Acts 7:17

Act 7:17-21. When the time of the promise drew nigh — That is, the time for the accomplishment of the promise; which God had sworn to Abraham — Concerning the multiplication of his seed; see note on Gen 22:16-17; the people grew, &c. — Became very numerous in Egypt, notwithstanding that they were under great oppression there; till another king arose — Probably of another family; which knew not Joseph — And had no regard to his memory. The same dealt subtly with our kindred — Formed crafty and treacherous designs against them; and evil-entreated our fathers — Used them in a most injurious and barbarous way, lest in time they should become too powerful; so that — In obedience to a most inhuman order, which he published; they cast out their young children — Exposed them to perish by hunger or wild beasts; or cast them into the river Nile; to the end they might not live — That they might be cut off from being a people, and their very race become quite extinct. In which afflictive and persecuting, but seasonable time — When our fathers were reduced to this miserable state; Moses was born — The person intended by God to be the instrument of his people’s deliverance; and was exceeding fair — Greek, αστειος τω Θεω, fair to God, as the margin reads it. The words, being a Hebraism, are only an emphatical expression, to denote Moses’s extraordinary beauty, and might be not unfitly rendered divinely beautiful, the name of God being often introduced to express such things as were extraordinary in their kind. So in the Hebrew, what we translate great wrestlings, (Gen 30:8,) is wrestlings of God; goodly cedars, (Psa 80:10,) are cedars of God; great mountains, (Psa 36:6,) are mountains of God. This then agrees with what is said of Moses, (Exo 2:2,) that he was a goodly child; and with the account which Josephus gives of him, who says, “that when he was but three years old, his extraordinary beauty was such, that it struck every one that saw him; and as they carried him about, persons would leave their work to look at him.” See Grotius and Whitby. And when he was cast out — Was thus exposed to perish, the providence of God so ordered it, that Pharaoh’s daughter took him up — Being moved with pity at the sight of him; and nourished him — With a purpose of adopting him; for her own son — By which means, being designed for a kingdom, he had all those advantages of education, which he could not have had if he had not been exposed. “All these extraordinary circumstances, relating to the birth, preservation, education, genius, and character of Moses, serve to aggravate the crime of Israel in rejecting him, when he offered himself to them as a deliverer under so many advantages, and when Providence had so wonderfully interested itself in his favour.” — Doddridge.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL REMARKS

Act_7:18. Another king which knew not Joseph.—This was Aahmes, the first monarch of the eighteenth dynasty, “a prince of great force of character, brave, active, energetic, liberal, beloved by his subjects” (Rawlinson, The Story of the Nations—Egypt, p. 152).

Act_7:19. Dealt subtilly with our kindred, or race.—With Aahmes the new policy towards the Israelites may have begun, but the author of the cruel decree appears to have been Seti I., while Rameses II. was the Pharaoh of the Oppression, and Menephtah II. the Pharaoh of the Exodus. They cast out.—Pharaoh’s object in the oppression appears to have been to render the lives of the Israelites so miserable that they would rather cast out their offspring than see them grow up to experience such woe as themselves endured. If he be read instead of they, then the well-known decree (Exo_1:16-22) is that to which Stephen alludes.

Act_7:22. Learned.—Better, trained or instructed.

Act_7:24. Suffer wrong, injured, by beating (Exo_2:11). The wrongdoer may have been one of Pharaoh’s taskmasters. A bas-relief recovered from the Nile Valley exhibits one of these standing over a gang of slaves, whip in hand, and saying as he lashes them, “To your work, O slaves: ye are idle!”

Act_7:25. He supposed should be he was supposing, meaning that was his habitual mood of mind at this period. Would deliver them should be gives them deliverance or salvation; the present tense signifying either that the deliverance was at hand or was beginning with the blow then struck.

Act_7:29. Madian, or Midian.—In the south-east of the Sinaitic peninsula.

Act_7:30. Mount Sinai.—Exodus (Exo_3:1) gives, as the scene of this Divine manifestation, Horeb, which was probably the name of the range, Sinai being the designation of the particular peak (Robinson, Eadie), though others regard Sinai as the range and Horeb as the peak. Whether Sinai, the mountain of the Law, was Jebel Serbal (Burckhardt, Lepsius, and Ebers), or Ras-es-Sufsafeh (Robinson, Stanley, Porter), or Jebel Musa (Wilson, Sandie), travellers are not decided. Josephus (Ant., II. xi. 1) and Paul (Gal_4:25) locate it in Arabia, which Sayce thinks to a writer of the first century would mean Arabia Petræa. Wherefore he looks for Sinai not in the peninsula, but among the ranges of Mount Seir in the neighbourhood of Kadesh Barnea (see The Higher Criticism and the Monuments, pp. 263–373).

In Act_7:32-33 the order of the Hebrew text is transposed.

Act_7:35. A deliverer, or redeemer, λυτρωτήν.—A latent allusion to the work of Christ.

Act_7:36. After that he had showed should be having done or wrought.

Act_7:37. The Lord your are omitted in best MSS. Like unto me might be rendered as he raised up me.

Act_7:38. The Church.—The use of ἐκκλησία—a term employed by the LXX. (Deu_18:16; Deu_23:1; Psa_26:12)—for the congregation of Israel warrants the inference that Stephen at least regarded the Hebrew nation as a church and the new assembly of believers as its representative under the Christian dispensation.

Act_7:41. They made a calf is one word in the original. The calf, or bullock, was selected in imitation of the Egyptians, who worshipped an ox, Apis at Memphis and Mnevis at Heliopolis.

Act_7:42. In the book of the prophets.—The quotation is from Amo_5:25-27. The interrogation, Have ye offered unto Me? etc., is much used by the higher criticism to prove that the sacrificial system of the so-styled priest code had no existence in the time of Moses; but the prophet’s meaning is not that the Israelites did not offer sacrifices to Jehovah in the wilderness, but that, though they did, their hearts ran after their idolatries—the worship of Moloch and the Star Rephan—so that Jehovah rejected their insincere service.

Act_7:43. The tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Remphan.—The Hebrew might be rendered Siccuth your king and Chiun (or the shrine of) your images, the star of your god (R.V.), Siccuth being in this case the name of one idol which the Hebrews worshipped as their king, and Chiun the name of another, believed to have been the planet Saturn, of which the name among the Syrians and Arabians was Kçwân. Stephen, however, followed the LXX., who understood Siccuth as equivalent to “tabernacle”—i.e., the portable tent in which the idol’s image was carried—and for “your king” substituted, with some ancient MSS., Moloch, the idol meant; while for “Chiun your images” they read “the star of your god Rephan,” which Kircher believes to be Koptic for Saturn, and Schrader regards as a corruption from Kewan. That the LXX. failed to intelligibly translate the second Hebrew clause was of small moment to Stephen. The words, “the star of the god,” showed that God had given the Israelites up to worship the host of heaven. The substitution of Babylon for Damascus in the Hebrew and the LXX. is explainable by the fact that Babylon had long been associated in Jewish history with the exile.

Act_7:44. The tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness was so called because it contained the Ark in which the two tables of the Decalogue were kept (Num_11:15; Num_17:13).

HOMILETICAL ANALYSIS.—Act_7:17-44

The Founder of the Nation; or, the Biography of Moses in Three Chapters

I. From one to forty (Act_7:20-22).—

1. Born in an evil time. When the oppression of his countrymen was so cruel that either Hebrew parents cast out their children to perish rather than see them live to experience the bitter servitude under which themselves had groaned, or Hebrew children were cast out by Pharaoh’s order to the end that they might not live. This latter interpretation accords best with the Old Testament narrative (Exo_1:22).

2. Exposed to a cruel fate. Brought forth in an hour of sorrow, with no better prospect before him than either to be strangled by a midwife’s cord or thrown into the river, Moses was for three months, on account of his extreme beauty, secretly nourished in the house of his father Amram; but at length, when concealment was no longer possible, in an ark of bulrushes, daubed with slime and pitch, he was laid by his mother in the flags by the Nile side (Exo_2:3). The writer to the Hebrews cites the conduct of Moses’ parents as an instance of faith (Heb_11:23).

3. Rescued by a strange providence. By accident it seemed, though in fact by the overruling hand of God, the daughter of Pharaoh—the very king whose decree had caused his exposure—having with her maidens come to the river side to wash, found him, “took him up” out of the water, and “nourished him as her own son”—i.e., adopted him. (See Exo_2:5-10.) Josephus says this daughter of Pharaoh was named Thermuthis. She was the sister of Rameses II. or daughter of Seti I. (See “Critical Remarks.”)

4. Educated in a king’s court. Probably like Rameses himself, Moses was for some years “left in the house of the women and of the royal concubines, after the manner of the maidens of the palace” (Brugsch, Egypt under the Pharaohs, Act_2:39), where he received the nurture and training requisite to fit him for the higher studies and more arduous exercises of youth and manhood. Tradition speaks of him as having studied “mathematics, natural philosophy, engineering, warfare, grammar, and medicine,” while Josephus (Ant., II. x. 1) places to his credit a successfully conducted campaign against the Ethiopians. With this accords Stephen’s statement that Moses “was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in his words and works” (Act_7:22).

