Chapter 7

Acts 7:1–6. Then the high priest said, ‘Are these things so?’ And he said: ‘Men, brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, “Go forth from your land and from your kindred, and come into the land which I will show you.” Then he went forth from the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, after his father died, He removed him into this land, in which you now dwell. And He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s step; yet He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child. And God spoke thus: that his seed should be a sojourner in a strange land, and that they would enslave it and ill-treat it four hundred years. “And the nation to which they shall be in bondage I will judge,” said God.’ They themselves committed blasphemous deeds without a thought, yet charged him with words of blasphemy; and Moses was always the matter set before them, since they cared not so much for the things of God as for the ordinances of Moses. But Stephen from the very outset undermines their high opinion, and establishes that neither the temple nor the customs amount to anything, that they will not prevail over the preaching, and that God makes what is difficult and impossible into something easy and feasible. Observe, then, the indictment woven through these words: that having ever enjoyed God’s love for mankind, they repaid their Benefactor with the opposite, and that they attempt the impossible. He shows also that the promise was given before this land, before circumcision, before sacrifice, before the temple; and that they received it not according to merit, neither circumcision nor law, but the land was only the wage of obedience; and that even when circumcision had been given, the promise was not yet fulfilled, and that these things were figures. And rightly, at the beginning, does he call Him ‘the God of glory,’ since He made glorious those who were dishonored. He says also that there was as yet no temple, and Abraham was counted worthy of a divine vision; that he had Persians for his forebears and dwelt in a foreign land. Observe how he leads them away from sensible things, beginning for now from the place, since the discourse too was about a place. And if God is the God of glory, He has no need of the glory that comes from you through the temple, for He Himself is the fountain of glory and of all good things. ‘Go forth from your land and from your kindred.’ How is it that Scripture says Abraham’s father willed to go forth, while here it says that to Abraham it was said, ‘Go forth from your land’? From this we learn that it was from the vision which came to Abraham that his father too was moved and willed to go forth from the land of the Chaldeans. And through this Stephen shows that these men are not children of Abraham; for he was obedient, leaving both fatherland and kindred, while they are disobedient. ‘And He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s step.’ Observe how he leads them up from the land. Why did the Lord not give it? Because it was a figure of another land; ‘and He promised to give it to him.’ Do you see that he again takes it up not without purpose? He does not say ‘He gave,’ but ‘He promised to give.’ If Abraham was a sojourner and a stranger, and after a little while was to depart, how could he possess this land? So then the inheritance is preserved for Abraham through his seed, which is Christ, when the saints also shall reign together with Him, according to that which is written: ‘When the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father,’ reigning over all the nations. ‘And to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.’ Again he hints at the power of God, which makes possible what is impracticable; for He said He would make him who was in Persia, and at so great a distance, lord of Palestine. And great here is shown both the love of God for man and the faith of Abraham; for the phrase ‘when he had no child’ shows his obedience and faith, although what was then happening persuaded him to suppose the contrary; for after he came he had not a foot’s step, nor afterward did he have it. ‘And God spoke thus, that his seed should be a sojourner in a strange land.’ Observe before how many years the promise was given, and the figure of the promise, and nowhere a sacrifice, nowhere circumcision. And through these things he shows how God allowed the Israelites to suffer evil, though He had nothing to charge against them. ‘And they shall enslave it and ill-treat it four hundred years.’ What is written in Exodus does not contradict this place. For there it is said, ‘After four hundred and thirty years the host of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt’; but here he says ‘about four hundred.’ We must bear in mind that it was not said ‘they went out when the four hundred years were fulfilled,’ but ‘after four hundred years,’ which does not exclude the remaining thirty: twenty-five years from Abraham’s seventy-fifth to his hundredth; sixty years of Isaac; ninety-one years of Jacob; one hundred and ten years of Joseph; one hundred and forty-four years in Egypt—together four hundred and thirty years. And he says, ‘and they shall ill-treat it four hundred years, and after these things they shall come out and serve Me,’ the ‘after these things’ signifying also those thirty years. ‘And the nation to which they shall be in bondage I will judge,’ said God. Nor did those who maltreated them do so unpunished; for indeed the Jews endured a bitter and heavy slavery, since the Egyptians regarded them not as slaves but as enemies and foes.

