Acts 7:1-3 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Then said the high-priest Who was president of the council, and, as such, the mouth of the court; Are these things so? Are they as these witnesses have deposed? for thou art permitted to speak for thyself, and make thy defence. And he said Stephen had been accused of blasphemy against Moses, and even against God; and of speaking against the temple and the law, threatening that Jesus would destroy the one and change the other. In answer to this accusation, rehearsing, as it were, the articles of his historical creed, he speaks of God with high reverence, and a grateful sense of a long series of acts of goodness to the Israelites; and of Moses with great respect, on account of his important and honourable employments under God; of the temple with regard, as being built to the honour of God; yet not with such superstition as the Jews; putting them in mind, that no temple could comprehend God. And he was going on, no doubt, when he was interrupted by their clamour, to speak to the last point, the destruction of the temple, and the change of the law by Christ. The sum of his discourse is this: I acknowledge the glory of God revealed to the fathers, Acts 7:2; the calling of Moses, Acts 7:34, &c.; the dignity of the law, Acts 7:8; Acts 7:38; Acts 7:44; the holiness of this place, Acts 7:7; Acts 7:45; Acts 7:47. And, indeed, the law is more ancient than the temple; the promise more ancient than the law. For God showed himself the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their children, freely, Acts 7:2, &c., 9, &c., 17, &c., 32, 34, 45; and they showed faith and obedience to God, Acts 7:4; Acts 7:20, &c., 23; particularly by their regard for the law, Acts 7:8, and the promised land, Acts 7:16. Meantime God never confined his presence to this one place, or to the observers of the law. For he hath been acceptably worshipped, before the law was given, or the temple built, and out of this land, Acts 7:2; Acts 7:9; Acts 7:33; Acts 7:44. And that our fathers and their posterity were not tied down to this land, their various sojournings, Acts 7:4, &c., 14, 29, 44, and exile, Acts 7:43, show. But you and your fathers have always been evil, Acts 7:9; have withstood Moses, Acts 7:25, &c., 39, &c.; have despised the land, Acts 7:39; forsaken God, Acts 7:40, &c.; superstitiously honoured the temple, Acts 7:48; resisted God and his Spirit, Acts 7:50; killed the prophets, and the Messiah himself, Acts 7:51; and kept not the law, for which ye contend, Acts 7:53. therefore God is not bound to you, much less to you alone. And, truly, this solemn testimony of Stephen is most worthy of his character, as a man full of the Holy Ghost, and of faith, and power: in which, though he does not advance so many regular propositions, contradictory to those of his adversaries, yet he closely and nervously answers them all. Nor can we doubt but he would, from these premises, have drawn inferences touching the destruction of the temple, the abrogation of the Mosaic law, the punishment of that rebellious people, and, above all, touching Jesus of Nazareth, the true Messiah, had not his discourse been interrupted by the clamours of the multitude, stopping their ears and rushing upon him. Men, brethren, and fathers All who are here present, whether ye are my equals in years, or of more advanced age. The word which, in this and many other places, is rendered men, is a mere expletive. The God of glory The glorious God; appeared to Abraham before he dwelt in Charran Therefore Abraham knew God long before he was in this land. And he said, Get thee out of thy country Depart from this thy native country, which is become idolatrous; and from thy kindred Who are now alienated from my worship; and come into the land A remote land; which I shall show thee And to which, by my extraordinary interposition, I will guide thee; though at present thou dost not know even its situation, much less the way leading to it. See note on Genesis 12:2.