Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Acts 7:38
This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sinai, and [with] our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:
38. This is he, that was in the church [ congregation ] in the wilderness ] i.e. with the congregation of Israel assembled at Mount Sinai.
with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina [ Sinai ] As in Act 7:35, the angel is God Himself; just so in Act 7:31 the voice which spake is called “a voice of the Lord.”
and with our fathers ] Jewish tradition says that the whole world was present at Sinai. Thus Midrash Rabbah on Exodus, cap. 28 ad fin.: “Whatever the prophets were to utter in prophecy in every generation they received from Mount Sinai,” and presently after, commenting on the words of Moses (Deu 29:15), Him that is not here with us this day, it is said, “These are the souls which were yet to be created,” i.e. to be sent into the world; and to explain (Deu 5:22) and he added no more, (on which they found the teaching that all revelation was completely given at Sinai,) they say, “The one voice was divided into seven voices, and these were divided into the seventy tongues,” which Jewish tradition held to be the number of the languages of the world.
who received the lively oracles to give unto us ] Who (i.e. Moses) received living oracles, &c. Moses is thus shewn to have been a mediator (see Gal 3:19), and thus to have prefigured the mediator of a better covenant (Heb 8:6) and of the New Testament (Heb 9:15), even Jesus (Heb 12:24).
The oracles are called living, just as “the word of God” is called living [A. V. quick] (Heb 4:12), because it is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. On this effect cp. St Paul’s language concerning the law (Rom 7:9), “When the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” But there is at the same time the other sense in the word, which appears when (Joh 6:51) Christ calls Himself “the living bread which came down from heaven.” For the law pointed onward to Christ, who should lead His people “unto living fountains of waters” (Rev 7:17). For the thought, cp. 1Pe 1:23, “The word of God which liveth and abideth for ever.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
In the church – The word church means literally the people called out, and is applied with great propriety to the assembly or multitude called out of Egypt, and separated from the world. It has not, however, of necessity our idea of a church, but means the assembly, or people called out of Egypt and placed under the conduct of Moses.
With the angel – In this place there is undoubted reference to the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. Yet that was done by God himself, Exo. 20: It is clear, therefore, that by the angel here, Stephen intends to designate him who was God. It may be observed, however, that the Law is represented as having been given by the ministry of an angel (in this place) and by the ministry of angels, Act 7:53; Heb 2:2. The essential idea is, that God did it by a messenger, or by mediators. The character and rank of the messengers, or of the principal messenger, must be learned by looking at all the circumstances of the case.
The lively oracles – See Rom 3:2. The word oracles here means commands or laws of God. The word lively, or living zonta, stands in opposition to what is dead, or useless, and means what is vigorous, efficacious; and in this place it means that the commands were of such a nature, and given in such circumstances, as to secure attention; to produce obedience; to excite them to act for God – in opposition to laws which would fall powerless, and produce no effect.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Act 7:38
This is he who received the lively oracles to give unto us.
Living oracle
Whatever sense lively (A.V.) may once have had, it can only now mislead: it is limited to certain special characteristics of life; living (R.V.) implies life in itself, life as a principle, life with all its manifold issues. The one is particular, the other is comprehensive. What more striking illustration could we have of this life, this vitality, than the great Bible Society, comprising members of many countries and churches, dispensing an income of more than 200,000 a year, dependent on gratuitous support, and bringing no gain to its members, concentrating all its energies and absorbing all its resources on the reproduction and the dissemination of one single Book–a Book, too, of which the latest page is some eighteen centuries old; claiming to have distributed already between ninety and a hundred million copies, and at this moment distributing year by year close upon three million of its volumes, whole or in part, in well-nigh every spoken language of the globe; however you may look at it this is a fact, to which the long roll of history presents not the faintest parallel. And yet this society does not stand alone. It is the handmaid of almost all the missionary associations throughout the world, to whatever church or whatever country they belong.
I. Life involves growth; growth is at once a characteristic and an evidence of life. We speak of life in a plant or tree, because it puts forth leaves and flowers and throws out fresh branches. We do not speak of a crystal as living. A crystal may be a very beautiful thing, but one thing it wants–Life. This figure fitly describes the Bible as contrasted with other sacred books. It did not come into being all at once; it was not the product of one mind or age; it is not a book, but a library; it is legislation, chronicles, poetry, philosophy, epistolography, allegory, romance, apocalyptic. It spreads over some thousands of years; it traverses the history of the race from the earliest dawn to the full noon-day of an elaborate civilisation. It was not written in any one place; Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, all contribute. Now we find ourselves wandering with nomadic tribes over lonely pastures beneath the starry sky; now we are dazzled by all the splendid surroundings of an Oriental despots court; now we are lodged in some humble peasant household, and now we stand face to face with the majesty and the insignia of the imperial law. Sea and land, mountain, field and forest, crowded city and trackless desert, each in its turn furnishes a theme for this ever-shifting drama. All the vicissitudes of human life, poverty, and wealth, mourning and joy, the marriage and the funeral, the secret communings of the individual soul, and the tumultuous activity of public life–all contribute their quota to its incidents.