II. From forty to eighty (Act_7:23-29).—

1. A patriotic inspiration. “To visit his brethren, the children of Israel”—to visit in the sense of sympathising with and succouring them (compare Luk_1:68; Luk_7:16; Act_15:14). Whether special means were taken under God by Moses or his mother to keep alive the knowledge of his kinship with the down-trodden Hebrews is not recorded, but, on reaching man’s estate, the sense of that kinship having asserted itself, he refused any longer to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter (Heb_11:24).

2. A chivalrous interference. Having paid a visit to the brickfields, with which up to this time he may have been comparatively unacquainted, he beheld what the monuments tell us was a frequent scene—one of his brethren suffering wrong or enduring blows at the taskmaster’s hand; and, his patriotic blood leaping within his veins, he warded off the blows, laid the ruthless slave-driver lifeless at his feet, and, thinking that nobody saw, buried him in the sand (Exo_2:12).

3. A mistaken supposition. He imagined his countrymen would have understood how God had called him to deliver them, but they did not. The blow that day struck was premature. The people were not ready to rise, and he was not yet qualified to lead. Forty years more of suffering for them, and of discipline for him, were needed before the great bell of liberty would ring in Egypt’s land. Men are often in a hurry; God never is. Men often strike before the iron is hot; God never does.

4. An angry response. The day after, when he would have parted two of his quarrelling countrymen, saying, “Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?” (compare Gen_13:8), he that did the wrong thrust him away, saying, “Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? wouldst thou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?” Wrongdoers always resent the interference of third parties—a clear proof they are in the wrong.

5. A precipitate flight. Having discovered through the choleric questions of his countrymen that his offer of himself as a deliverer was premature, and that his deed of yesterday was known, he saw that thenceforward Egypt would be no place of safety for him, and accordingly betook himself to Midian (see “Critical Remarks”).

6. An obscure life. There, having met with Jethro the shepherd priest of the land, who granted him Zipporah to wife, he forgot his early patriotic ambitions in the humdrum occupation of feeding sheep, and in conjugal felicity (Exo_2:16; Exo_2:22).

III. From eighty to one hundred and twenty (Act_7:30-44).—

1. A great sight.

(1) When? At the close of the second period of forty years, on the death of Rameses II. (Exo_2:23). At the opening of the third. At the beginning of the reign of Menephtah II. When the oppression of the people had become intolerable (Exo_2:23). When God’s time, as distinguished from Moses’, had arrived.

(2) Where? In the wilderness of Mount Sinai (see “Critical Remarks”), at the back side of the desert, at the mountain of God, even Horeb (Exo_3:1). God delights to reveal Himself to His people in solitudes.

(3) What? “An angel”—the angel of the Lord, or Jehovah” (Exo_3:2)—“appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush,” which burned and yet was not consumed.

(4) How? Wherein lay the greatness of the sight? In its unexpectedness, in its supernaturalness, in its impressiveness.

2. A heavenly voice. That of Jehovah, who

(1) revealed His own character as the covenant God of the Hebrew fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Act_7:32);

(2) cautioned Moses against irreverence before the Holy One, whose presence consecrated the very ground whereon He stood (Act_7:33);

(3) announced that He (Jehovah) had beheld and sympathised with the sufferings and heard the groanings of His people in Egypt (Act_7:34); and

(4) intimated His intention to deliver them and to despatch Moses into Egypt for that purpose (Act_7:34).

3. An exalted commission. Considering

(1) by whom it was issued—God, the God of glory (Act_7:2) and the God of the fathers (Act_7:32);

(2) to whom it was entrusted—the man whom his countrymen had refused, but whom God had chosen;

(3) through whose hand it was to be executed, that of the angel who had appeared to him; and

(4) for what it was appointed—that Moses should be to Israel, who had rejected him, both a ruler and a deliverer, or redeemer, and in both (according to Stephen) a type of Christ.

4. A splendid achievement.

(1) As a liberator he (Moses) brought out the children of Israel from Egypt, having wrought, in his work of emancipation, which began with the Exodus and ended (so far as Moses was concerned) with the forty years of wandering, signs, and wonders (compare Act_2:22), first in Egypt (Exodus 7-12), next at the Red Sea (Exodus 14), and after that in the wilderness (Exodus 15; Exodus 16; Exodus 17; etc.).

(2) As a prophet he foretold to them the coming, in after years, of a prophet like unto, but greater than, himself, even their Messiah, whom in the person of Jesus they had refused to hear.

(3) As a lawgiver he conferred upon them “living oracles” received by himself from Jehovah—viz., the whole system of moral and ceremonial precepts composing the law of Moses, here characterised as “living” to describe not their effect, which was not always life-giving because of the corruption of men’s hearts (Rom_8:3), but their design, which was to impart life to all by whom they should be obeyed (Lev_18:5; Rom_7:10).

(4) As an architect he gave them the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, which he made according to the pattern he had seen—in the mount of Sinai (Exo_25:9; Exo_25:40).

5. A disgraceful requital. As at the commencement of his illustrious career, so at its close, his countrymen “thrust him from them,” declined to obey his instructions, but turned back into Egypt, and (Act_7:39) yet Moses, towards the termination of his leadership, thought less of his people’s thankfulness to himself than of their deplorable ingratitude to God (Deu_32:6).

See in Moses:

1. A pattern of true greatness.

2. An example of life’s vicissitudes.

3. A type of Jesus Christ.

HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS

Act_7:17. The Time of the Promise.

I. Fixed by God, as all times are.

II. Remembered by God, who forgets none of His sovereign and gracious appointments.

III. Honoured by God, who never fails to implement a promise He has made, when the time for its fulfilment has arrived.

The Increase of Nations.—Occurs as in Israel.

I. Always in accordance with Divine providential arrangements (Job_12:23; Psa_107:38).

II. Often in spite of the most adverse circumstances (Exo_1:12).

III. Never beyond the limits prescribed by God (Act_17:26).

Act_7:20-39. The Story of Moses.

I. The son of a Hebrew mother.—No imaginary or legendary character but a real historical personage. Distinguished in infancy by remarkable beauty, which His parents regarded as an omen of future greatness (Exo_2:2; Heb_11:23). Exposed to a cruel fate—cast out into the Nile, placed in an ark of bulrushes by the river’s brink. Compare the story of Sargina I. of Babylon. See below.

II. The foundling of an Egyptian princess.—In the providence of God this led to the preservation of Moses’ life and his education in such a way as to fit him for his subsequent calling and career. The All-wise knows the best schools in which to train those whom He intends afterwards to employ as His instruments.

III. The kinsman of slaves.—The feeling of nationality cannot easily be eradicated from the human heart. Out of this rises love of country, patriotism, sense of brotherhood. When it first began to stir in Moses cannot be told; at the age of forty it was too strong to be suppressed (Heb_11:24).

IV. The liberator of his people.—Though not exactly in his time, yet in God’s time, he was honoured to lead his down-trodden countrymen from the house of bondage (Heb_11:27).

V. The founder of a nation.—Having conducted his followers to Sinai, he there formed them into a people, with a regularly organised community, with laws and statutes for the regulation of their civil and religious affairs.

VI. The prophet of a new religion.—He imparted to them the terms on which alone they could be regarded as Jehovah’s people, or Jehovah could consider Himself their God—gave them the ten commandments and the multifarious ordinances of the ceremonial or Levitical law.

NOTE—Legend of the infancy of Sargina I., of Babylon, who lived about fifteen or sixteen centuries before the Christian era—i.e., not long before the birth of Moses.

1. I am Sargina, the great king; the king of Agani.

2. My mother knew not my father: my family were the rulers of the land.

3. My city was the city of Atzu-pirani, which is on the banks of the river Euphrates.

4. My mother conceived me: in a secret place she brought me forth.

5. She placed me in an ark of bulrushes: with bitumen she closed me up.

6. She threw me into the river, which did not enter into the ark to me.

7. The river carried me: to the dwelling of Akki, the water-carrier, it brought me.

8. Akki, the water-carrier, in his goodness of heart lifted me up from the river.

9. Akki, the water-carrier, brought me up as his own son.

10. Akki, the water-carrier, placed me with a tribe of Foresters.

11. Of this tribe of Foresters, Ishtar made me king.

12. And for … years I reigned over them.—Records of the Past, Act_7:3, first series.

Act_7:31. The Burning Bush (Exo_3:2).

I. A supernatural phenomenon.—Revealed by two things:

(1) the fact that the bush, though burning, was not consumed; and

(2) the voice which proceeded from its midst.

II. An impressive spectacle.—It caused Moses to tremble. Chiefly

(1) Before the Divine presence (Act_7:32) and

(2) At the Divine communications (Act_7:33).

III. A suggestive symbol.—

(1) Of the holiness of God, which burns against every manifestation of sin; (Heb_12:29) (the flame).

(2) Of the imperishability of the Church of God which may be cast into the fire but cannot be destroyed (Isa_43:2) (the bush).

Act_7:33. Holy Ground.

