Verse 37
37. Stoned This punishment was Jewish. We have no instance of its use recorded in the Maccabean period. But the case of Stephen really brings us down to Christian times. In the Old Testament Zachariah, the son of Jehoiada, (commemorated by our Lord Matthew 23:35; Luke 11:51,) was stoned; and tradition asserts the same of Jeremiah.
Sawn asunder Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and others say, that Isaiah underwent this death by order of King Manasseh. Jerome says, this was a “most true tradition.”
Tempted Commentators are puzzled to find so mild a word as tempted between so severe words as sawn asunder and slain. The text is not rendered questionable by any varied reading, although the word is omitted by the Syriac and some manuscripts. Scholars have variously proposed different Greek verbs resembling the Greek one in question to the amount of a dozen or so, most of them signifying were burned. Stuart suggests that the word designates the temptations so often offered in the midst of the tortures to induce them to recant. This Alford condemns, as not mitigating the difficulty. But why not? Between the severest inflictions was the very place to put the temptations that intervened. Though less severe to the flesh they were more trying to the spirit, and fraught with a more fearful danger. And this we hold to be the true solution. Finally, our author describes the martyrs as (not hermits abandoning society, but) exiles driven from among men by persecution.
Goatskins The rougher, by climax, placed last. These garments were not assumed ascetically by them, but for want of better wardrobe.
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