II. Life involves unity–a unity underlying the various devolopment. There must be some principle of life from which all the growth is evolved, which stamps its character on all the parts, which secures the harmony and coherence of the whole. We speak of the germ in the plant, of the soul in the man. So it is with the Bible. Amidst all these marvellous diversities of time, place, condition, form, subject-matter, there is a principle of unity which is also the principle of life. This unity is quite as real in the different parts of the Bible as in the different; parts of a plant, or in the different ages of man. The first chapter of Genesis finds its natural and appropriate climax in the last chapter of Revelation, while all the intermediate parts have their proper place in the sequence written though they were long centuries apart and gathered together we hardly know when and we cannot say how; the New Testament latent in the Old, the Old Testament patent in the New. Its fame can never grow old or out of date. And this principle of life, this animated soul–what is it but the Eternal Word speaking through lawgiver and captain and priest and prophet and king, speaking in the continuous history of a nation and in the chequered but unbroken light of the Church until at length He became incarnate in the man Christ Jesus. The many modes and the many parts of the Divine revelation were harmonised, explained, completed when in the last days God spoke through His Son. Contrast this infinite variety, these worldwide interests and associations with the monotony of other great books. The Koran is Arabian, the Vedas are Indian, the Zendavesta is Persian, the Bible alone is cosmopolitan. Other books for the most part have a oneness of treatment, of subject-matter, even of style. They are like the statue fused in a mould; it may have a beauty of its own, but it is rigid; it has no movement and no life, and the purpose served by all this is that life speaks to life. As a living thing the Bible appeals to the mind, affections, historical instincts, domestic sympathies, political aspirations. It arrests first that it may instruct afterwards. And here in this intimate union of intensely human sympathies and interests with intensely Divine teaching, this close alliance of heaven and earth, the Bible ever is a type, a reflection, a counterpart of the Incarnation itself. In the Bible God stoops to man, in the Incarnation God becomes man. Thus the Incarnation is the ultimate satisfaction of all religious craving and the final goal of all religious history, beyond which no other step is possible or conceivable.
III. Life involves struggle. The Scriptures have proved themselves as living oracles by the controversies which they excite and the antipathies which they provoke. Is it not an eloquent fact that in the early persecutions, pre-eminently in the last and fiercest of all, the main object of attack was the sacred writings; that the foes of the gospel were ready enough to spare the lives of men if only they might take the life of the Book; that those were branded by their fellow-Christians with the name of traitor, not who had surrendered a human being, whether leader or confederate or friend, but who had betrayed the Book into the hands of the destroyer? Aye, these heathen persecutors were wise in their generation; they felt instinctively that these Scriptures were living things; that they were active and aggressive; that, as Luther said of St. Pauls Epistles, They have hands and feet–hands to grasp and feet to march; therefore they must be killed; they must be hurried out of sight. Was Milton so far wrong after all when he said that one who killed a good book is worse than a homicide; for, striking at the very breath of reason, he slays an immortality rather than a life? And as it was with the Greek Bible in the days of Diocletian, so was it also with the English Bible in the days of Henry. What a testimony to its living power is the record of its early days when that great man, who has won for himself an undying name, not only in English Christianity, but in English literature also, an outlaw and a wanderer in a foregin land, fled from city to city, carrying with him the half-translated texts, the half-printed sheets of his new version, the parent of our English Bible of to-day! Can we reflect without the deepest thanksgiving on this magnificent irony of the Divine goodness that within a stones-throw of the place where the gentle, tender-hearted, reasonable Tunstall committed to the flames the first issue of Tyndales New Testament as a thing to be abhorred and detested by all faithful Christian people, his latest successor in the see of Durham is able this day to congratulate a large, powerful, and wealthy society on its distributing within a single year no less than one million and a half copies of the English Bible, whole or in parts? (Bp. Lightfoot.)
The law of God, a living word
I. In itself it is living–an efflux of the living God; and was thus for man, in a state of innocence, a lawgiving life, not killing and oppressing, but regulating and forming.
II. In a state of sin it indeed at first proves itself as killing; it reveals spiritual death and threatens eternal; but even then it is not dead, but living, otherwise it could not as a fire burn in the hearts of sinners, and as a sword pierce them; and also it there operates to life, awakening the conscience and pointing to Him whose Word gives life.
III. In a state of grace it is not dead and abolished, but objectively in Christ, the Revealer and Fulfiller of the law, it has become living and embodied; and subjectively by the Holy Ghost it is employed as a motive of life, and as a power of sanctification in the heart and life of the believer. (K. Gerok.)
The Bible–its living freshness
I heard a gentleman say yesterday that he could walk any number of miles when the scenery was good; but, he added, When it is flat and uninteresting, how one tires! What scenery it is through which the Christian man walks–the towering mountains of predestination, the great sea of providence, the mighty cliffs of Divine promise, the green fields of Divine grace, the river that makes glad the city of God–oh, what scenery surrounds the Christian, and what fresh discoveries he makes at every step! The Bible is always a new book. If you want a novel, read your Bible; it is always new; there is not a stale page in the Word of Goal; it is just as fresh as though the ink were not yet dry, but had flowed to-day from the pea of inspiration. There have been poets whose sayings startled all England when first their verses were thrown broadcast over the land, but nobody reads their writings now; yet the pages that were written by David and by Paul are glowing with the radiant glory which was upon them when long ago the Holy Spirit spake by them. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Bible–its life organic
If the Bible were like a collection of stones, we might select some and put aside others, as less valuable and beautiful; and although in such selection we might make great mistakes, we should still be in possession of something more or less complete. But the Bible is like a plant, and all its parts are not mechanically or accidentally connected, but organically united, and hence a law of life rules here; and he who reveres life will neither add nor take away from the beautiful plant which the Father hath planted in and through Christ by the Spirit Nobody asserts that a man would be killed if you cut off his hair and his nails. But there is a vital union of all his members. If you cut off my little finger I shall survive it; but it is my little finger you cut off, and it is a loss, a disfigurement. So with the Bible. It is not like a piece of cloth that you can clip and cut. It is a body, animated by one Spirit. (A. Saphir, D. D.)