I. Where God manifests His presence.

II. Where God reveals His character.

III. Where God makes known His will.

IV. Where God communes with His people.

V. Where God is worshipped by believing hearts.

Act_7:35. The Angel in the Bush.—That this was no created spirit but the angel of Jehovah, or Jehovah Himself, is clearly taught by Stephen, who besides calling Him the Lord (Act_7:31) represents Him as—

I. Assuming the Divine name.—“I am the God of thy fathers” (Act_7:32).

II. Claiming Divine worship.—“Loose the shoes from thy feet” (Act_7:33).

III. Exercising Divine attributes.—“I have seen,” “I have heard” (Omniscience); “I have come down,” “I will send” (Omnipotence) (Act_7:34).

IV. Speaking Divine words.—Imparting living oracles unto Moses (Act_7:38).

Act_7:37. A Prophet like unto Moses.—See on Act_3:22.

Act_7:38. The Church in the Wilderness: a Type of The Christian Church on Earth.—In respect of—

I. Its origin.—Called out of Egypt, the then symbol of the world; redeemed from the house of bondage which was emblematical of man’s natural condition.

II. Its position.—In the wilderness; a fitting picture of the spiritually barren world through which the Church of Christ has to journey.

III. In its privileges.—Manifold and high.

1. The divine presence. The angel of the Lord—which also the Church of the New Testament enjoys (Mat_18:20; Mat_28:20).

2. A divinely qualified teacher. Moses with whom the angel spake at Mount Sinai—which, too, the Christian Church has in the indwelling Holy Spirit (Joh_16:13; 1Jn_2:20; 1Jn_2:27), and in the apostles and prophets, pastors and teachers (1Co_12:28; Eph_4:11), bestowed upon it by its exalted Head.

3. A divine revelation. The “living oracles” delivered to Moses—which again the gospel Church possesses in the words of Christ and His apostles preserved in the New Testament records (Heb_5:12).

4. A divine institution.—The tabernacle—which once more has its counterpart in the Christian sanctuary, congregation, or Church.

IV. In its business.—Which was twofold.

1. To witness for Jehovah in the then world. Israel Jehovah’s witnesses (Isa_43:10); the apostles Christ’s witnesses (Act_5:32); and Christians generally expected to be living epistles of Christ (2Co_3:3).

2. To overcome its adversaries on the way to Canaan. So Christians have a constant warfare to maintain against innumerable foes (Eph_6:10-17; 1Ti_6:12; 2Ti_2:3).

V. In its imperfection.—The Church in the wilderness was guilty of not a few heinous sins—disobedience to its leader, Moses, hankering after Egypt, apostasy from Jehovah; all which have their equivalents in the faults of the people of Christ.

VI. In its discipline.—The Church in the wilderness was chastised for its sins, first by judicial visitations, such as the fiery serpents, next by powerful adversaries like the Moabites and Midianites, which were raised up against them, after that by spiritual hardening, so that they plunged into deeper idolatry, and lastly by exile and captivity in Babylon. So the Church of to-day, either as a whole or in its individual members, is not left without chastisement for its shortcomings and backslidings, its transgressions and iniquities. It, too, has its providential visitations by which its numbers are reduced, its open and secret opponents by which its progress is hindered, its seasons of spiritual decline, in which it lapses from the faith, its removals into exile and captivity, where it sighs and cries for the liberty it once enjoyed.

VII. In its goal.—Canaan, which in a heavenly form is the destination of the New Testament Church.

Act_7:39-43. The Apostasy of Israel.

I. Its occasion.—The absence of Moses. When the Christian Church reposes with too much dependence on its visible leaders it is prone to withdraw its confidence from its invisible Head.

II. Its form.—A lapsing into the idolatry of Egypt, which led to the people’s making, or Aaron making at their request, an image of the famous calf or bull worshipped in Egypt, either the bull Apis at Memphis, or the bull Mnevis at Heliopolis. How deeply ingrained in them this calf or bull worship had been appears from the circumstance that centuries after their settlement in Canaan they, in times of spiritual declension, reverted to it (1Ki_12:28; 2Ki_11:12). So when the New Testament Israel loses sight of its invisible Head it is prone to revert to its old sins (2Pe_1:9).

III. Its punishment.—

1. Withdrawal of Divine restraint. Joined to their idols they were left alone (Hos_4:17). Forsaken by them, God in turn forsook them (2Ch_15:2). Having given up Jehovah He gave up them, so that they sank into deeper and more shameless idolatries. Instead of offering unto Jehovah slain beasts and sacrifices during the forty years of wilderness wandering as they should have done, they carried about the tabernacle of Moloch, a small portable tent in which was enshrined the image of the idol and a model of the planet Saturn, to which, according to Diodorus Siculus, horrid child sacrifices were offered at Carthage. So when God, in punishment for sin, withdraws restraining grace from His people, they commonly plunge into viler and more heinous wickedness than they had before committed, sin being thus avenged by liberty to sin.

2. Infliction of positive pains. The Israelites, through that very tendency to apostatise so early manifested by them, were ultimately driven into exile beyond Babylon; and so will they who persevere in forsaking the living God be eventually punished with perpetual banishment from His holy presence (Rom_2:8; 2Th_1:9).

Act_7:44. The Tabernacle of the Testimony in the Wilderness.

I. An actual historic building.—Necessary now to insist on this since the higher critics have imagined and keep on asserting that the Mosaic tabernacle never had a veritable existence at all, but was only a fictional structure, fashioned after the model of the temple but on a smaller scale, and projected into the prehistoric wilderness as a convenient free space on which it might be fictionally erected without risk of colliding with historical and well-authenticated facts—which might be troublesome. But in addition to the theory of a fictional tabernacle being attended with numberless insuperable difficulties—such as, the unlikelihood of a post-exilic fiction-monger entering into minute details of construction like those given in Exodus; the improbability of a late author, who had never himself been in the wilderness, furnishing so accurate a representation of the geographical situation as archæological research shows the Mosaic account to be; the inconceivability of any honest writer stating that the tabernacle had been made by Moses after a pattern shown to him by Jehovah in the Mount, when in point of fact it was never made at all, but only imagined by the writer himself, who took the first or second temple for his model; the falsification of Pentateuchal history which must ensue if the tabernacle of Moses never was an actual building; the contradiction to statements in the historical and prophetical books which must be made if the fiction theory is correct; in addition to these the actual historic character of the tabernacle is vouched for by both Stephen and the writer to the Hebrews (Act_8:2; Act_8:5; Act_9:2-3; Act_9:6; Act_9:8; Act_9:11; Act_9:21; Act_13:10). See an article by the present writer, entitled “The Tabernacle and the Temple” in The Theological Monthly, April 1891.

II. A divinely sketched building.—If Moses was the constructor of the tabernacle (and in this sense may be styled its architect) its true designer was God. This introduces into the religion of ancient Israel that which is so keenly objected to, but without which no religion can be of permanent value or saving power—viz., the supernatural element. If Christianity is not “of God” in the highest sense of that expression, it will not succeed permanently in binding the consciences of men.

III. A provisional building.—It was intended for the temporary accommodation of the Ark during the period of the wilderness wanderings, and until a permanent habitation could be secured for it in the place which Jehovah should choose. Hence it was in due course superseded by the Temple of Solomon, which in turn has been displaced by the Christian Church.

IV. A symbolic building.—

1. Of the Divine fellowship with Israel.

(1) The Holy of Holies with its Ark of the Covenant, its Glory burning between the cherubim, its mercy seat, its tables of testimony, etc. (Heb_9:2-5), was an emblem of the divine presence, the divine majesty, the divine character, and the divine conditions of fellowship between Jehovah and Israel.

(2) The holy place, with its altar of incense, its seven-branched candlestick, and its tables of shew bread, was an emblem of what that fellowship consisted in—spiritual acceptance, spiritual illumination, and spiritual nourishment of the believing worshipper by Jehovah on the one side, and on the other spiritual adoration of God (the incense), spiritual shining for God (the lamps), and spiritual consecration to God (the loaves).

(3) The outer court, with its altar of burnt offering and laver, was an emblem of the only way in which such fellowship with Jehovah could be reached—viz., by atonement (the altar) and regeneration (the laver).

2. Of the Divine fellowship with believers in the Christian Church. This thought is elaborated and fully wrought out in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Act_9:10).

