Verse 60
And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.
The similarity of the Greek New Testament in this verse and Acts 7:58 where it is related that the garments were placed in Saul's charge has led to the conclusion that Stephen had Saul in mind in this prayer.
He kneeled down ... This Stephen did that he might die in an attitude of prayer and as a servant of the beloved Master.
Lay not this sin ... As Clarke commented:
Christ gave what some have supposed to be an impossible command: "Love your enemies; pray for them that despitefully use, and persecute you." But Stephen shows here in his own person how practicable the grace of his Master had made this sublime precept.[22]
He fell asleep ... Taking their cue from what Jesus had said regarding the sleep of Lazarus and that of the daughter of Jairus, the Christians quickly adopted this euphemism for death. It is not so much the superficial resemblances between ordinary sleep and the sleep of death, but the pledge of the resurrection which illuminates this beloved metaphor. Upon the gravestones of two millennia, the believing community of the saints in Christ have engraved upon the tombs of their beloved dead the sacred words, "Asleep in Jesus!"
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