The excellence of the Scriptures
I. The excellence of the scriptures.
1. They are lively oracles so called–
(1) In contradistinction to heathen oracles which proceeded from the pretended responses of senseless idols or departed spirits under the artful management of impostors. The Bible is the voice of the living and true God.
(2) Because they instruct men in the way of life.
(3) The Scriptures of both Testaments are called by this name because they are the means by which God communicates the knowledge of His will and of the way of salvation.
2. If we consider the sacred volume merely as history it is the most complete, entertaining, and instructive ever written. We have a view of the world from its creation to its final dissolution.
3. How grand, solemn, and interesting are its doctrines.
4. It exhibits the most correct view of human nature.
5. It prescribes the most excellent precepts and rules of life.
(1) It proposes the purest motives to virtue.
(2) It teaches the noblest virtues in the sublimest exercises.
(3) It furnishes the best defence against temptation, and the sweetest consolation in affliction.
(4) It has instituted the most excellent means of moral improvement in the order and discipline of the Church.
6. It gives us affecting illustrations of Gods attributes and providence in His various dealings toward the children of men.
II. We are bound to convey the scriptures to succeeding generations (Deu 4:5; Deu 6:7; Psa 78:1).
1. If the Scriptures are of such importance to ourselves they are equally so to our children.
2. Their excellence demonstrates our obligation to transmit them.
3. If we regard the temporal much more ought we to regard the eternal happiness of posterity. The former is promoted, the latter essential depends on the knowledge of the Scriptures.
4. That we may transmit them
(1) We must make a pious use of them ourselves: family worship.
(2) Have them read in our schools.
(3) Take care never to treat them with disrespect.
(4) Never allow our children to read books which treat them with ridicule.
(5) Maintain the preaching of the Word.
(6) Show our belief in and reverence for the Bible by that holy and blameless life it requires. (J. Lathrop, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 38. With the angel which spake to him] Stephen shows that Moses received the law by the ministry of angels; and that he was only a mediator between the angel of God and them.
The lively oracles] , The living oracles. The doctrines of life, those doctrines-obedience to which entitled them, by the promise of God, to a long life upon earth, which spoke to them of that spiritual life which every true believer has in union with his God, and promised that eternal life which those who are faithful unto death shall enjoy with him in the realms of glory.
The Greek word , which we translate oracle, signifies a Divine revelation, a communication from God himself, and is here applied to the Mosaic law; to the Old Testament in general, Ro 3:2; Heb 5:12; and to Divine revelation in general, 1Pe 4:11.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In the church in the wilderness; or congregation; with the rest of the people in all their difficult journey.
The angel; see Act 7:30.
The lively oracles; Gods law and word is so called, as the only rule to walk by unto life, Deu 32:47; it is there said to be our life; and it is the only ordinary means of a spiritual and holy life, which it begets and preserves.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
38. in the churchthecollective body of God’s chosen people; hence used to denote thewhole body of the faithful under the Gospel, or particular sectionsof them.
This is he that was in thechurch in the wilderness, with the angel . . . and with ourfathersalike near to the Angel of the Covenant, from whom hereceived all the institutions of the ancient economy, and to thepeople, to whom he faithfully reported the living oracles and amongwhom he set up the prescribed institutions. By this high testimonyto Moses, Stephen rebuts the main charge for which he was on trial.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
This is he that was in the church in the wilderness,…. Which must be understood of the children of Israel, who were the then church of God, whom he had chosen and separated from the rest of the world, to be a peculiar people to himself, to whom were given the word and ordinances, the service of God, and the promises; and God always had, and will have a church, though that is sometimes in the wilderness; which has been the case under the Gospel dispensation, as well as before; Re 12:6 and it was a peculiar honour to Moses, that he was in this church, though it was in the wilderness; even a greater honour than to be in Pharaoh’s court. This has a particular respect to the time when all Israel were encamped at the foot of Mount Sinai, when Moses was not only in the midst of them, and at the head of them; but was
with the angel which spake to him in the Mount Sina: this is the same angel as before, in Ac 7:30 and refers either to his speaking to him then, saying, I am the God of thy fathers, c. which was at Mount Sinai or rather to the time when the law was given on that mount; and it may be to both; it is true of each, though it, may more especially regard the latter; for it was the angel of the divine presence, the second person in the Trinity, the word of God, that bid Moses come up into the mount; and who spake all the ten words to him; and who is described in so grand and august a manner in De 33:2
and with our fathers; the Jewish ancestors, who came out of Egypt under Moses, with whom he was as their deliverer and ruler, their guide and governor:
who received the lively oracles to give unto us; he received from the angel which spake to him the law, to deliver to the children of Israel; which is called “the oracles”, because it came from God, and contained his mind and will, and was a sure and infallible declaration of it; and “lively” ones, because delivered “viva voce”, with an articulate voice, and in audible sounds, and because it is quick and powerful, sharper than a two-edged sword. The Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions render it, “the words of life”: not that the law gives life, or points out the way of life and salvation to sinful men; it is to them all the reverse; it is the killing letter, and the ministration of condemnation and death: it is indeed a rule of life, or of walk and conversation to men, and it promises life in case of perfect obedience, Le 18:5 but this is impracticable by fallen men, and therefore there is no life nor righteousness by the law. Though these lively oracles may be considered in a larger extent, as including all the promises of God respecting the Messiah, delivered to Moses, and all the rites and ordinances of the ceremonial law, which pointed out Christ, as the way of life, righteousness, and salvation, from whence they may very well take this name.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In the church in the wilderness ( ). Better rendered “congregation” here as in Heb 2:12 (Ps 22:22), the people of Israel gathered at Mt. Sinai, the whole nation. Moses is here represented as receiving the law from an angel as in Heb 2:2; Gal 3:19 (De 33:2, LXX) and so was a mediator () or middle man between the angel and the people whereas Jesus is the Mediator of a better covenant (Heb 8:6). But Exodus does not speak of an angel.