Acts 7:7–16. ‘And after these things they shall come out and serve Me in this place.’ And He gave him a covenant of circumcision; and so he begot Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs. And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt; but God was with him, and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh king of Egypt, who made him governor over Egypt and over all his house. Now there came a famine over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction; and our fathers found no sustenance. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. And Joseph sent and called for his father Jacob and all his kindred, seventy-five souls. And Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, himself and our fathers; and they were carried over to Shechem, and laid in the tomb which Abraham bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor of Shechem. To the later ones He grants the things promised, to the earlier ones the evils. Circumcision of the foreskin was enjoined upon the fathers for this reason: since Abraham departed from the land of the Chaldeans, and to the Chaldeans—as also to the Medes and Persians—it was permitted, by their ancestral customs, to have intercourse with mothers and sisters, for this cause he is circumcised in the flesh of the foreskin, renouncing the kinship of the flesh and refusing the unlawful marriages of close kindred. But others say that circumcision was enjoined upon Abraham and his descendants for this reason: that it might be manifest that from them Christ would come according to the flesh. For we know that circumcision in the flesh, performed of old as a figure, held the image of saving baptism, signifying through the casting off of the foreskin the renunciation of birth according to the flesh, and making those circumcised sons of God. ‘And he circumcised him on the eighth day.’ First Isaac is circumcised on the eighth day, whence the Jews also are circumcised on the eighth day; but Ishmael is circumcised being thirteen years old, and therefore his descendants the Ishmaelites are circumcised likewise in the thirteenth year, as Josephus says. ‘They sold him into Egypt.’ Having nothing to charge against their brother, yet when he had come to them with food for them, they dealt evilly with him; and without knowing it they cooperated with the prophecy, becoming the cause of his welfare even against their will—though after many trials for him—having brought upon themselves great fear and unbearable shame; while Joseph, bearing it without remembrance of wrong, did nothing dreadful against them, but even nourished them in their famine and made them known to Pharaoh. ‘And he died, himself and our fathers, and they were carried over to Shechem.’ At Shechem were buried those about Abraham and the patriarchs—which was perhaps called Sychema. For Abraham himself bought it from Hamor, that he might bury Sarah there. ‘And they were laid in the tomb.’ Saying this, Stephen shows that not even to burial did Abraham become lord of the land.

Acts 7:17–28. But as the time of the promise drew near, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, until there arose another king who knew not Joseph. He, dealing craftily with our race, ill-treated our fathers, making them cast out their infants, that they might not be kept alive. At that time Moses was born, and was fair before God; and he was nourished three months in his father’s house. And when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and reared him for herself as a son. And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds. And when the time of forty years was fulfilled for him, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel. And seeing one of them being wronged, he defended him and avenged the one oppressed, striking down the Egyptian. He supposed that his brothers understood that God by his hand was giving them salvation; but they understood not. And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling, and would have driven them to peace, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong one another?’ But he who was wronging his neighbor thrust him away, saying, ‘Who appointed you ruler and judge over us? Do you wish to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ The phrase ‘the time of the promise drew near’ is an indication that not even within the four hundred years did the people merely increase, but that the end was about to draw near—and indeed already four hundred years and more had passed in Egypt. ‘And the people grew and multiplied in Egypt.’ If that concerning Joseph is marvelous—that he was sold by his brothers and, being sold, saved them—this is more marvelous still: that the king nourished the very one destined to overthrow his rule. He who was to be put to death by the one who had condemned him to death was being educated and reared for the overthrow of the one who reared him. The phrase ‘making them cast out their infants, that they might not be kept alive’ hints that the king did not wish the destruction of the infants to be done openly. And observe that through the very things by which the devil endeavored to undo the promise of God, through these it grew; for Israel was being maltreated, yet grew and multiplied. For this reason Moses too is taken up in the royal house, and is reared and educated, and again is made a fugitive; but in his flight he is counted worthy of that vision, and is entrusted with the leadership of the people. Thus God brings it to pass that even the slave who was sold reigns there where he was a slave. And the word ‘comely’ stands for ‘well-pleasing to God.’ ‘And when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up.’ The parents begot him and saw that he was beautiful, for grace flourished in him; and seeing that he was beautiful, they spared him. But fearing the decree, they hid him. Fear prevailed, and out of fear they were impelled to cast him out; yet through their inward compassion they devise a stratagem for the matter, and making an ark in imitation of the one made in Noah’s day, and calling upon the God of Noah, they cast the child upon the river with the ark, that they might both seem to obey the decree and yet secure the child. And they cast him out, but God prompts Pharaoh’s daughter, who knew nothing of it, to go out to the river; she went out knowing nothing, and found what she did not seek, and took the infant from the ark. And Moses was saved through symbols of the common salvation of the Church; for the ark was of wood, and the wood was from the water, and there was salvation for the one given up for lost; and she who took him up was no Jewess, but of the gentiles and an Egyptian. ‘And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.’ Neither Moses, nor those about Ananias and Daniel, would have learned the foreign education had not the necessity and force of their masters compelled them; for in nothing did they make use of it—unless perhaps someone should say that it was good to learn it, in order to overturn the deceits of those people. ‘And Moses avenged the one oppressed, striking down the Egyptian.’ Not yielding to wrath, nor overcome by anger, did Moses slay, but out of zeal; and that which is done out of zeal for God, even if it be a killing, is no murder. So Phinehas, having slain two with one hand, heard the word: ‘And Phinehas stood up and made atonement, and the plague was stayed.’ What Moses did was a riddle of things unknown; for this deed was a sign that God by Moses was about to slay the Egyptians and save the Israelites. And Moses supposed that his brothers understood that by his hand He was giving them salvation; and yet by the very deeds the protection was shown—what need then of understanding? But even so they did not understand. ‘And on the next day he appeared to them as they quarreled, and would have driven them to peace.’ He who had shown his anger against the Egyptian—see how with gentleness he converses: ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong one another?’ But mark the reply: ‘Who appointed you ruler and judge over us?’ — the very words which they later spoke to Christ. Thus it is the way of the Jews to repay good with wrong.

