Acts 7:2 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Acts 7:2
And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,
to show or make known one's thoughts · verb — imperfect active indicative, 3rd person singular
Men
ἄνδρεςandres
G435
a man (properly as an individual male) · noun — vocative plural masculine
brethren
ἀδελφοὶadelphoi
G80
a brother (literally or figuratively) near or remote (m… · noun — vocative plural masculine
and
καὶkai
G2532
and · conjunction
fathers
πατέρες,pateres
G3962
a "father" (literally or figuratively · noun — vocative plural masculine
hearken
ἀκούσατε.akousate
G191
to hear (in various senses) · verb — aorist active imperative, 2nd person plural
God
θεὸςtheos
G2316
figuratively · noun — nominative singular masculine, a title
glory
δόξηςdoxēs
G1391
glory (as very apparent) · noun — genitive singular feminine
appeared
ὤφθηōphthē
G3700
to gaze (i.e. with wide-open eyes · verb — aorist passive indicative, 3rd person singular
unto
πατρὶpatri
G3962
a "father" (literally or figuratively · noun — dative singular masculine
our
ἡμῶνhēmōn
G2257
of (or from) us
father
πατήρpatḗr
G3962
a "father" (literally or figuratively
Abraham
ἈβραὰμAbraam
G11
Abraham · noun — dative singular masculine, a proper name
was
ὤνṓn
G5607
being
in
ἐνen
G1722
"in · preposition
Mesopotamia
ΜεσοποταμίᾳMesopotamia
G3318
Mesopotamia (as lying between the Euphrates and the Tig… · noun — dative singular feminine, a place
before
πρὶνprin
G4250
prior · preposition
he
αὐτὸνauton
G846
the reflexive pronoun self · personal pronoun — accusative singular masculine
dwelt
κατοικῆσαιkatoikēsai
G2730
to house permanently · verb — aorist active infinitive
in
ἐνen
G1722
"in · preposition
Charran
Χαρράν,Charran
G5488
Charrhan (i.e. Charan) · noun — dative singular feminine, a place
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Acts 22:1 Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defence which I make now unto you.
Genesis 11:31 And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram’s wife; and they went for…
Psalms 29:3 The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters.
Nehemiah 9:7 Thou art the LORD the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham;
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace a…
Hebrews 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had b…
Genesis 15:7 And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.
Genesis 12:1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will sh…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Acts 7:1-16
Stephen is now at the bar before the great council of the nation, indicted for blasphemy: what the witnesses swore against him we had an account of in the foregoing chapter, that he spoke blasphemous words against Moses and God; for he spoke against this holy place and the law. Now here,
I. The high priest calls upon him to answer for himself, Act 7:1. He was president, and, as such, the mouth of the court, and therefore he saith, "You, the prisoner at the bar, you hear what is sworn against you; what do you say to it? Are these things so? Have you ever spoken any words to this purport? If you have, will you recant them, or will you stand to them? Guilty or not guilty?" This carried a show o…
Men, brethren, and fathers - Rather, brethren and fathers, for ανδρες should not be translated separately from αδελφοι. Literally it is men-brethren, a very usual form in Greek; for every person knows that ανδρες Αθηναιοι and ανδρες Περσαι should not be translated men-Athenians and men-Persians, but simply Athenians and Persians. See Act 17:22. So, in Luk 2:15, ανθρωποι ποιμενες should be translated shepherds, not men-shepherds. And ανθρωπος βασιλευς Mat 18:23, should not be translated man-king, but king, simply. By translating as we do, men, brethren, and fathers, and putting a comma after men, we make Stephen address three classes, when in fact there were but two: the elders and scribes, w…
And he said,.... Stephen replied, in answer to the high priest's question, and addressed himself to the whole sanhedrim, saying:
men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; to the following oration and defence; he calls them men, brethren, by an usual Hebraism, that is, "brethren"; and that, because they were of the same nation; for it was common with the Jews to call those of their own country and religion, brethren; and he calls them "fathers", because of their age and dignity, being the great council of the nation, and chosen out of the senior and wiser part of the people:
the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham; he calls God "the God of glory", because he is glorious in himself, in…
The Church Fathers
The exuberance of the Scythians fertilizes the Persians; the Phoenicians gush out into Africa; the Phrygians give birth to the Romans; the seed of the Chaldeans is led out into Egypt; subsequently, when transferred thence, it becomes the Jewish race. So, too, the posterity of Hercules, in like wise, proceed to occupy the Peloponnesus for the behoof of Temenus.