Living oracles ( ). A is a little word (diminutive of ). Common in the old Greek, LXX, Philo, in ecclesiastical writers for sayings of Christ, Papias (for instance) saying that Matthew wrote in Hebrew (Aramaic) “Logia of Jesus.” Oxyrhynchus papyri fragments called “Logia of Jesus” are of much interest though only fragments. The Greeks used it of the “oracles” or brief sayings from Delphi. In the N.T. the word occurs only four times (Acts 7:38; Rom 3:2; Heb 5:12; 1Pet 4:11). Here the participle , living, is the same used by Peter (1Pe 2:4f.), stone () of Christ and Christians. The words from God to Moses are still “living” today. In 1Pe 4:11 the word is applied to one who speaks (oracles of God). In Ro 3:2 Paul refers to the substance of the law and of prophecy. In Heb 5:12 the writer means the substance of the Christian religious teaching.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Lively. Better, living, as Rev. Compare 1Pe 2:4, 5.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “This is he “ (houtos estin ho) “This is the one who,” Act 7:35.
2) “That was in the church in the wilderness,” (genomenos en te ekklesia en te eremo) “Was having been in the assembly, congregation, or church in the desert;” In the organized house of Moses, assembly of Divine organized program of worship and service in the wilderness of Sinai; It was not the new covenant church that Jesus built, Heb 3:1-9; 1Ti 3:15.
3) “With the angel,” (meta tou angelou) “in company, association, or harmony with the angel,” who spoke to Moses at his call, Exo 3:2; Exo 3:4; Exo 3:7.
4) “Which spake to him in Mount Sina,” (tou lalountos auto en to orei sina) “That is of the angel that spoke to him on the mountain called Sina,” both at his call, and when he received the ten commandments, Exodus 31; Exo 19:2; Exo 20:1-26.
5) “And with our fathers:” (kai ton pateron hemon) “As well as with our kindred fathers,” Isa 63:9, to lead them and feed and clothe them thru it all, all the journey from Egypt to Canaan, Heb 1:1-2. Moses acted as mediator between Israel and God, as Jesus does for us, Exo 19:3; Exo 19:17; 1Ti 2:5-6; Heb 7:25; 1Jn 2:1-2.
6) “Who received the lively oracles to give unto us:(hos edeksato logia zota dounai humin) “Who received the living oracles to dole out to or give over to you all:” and they (Israel) pledged to hear and keep these oracles or orders, Deu 5:27-29; Isa 63:9; Rom 3:1-2; Gal 3:19.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
38. Stephen proceedeth to set forth the frowardness (440) of the people, who though they were provoked [stirred up] with so many benefits of God, yet did they never cease maliciously to reject him. If they had been disobedient and unthankful to God before, yet this so wonderful a deliverance ought to have brought them into a better mind; but he declareth that they were always like themselves. It was meet that so many miracles should not only have stuck fast in their minds, but also have continued still before their eyes. But having forgotten all, they fly back suddenly unto the superstitions of Egypt. The memorial of their cruel servitude was yet fresh, which they had escaped by passing over the Red Sea; and yet they prefer those tyrants by whom they were more than cruelly handled, before their deliverer, This was, therefore, a heap of ungodliness most desperate, that their stubbornness could not be broken or overcome with so many benefits of God, but that they did always return unto their nature. This doth greatly augment the greatness of the offense, where Stephen saith that Moses was then with them in the wilderness. For besides that there appeareth here rare goodness and long-sufferance of the Lord, in bearing with them, they make themselves to be without all excuse, whilst that being beset on every side with so many straits, being brought into so great distress; having Moses to be their guide in their journey, and the faithful keeper of their life, they fall away nevertheless treacherously from God, Finally, it appeareth that they were like untamed beasts, whom God could not keep in obedience with so many bands. Therefore, inasmuch as Moses left not off to govern them even through the wilderness, under the conduct and aid of the angel, it is an easy matter to gather by this circumstance of time, how incurable and obstinate their frowardness was; as it was a point of monstrous rebellion, not to be humbled with miseries, (441) and even with the very sight of death.
