Acts 7:54-56 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible - Bible Study & Commentary

Verses 54-56

Acts 7:54 to Acts 8:1 a . Death of Stephen.— The speech of Stephen cuts the hearers to the quick. It is not said that they interrupted him; the speech is complete, but their apparent and vehement anger showed him that the last had come; they were no longer masters of themselves. We have no longer a judicial investigation before us but a tumultuous attack. Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, sees a vision ( Acts 7:55), as is recorded of many martyrs. He sees the glory of God ( cf. Acts 7:2) and Jesus standing (? to receive His servant; generally sitting, Mark 14:62, Matthew 26:64, Luke 22:69, Mark 16:19). At this their anger broke out, and they are hurried into a violent and illegal action. The punishment inflicted is that for blasphemy; in decreeing it they forget all forms of law, but in the execution of it they observe the precept of Leviticus 24:14, and hurry the condemned person outside the town. Saul is introduced ( Acts 7:58) as sharing the responsibility of the act. In Acts 7:59-1 Peter :, the story is narrated over again for the sake of the words of the martyr ( cf. Luke 23:34; Luke 23:46), and another account of his death is given, ending with the statement of Saul’ s complicity.

Acts 7:54 . gnashed: Psalms 35:16; Psalms 112:10.

Acts 7:56 . Son of man: i.e. Jesus as judge ( Mark 14:62).

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Arthur Peake

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Arthur Samuel Peake (1865-1929) was an English biblical scholar, born at Leek, Staffordshire, and educated at St John's College, Oxford. He was the first holder of the Rylands Chair of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the University of Manchester, from its establishment as an independent institution in 1904. He was thus the first non-Anglican to become a professor of divinity in an English university.In 1890-92 he was a lecturer at Mansfield College, Oxford, and from 1890 to 1897 held a fellowship at Merton College.In 1892, however, he was invited to become tutor at the Primitive Methodist Theological Institute in Manchester, which was renamed Hartley College in 1906. He was largely responsible for broadening the curriculum which intending Primitive Methodist ministers were required to follow, and for raising the standards of the training.In 1895-1912 he served as lecturer in the Lancashire Independent College, from 1904 to 1912 also in the United Methodist College at Manchester. In 1904 he was appointed Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the (Victoria) University of Manchester. (This chair was in the Faculty of Theology established in that year; it was renamed "Rylands Professor, etc." in 1909.)Peake was also active as a layman in wider Methodist circles, and did a great deal to further the reunion of Methodism which took effect in 1932, three years after his death. In the wider ecumenical sphere Peake worked for the National Council of Evangelical Free Churches, serving as president in 1928, and was a member of the World Conference on Faith and Order held in Lausanne in 1927. He published and lectured extensively, but is best remembered for his one-volume commentary on the Bible (1919), which, in its revised form, is still in use.The University of Aberdeen made him an honorary D. D. in 1907. He was a governor of the John Rylands Library.... Show more

First published in 1919, Peake's commentary of the bible was a one-volume commentary that gave special attention to Biblical archaeology and the then-recent discoveries of biblical manuscripts. Biblical quotations in this edition were from the Revised Version of the Bible.... Show more

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