And when there was an assault made both of the Gentiles, and also of the Jews with their rulers, to use them despitefully, and to stone them,
Ver. 5. And to stone them] Stephen had the maidenhead of this kind of death: as that martyr, who was threatened with whipping, wished that he might have the maidenhead of that kind of suffering (for he had not heard of any that had been so served): and as Basil, threatened by Valens with death, cried out, ειθε γενοιτο μοι, I would it might be so.