Whereas he saith, that Moses was with the angel and the fathers, there is a contrary respect. (442) He was present with the fathers, that he might be their guide according to the commandment of the Lord; he was with the angel as a minister. Whereupon it followeth that he was no private person to whom this injury was done, but it was done to the governance of God, when the people could be kept back, with the reverence of neither, from running headlong into wicked rebellion. We have already spoken of the angel. But the participle [ λαλουντος ] or which spake, hath a double meaning. For it may be understood either of the first vision, whereby Moses was called to redeem the people, or of that speech which God had with Moses, after they were come over the Red Sea. And because Christ declared both ways, that he was the author of their deliverance, it is no great matter whether we choose; yea, there is no let but that it may be extended unto both. For he which began to speak to Moses from the beginning, that he might send him into Egypt, did continue the tenor of his speech afterward, until the work was finished.
Which received lively oracles. Erasmus translated it lively speech; but those which are expert in the Greek tongue, they shall know that I have more truly translated the words of Stephen. For there is greater majesty in Oracles than in Speech, I speak only of the word; for I know that whatsoever proceedeth out of the mouth of God, the same is an oracle. Moreover, he purchaseth authority for the doctrine of Moses in these words, because he uttereth nothing but that which proceeded from God, Whereupon it followeth, that they did not so much rebel against Moses as against God; whereby their stubbornness (443) is more discovered, And this is a general way to establish doctrine, when men teach nothing but that which is commanded them by God. For what man dare make Moses inferior to him, who (as the Spirit affirmeth) ought only to be believed for this cause, because he faithfully unfolded and delivered the doctrine which he had received of God? But some men may ask this question, Why he called the law a living speech? For this title seemeth to disagree much with the words of Paul, where he saith that the law is the ministry of death, and that it worketh death, and that it is the strength of sin, (1Co 3:7.) If you take lively speech for that which is effectual, and cannot be made frustrate by the contempt of men, there shall be no contrariety; but I interpret it as spoken actively, for that which maketh to live. (444) For seeing that the law is the perfect rule of godly and holy life, and it showeth the righteousness of God, it is counted, for good causes, the doctrine of life and salvation. And to this purpose serveth that solemn protestation of Moses, when he calleth heaven and earth to witness, that he hath set before them the way of death and life. In which sense the Lord himself complaineth, that his good law is broken, and his good commandments, whereof he had said, “He which shall do these things shall live in them,” (Eze 20:0) Therefore the law hath life in itself. Yet if any man had liefer take living for that which is full of efficacy and strength, I will not greatly stand in contention.
And whereas it is called the ministry of death, that is accidental to it, because of the corrupt nature of man; for it doth not engender sin, but it findeth it in us. It offered life, but we, which are altogether corrupt, can have nothing but death by it. Therefore, it is deadly in respect of men alone. Though Stephen had respect unto a farther thing in this place; for he doth not only speak of the bare commandments, but comprehendeth all Moses’ doctrine, wherein the free promises are included, and so consequently, Christ himself, who is the only life and health of men. We must remember with what men Stephen had to do. They were such as were preposterously zealous of the law, who stayed only in the dead and deadly letter of the law; and, in the mean season, they raged against Stephen, because he sought Christ in the law, who is, indeed, the soul thereof. Therefore, by touching their perverse ignorance glancingly, he giveth them to understand that there is some greater and some more excellent thing hidden in the law than they have hitherto known. For as they were carnal, and content with an outward show, they sought no spiritual thing in it, yea, they would not so much as suffer the same to be showed them.
That he might give them to us. This serveth to refute the false accusation wherewith he was falsely burthened. For seeing he submitteth his neck to the yoke of the law, and professeth that he is one of Moses’ scholars, he is far from discrediting him amongst others. Yea, rather he turneth back the fault which was laid to his charge upon those which were the authors of the slander. That was, as it were, a common reproach for all the people, because the fathers would not obey the law. And therewithal he telleth them that Moses was appointed to be a prophet, not only for his time, but that his authority might be in force with the posterity, even when he was dead. For it is not meet that the doctrine of God should be extinguished together with ministers, or that it should be taken away. For what is more unlikely (445) than that that should die whereby we have immortality? So must we think at this day. As the prophets and apostles spake unto the men of their time, so did they write unto us, and (that) the force of their doctrine is continual, because it hath rather God to be the author thereof than men. In the mean season, he teacheth that if any reject the word appointed for them, they reject the counsel of God.
(440) “ Pravitate,” depravity.
(441) “ Tot malis,” so many miseries.
(442) “ Longe diversa est ratio,” the explanation (of the two things) is very different.
(443) “ Ferrea improbitas,” their stubborn wickedness.
(444) “ Vivifica,” vivifying.