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

§ II. The second part of the discourse, embracing the age of Moses

Act_7:17-43

_____________

A.—Israel in Egypt; early history of Moses

Act_7:17-29

17But when [as] the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn9 [declared]to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, 18Till another king10 arose, which [who] knew not [anything of] Joseph. 19The same [This (one)] dealt subtilely with our kindred [race], and evil entreated our fathers; so that they cast outtheir young children, to the end [that] they might not live [remain alive]. 20In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair11 [a fair child before God;], and [he, ὃς,was] nourished up in his father’s house three months: 21And [But] when he was [had been] cast out12, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and nourished him [brought himup] for her own son. 22And Moses was learned [instructed] in all13 the wisdom of theEgyptians, and was mighty in [his] words and in deeds [and deeds]14. 23And when he was full forty years old [But when a period of forty years was completed for him], it came into his heart to visit [look after] his brethren the children [sons] of Israel.24And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote [by smiting] the Egyptian: 25For15 [But] he supposed his brethren would have understood [would perceive] how that God by his hand would deliverthem [was giving them deliverance]; but they understood [it] not. 26And the next day he shewed himself [appeared] unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again16 [and urged them unto peace], saying, Sirs, [Men], ye are brethren; whydo ye wrong one to another? 27But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away,saying, Who [hath] made thee a ruler and a judge over us?17 28Wilt thou kill me, asthou didst [kill, ἀνεῖλες] the Egyptian yesterday? 29Then fled Moses at this saying, and was [became] a stranger in the land of Madian [Midian], where he begat two sons.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Act_7:17. But when the time … drew nigh … the people grew.—The word καθώς is to be taken in its literal sense, not as equivalent to quum, but to even as; the rapid increase of the people corresponded to the rapid approach of the time. The ἐπαγγελία of God is the one recorded in Gen_15:13-14, and to it Stephen refers in Act_7:6-7.

Act_7:18. Till another king arose; these words are quoted from Exo_1:18; חָדָשׁ is here rendered ἕτερος, which, as contradistinguished from ἄλλος, designates that which is of another kind, and refers to a new dynasty. The words οὐκ ᾕδει τὸν Ἰωσήφ, like the original Hebrew, mean, not that the king did not wish to know Joseph, or, that he showed no regard for Joseph and for the great services rendered to Egypt by him, but, literally, that he was totally unacquainted with his history. When we consider that a period of four centuries had since passed by, and that a new dynasty, which probably came from another part of the country, had been introduced, this actual want of information may be easily comprehended.

Act_7:19. The same dealt subtilely.—Κατασοφίσασθαι is the version in the Sept. Exo_1:10, of הִתְחַכֵּם.—Meyer considers the phrase: τοῦ ποιεῖν ἔκθετα τὰ βρέφη, as distinctly involving the construction of the infinitive of the purpose, so that the sense would be: he oppressed them, in order that by such a course he might compel them to expose their children. This is an erroneous interpretation; it is not absolutely demanded by the laws of grammar, and does not accord with the context. For this κακοῦν, that is, the imposition of heavy burdens, or the harsh treatment, was not, and could not be intended, to result in the exposure of the children. The infinitive with τοῦ, which, originally, expressed a purpose, was employed, (when the Greek language began to decline), by the Hellenists especially, as well as in the Septuagint and the New Testament (Paul and Luke), with increasing frequency, and then the indication of the purpose was often changed into that of the mere result (see Winer’s Grammar) [N. T. § 44. 4, p. 292 of the 6th Germ, ed., where the same interpretation of this passage is found.—“Ἔκθετον ποιεῖν, i. q., ἐκτιθέναι, to expose infants, Act_7:19.” Robinson: Lex. ποιέω1 f.—Tr.]. Hence the language before us simply means: he ill-treated them, so that, among other things, he caused their new-born children to be exposed. The fact to which allusion is here made, is stated in Exo_1:22 : Pharaoh gave a general command to the Egyptians to cast the new-born sons of the Israelites, into the Nile. The Septuagint employs in Exo_1:17 the verb ζωογονεῖν, as the version of חִיָּה [Piel], to preserve alive, to let live [Robinson’s Gesenius: Hebr. Lex. ad verb. 2, 2], and it occurs in that sense here.

Act_7:20. Exceeding fair [see version above.]—It is simply said of the mother of Moses in Exo_2:2 : וַתֵּרֶא אֹתוֹ כִּי־טוֹב הוּא. Stephen’s description is: ἀστεῖος τῷ Θεῷ, that is, fair before God, or, according to God’s judgment, so that God himself deemed him to be such; the expression is, by no means, intended to be a mere substitute for the superlative. [So, too, Winer: Gram. N. T., § 36. 3. “The phrase is intensive, rather than an equivalent for the superlative: comp. Jon_3:3.” See also ib. § 31. 4.—“Fair unto God, God being judge, i.e., intens. exceedingly fair.” Robins. Lex. ad verb.—Tr.]. It may be added that this expression is very moderate, when compared with the traditionary accounts of the beauty of Moses in his childhood: Philo speaks of it [ὄψιν ἐνέφῃνεν ἀστειοτέραν ἣ κατʼ ἰδιώτην, de vit. Mos. I.ִ:604. (de Wette).—Tr.], and Josephus (Antiq. ii. 9, 6) furnishes still fuller details. He relates that Moses was [as his protectress, Thermuthis said] in form like the gods (παῖδα μορφῇ θεῶν), and adds that when he was carried out into the street, the spectators neglected their own affairs, and gazed on the child with wonder and admiration, etc.

Act_7:21. Pharaoh’s daughter took him up.—Ἀνείλατο is equivalent, not to tollere infantem (de Wette), in which sense it never occurs, but simply to וַתִּקָּחֶהָ in Exo_2:5, that is, took him up. The conception that she adopted him as a son, is suggested only by the succeeding words: ἑαυτῇ εἰς υἱόν, although even these, in the literal import, simply inform us that she brought him up for herself (not for his own parents), i.e., that he should be her son.’ [The Sept. reads, Exo_2:5 : ἀνείλατο αὐτήν. “Ανειρέω.—לָקַח, capio, accipio. Exo_2:5.—tollebat illam, sc. arcam (τὴν θιβην).” Schleusner: Lex. in LXX.—Tr.]

Act_7:22. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.—No mention is made of this circumstance either in the Pentateuch, or elsewhere in the Old Testament. It is not, however, in any degree, improbable that Moses, who had gained a maternal patroness in the king’s daughter, should have readily found an avenue to all that intellectual culture which was known and valued in Egypt, and which, as other historical records testify, was connected chiefly with mathematics, natural philosophy, and medicine. Philo’s statement (De vita Mos.) is of quite a different character; he relates that Moses was educated not only by Egyptian, but also by Greek, Assyrian, and Chaldean teachers.—The terms: δυνατὸς ἐν λόγοις καὶ ἔργοις αὖτοῦ, forcibly remind us of the language in Luk_24:19, where it is remarked of Jesus that he was δυνατὸς ἐν ἔργῳ καὶ λόγῳ. These ἔργα of Moses can, in no case, have been miracles, (none of which are said in the Scriptures to have been wrought by him during this earlier period of his life), but only designate the vigor and the energy of character which his general deportment revealed. The expression δυνατὸς ἐν λόγοις, by no means contradicts, on the other hand, the language which Moses employs, in Exo_4:10, in reference to himself, as some writers have supposed. He there remarks that he was not אִישׁ דְּבָרִים, but rather בְבַד־ פֶּה וּכְבַד לָשׁוֹן. These words do not mean, as the Septuagint and the Targum of Jonathan interpret them, that Moses was a stammerer, but only that he was not skilful and fluent in discourse. And, indeed, it often occurs that men who possess great strength of character and much intellectual vigor, are deficient in facility of expression, and, nevertheless, exercise vast influence (δυνατὸς ἐν λόγοις).

Act_7:23-24. And when he was full forty years old.—Stephen directs the attention of his hearers, in this verse and in Act_7:30; Act_7:36, to the circumstance that the whole lifetime of Moses embraced three periods, each consisting of forty years. Although this symmetrical computation may he generally adopted, it is by no means positively established by any statements found in the Pentateuch. The records there mention only two numbers: one hundred and twenty, as the whole age of Moses, Deu_34:7, and forty years, as the period during which he accompanied the people of Israel in the wilderness; the latter number is stated both incidentally, that is, refers more to the people, Exo_16:35; Num_14:33-34; and Num_33:38, and also occurs with a direct reference to Moses; he was, namely, eighty years old when he presented himself before Pharaoh, Exo_7:7. But no precise statement is elsewhere found, either of the length of the time spent by him in his native country before his flight, or of that of the period of his residence in the wilderness, before he was called at Horeb, Exo_3:1. The exact determination of these periods, and the equable distribution of the years of Moses (“Mosis vita ter XL. anni.” Bengel), are derived solely from tradition; it is in this instance that the earliest appearance of such a tradition, in a fully developed form, is noticed, although subsequently quite current among the Rabbins.—The phrase: ἀνέβη εὶς τὴν καρδίαν, used impersonally, is unequivocally Hebraistic; עָלָה ַעל־לֵב; it proceeds from the conception of a higher and a lower region in the psychical life of man. A thought may repose in the depths of the soul—it is latent; it ascends, manifests itself, and enters into the region of distinct and conscious life, uniting with man’s sentiments and impulses; it is then fully adopted by his consciousness, and impels him to independent, personal action.—The fact is stated in quite a plain and objective manner, in Exo_2:11, that Moses went out to his brethren, and looked on their burdens. Stephen, on the other hand, describes the incident subjectively, that is, in such a manner as to give prominence to the sympathy and love from which his resolution proceeded: “It came into his heart to visit his brethren.”

