Acts 7:51-8:1

The Pulpit Commentary - Acts 7:51-60

Illustrations. We have some of the best and one of the worst things illustrated in this passage. I. FAITHFULNESS FINDING UTTERANCE IN VEHEMENT REPROACH . ( Acts 7:51-53 .) Stirred (as we suppose) by the impatient interruptions of the senators, who at this point showed themselves unwilling to listen, Stephen rebuked them in the strong and stringent language of the text. They who imagined themselves to be "the cream of the cream," the very best specimens of the holiest... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Acts 7:51

Ye stiff-necked - The discourse of Stephen has every appearance of having been interrupted by the clamors and opposition of the Sanhedrin. This verse has no immediate connection with what precedes, and appears to have been spoken in the midst of opposition and clamor. If we may conjecture in this case, it would seem that the Jews saw the drift of his argument; that they interrupted him; and that when the tumult had somewhat subsided, he addressed them in the language of this verse, showing them... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Acts 7:51-53

Acts 7:51-53. Ye stiff-necked, &c. Stephen, finding by a confused murmur in the place that they understood whither his discourse tended, and perceiving by the eagerness of their countenances that they would soon interrupt him, applied himself more closely to his persecutors in these remarkable words, which he boldly addressed to them under the influence of the Holy Spirit, by whose direction he spoke; Ye stiff-necked Inflexible and obstinate sinners, not bowing your necks to God’s... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Acts 7:1-60

Stephen before the Sanhedrin (7:1-60)The defence that Stephen made before the Sanhedrin was not designed to win its approval. He outlined Israel’s history to demonstrate two main points. First, God had never shown himself to be limited to one dwelling place, or even one locality (therefore the Jews were mistaken in attaching such importance to the temple in Jerusalem). Second, the people of Israel had always rejected the messengers of God (therefore their rejection of the Messiah Jesus was not... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Acts 7:51

stiffrieoked. Greek. sklerotrachelos. Only here in NT., but in Sept, in Exodus 33:3 , Exodus 33:5 ; Exo 33:34 , Exodus 33:9 . Deuteronomy 9:6 , Deuteronomy 9:13 . Compare Deuteronomy 31:27 . 2 Chronicles 30:8 . Proverbs 29:1 . This is an instance of Figure of speech Ecphonesis. App-6 . uncircumcised. Greek. aperitmetos. Only here. resist = fall against. Greek. antipipto. Only here. the Holy Ghost. App-101 . This verse is quoted in support of the idea that men can successfully withstand... read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Acts 7:51

Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? and they killed them that showed before of the coming of the Righteous One: of whom ye now have become betrayers and murderers; ye who received the law as it was ordained by angels, and kept it not.This pronouncement was not an outburst of temper on the part of Stephen, but the announcement of God's judgment upon evil men... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Acts 7:51-53

Acts 7:51-53. Ye stiff-necked, &c.— "Thus have I given you a brief account of the various periods of revelation, or the several dispensations of God to man, from the time in which Abraham, our renowned ancestor, was called out of idolatry to the knowledge of the true God, unto this very day when the kingdom of the Messiah has begun to take place—that seed of Abraham, in whom all the nations of the earth are to be blessed. And what I would have you understand by all that has been said, is... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Acts 7:51

51-53. Ye stiffnecked . . . ye do always resist the Holy Ghost, &c.—It has been thought that symptoms of impatience and irritation in the audience induced Stephen to cut short his historical sketch. But as little farther light could have been thrown upon Israel's obstinacy from subsequent periods of the national history on the testimony of their own Scriptures, we should view this as the summing up, the brief import of the whole Israelitish history—grossness of heart, spiritual deafness,... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Acts 7:2-53

2. Stephen’s address 7:2-53As a Hellenistic Jew, Stephen possessed a clearer vision of the universal implications of the gospel than did most of the Hebraic Jews. It was this breadth of vision that drew attack from the more temple-bound Jews in Jerusalem and led to his arrest. His address was not a personal defense designed to secure his acquittal by the Sanhedrin. It was instead an apologetic for the new way of worship that Jesus taught and His followers embraced."On the surface it appears to... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Acts 7:51

By rejecting Jesus the Sanhedrin was doing just what their forefathers had done in rejecting God’s other anointed servants, such as Joseph and Moses. They were "stiff-necked," a figure of speech for self-willed. Moses used this expression to describe the Israelites when they rebelled against God and worshipped the golden calf (cf. Exodus 33:5; Deuteronomy 9:13). While Stephen’s hearers had undergone physical circumcision, and were proud of it, they were uncircumcised in their affections and... read more

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