(445) “ Minus consentaneum,” less befitting.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(38) That was in the church in the wilderness.The word ecclesia is used, as it had been in the LXX. (Deu. 18:16; Deu. 23:1; Psa. 26:12), for the congregation of Israel. Of the earlier versions. Tyndale, Cranmer, and the Genevan, had given congregation. Even the Rhemish contented itself with assembly. The translators of 1611, acting on the instructions which were drawn up for their direction, did not see any reason for making this an exception to the rule, and so gave church. Assuming that ecclesia was so rendered elsewhere, it was, it may be admitted, right, as a matter of consistency, that it should be used here, as presenting the thought, which was emphasised in Stephens speech, that the society of believers in Christ was like, in character and in its relation to God, to that of Israel. The new ecclesia was the development of the old. (See Note on Mat. 16:18.)
The lively oracles.The noun was used by the Greeks for the solemn utterances of the Pythian oracles, and thus came to be used by the LXX. in connection with the Urim and Thummim of the high priest (Exo. 28:30), and so for any answer from God (Num. 24:4). In the New Testament it appears again in Rom. 3:2; Heb. 5:12; 1Pe. 4:11.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
38. Church in the wilderness A striking phrase to designate Israel in its official character as Church of God while walking through the desert and receiving God’s law.
The angel in Sinai The Shekinah, or luminous glory, was not only Jehovah himself, but was the Angel-Jehovah. The very word angel signifies messenger, or one sent; and though it generally designates a personal being, yet as a term of office it may be applied to any medium or intermediate by which God makes communication of intelligence or power to a finite being. “He maketh the winds his angels, and the flaming fires his ministers.” Hence the glory sent from the ineffable essence of God as the manifestation of himself was the sent God, the Angel-Jehovah. Hereby we have in the Old Testament the mystery of God the absolute and God self-revealed.
Lively oracles Rather, living oracles. In the Greek language the word here used designated the responses received from the oracles of Paganism. But those were morally dead oracles, coming, it may be, from the wicked spirits of the dead, seducing men to their own condition. But these were living oracles, proceeding from the living God, full of a blessed life, imparting life to the souls of men.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
38. Down The opposite of up in the next verse. And as this up describes the ascending the bank, so the down most properly describes (not the alighting from the chariot but) the walking adown the bank.
Into The Greek , into, signifies prevalently, but not universally, into, and not merely to. Here it is opposed to out of in the next verse. The Greek for out of, , prevalently but not universally signifies out from, and not merely from, which is usually expressed by . Taking the correspondent force of both prepositions as they stand here, it ought to be conceded that an entrance of both Philip and the eunuch into the water most probably took place.
Even without the force of these prepositions, and in whatever mode the baptism was performed, the parties would naturally step into the water’s edge. A native of a southern clime, passing an arid desert, wearing nothing but light sandals, uninfluenced by a northerner’s fear of spoiling the polish of his boots, would step into the water even for the natural agreeableness.
Baptized Performed that rite which images forth the “sprinkling of many nations.” (See note on Act 7:36.) Immersion fails to be the type of the antitype, the shedding forth of God’s regenerating Spirit.
The main support, we think, of the practice of immersion is derived not from Scripture practice, but, 1, from the pagan meaning of the word ; and, 2, from ecclesiastical tradition.
1 . The sense of in pagan authors denotes in some cases the descent of water on the subject.
2 . Even if the pagan use of the word meant solely plunge, that decides not the New Testament meaning. Nearly every term borrowed from classic Greek to express a Christian use changes its force. The word , church, signifies a political town-meeting; the word , supper, would require the Lord’s Supper to be always performed at evening.
3 . Early Christian practice favours immersion; but the earliest ecclesiastical practice requires self-immersion, naked, thrice performed.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘This is he who was in the congregation (church) in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him in the Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living oracles to give to us. To whom our fathers would not be obedient, but thrust him from them, and turned back in their hearts to Egypt,’
‘This is he –’. That is, Moses. He was with them and with God (the angel) in the wilderness where he received the ‘living oracles’ from God at Mount Sinai, the mount of true revelation. There could be no higher testimonial to Moses than that. And they were intended to be for the blessing of Israel. But the people had thrust Moses away and had not been obedient to the Angel and His message, just as Jesus had come bringing living oracles and they had refused to listen to Him.
‘Living oracles.’ Words which give life. They were indeed to be Israel’s very life (Deu 30:19-20; Deu 32:46-47). By walking in obedience to the law, and fulfilling its ordinances, they would enjoy length of life and be able to live their earthly lives to their fullest extent, enjoying the presence of God with them all the way.
‘The congregation (church – ekklesia) in the wilderness.’ The phrase was well known from the Old Testament signifying Israel as a whole, but Luke’s readers would relate it to the idea of the church.
‘Turned back in their hearts to Egypt.’ But their response to receiving the living oracles of God was to turn from them because their hearts were possessed by Egypt.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Act 7:38. This is he, that was in the church When this clause is quoted, as it has been by some great men, to prove that Christ was the person who brought Israel out of Egypt, gave them the law, conducted them through the wilderness, &c. (which is undoubtedlymost true)the argument drawn from this passage is certainly inconclusive: for he here evidently answers to the word , Act 7:36 and to the words , Act 7:27 and the following clause, which expresses his being with the angel, plainly proves that angel to be a different person. The doctrine itself, that Christ was the God of Israel, the angel or messenger who appeared to Moses, is a great and certain truth, capable of being evinced from many passages both of the Old and New Testament; and from the passage before us in particular, though not from the clause. The word , rendered church, would more properly be rendered here assembly, as it is Act 19:41 because it refers not to their being incorporated into one church, in the appropriate sense of that word, but to their being assembled round the mountain on the solemn day, when the law was given. See Exo 19:17; Exo 19:25.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Act 7:38 . This is he who had intercourse with the angel and our fathers , was the mediator (Gal 3:19 ) between the two. On , versor cum , which is no Hebraism, comp. Act 9:19 , Act 20:18 ; Mar 16:10 ; Ast, Lex. Plat. I. p. 394.
