Acts 7:1-3 - Are these charges true?

7:1

The high priest asked Stephen to say whether or not the charges against him were true. Stephen then embarks on a long speech. Even so. It is almost certain that we have an abridged version here. It wasn’t possible to produce speeches in full, given the writing materials of the day. Moreover, it would not have been helpful. Most importantly, Stephen does not give a defence of himself, rather he makes an attack on the Sanhedrin. There is a lesson here for all of us if we find ourselves under attack. There is a time to defend ourselves, for Paul sometimes did this, but there is also a time, as here, to turn the attack around. The Sanhedrin thought that Stephen was under their judgement and answerable to them. The truth was that all men, including the Sanhedrin, were under God’s judgement and answerable to Him. It was the Sanhedrin who needed to “correct their thinking”, not Stephen. The world can accuse us of being on the wrong side of history, the truth is that the world is on the wrong side of God, and it is the world that needs to change.

7:2,3

Stephen now embarks on a grand overview of Israel’s history, and of God’s dealings with them. The Sanhedrin would be familiar with all this, but had never seen it from God’s perspective, only their own. The lens through which we look at things can make all the difference to what we do and do not see. If we think we are merely products of chance, answerable to no one but ourselves, then we see things very differently than if we know that we are answerable to God. Stephen bases his exegesis on the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament. It may be the case that what we have here also comprised a large part of what Stephen taught to the people. So the beginning of Israel was God’s call to Abraham, who was told to “leave your country and go to the land I will show you”. As Heb 11:8 says Abraham did not know where he was going, only that he was following God.