Acts 7:29–34. And Moses fled at this saying, and became a sojourner in the land of Midian, where he begot two sons. And when forty years were fulfilled, there appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. And Moses, seeing it, marveled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, there came the voice of the Lord to him: ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses, becoming trembling, dared not look. And the Lord said to him, ‘Loose the sandal from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground. I have surely seen the affliction of My people in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them; and now come, I will send you into Egypt.’ But not even his flight quenched the dispensation of God. For ‘when forty years were fulfilled,’ he says, ‘there appeared to him an angel of the Lord’—when he was a fugitive, when he no longer expected it, so that he had even begotten two sons. And note that he now calls the Son of God an angel, just as also a man. And He appears to him not in a temple, but in the wilderness, and not even in the wilderness itself, but in the bush. Behold, he is counted worthy also of a voice: ‘I am,’ He says, ‘the God of your fathers’—the Angel of great counsel. ‘Loose the sandal from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.’ The place is holy by the manifestation of Christ, and far more wonderful than that which was in the Holy of Holies, for there nowhere did He so appear. Then also the care of God is great, for it says: ‘I have surely seen the affliction of My people, and I have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them.’

Acts 7:35–41. This Moses, whom they denied, saying, ‘Who appointed you ruler and judge?’—this one God sent as ruler and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. This one led them out, working wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years. This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘A prophet shall the Lord our God raise up for you from among your brothers, like me; Him shall you hear.’ This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; who received living oracles to give to us; to whom our fathers would not be obedient, but thrust him away, and turned back in their hearts to Egypt, saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who shall go before us; for as for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has become of him.’ And they made a calf in those days, and offered up sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. ‘This Moses,’ he says, ‘who was in danger of perishing, who was set at nought by them, whom they refused—this one God raised up and sent by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.’ And the one whom he calls an angel, Moses plainly saw to be God and names as God. ‘This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel: A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up for you from among your brothers, like me’—set at nought like me, by those by whom he ought most of all to have been honored. Pharaoh wished to slay Moses, and he escaped; and Herod wished to slay the Master, and He was saved in Egypt. Each plotted against a child; each gave a decree; and neither decree was obeyed. ‘This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him.’ The text before us shows that men do not become better or worse by place; for those of whom the discourse speaks, being outside Egypt as to place, were in it as to their disposition, not having removed their mind from the Egyptian customs, as the Gospel also says: ‘Where your treasure is, there is your heart also.’ For many, while yet on the earth, lay up treasure in heaven, and there they have their heart; while the transgressing angels, being in heaven, set their disposition upon the things of the earth, whereupon followed their being cast down to the earth. ‘Who received living oracles.’ He calls them ‘living oracles’ of a special kind, whose meaning is made plain through ordinary words, or he means the prophecies. For the prophet says, ‘I gave them ordinances that were not good’; in contrast to those, he called these ‘living oracles.’ ‘Make for us gods.’ He did not say ‘a god,’ but ‘gods.’ ‘And they made a calf in those days.’ This David too says: ‘And they made a calf in Horeb’; and he says ‘in Horeb’ not without purpose, but that he might show the excess of their madness. For where God appeared to Moses, there these men made an idol and offered sacrifices to the idol.