] in the assembly of the people (held for the promulgation of the law) in the desert , Exo 19 . This definite reference is warranted by the context, as it is just the special act of the giving of the law that is spoken of.
] i.e. utterances which are not dead, and so ineffectual, but living, in which , as in the self-revelations of the living God, there is effective power (Joh 6:51 ), as well with reference to their influence on the moulding of the moral life according to God’s will, as also especially with reference to the fulfilment of the promises and threatenings thereto annexed. Comp. 1Pe 1:23 ; Heb 5:12 ; Deu 32:47 . Incorrectly Beza, Calvin, Grotius, Kuinoel, and others hold that stands for . Even according to Paul, the law in itself is holy, just, good, spiritual, and given for life (Rom 7:12 ; Rom 7:14 ); that it nevertheless kills, arises from the abuse which the power of sin makes of it (Rom 7:5 ; Rom 7:13 ff.; 1Co 15:56 ), and is therefore an accidental relation.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:
Ver. 38. Lively oracles ] That is, life giving oracles. The law is said to be the “strength of sin,”1Co 15:561Co 15:56 . But this is by accident through our corruption.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
38. ] is not a Hebraism, as Kuin.: see reff.
That Moses conversed with both the Angel of the covenant and our fathers, implies that he was the mediator between them , as indeed . . . more plainly declares.
probably, the assembly held (Exo 19 ) for the promulgation of the law at Mt. Sinai, not ‘ the Church ’ generally: but the article does not determine this: it would be expressed, whichever meaning we take. Wordsw. observes on the meaning which the words carry for the student of Christian prophecy, Rev 12:1-6 .
] living, see reff., not = (Grot., Kuin.), ‘ life-giving :’ still less to be understood ‘given viv voce ’ (Pisc. Alberti). So Soph. Gild [47] Tyr. 482, | | .
[47] Gild as , fl. 581
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Act 7:38 . : again emphatic use. : “in the congregation,” R.V. margin: held in the wilderness for the giving of the law, although the word does not occur in Exo 19 , but cf. Deu 31:30 , Jos 8:35 (Act 9:2 ). By Wycliffe the word was translated “Church” here, but afterwards “congregation,” so in Tynd., Cranm., Gen., until A.V. again rendered “Church,” cf. Heb 2:12 , and on the word see above on Act 5:11 , Hort, Ecclesia , p. 3 ff., and B.D. 2 “Church”. In Heb 2:12 , R.V. reads “congregation” in text (but “Church” in margin), following Tynd. and Cranm., and Psa 22:22 from which the quotation is made (where both A. and R.V. have “congregation”). Schmiedel would dismiss the word as a later gloss, which has been inserted here in a wrong place, see Wendt (edit. 1899), p. 160, note. . , cf. Act 9:19 , Act 20:18 (Mar 16:10 ); no Hebraism, cf. in Luk 2:13 . ., but in Exodus Moses is said to speak with God, cf. Act 7:30 above, and see also Act 7:53 , “who was with the angel and with our fathers,” i.e. , who acted as the mediator between the two parties, who had relations with them both, cf. Gal 3:19 , and Philo, Vit. Moys. , iii., 19, where Moses is called , cf. also Heb 2:2 , and Jos., Ant. , xv., 5, 3; the latter passage represents Herod as saying that the Jews learned all that was most holy in their law (see Westcott Hebrews , and Wetstein on Gal 3:19 ). On the title as given to Moses, see further Assumption of Moses , i., 14, and Charles’ note and introd. lxiii., but it does not follow that the inference is justified that the Apocryphal Book in question was known to the writer of St. Stephen’s speech. Dr. Charles maintains this on the ground of three passages, but of (1) it may be said that the term evidently could have been known from other sources than Acts, (2) the parallel between Act 7:36 and Assumption of Moses , iii., 11, is, as Dr. Charles admits, an agreement verbally “for the most part,” but the words “Egypt, the Red Sea, and the wilderness for forty years” might often be used as a summary of the history of Israel at a particular period, whilst the context with which the words are here associated is quite different from that in Assumption of Moses , l.c., and (3) there is no close resemblance between the prophecy from Amos quoted in Act 7:43 below and the prophecy in Assumption of Moses , ii., 1 3; in both the phraseology is quite general. Perhaps the omission of the word before gives emphasis to the privilege of “our fathers,” when one can speak of being with the angel and with them, Simcox, Language of the N. T. , p. 159. Thus Moses prefigures the Mediator of the new coventant, cf. Heb 8:5 ; Heb 9:15 ; Heb 12:24 , and the mention of this honour bestowed upon Moses emphasises still more fully the indignity which he received from his countrymen, cf. St. Chrysostom on the force of in this verse. , cf. Rom 3:2 , as in LXX of the words of God, cf. Num 24:4 ; Num 24:16 , and chiefly for any utterance of God whether precept or promise, only once of human words (Psa 18 (19):14); so Philo speaks of the decalogue as , and Jos., B. J. , vi., 5, 4, of the prophecies of God in the O.T., and Philo writes ( i.e. , Moses), Vit. Moys. , iii., 35, see Grimm-Thayer, sub v. , , lit [208] , a little word, from the brevity of oracular responses. : “vim vitalem habentia,” Blass, cf. Heb 4:12 , 1Pe 1:23 , cf. Deu 32:47 . The words again show how far St. Stephen was from despising the Law of Moses, cf. Heb 4:12 , “living,” R.V. (“quick,” A.V.); 1Pe 1:3 ; 1Pe 2:5 , where R.V. has “living” instead of “lively”; in Psa 38:19 “lively” is retained in R.V. (see also in Exo 1:19 , in contrast to feeble, languid), cf. Spenser, Farie Queene , iii., 8, 5. Here the word has the sense of living, i.e. , enduring, abiding, cf. “thy true and lively [living] word” in prayer for the Church Militant, cf. 1Pe 1:23 , R.V.
