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New Defender's Study Bible Notes

7:2 hearken. Stephen had been accused of blasphemy against the temple and the law but, even though the false witnesses had distorted his message, Stephen did not attempt to defend himself. Instead he probably presented the same type of message to the council he had been preaching in the synagogue, stressing that the principles of God’s plan for Israel were established long before the temple system, and that the Abrahamic covenant centered in the promised Messiah, as did the preaching of the prophets. But Israel had rejected God’s Word at every stage, had killed the prophets, corrupted the law and finally murdered the Messiah when He came. Stephen’s message was powerful and true, but could only anger the council still further.


7:2 God of glory. This title—“the God of glory”—occurs only one other time in the Bible, in Psalm 29:3: “The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters.” In context, this psalm records David’s retrospective vision of the great Flood (for details, see the notes on Psalm 29). Stephen’s use of this name at the beginning of his apologetics exhortation to these rulers of Israel was probably to remind them that the same Creator God who judged the whole world in the days of Noah had called Abram, not just to found an elect nation but to use that nation to bring the promised seed who would bless all nations.


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