Acts 7:42–48. But God turned, and gave them over to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you offer to Me slain beasts and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? And you took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Rephan, the figures which you made to worship them; and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.’ The tabernacle of the testimony was with our fathers in the wilderness, even as He who spoke to Moses appointed it to be made according to the figure which he had seen; which also our fathers, having received it in turn, brought in with Joshua when they took possession of the nations whom God drove out from before the face of our fathers, until the days of David; who found favor before God, and asked to find a dwelling-place for the God of Jacob. But Solomon built Him a house. Yet the Most High dwells not in houses made with hands, as the prophet says… ‘Heaven is my throne;’

Acts 7:49–50. and the earth is the footstool of my feet. What house will you build for me, says the Lord? Or what is the place of my rest? Did not my hand make all these things? The expression ‘he gave them over to worship the host of heaven’ is used in the sense of ‘he allowed,’ just as in the Apostle: ‘God gave them over to a reprobate mind,’ which means ‘he allowed them to be given over.’ So he says: Since the Jews had this craving to worship the creature rather than the Creator, God, having often through the prophets forbidden such an inclination, then, when they persisted, allowed them to do as they chose. And the word ‘turned away’ is used in the sense of ‘turning away from another will’; for the will of God is one thing, and what comes to pass by his permission is another. For his will was that which he also laid down as law: ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve.’ But those who persisted in their impiety he allowed to remain in it; for he does not wish to be served under compulsion, lest he do violence to free will. The phrase ‘the host of heaven’ some take to mean the angels, as in ‘the word spoken through angels.’ But he speaks not of angels but of the stars, to which they offered worship: as to the calf, which stood in the place of the morning star, and to the moon, as queen of heaven; for this expression is generally used of the luminaries and stars. ‘Did you offer me slain beasts and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?’ Observe that he first brings in that they offered sacrifices to God himself, and only then to the idols; for before this there is nowhere the word ‘sacrifice,’ but only ‘commandments’ and ‘living oracles.’ And he brings forward this testimony not without purpose, but to show that there was no need of sacrifices, when he says, ‘Did you offer me slain beasts and sacrifices?’ That is: you cannot say that, because you sacrificed to God, you therefore sacrificed also to those idols; rather, you sacrificed to them first, and that in the wilderness, where I most of all watched over you. So that even if I said that the temple would be destroyed and the customs and sacrifices changed, I have said nothing new. For Moses, of whom you seem to think so highly, for forty years neither offered sacrifices nor raised a temple; nor did David either, though the land was being apportioned to us by lot; and the prophets too declare concerning these things that they are not necessary. How then do you pretend to defend Moses, whom both your fathers and you yourselves rejected? ‘And you took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan.’ The divinely-inspired Moses had gone up to the mountain to receive the law; but those of the blood of Israel rose up before Aaron, saying, ‘Make us gods.’ So they made a calf in the wilderness; and the calf was the visible idol, but he wrought many others besides. They were given over still more to the worship of the stars; for besides the calf they also took up the tabernacle of Moloch. For having made the tabernacle […] they set up an idol and called it Moloch. This is an idol of the Moabites, having a transparent stone at the top of its forehead, in the form of the morning star; and ‘Moloch’ is interpreted ‘their king,’ for so Aquila and Theodotion have rendered it. And the image of the morning star was skillfully fashioned. ‘So you took up the tabernacle of Moloch,’ that is, of your king; and what kind of king was this? ‘The star of your god Rephan,’ which is interpreted ‘darkening,’ or ‘blinding.’ So they worshipped the morning star, as rising before the gleam of the sun; but to those who worshipped it, it became Rephan, that is, a blinding, not because the star itself produced the blinding, but because the reverence offered to it became to them the cause of darkening. ‘And I will remove you beyond Babylon.’ Whereas the prophet had said, ‘I will remove you beyond Damascus,’ he said ‘beyond Babylon,’ following the Hebrew edition, or because Babylon is the boundary of the land of the Damascenes. But the Seventy said ‘beyond Damascus.’ ‘The tabernacle of the testimony was with our fathers in the wilderness.’ This they had in order to have God as their witness; and he calls it the tabernacle of testimony, that is, of the wonders and the commandments. ‘As he that spoke to Moses had appointed.’ So the design was made on the mountain; and this tabernacle in the wilderness was portable, and not fixed in one place. Even if it was an angel who spoke to Moses on the mountain, yet he spoke to him in the person of God. And many such things are found in the divine Scripture. For he says in Exodus that an angel of the Lord said to Moses, ‘Moses, Moses, do not draw near here’; and a little later the angel says, ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham,’ and other things of this kind.

