And when the blood of your martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the clothing of them that slew him.
Read Chapter 22
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Of Stephen, thy witness. Or thy martyr, as the Greek word signifies. (Witham)
See how he thrusts himself (into danger), I came, he says, after that vision, to Jerusalem. I was in a trance, etc. Again, this is without witness: but observe, the witness follows from the result. He said, They will not receive your testimony: they did not receive it. And yet from calculations of reason the surmise should have been this, that they would assuredly receive him. For I was the man that made war upon the Christians: so that they ought to have received him. Here he establishes two things: both that they are without excuse, since they persecuted him contrary to all likelihood or calculation of reason; and, that Christ was God, as prophesying things contrary to expectation, and as not looking to past things, but fore-knowing the things to come. How then does He say, He shall bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and children of Israel? Acts 9:15 Not, certainly persuade. Besides which, on other occasions we find the Jews were persuaded, but here they were not. Where most ...