[208] literal, literally.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
church. App-186.
lively = living. Figure of speech Idioma. App-6.
oracles = utterances. Greek. logion. Only here; Rom 3:2. Heb 5:12. 1Pe 4:11.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
38.] is not a Hebraism, as Kuin.: see reff.
That Moses conversed with both the Angel of the covenant and our fathers, implies that he was the mediator between them, as indeed . . . more plainly declares.
probably, the assembly held (Exodus 19) for the promulgation of the law at Mt. Sinai, not the Church generally: but the article does not determine this: it would be expressed, whichever meaning we take. Wordsw. observes on the meaning which the words carry for the student of Christian prophecy, Rev 12:1-6.
] living, see reff., not = (Grot., Kuin.), life-giving: still less to be understood given viv voce (Pisc. Alberti). So Soph. Gild[47] Tyr. 482, | | .
[47] Gildas, fl. 581
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Act 7:38. , this) Moses.-) Construed with .- ) It is not the people in this passage, but the congregation of the people, that is denoted.- – , with the angel-and the fathers) Therefore Moses was mediator. Stephen does not say, with the angels, but with the Angel, i.e. of the covenant.-, received) did not invent.-, words) oracles: , a diminutive, on account of the brevity of the several enunciations. Every paragraph that begins with that formula, And the Lord spake unto Moses, is in itself a . The Decalogue especially is referred to.-, living) Living is his expression, not life-giving. He praises the law. It is fiery: it is living; Deu 33:2.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
church
Israel in the land is never called a church. In the wilderness Israel was a true church (G. ecclesia = called-out assembly), but in striking contrast with the N.T. ecclesia
(See Scofield “Mat 16:18”).
angel (See Scofield “Heb 1:4”).
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
in the church: Exo 19:3-17, Exo 20:19, Exo 20:20, Num 16:3-35, Num 16:41, Num 16:42
with the: Act 7:30, Act 7:35, Act 7:53, Isa 63:9, Gal 3:19, Heb 2:2
who: Exo 21:1-11, Deu 5:27-31, Deu 6:1-3, Deu 33:4, Neh 9:13, Neh 9:14, Joh 1:17
lively: Deu 30:19, Deu 30:20, Deu 32:46, Deu 32:47, Psa 78:5-9, Joh 6:63, Rom 3:2, Rom 9:4, Rom 10:6-10, Heb 5:12, 1Pe 4:11
Reciprocal: Exo 19:2 – camped Son 8:8 – she hath Mal 3:1 – even Mar 11:28 – General Mar 12:1 – and set Joh 6:68 – thou hast Joh 7:19 – not Act 7:37 – that Act 8:1 – the church
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
8
Act 7:38. Church is from EKKLESIA, and Thayer gives its primary meaning to be, “A gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place; an assembly.” In the present passage he defines it, “The assembly of the Israelites.” With the angel which spake to him in the mount Sinai. God gave the law at Sinai through the services of angels (Gal 3:19).
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Act 7:38. This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness. Gods church, writes Wordsworth here, is not limited to Jud. It was in the wilderness; and there Moses, your great lawgiver, was with it; and remember he died there in the wilderness, and was never permitted to enter the Promised Land, to which you would restrain the favours of God.
With the angel which spake to him in the mount Sinai. The second special instance of Divine favour was his solitary communing with the great covenant Angel, the Almighty Being who, under the name Jehovah (the Eternal One), chose Israel as His peculiar people. The solemn words of Deu 34:10, which sum up the friendship of Moses with the Eternal, tell this best: And there arose not a prophet in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.
Who received the lively oracles to give unto us. He it was who, from the Eternal of hosts on Sinai, received that sacred law, those living words, the deathless charge which should endure as long as the world endures. So St. Paul estimates the Divine commands of the wilderness, Wherefore the law also is holy, and the commandment holy (Rom 7:12).
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
See notes on verse 38
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Verse 38
This is he; that is, this Moses is he,–the expression referring to what is said at the commencement of the Acts 7:37.–The church in the wilderness; the children of Israel–Lively; life-giving.