The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, etc. It should be noted, according to the words of Stephen, that it was not as it appears in Genesis, that God spoke to Abraham after the death of his father, who certainly died in Haran, where the son also lived with him; but before he dwelt in the same city, even then when he was in the region of Mesopotamia, of which it is a city.
In another way. See how he leads them away from bodily things, and meanwhile from place, attributing glory to God, not to place. For he himself is the source of glory, not in need of the glory which is by us through the temple. But when Scripture says that Terah was the father of Abraham and had gone out from Ur to set out from the land of the Chaldeans, how now does Stephen attribute this oracle to Abraham himself? (see Gen 11:26-32) To which it can be said that indeed the divine response was given to Abraham, but Scripture attributes it to the father, because the sons did not contradict the counsel which was from the divine oracle, although the father was the one who left, this example revealing the disobedience of those present. For, since they would not be convicted of being disobedient when Terah did not oppose the counsel of his son, yet after the experience of divine signs would they not, not only unbelieving, but even with envy and hostilely attacking them in slaughter, persecute those who deserved to be glorified because of divine signs?
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Abraham — Father of a multitude, son of Terah, named (Gen. 11:27) before his older brothers Nahor and Haran, because he was the heir of the promises. Till the age of seventy, Abram sojourned among his kindred…
Charran — Another form (Acts 7:2, 4) of Haran (q.v.).
Father — A name applied (1) to any ancestor (Deut. 1:11; 1 Kings 15:11; Matt. 3:9; 23:30, etc.); and (2) as a title of respect to a chief, ruler, or elder, etc. (Judg. 17:10; 18:19; 1 Sam. 10:12; 2 Kings…
Haran — (1.) Heb. haran; i.e., “mountaineer.” The eldest son of Terah, brother of Abraham and Nahor, and father of Lot, Milcah, and Iscah. He died before his father (Gen. 11:27), in Ur of the Chaldees. (2.)…
Mesopotamia — The country between the two rivers (Heb. Aram-naharaim; i.e., “Syria of the two rivers”), the name given by the Greeks and Romans to the region between the Euphrates and the Tigris (Gen. 24:10; Deut.…
Stephen — One of the seven deacons, who became a preacher of the gospel. He was the first Christian martyr. His personal character and history are recorded in Acts 6. “He fell asleep” with a prayer for his…
Ur — Light, or the moon city, a city “of the Chaldees,” the birthplace of Haran (Gen. 11:28, 31), the largest city of Shinar or northern Chaldea, and the principal commercial centre of the country as well…
Abraham · Divine — Divine
Babylon · Formerly a part of Mesopotamia — Formerly a part of Mesopotamia
Court · ACCUSED SPOKE IN HIS OWN — ACCUSED SPOKE IN HIS OWN
Acts 7:1-4
1. And the chief priest said, Are these things so? 2. He answered, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, 3. And he said unto him, Come out of thy country, and from amongst thy kindred, and come into the land which I will show thee. 4. Then he came out of the land of the Chaldees, and dwelt in Charran. After that his father was dead, God brought him thence into this land, wherein ye now dwell.
1. There appeareth as yet some color of equity in the high priest and in the council; and yet, notwithstanding, there is a most unjust prejudice in his words; for he asketh him not what…
Stephen responded to the accusations by testifying about his Lord (cp. Luke 21:12-17). Instead of defending himself against their prosecution, he became a witness in God’s prosecution of them, exposing their stubbornness and unfaithfulness to God. Stephen’s recital of Israel’s past reminded them of their repeated rejections of those whom God had sent. • Stephen’s review of Israel’s history has three principal parts, dealing with the work of the patriarchs (Acts 7:2-16), the ministry of Moses (7:17-43), and the role of the Tabernacle and the Temple (7:44-50). Stephen followed up his historical survey with a clear attack on the hard-heartedness of his own people. With a prophetic challenge, he…
Mesopotamia · Abraham a native of — Abraham a native of
Syria · Originally included Mesopotamia — Originally included Mesopotamia
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