Act_7:25. For he supposed his brethren would have understood.—This is an observation made by the speaker on the causes and connection of the incidents, and is not found in the original Hebrew narrative. Stephen views the acts of Moses, Who defended a single Israelite, and slew a single Egyptian, as involving in itself an intimation and a promise respecting the deliverance of the whole people from Egyptian bondage, which God designed to effect through Moses. This design the people should have perceived; but they did not understand it. Stephen, however, seems to imply (when he says οὐ συνῆκαν), not so much that the people were deficient in intelligence or understanding, as that they, rather, had not the will—that their faith in God was weak (ὁ Θεος—διδ. σωτ.)—and that they were not inspired by confidence and hope. [“Stephen makes the remark evidently for the purpose of reminding the Jews of their own similar blindness in regard to the mission of Christ; comp. Act_7:35.” (Hackett.)—Tr.]

Act_7:26-29. And the next day he shewed himself unto them.—Here, too, Stephen describes historical events with the life and vigor which are peculiar to him. The very term ὤφθη is striking; it almost seems to imply that a theophany had occurred. It is, no doubt, intended to convey the thought that Moses had appeared to his own people as a messenger of God, not merely as Bengel supposes, ultro, ex improviso, but actually as one who came from a higher world with a divine commission.—The terms: συνήλασεν αὐτοὺς εἰς εἰρήνην, describe the energetic importunity, the vis lenitatis, as Bengel says, of Moses in his efforts to maintain harmony and peace among his countrymen. [Literally, “he drove them together into peace” (J. A. Alex.).—Tr.]. The propriety of substituting συνήλλασσεν, cannot be established, nor is συνήλασεν itself correctly interpreted, when taken in the sense: he attempted to restore peace. Moses, on his part, drove the contending parties together, unto peace; the fact is stated only afterwards, in Act_7:27-28, that one of them resisted, and thrust the mediator from himself.—The terms in which Moses addresses them, are also rendered with considerable freedom. He says, in brief and direct words, in Exo_2:13 : לָמָּה תַכֶּה רֵעֶךָ; but in Stephen’s narrative, Moses appeals alike to both parties, reminding them, above all, that they are brethren, and should deal with each other in a fraternal spirit.

Act_7:29. And was a stranger.—The Arabian geographers of the middle ages mention a city of the name of Madian, which lay east of the Elanitic Gulf; the land of Madian appears to have been a tract of country which extended from the northern shore of the Arabian Gulf and Arabia Felix to the region of Moab. But the Midianites with whom Jethro was connected, were, perhaps, a nomad detachment of the people, which wandered in the Arabian Desert. See Winer: Realm, [art. Midianiter.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. It is not expressly stated in this apologetic address, but it is implied by its whole tenor, as well as by its special design, that Moses is to be viewed as a type of Jesus Christ. The slanderers and accusers of Stephen had charged him with the twofold crime of having blasphemed Moses, and of having spoken contemptuously of the Mosaic law. In his reply, he speaks with copiousness of Moses, but, nevertheless, describes I him, not as a legislator, but as the divinely appointed pointed deliverer and head of the people, to whose confidence and obedience he was entitled. His glance now lingers on the wonderful guidance of Moses, and on the mode in which he was fitted for his calling, wherein so much occurs that no human wisdom could have anticipated; he dwells, too, on the treatment which Moses received from men, especially from his own people. They did not understand that God designed to grant them deliverance through Moses, for they would not understand it: they did not, in a moral point of view, submit to God, neither did they devoutly watch the course of his Providence.—Even the perfect adaptation of Jesus to be a Redeemer, does not produce faith in him and obedience, when the heart is unwilling to submit to the ways of God, and to give heed to his sovereign appointment of a way of salvation.

2. Even as the Israelite to whom Moses appealed, retorted: “Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?”, so, too, the Sanhedrists asked Jesus: “Who gave thee this authority?” Mat_21:23, comp. Luk_20:2. The divine authorization is doubted, when visible and tangible human credentials are not presented. The truth is, that men unconsciously conceive of God as if he were controlled in his acts by human forms and limitations, and they deny his absolute authority and sovereign power (ὁ Θεὸς τῆς δόξης, Act_7:2).

Footnotes:

[9]Act_7:17. The manuscripts A. B. C. [and Cod Sin.] read ὡμολόγησεν, and also the Vulgate: confessus erat, which Lachmann and Tischendorf [and Alford] adopt; the reading ἐπηγγείλατο is supported by only a single one of the more important MSS.; and ὤμοσεν [of text. rec.] in D. E. is, without doubt, a later correction. [Tisch. says that ἐπηγγ. is found in D. E., and ὤμοσεν in H., and Alf. repeats this statement; Lechler appears to have transposed these two readings in the present note.—Tr.]

[10]Act_7:18. The reading ἐπ ̓ Αἴγυπτον after ἕτερος, is found, it is true, in A. B. C., and some minuscule mss. [and in Cod. Sin. Syr. Vulg., etc.]; it is however more probable that it was inserted as an explanation, than that it should, by an oversight, have been omitted in D. E. H. [Inserted by Lach., but omitted in text. rec. and by Tisch. and Alt., as an addition from the Sept. Exo_1:8; with the latter, Meyer and de Wette concur.—Tr.]

[11]Act_7:20. [The marg. of the Engl. ver. furnishes fair to God as a more literal translation than exceeding fair. See the note below.—Tr.]

[12]Act_7:21. The reading adopted by Lachm. ἐκτεθέντον δὲ αὐτοῦ from A. B. C. D. [and Cod. Sin.] was probably introduced by a later hand, [as also Meyer and de Wette think], for the reason that αὐτόν after ἀνείλατο did not seem to suit the preceding accusative ἐκτεθ. δ. αὐτόν. [The acc. of text. rec., as in E. H., is adopted by Alf.; Tisch., as in note 8 below, varies in different editions from himself.—Tr.]

[13]Act_7:22. a.—The reading best supported by the authorities is: ἐν πάσῃ σοφίᾳ, A. C. E. [Cod. Sin.], whereas the omission of the preposition [as in text. rec.] is supported only by D. and H.; [Lach. follows the latter]; the genitive πάσης σοφίας in B, is totally inadmissible, on grammatical grounds, and the accusative π. τ. σοφίαν is found only in a single MSS. [D.—Tisch. and Alf. read ἐν π. σοφιᾴ.—Tr.]

[14]Act_7:22. b.—The reading λόγοις καὶ ἔργοις αὐτοῦ, i.e., without ἐν ἔργ., and with αὐτοῦ added, is fully sustained. [The text. rec. inserts ἐν before ἔργ. from E. and some versions; the prep. is omitted in A. B. C. D. H. The text. rec. also omits αὐτοῦ with H., while the pronoun is found in A. B. C. D. E. The later editors unite in the reading ἐν λ. κ. ἔρ. αὐ., which is also that of Cod. Sin.—Tr.]

[15]Act_7:25.—[The margin offers Now in place of For; the original is the common δὲ. Hackett and Owen prefer For.—Tr.]

[16]Act_7:26.—συνήλασεν [of text. rec. (συνελαύνω)] is obviously a more difficult reading than συνήλλασσεν; it is true that the latter is sustained by B. C. D. [and Cod. Sin.]; but the former is undoubtedly the original reading, and is testified to be such by A. E. H. [The latter in Vulg. reconciliabat, and adopted by Lachm.] Tischendorf [who had previously preferred the latter] has recently adopted συνήλασεν [and in this decision Alford, Meyer, and de Wette concur with him.—Tr.]

[17]Act_7:27.—The genitive ἐφ̓ ἡμῶν is sustained by a greater number of authorities [A. B. C., etc.] than the acc. ἐφ ̓ ἡμᾶς [D. E., etc. Alford regards the gen. as a correction from the Sept. Exo_2:14, and adopts the acc. of text. rec., while Lach. and Tisch. prefer the gen.—The reading of Cod. Sin. is ἐφ ̓ ἡμας.—Tr.]

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

See on (Act_7:35-43.)

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Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 7:17. Καθὼς) This is more than ὡς. Even as God had promised it would come to pass at a particular time, so it came to pass when the four centuries had elapsed [Gen 15:13].

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act_7:17-18. Καθώς] is not, as is commonly assumed, with an appeal to the critically corrupt passage 2Ma_1:31, to be taken as a particle of time cum, but (comp. also Grimm on 2Ma_1:31) as quemadmodum. In proportion as the time of the promise (the time destined for its realization) drew nigh, the people grew, etc.

ἧς ὡμολόγ. κ.τ.λ.] which God promised (Act_7:7). ὁμολογ., often so used in Greek writers; comp. Mat_14:7.

ἀνέστη βασιλεὺς ἕτερος] τῆς βασιλείας εἰς ἄλλον οἶκου μετεληλυθυΐας,[204] Joseph. Antt. ii. 9. 1.

ὃς οὐκ ᾔδει τὸν Ἰωσήφ] who knew not Joseph (his history and his services to the country). This might be said both in Exo_1:8 and here with truth; because, in all the transactions of Pharaoh with Moses and the Israelites, there is nothing which would lead us to conclude that the king knew Joseph. Erroneously Erasmus and others, including Krause, hold that οἶδα and ידע here signify to love; and Heinrichs, Kuinoel, Olshausen, Hackett render: who did not regard the merits of Joseph. In 1Th_5:12, also, it means simply to know, to understand.

