ago.lnet Stephen, this muet ho.ve me.de his h_ietrnments or ministers of its promulga- words doubly outling to them. Unoi.roum- t10n. And it is also distinctly referred to in oised in heart; a.1r,pl-rµ1rro, only ocoure here ~en~. xxxiii. 2, where the LXX. read, " On in the New Testament, but it is found in 2 his nght hand the angels we,·e with him." Maco. i. 51; ii. 46; and in the LXX. of Exod. In the foregoing verses the application which xii. 48; Judg. xiv. 3; 1 Sam. xvii. 26, and Stephen bad all throuah been oontemplatincr el~ewhere for the Hebrew ~,jl. The word, is hurled with accu;;;ulated force nt th: in its application to hie J~~ieh audience, consciences of his hearers, and cuts them contains o. whole volume of rebuke. They to the heart, but does not brio"" 0 them to prided themselves on their circumcision, repen tanee. they trusted in it as a sure ground of favour Ver.54.-Now when foriohen,A.V. They in the sight of God; but o.11 the while they were cut to the heart (see eh. v. 33 and were on a level with the heathen whom they notes). despised, and were to be reckoned among Ver. 5~.-I.o~~ed up stedfastly (a.-r,vf.,-cis); the uncircumcised whom they loathed. For see eh. v1. 15; m. 4, and note. The glory of they were without the true circumcision, God; i.e. the visible glory which surrounds that of the heart. Here again Stephen was and proclaims God's near presence (see Exocl. teaching in the exact spirit and even words x.xiv.10,16,17; Isa.vi.1-3; Ezek. i.28; of Moses and the propliets. See Lev. x:.xvi. Rev. xxi. 14, 23, etc.). JeSllS standing. 41 ; Deut. x. 16 (where Stephen's two re- Sitting at the right hand of God is the usual proached occur together) ; J er. ix. 26 ; Ezek. attitude ascribed to our Lord in token of his xliv. 7; nnd many other passages. Compare victorious rest, and waiting for the day of the teaching of St. Paul (Rom. ii. 28, 29; judgment. Here he is seen standing, as Phil. iii. 2, 3; Col. ii. 11; and elsewhere). rising to welcome his faithful martyr, and Ver. 52.-Did not . . . persecute for haf!e to place on his head the crown of life (Rev. not . . • persecuted, A.V.; killed for have ii. 10). Whether Stephen saw these glorious slain, A.V.; righteous for jmt, A.V.; hafle things in the flesh or out of the flesh he now become for hafle been now, A.V.; betrayer, probably knew not himself. for the betrayers, A.V. The close resemblance of Stephen's words to those of our Lord Ver. 56.-The Son of man. Otll Lord's rscorded in Luke xiii 33, 34; Matt. v. 12 ; usual designation of himself (see Matt. xxiii. 30, 31, 34-37, lend some support to viii 10 ; x:.xvL 64 ; etc. ; and also Dan. vii. the trndition that he was one of the seventy, 13), but nowhere but here spoken of Jesus and had heard the Lord speak them. But by any other.• the resemblance may have arisen from the Ver. 57.-But for then, A.V,; rushed for Spirit by which he spake, "the Spirit of ran, A.V. (tf,pµ71.,-CU1). Christ whioh was in" him. Ver. 58.-They cast for cast,A.V.; garment, Ver. 53.-Ye who received for who haT1e for clothes, A.V. ; the feet of a young man for received, A.V.; a, it waa ordained by angel, a young man', feet, A.V.; named Saul for for by tl,e disposition of angels, A. V. ; kept it whose name was Saul, A.V. They cast. not for have not kept it, A.V. Ordained by We have here the identical phrase of Luke angels. This phrase, thus differently iv. 29. The witnesses. .According to Deut. rendered (,l, 81ci-rci-y?t., U'Y')'<Aow), is one of xvii. 7, "the hands of the witnesses were to extreme difficulty: 8,ci-rci;/4 means properly be first upon" the idolnter "to put him to "appointment," or "ordinance," ns in Rom. death." They took off their clothes, their xiii. 2; and .1,, which has a great variety of outer garments, so ns to be free to hurl the uses in the Greek of the New Testament, stones at their victim with grenter force. means "at," or "upon," or "on the occasion The feet of a young man. The word v,c,v/cis of," ns Mutt. xii. 41, "At the preaching of is found only here and in eh. u. 9 ; xxiii. 17, Jonah." So here they received the Law 18, 22; and frequently iu the LXX. for th11 "at" or "on the occasion of," the "order- Hebrew ,31 ~- A man might be called a vu,.,/.,. ing'' or "appointing" of angels. When the probably to the age of thirty. Tbisappearnnce angels, who were commissioned by God and of Saul upon the stage of St. Luke's narro.tivb spoke in his Name, gave the Law, the is an element which will soon change the Israelites so received it. The A.V., "by whole current of the narrative, und divert it the disposition of angels," very nearly ex- from Jerusalem to the whole earth, Nothing presses the true sense. Another sense of Ei, can be more striking than this introduotion -" in view of" ~mes to nearly the same of the young man Sa.ul to onr view 11s nn thing. St. Paul speaks of the part taken o.ccomplice (n.lbeit "ignorantly in unbelief") by the angels in the giving of the Law, and in the martyrdom of Stephen. Who tho.t in lo.nguage strikingly resembling the text. stood there nnd sew him keeping the clothts He says of it, that it was "ordained through of the witnesses would ha.ve imagined tho.1 ['by,' A.V.J angels." God ordained or appointed tlle li•w, but the angela were the • Bev. i. 13 ii soarcely an. ~ceptioq, 222 THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES. [OH, VIL 1-80,
he would beoome t.he foremost apostle of the pare again Luke :u:UI, 46, and with faith which he sought to destroy from off the Stephen's prayer, Lord, lay not this sin to their face of the earth? oharge, oompo.re Luke xxiii. 34. He fell Ver. 5~.-The Lord (in itAlios) for God asleep. Blessed rest after life's toilsome day I (in itnlics), A.V. The A.V. is certainly not Blessed contrast with the tumult of po.ssion justified by the context, beoouse the words and violence which brought him down to whfoh foll0w, "Lord Jesus," show to whom the grave I How near, too, in hie dying the iovooation wo.s made. even to him whom was thllt likeness to his Lord ndmnccrl he saw flt.anding nt t.he right h1md of God. which shall be perfected at his appenrin; At the same time, the request, Receive my (I John iii. 1) I "Blessed are the dead spirit, wllS a striking nck11ow ledgment of which die iu the Lord, ... tho.t they may the divinity of Christ. Only he who gave rest from their labours, and their works do the spirit coul<i receive it back again, and follow them." St. Augustine (' Sermone in keop it safe unto the resurrection. Compare Festa Sti. Stephani ; ' Conybeare and How- "Father, into thy hands I oommend my son, vol. i. p. 82) attributes Saul's conversion spirit" (Luke rxiii. 46). to the prayer of Stephen: "Si Stepho.nne Ver. 60.~Cried with a loud Toioa. Com- non orasset, Ecolesie. Po.ulum non ho.beret."