Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
Acts 6:8-7:53, Stephen's charge and speech
Men from the Diaspora synagogues accuse Stephen of speaking against the temple and the law. He answers with Israel's story, from Abraham to the temple, and turns the charge back on his judges.
Acts 6:8-7:53, in every translation this tool compares.
Stephen, one of the Seven, works wonders and out-argues Diaspora Jews from a synagogue of former slaves and others from abroad. They find witnesses to accuse him before the council of attacking the temple and the law of Moses. His defense retells Israel's history, showing God at work far from the land, a people who kept rejecting the leaders God sent, and a God whom no building made by people can contain. He ends by turning the charge around and accusing his judges of resisting the Spirit and killing the Righteous One, just as their ancestors treated the prophets.
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- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/blasphemy\/","n":"Blasphemy","s":"Speech that dishonored God, including claiming what belonged to God alone. Under the law the penalty was death.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/temple-and-courts\/","n":"The temple and its courts","s":"Herod's huge rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, believed to be God's dwelling, laid out in courts that kept Gentiles, women and Jewish men at set distances.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/pagan-gods-and-idols\/","n":"Many gods and their images","s":"The Greek and Roman world was full of gods, each with temples, statues, priests and local stories. Jews and Christians called the images things made with hands, while holding that there were real powers behind them.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/angels\/","n":"Angels","s":"God's messengers and his heavenly army. Jews of Jesus' day spoke of guardian angels, of the greatest angels standing before God's face, and of angels coming with God at the judgment.","r":""}
Archaeology attests a Jerusalem synagogue founded by a freedman named Vettenos, though whether it is this one is debated (the cultural backgrounds article Synagogue of the Freedmen; Keener); Price and House think the Theodotus inscription, from a synagogue with a hostel for visitors from abroad, may be it. Luke's word means freed slaves of Roman citizens, who became citizens on release; Jews Pompey enslaved were bought free by Rome's Jews, and their descendants kept the status, so Saul was probably one of the Cilicians in this synagogue and his family may have gained citizenship this way (the article). Defendants answered the charges laid against them, and Stephen argues from the law itself, then turns the charge on his accusers, as defense speeches often did (the cultural backgrounds article Answered Charges and Parallel Figures in Acts 7; Keener). Some teachers held that God revealed himself directly only in the land, and Stephen stresses God's appearing in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Sinai (Keener and his notes). Apart from the angel at the bush, the Old Testament does not say the law came through angels; Keener says tradition added them, while Heiser traces the idea to the Greek text of Deuteronomy 33:2.
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, articles Synagogue of the Freedmen and Answered Charges and Parallel Figures in Acts 7
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on Acts 6:9-10, 6:11, 7:2-4, 7:51-53 and 7:53
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on Acts 6:11, 7:2, 7:51 and 7:53
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 21, God's Law, God's Council
- J. Randall Price and H. Wayne House, Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology, Mark 5:35 Ruler of the Synagogue (Theodotus Inscription)