[204] The previous dynasty was that of the Hyksos; the new king was Ahmes, who expelled the Hyksos. See Knobel on Exo_1:8.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Act 7:17 . καθὼς : not “when” as in A.V., but “as” R.V., prout, quemadmodum, cf. Mar 4:33 : “in the degree that”: Felten thinks that it is temporal, as in 2Ma 1:31 . τῆς ἐπαγγελίας , cf. Act 2:33 . ἧς : Attic attraction. ὤμοσεν : but if we read with R.V., etc., ὡμολόγησεν “vouchsafed,” so in classical Greek, cf. Jer 51:25 (LXX), Mat 14:7 ( ὤμοσεν , a gloss from the LXX according to Wendt). ηὔξησεν ὁ λ . καὶ ἐπληθύνθη , cf. Exo 1:7 , so in a strange land the blessing was continued (Weiss).

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Stephen here goes on to relate,

I. The wonderful increase of the people of Israel in Egypt; it was by a wonder of providence that in a little time they advanced from a family into a nation. 1. It was when the time of the promise drew nigh - the time when they were to be formed into a people. During the first two hundred and fifteen years after the promise made to Abraham, the children of the covenant were increased but to seventy; but in the latter two hundred and fifteen years they increased to six hundred thousand fighting men. The motion of providence is sometimes quickest when it comes nearest the centre. Let us not be discouraged at the slowness of the proceedings towards the accomplishment of God's promises; God knows how to redeem the time that seems to have been lost, and, when the year of the redeemed is at hand, can do a double work in a single day. 2. It was in Egypt, where they were oppressed, and ruled with rigour; when their lives were made so bitter to them that, one would think, they should have wished to be written childless, yet they married, in faith that God in due time would visit them; and God blessed them, who thus honoured him, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply. Suffering times have often been growing times with the church.

II. The extreme hardships which they underwent there, Act 7:18, Act 7:19. When the Egyptians observed them to increase in number they increased their burdens, in which Stephen observes three things: - 1. Their base ingratitude: They were oppressed by another king that knew not Joseph, that is, did not consider the good service that Joseph had done to that nation; for, if he had, he would not have made so ill a requital to his relations and family. Those that injure good people are very ungrateful, for they are the blessings of the age and place they live in. 2. Their hellish craft and policy: They dealt subtly with our kindred. Come on, said they, let us deal wisely, thinking thereby to secure themselves, but it proved dealing foolishly, for they did but treasure up wrath by it. Those are in a great mistake who think they deal wisely for themselves when they deal deceitfully or unmercifully with their brethren. 3. Their barbarous and inhuman cruelty. That they might effectually extirpate them, they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live. The killing of their infant seed seemed a very likely way to crush an infant nation. Now Stephen seems to observe this to them, not only that they might further see how mean their beginnings were, fitly represented (perhaps with an eye to the exposing of the young children in Egypt) by the forlorn state of a helpless, out-cast infant (Eze 16:4), and how much they were indebted to God for his care of them, which they had forfeited, and made themselves unworthy of: but also that they might consider that what they were now doing against the Christian church in its infancy was as impious and unjust, and would be in the issue as fruitless and ineffectual, as that was which the Egyptians did against the Jewish church in its infancy. "You think you deal subtly in your ill treatment of us, and, in persecuting young converts, you do as they did in casting out the young children; but you will find it is to no purpose, in spite of your malice Christ's disciples will increase and multiply."

III. The raising up of Moses to be their deliverer. Stephen was charged with having spoken blasphemous words against Moses, in answer to which charge he here speaks very honourably of him. 1. Moses was born when the persecution of Israel was at the hottest, especially in that most cruel instance of it, the murdering of the new-born children: At that time, Moses was born (Act 7:20), and was himself in danger, as soon as he came into the world (as our Saviour also was at Bethlehem) of falling a sacrifice to that bloody edict. God is preparing for his people's deliverance, when their way is darkest, and their distress deepest. 2. He was exceedingly fair; his face began to shine as soon as he was born, as a happy presage of the honour God designed to put upon him; he was asteios tō Theō - fair towards God; he was sanctified from the womb, and this made him beautiful in God's eyes; for it is the beauty of holiness that is in God's sight of great price. 3. He was wonderfully preserved in his infancy, first, by the care of his tender parents, who nourished him three months in their own house, as long as they durst; and then by a favourable providence that threw him into the arms of Pharaoh's daughter, who took him up, and nourished him as her own son (Act 7:21); for those whom God designs to make special use of he will take special care of. And did he thus protect the child Moses? Much more will he secure the interests of his holy child Jesus (as he is called Act 4:27) from the enemies that are gathered together against him. 4. He became a great scholar (Act 7:22): He was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, who were then famed for all manner of polite literature, particularly philosophy, astronomy, and (which perhaps helped to lead them to idolatry) hieroglyphics. Moses, having his education at court, had opportunity of improving himself by the best books, tutors, and conversation, in all the arts and sciences, and had a genius for them. Only we have reason to think that he had not so far forgotten the God of his fathers as to acquaint himself with the unlawful studies and practices of the magicians of Egypt, any further than was necessary to the confuting of them. 5. He became a prime minister of state in Egypt. This seems to be meant by his being mighty in words and deeds. Though he had not a ready way of expressing himself, but stammered, yet he spoke admirably good sense, and every thing he said commanded assent, and carried its own evidence and force of reason along with it; and, in business, none went on with such courage, and conduct, and success. Thus was he prepared, by human helps, for those services, which, after all, he could not be thoroughly furnished for without divine illumination. Now, by all this, Stephen will make it appear that, notwithstanding the malicious insinuations of his persecutors, he had as high and honourable thoughts of Moses as they had.

IV. The attempts which Moses made to deliver Israel, which they spurned, and would not close in with. This Stephen insists much upon, and it serves for a key to this story (Exo 2:11-15), as does also that other construction which is put upon it by the apostle, Heb 11:24-26. There it is represented as an act of holy self-denial, here as a designed prelude to, or entrance upon, the public service he was to be called out to (Act 7:23): When he was full forty years old, in the prime of his time for preferment in the court of Egypt, it came into his heart (for God put it there) to visit his brethren the children of Israel, and to see which way he might do them any service; and he showed himself as a public person, with a public character. 1. As Israel's saviour. This he gave a specimen of in avenging an oppressed Israelite, and killing the Egyptian that abused him (Act 7:24). Seeing one of his brethren suffer wrong, he was moved with compassion towards the sufferer, and a just indignation at the wrong-doer, as men in public stations should be, and he avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian, which, if he had been only a private person, he could not lawfully have done; but he knew that his commission from heaven would bear him out, and he supposed that his brethren (who could not but have some knowledge of the promise made to Abraham, that the nation that should oppress them God would judge) would have understood that God by his hand would deliver them; for he could not have had either presence of mind or strength of body to do what he did, if he had not been clothed with such a divine power as evinced a divine authority. If they had but understood the signs of the times, they might have taken this for the dawning of the day of their deliverance; but they understood not, they did not take this, as it was designed, for the setting up of a standard, and sounding of a trumpet, to proclaim Moses their deliverer. 2. As Israel's judge. This he gave a specimen of, the very next day, in offering to accommodate matters between two contending Hebrews, wherein he plainly assumed a public character (Act 7:26): He showed himself to them as they strove, and, putting on an air of majesty and authority, he would have set them at one again, and as their prince have determined the controversy between them, saying, Sirs, you are brethren, by birth and profession of religion; why do you wrong one to another? For he observed that (as in most strifes) there was a fault on both sides; and therefore, in order to peace and friendship, there must be a mutual remission and condescension. When Moses was to be Israel's deliverer out of Egypt, he slew the Egyptians, and so delivered Israel out of their hands; but, when he was to be Israel's judge and lawgiver, he ruled them with the golden sceptre, not the iron rod; he did not kill and slay them when they strove, but gave them excellent laws and statutes, and decided upon their complaints and appeals made to him, Exo 18:16. But the contending Israelite that was most in the wrong thrust him away (Act 7:27), would not bear the reproof, though a just and gentle one, but was ready to fly in his face, with, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? Proud and litigious spirits are impatient of check and control. Rather would these Israelites have their bodies ruled with rigour by their task-masters than be delivered, and have their minds ruled with reason, by their deliverer. The wrong-doer was so enraged at the reproof given him that he upbraided Moses with the service he had done to their nation in killing the Egyptian, which, if they had pleased, would have been the earnest of further and greater service: Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday? Act 7:28, charging that upon him as his crime, and threatening to accuse him for it, which was the hanging out of the flag of defiance to the Egyptians, and the banner of love and deliverance to Israel. Hereupon Moses fled into the land of Midian, and made no further attempt to deliver Israel till forty years after; he settled as a stranger in Midian, married, and had two sons, by Jethro's daughter, Act 7:29.