Acts 7:51–52. You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become the betrayers and murderers. ‘…you who received the law by the ordinances of angels and have not kept it.’ Why is it that, having spoken gently up to this point, here he uses harsh language? Because he saw that they paid no heed to what was said. ‘You always resist the Holy Spirit’ not only now. By this he shows that what he said was from the Holy Spirit, and especially so as he was about to die; for it is not likely that he was ignorant of this, being full of the Spirit. He used great and unhesitating boldness, and the very things he said to them were not his own, but the prophets’. ‘Always,’ he says, ‘you resist’: when God did not wish there to be sacrifices, you sacrificed; when again he wishes them, you do not sacrifice. Again, when the temple stood, you served idols; when he wishes worship without a temple, you do the opposite. He did not say, ‘you resist God,’ but ‘the Spirit’; for there is no difference at all between the Spirit and God. ‘You resist as your fathers did, so do you.’ He shows that the evil is the greater in them, as having come down upon them from of old; so Christ also did, since they prided themselves greatly on their fathers. ‘Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?’ If your fathers killed those who foretold him, it is no wonder that I too, who proclaim the One foretold, should be killed by you who pride yourselves so greatly on your fathers. ‘Concerning the coming of the Righteous One.’ He says ‘the Righteous One,’ showing that they killed him unjustly; for if he is righteous, then those who killed him are exceedingly unjust. He calls him righteous, a thing which not even they could deny. Nowhere did they accuse him as unrighteous; for how could they accuse one who had not even a roof? But he charges them with two crimes, murder and betrayal; for ‘betrayers and murderers,’ he says, ‘you have become.’

Acts 7:53. You who received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it. that is, the law ordained by angels, or delivered through the One who appeared in the bush. And he shows that they both disobeyed and continue to disobey God, the angels, the prophets, and the Spirit.

Acts 7:54–56. When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and gnashed their teeth at him. But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said: Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. ‘…standing at the right hand of God.’ If they wished to kill him, why did they not kill him at once? Because they wished to attach to their audacity a plausible pretext; for the insult he had done them was no plausible pretext for putting him to death. And besides, what they took to be an insult to themselves was not his own insult at all, but the prophet’s accusation against them. At the same time they did not wish it to be thought that they were killing him on account of what touched themselves personally, as had happened also at the condemning of Christ to death, but as though they were killing him for impiety. For they were not content to defile themselves with murder, but were eager and took pains also to injure the honor of the one they were killing; for they feared that, if they killed him on account of the personal insult to them, he might come to be held in greater honor. ‘And Jesus standing at the right hand of God.’ The standing signifies what is firm and immovable; and besides, this was acceptable even to them, for they already

Acts 7:57–59. accepted him, for the time being, as standing. Then, crying out with a loud voice, they stopped their ears, and rushed upon him with one accord. And casting him out of the city, they stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they stoned Stephen as he called upon God and said: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. ‘And kneeling down, he cried with a loud voice: Lord, do not lay this sin to their charge. And having said this, he fell asleep.’ What they do in the case of Christ, this also they do here: just as he had said, ‘You shall see the Son of God seated at the right hand,’ and they, calling the matter blasphemy, rushed upon him, so it is here also. But there they tore their garments, while here they stopped their ears. ‘And casting him out of the city, they stoned him’: not even allowing him to finish his speech, they stoned him. And yet, if he was lying, they ought to have let him go as a madman; but if he was speaking the truth, they ought rather to have marveled. And casting him out of the city they kill him, as they had done in the case of Christ. ‘And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man.’ He calls ‘witnesses’ those whom the Jews had suborned to bear false witness against him. And by this he hints at two things: that even those who seemed to be witnesses were the more ready for the murder, seeing that they laid aside their garments too, so as to be light and unhindered for the stoning; and that he who was afterward to be the herald of the world was himself then taking part in the murder, so divine and marvelous and more than human was the change that came over him. And the words ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’ were those of one teaching and showing them that he does not perish. ‘And they stoned Stephen.’ Since justification comes through faith in Christ, and in him human nature was enriched with freedom from guilt and granted us a new right, by virtue of which our souls no longer run down to Hades as before, but are sent into the hands of the living God, knowing this the holy Stephen said, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ And the blessed Peter also writes: ‘Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to him as to a faithful Creator.’

Acts 7:60. And kneeling down, he cried with a loud voice: Lord, do not lay this sin to their charge. He does not simply pray, he says, but with earnestness; for up to this point God allowed his soul to remain in the body. Observe the voice and the surpassing measure of his forbearance under suffering. From this he shows that even the former things which he said to them did not spring from any anger, but were meant to confound them, to rebuke and to admonish them. And Saul was consenting to his killing.