in the authority or examples of the fathers.And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God wasBy these words are meant the peculiar favour that God shows men: for he seems to be away from those whom he does not help: and on the other hand, he is with those whom he delivers out of troubles, no matter how great the troubles may be.with him,

¹⁰ And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave himGave him favour in Pharaoh's sight because of his wisdom.favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

¹¹ Then came there a famine ouer all the land of Egypt and Chanaan, and great affliction, that our fathers found no sustenance.

¹² But when Iacob heard that there was corne in Egypt, he sent our fathers first:

¹³ And at the second time, Ioseph was knowen of his brethren, and Iosephs kindred was made knowen vnto Pharao.

¹⁴ Then sent Ioseph and caused his father to be brought, and all his kindred, euen threescore and fifteene soules.

¹⁵ So Iacob went downe into Egypt, and he dyed, and our fathers,

¹⁶ And wereThe patriarchs who were the sons of Jacob, though only Joseph is mentioned; (Jos_24:32).carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor [the father] of Sychem.

¹⁷ But when the time of the promes drewe neere, which God had sworne to Abraham, the people grewe and multiplied in Egypt,

¹⁸ Till another King arose, which knewe not Ioseph.

¹⁹ The sameHe devised a subtle plan against our stock, in that he commanded all the males to be cast out.dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live.

²⁰ In which time Moses was born, and wasThis child was born through God's merciful goodness and favour, to be of a lovely and fair countenance.exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father's house three months:

²¹ And when he was cast out, Pharaos daughter tooke him vp, and nourished him for her owne sonne.

²² And Moses was learned in all the wisdome of the Egyptians, and was mightie in wordes and in deedes.

²³ Nowe when he was full fourtie yeere olde, it came into his heart to visite his brethren, the children of Israel.

²⁴ And whe he saw one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, & auenged his quarell that had the harme done to him, and smote the Egyptian.

²⁵ For hee supposed his brethren would haue vnderstand, that God by his hande should giue them deliuerance: but they vnderstoode it not.

²⁶ And the next day, he shewed himselfe vnto them as they stroue, and woulde haue set them at one againe, saying, Syrs, ye are brethren: why doe ye wrong one to another?

²⁷ But he that did his neighbour wrong, thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a prince, and a iudge ouer vs?

²⁸ Wilt thou kill mee, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday?

²⁹ Then fled Moses at that saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begate two sonnes.

³⁰ And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina anNow, he calls the Son of God an angel, for he is the angel of great counsel, and therefore immediately after he describes him as saying to Moses, «I am the God of thy fathers, etc.»angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.

³¹ And when Moses sawe it, hee wondred at the sight: and as he drew neere to consider it, the voyce of the Lord came vnto him, saying,

³² I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Iacob. Then Moses trembled, & durst not behold it.

³³ Then the Lord said to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feete: for the place where thou standest, is holy ground.

³⁴ I haue seene, I haue seene the affliction of my people, which is in Egypt, & I haue heard their groning, and am come downe to deliuer them: and nowe come, and I will sende thee into Egypt.

³⁵ This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send [to be] a ruler and a deliverer by theBy the power.hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.

³⁶ Hee brought them out, doing wonders, and miracles in the land of Egypt, and in the red sea, and in the wildernes fourtie yeeres.

³⁷ He acknowledges Moses as the Lawgiver, but in such a way that he proves by his own witness that the Law had respect to a more perfect thing, that is to say, to the prophetical office which accompanied Christ, the head of all Prophets.This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.

³⁸ This is he that was in the Congregation, in the wildernes with the Angell, which spake to him in mount Sina, and with our fathers, who receiued the liuely oracles to giue vnto vs.

³⁹ To whom our fathers would not obey, but refused, and in their hearts turned backe againe into Egypt:

⁴⁰ Saying vnto Aaron, Make vs gods that may goe before vs: for we knowe not what is become of this Moses that brought vs out of the land of Egypt.

⁴¹ And they made aThis was the superstition of the Egyptian's idolatry: for they worshipped Apis, a strange and marvellous looking calf, and made beautiful images of cows.calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.

⁴² Then God turned, andBeing destitute and void of his Spirit, he gave them up to Satan, and wicked lusts, to worship stars.gave them up to worship theBy «the host of heaven» here he does not mean the angels, but the moon, and sun, and other stars.host of heaven; as it is written 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, yeYou took it upon your shoulders and carried it.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.

⁴⁴ Moses indeed erected a tabernacle, but that was to call them back to the one whom he had seen on the mountain.Our fathers had the tabernacle ofThat is, of the covenant.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 afterDelivered from hand to hand.brought in with Jesus into theThis is said using the figure of speech metonymy, and refers to the countries which the Gentiles possessed.possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave outGod drove them out that they should yield up the possession of those countries to our fathers when they entered into the land.before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David;

⁴⁶ Who found fauour before God, and desired that hee might finde a tabernacle for the God of Iacob.

⁴⁷ Solomon built a temple according to God's commandment, but not under any condition that the majesty of God should be enclosed within it.But Solomon built him an house.

⁴⁸ Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with handes, as saith the Prophet,

⁴⁹ Heauen is my throne, and earth is my footestoole: what house wil ye build for me, saith the Lord? or what place is it that I should rest in?

⁵⁰ Hath not mine hand made all these things?

⁵¹ Steven, moved with the zeal of God, at length judges his own judges.Ye stiffnecked andThey are of uncircumcised hearts who still lie drowned in the sins of nature, and are stuck fast in them: for otherwise all the Jews were circumcised with regard to the flesh, and therefore there are two kinds of circumcision; (Rom_2:28-29).uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers [did], so [do] ye.

⁵² Which of the Prophets haue not your fathers persecuted? & they haue slaine them, which shewed before of the comming of that Iust, of whome ye are now the betrayers and murtherers,

⁵³ Who have received the law by theBy the ministry of angels.disposition of angels, and have not kept [it].

⁵⁴ The more Satan is pressed, the more he breaks out into an open rage.When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with [their] teeth.

⁵⁵ The nearer that martyrs approach to death, the nearer that they rise up, even into heaven, as they behold Christ.But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and JesusReady to affirm him in the confession of the truth, and to receive him unto himself.standing on the right hand of God,

⁵⁶ And said, Beholde, I see the heauens open, and the Sonne of man standing at the right hand of God.

⁵⁷ The zeal of hypocrites and superstitious people eventually breaks out into a most open madness.Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, andThis was done in a rage and fury, for at that time the Jews could put no man to death by law, as they confessed before Pilate saying that it was no lawful for them to put any man to death, and therefore it is reported by Josephus that Ananus, a Sadducee, slew James the brother of the Lord, and for so doing was accused before Albinus, the president of the country; lib. 20.ran upon him with one accord,

⁵⁸ And cast [him] out of the city, and stoned [him]: and theIt was appointed by the Law that the witnesses should cast the first stones; (Deu_17:7).witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.

⁵⁹ And they stoned Steuen, who called on God, and said, Lord Iesus, receiue my spirit.

⁶⁰ Faith and charity never forsake the true servants of God, even to the last breath.And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord,The word which he uses here refers to a type of imputing or laying to one's charge that remains firm and steady forever, never to be remitted.lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, heSee (1Th_4:13).fell asleep.