Now let us see how this serves Stephen's purpose. 1. They charged him with blaspheming Moses, in answer to which he retorts upon them the indignities which their fathers did to Moses, which they ought to be ashamed of, and humbled for, instead of picking quarrels thus, under pretence of zeal for the honour of Moses, with one that had as great a veneration for him as any of them had. 2. They persecuted him for disputing in defence of Christ and his gospel, in opposition to which they set up Moses and his law: "But," saith he, "you had best take heed," (1.) "Lest you hereby do as your fathers did, refuse and reject one whom God has raised up to be to you a prince and a Saviour; you may understand, if you will not wilfully shut your eyes against the light, that God will, by this Jesus, deliver you out of a worse slavery than that in Egypt; take heed then of thrusting him away, but receive him as a ruler and a judge over you." (2.) "Lest you hereby fare as your fathers fared, who for this were very justly left to die in their slavery, for the deliverance came not till forty years after. This will be the issue of it, you put away the gospel from you, and it will be sent to the Gentiles; you will not have Christ, and you shall not have him, so shall your doom be." Mat 23:38, Mat 23:39.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

But when--rather, "as."

the time of the promise--that is, for its fulfilment.

the people grew and multiplied in Egypt--For more than two hundred years they amounted to no more than seventy-five souls; how prodigious, then, must have been their multiplication during the latter two centuries, when six hundred thousand men, fit for war, besides women and children, left Egypt!

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

17. Stephen passeth over unto the deliverance of the people, before which went that innumerable issue which had increased beyond the ordinary manner in no long space of time. Therefore, he setteth down this as a singular gift of God, that the people was increased, to the end we may know that that came not to pass according to the common or wonted custom of nature. But, on the other side, God seemeth to take from the Jews all hope, because Pharaoh doth tyrannously afflict them, and their bondage groweth greater daily. And when as they are commanded to cast out their male infants, it seemeth that the destruction of the whole nation was present. There is another token of deliverance given, when Moses cometh abroad; but because he is by and by refused and enforced to fly into exile, there remaineth nothing but mere despair. The sum is this; that God, being mindful of his promise, did increase the people in time, that he might perform that which he had sworn to Abraham; but the Jews (as they were unthankful and froward) did refuse the grace of God, so that they did what they could to shut up the way before themselves. Furthermore, we must note the providence of God in this place, whilst that he doth so order the course of times, that his works have always their opportunity. But men who make haste disorderly in their desires cannot hope patiently, and be at rest, until such time as God showeth forth his hand; for this cause, because they take no heed to that moderation whereof I have spoken. And to the end God may exercise the faith of his children so often as he appeareth with joyful tokens of grace, he setteth other things against those on the other side, which cut off suddenly the hope of salvation. For who would not have said of the Hebrews, that they were utterly undone, when as the king’s commandment appointed all the men children to be put to death? For which cause the meditating upon that doctrine is the most [more] necessary for us, that God doth kill and restore to life; he leadeth unto hell, and bringeth back again.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(17) Which God had sworn to Abraham.—The better MSS. give, which God promised.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17. But when [as] the time of the promise drew nigh] i.e. for its fulfilment. The fathers “all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off” (Heb_11:13).

which God had sworn, &c.] The oldest authorities give had vouchsafed (ὡμολόγησεν), The same word is used (Mat_14:7) of the promise made by Herod to the daughter of Herodias.

the people grew and multiplied in Egypt] God blessed them there. (See Exo_1:7; Exo_1:12.) The number of those who came out of Egypt (Exo_12:37) was “six hundred thousand on foot that were men, beside children.”

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

But when the time of the promise drew nigh,.... That is, the time of the four hundred years; when God promised to deliver the seed of Abraham out of their affliction and servitude, and bring them into the land of Canaan to inherit it:

which God had sworn to Abraham; in Gen 15:13 for though there is no express mention made of an oath, yet there is a most solemn affirmation, which is equivalent to one; the Alexandrian copy and some others, and the Vulgate Latin version read,

which God promised unto Abraham; the people grew and multiplied in Egypt; see Exo 1:7 insomuch, that though their number were but threescore and ten when they went down to Egypt, and though various methods were taken to destroy them, and lessen their numbers, yet in little more than two hundred years, their number was increased to six hundred thousand, and three thousand and five hundred and fifty men, besides old men, women, and children, and besides two and twenty thousand Levites, Num 1:46. And it seems, that they multiplied the more towards the time when the promise of deliverance drew nigh to be accomplished, and even when they were the most afflicted, Exo 1:12.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The time of the promise - The time of the “fulfillment” of the promise.

The people grew ... - Exo 1:7-9.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Of the promise; of the fulfilling of the promise, either of the increase of his seed, or of their deliverance out of bondage, for both were promised, Gen 22:17; though at that very time there were the greatest endeavours to hinder either when God accomplished both.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

17. Laid… hands—What is called the rite of confirmation by the laying on of episcopal hands, though of venerable antiquity in the Church, is not made obligatory in this or any other passage of the New Testament. This was an imposition of hands by a miraculous authority and for a miraculous purpose.

Received the Holy Ghost—In his miraculous and extraordinary manifestation; not merely sanctifying but charismatic. They had been doubtless regenerated by that Spirit before their baptism, in his secret and ordinary power and operation.

We have here, as at Cesarea (Act_10:44-48) and at Ephesus, (Act_19:5-7,) a miniature Pentecost, in which a new inauguration seems to take place by the repetition of the same charismatic effusions, each time under apostolic supervision. (See note, page 30, on Act_2:4.) Samaria is thus ushered into the kingdom of Christ; and her semi-Gentilism, intermediate between Judaism and paganism, is authenticated as truly called. Hence, we see that not until the apostles came to Samaria might the charismatic Spirit descend. This was part of that miraculous supremacy of the apostles— Christ’s own chosen, original, witnessing twelve—which they could not communicate to any fellow, or transmit to any successor.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

As for when, A.V.; vouchsafed unto for had sworn to, A.V. and T.R. Vouchsafed; oJmologein, in the sense of" to promise," as in Mat_14:7, and not unfrequently in Greek writers, for ojmnu to swear.

Vers. 17-29. Israel in Egypt: the rise of Moses.

We may view these events as typical of the Christian time or as expressive of an inner meaning, a Divine logic of history. We may learn, then, from this passage

I THAT DIVINE BEGINNINGS IN HISTORY ARE NEVER WITHOUT STRUGGLES, The people grew and increased, but a sudden check was given to their prosperity by the accession of a new king. Israel might have settled in Egypt and have achieved no great thing for the world, had not persecution compelled her to struggle for existence and for liberty. Times of national danger throw the nation back upon its true consciousness. They vivify and purify that consciousness. It was England"s struggle against a tyrant two centuries and a half ago which made England. So the War of Independence made America into a nation. The truth applies to the individual also. We may depend upon it that permanent good must sooner or later be struggled for either that it may be gained, or, if gained, that it may be kept.

II THAT THE EXTREME HOUR OF HUMAN NEED IS THE HOUR FOR DIVINE INTERPOSITION; or, man"s extremity is God"s opportunity. "When the tale of bricks is full," says the proverb, "then comes Moses." Great stirrings among the people, movements towards liberty and purity of religion, seem to produce at the right moment the patriotic leader and the reformer. When the hour comes the man is not wanting. It may be argued that until the leader appears the movement is not ripe. God reveals his will for change in the words and work of great men.

III THE SIGNIFICANT PERSONALITY OF GREAT MEN. The child was divinely fair. He was wonderfully preserved from death; rescued by the very daughter of the persecutor, and cradled in the very house of his foes. His education among one of the most richly civilized of ancient peoples was complete; and the influence of his person was most commanding. God does not bestow such graces for nothing. Whenever we see such a one marked out by beauty, knowledge, intellectual power above his fellows, we are entitled to ask What is his significance for the world? What does God mean to do with him for the good of mankind? Again, the life-ideas in such great men are often of slow ripening. Not till he was forty years of age did his thoughts turn to the condition of his nation, and the delivering purpose come to fruit in his heart. Some men conceive much earlier the ambition and the call of their life, and move toward the goal with extraordinary velocity and energy. Others appear to be long dormant, like the oak that tarries to put forth its leaf in the woodland. Great careers have been run, great works achieved, by the age of thirty-seven: Alexander, Raphael, Byron, arc well-known examples. Cromwell, on the other hand, was about the age of Moses when God called him from the fens of Huntingdon to save our nation. The age matters little; men in this respect resemble plants is all.

IV GREAT TRAINS OF EVENTS SPRING FROM SLIGHT VISIBLE CAUSES. A single spark is sufficient to fire the train of powder which is to explode the mine. When the mind is full of an idea, a trifling circumstance may stimulate all its energies to action. A forming purpose waits only for the decisive action to fix and crystallize it. Thus the act of Moses in delivering the individual Israelite from his oppressor fixed him in his national design. In everything let us follow the lead of God. Let us remember that we are here first to be acted upon by him, that we may then act from him upon others. If we are really in earnest, the opportunity will never be wanting. God makes his servants ready for great enterprises by first inspiring them for lesser duties. The large and distant project may hold the mere visionary"s view; but the practical and really useful man begins with his neighbor next door. The man who actually helps his friend in need is the man who may be trusted to help a community or a nation. But how many dreamers are there whose projects of amelioration begin and end with eloquent speeches or articles in newspapers! The old lesson comes back from Moses" life to all who would do and be something in the world: "Do the thing that lies nearest to thee; the second will have already become clearer.

V MOSES EXAMPLE WAS THAT OF LOYALTY UNDER MISCONCEPTION. There is much pathos in the simple word that he thought his brethren understood that God was delivering them by his band; but they did not understand. So mighty is the strength derived from the sympathy of numbers, the common soldier becomes a hero at its electric touch. So chilling is misconception and want of sympathy on the part of friends, it damps the spirit of the Heaven-born leader. For this reason, when we sift the examples of moral courage presented by any time, those are the bravest and the greatest, and most prove their call of God, who show that they can go on, if needs be, not merely in spite of their open enemies, but in spite of their friends. The misconstruction of friends will be most felt when the action is in the conscience known to be most disinterested and sincere. Moses aims to reconcile contending brethren; unity among themselves is now above all necessary. His action is misconstrued as ambition (ver. 28). Thus does the sick man turn on the kindly physician, the subject on his prince, the slave on his deliverer. Man often ignores the day of his salvation. Moses, like his great Antitype, was baffled in his saving designs by the ignorance and folly of those who would not be blessed. But he simply uses prudence and waits for a future opportunity. We can hardly construe the flight of Moses otherwise than as an act of prudence. He saw his life and with it his design endangered. To have remained would have been foolhardiness, often confounded with true courage. He took the course of prudence, which is the course of the higher courage. Far easier to rush on a heroic death than to nourish a noble purpose under disappointment, solitude, and exile. The history of a nation"s greatness is summed up in that of its great men. And in the life trials and struggles of great men God reveals himself from age to age as the persevering, unvanquishable, and loving Savior of mankind. His undying purpose, manifested in all his heroes, is to set us free; and this in the knowledge of him and obedience to his laws. J.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Exod. i, 7.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The birth and youth of Moses:

v. 17. But when the time of the promise drew nigh which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,

v. 18. till another king arose which knew not Joseph.

v. 19. The same dealt subtly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live.

v. 20. In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father’s house three months;

v. 21. and when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.

v. 22. And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.

After the death of Jacob, of Joseph, and the patriarchs, the sojourn of the children of Israel in Egypt was pleasant enough for several centuries. But even as, in the same degree that, the time of their stay according to God’s promise was drawing to a close, the people grew and became plentiful in Egypt. Their rapid increase corresponded to the rapid approach of the time set by God. This remarkable growth was in accordance with the promise given to Abraham by God. This continued until a different king arose in Egypt; a new dynasty was established by conquest. The new Pharaoh very naturally neither knew of, nor cared about, Joseph and the blessing which he had brought to the land of Egypt, being concerned far more about the rapid multiplying of the strange people occupying a very desirable part of the country. So he hit upon a scheme which was certainly a wise stratagem from the standpoint of the Egyptians, although it resulted in an evil treatment of the children of Israel, in afflictions of all kinds, whose culmination, in a way, was the order to cast into the Nile the children, all the boys that were born to the Israelites, in order that they might not be preserved alive. It was when matters had come to this point that Moses was born, in conformity with God’s plan of deliverance for the Jews, as the words of Stephen indicate, for he was exceeding fair, fair to God, in the judgment of God; his was not only an extraordinary bodily beauty, but the indications of unusual mental endowment were very favorable. For three months his mother kept him hid and nourished him, gave him all the care that a child should have. And when she finally did expose him, it was, by the direction of God, at a place where Thermuthis, the daughter of Pharaoh, found the child, took him up out of his little vessel, and nourished him to be her own son. She practically, if not actually, adopted him. And in his capacity as the foster son of the princess, Moses enjoyed unusual advantages, and Stephen here supplements the Old Testament account. Moses was brought up, taught, educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, very probably attending their great schools of learning corresponding to our modern universities, thus receiving a mental training which was second to none in the world of those days. Note: This thorough training afterwards stood Moses in good stead, for it was true then as it is now that all the arts and sciences in the world shall serve the one greatest science, theology, and the preaching of the Gospel. The result, in the case of Moses, certainly justified all efforts made in his behalf, for he was mighty in words and deeds. He was full of vigor and energy in carrying forward any project, even if he may have been lacking in facility of expression, Exo 4:10. What he lacked in grace and polish he more than compensated for by depth and power. Herein Moses is a model for all men whom God has placed in positions of leadership in His Church.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

MOSES TYPICAL OF CHRIST

17-40. While Joseph so beautifully and vividly emblematizes King Jesus, both in His humiliation and in His glory, Moses equally grandly emblematizes the mediatorial Christ, himself not only the prophet and legislator of Israel and the world, but the mediator of the old covenant, as Christ is of the new. As the royal generations quickly come and go after the death of Joseph, they soon not only forget his brilliant and beneficent reign, but alarmed at the rapid multiplication of Israel [providentially enjoying the protection of the greatest military power on earth, during their national minority], lest in process of time becoming greater than the Egyptians, and joining their enemies in time of war, they may actually subjugate them. Therefore the king resorts to the stratagem of infanticide to arrest the alarming rapidity of Israel’s multiplication.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17-29. From this glance at the leading points in the history of Joseph, Stephen advances to the case of Moses, showing that his brethren rejected him in like manner, and were also finally delivered by him. (17) " But when the time of the promise of which God had sworn to Abraham was drawing near, the people increased and were multiplied in Egypt, (18) until another king arose who knew not Joseph. (19) The same dealt craftily with our kindred, and afflicted our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, in order that they might not live. (20) In which time Moses was born, and was exceedingly beautiful. He was nourished in his his father's house three months. (21) And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son. (22) And Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, and was powerful in words and in deeds. (23) And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to look after his brethren, the children of Israel. (24) And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, smiting the Egyptian. (25) Now he thought that his brethren would understand that God would, by his hand, give them salvation; but they did not understand. (26) The next day he appeared to them as they were fighting, and would have brought them to peace, saying, Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another? (27) But he who was wronging his neighbor thrust him away, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? (28) Do you wish to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday? (29) Then Moses fled at this word, and became a sojourner in the land of Midian where he begot two sons. "

In the rejection of Moses by his countrymen, when he was seeking to deliver them from bondage, according to the promise of God, Stephen has before the minds of the Sanhedrim another case bearing upon his final conclusion. It is true, that as yet they could not anticipate the use he intended to make of it, but the obscurity of his design awakened their curiosity, and rendered their mortification the more intense when at last it was suddenly developed. If they could have anticipated it, they would have stopped his mouth at the beginning.

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

17. The time of the promise. Of deliverance from Egypt. See Gen. 15:13, 14. Which God had sworn. Solemnly promised. There is no account of a formal oath. “Every divine assurance is equivalent to an oath.”—Maimonides.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

General Information:

The word "our" includes Stephen and his audience. (See: Inclusive "We")

As the time of the promise ... the people grew and multiplied

In some languages it may be helpful to say that the people increased in number before saying that the time of the promise arrived.

time of the promise approached

It was close to the time that God would fulfill his promise to Abraham.

there arose another king

"another king began to rule"

over Egypt

"Egypt" refers to the people of Egypt. AT: "the people of Egypt" (See: Metonymy)

who did not know about Joseph

"Joseph" refers to the reputation of Joseph. AT: "who did not know that Joseph had helped Egypt" (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

promise

Abraham

Egypt

king

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

17. ὡμολόγησεν for ὤμοσεν with אABC. Vulg. ‘confessus erat.’

17. καθὼς δὲ ἤγγιζεν κ.τ.λ., but as the time of the promise drew nigh, i.e. the time for its fulfilment. The fathers ‘all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,’ Heb 11:13.

ἧς, which. For the attraction, see note on Act 1:1.

ὡμολόγησεν ὁ θεός, God had vouchsafed. The same word is used (Mat 14:7) of the promise made by Herod to the daughter of Herodias. Cf. also LXX. Jer 51:25, ποιοῦσαι ποιήσομεν τὰς ὁμολογίας ἡμῶν ἂς ὡμολογήκαμεν, ‘we will surely perform our vows that we have vowed.’ And in Act 7:26 immediately following we have the same various reading as in our text, ὤμοσα and ὡμολόγηκα, the latter being the text in Trommius, the former the variation; in Holmes and Parsons this arrangement is reversed, while Tischendorf only gives ὤμοσα.

ηὔξησεν ὁ λαός, the people grew. Another point in Stephen’s argument. God’s blessing went with them into Egypt (Exo 1:7; Exo 1:12). The number of those who came out of Egypt was (Exo 12:37) ‘six hundred thousand on foot that were men, besides children.’

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17.] καθώς, not ‘when’ (as E. V., Beza, Kuin.), but as, ‘in proportion as.’ See ref.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

When [καθως] . Rev., more correctly, as; the word being not a particle of time, but meaning in proportion as.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.