And set up false witnesses, who said, This man ceases not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:
Read Chapter 6
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
It was true that Jesus would destroy the place, and change their traditions, yet they were false witnesses, because they deposed, that Stephen had made these assertions, which he had not, purposely to excite the Jews to rise up against him, and put him to death. Besides, had Stephen spoken what was advanced against him, they still would have been false witnesses, for the words were in fact words of truth, which these suborned men called, words of blasphemy. See ver. 11.
We have heard him, they say, speaking blasphemous words against Moses and against God Acts 6:13: and again, This man ceases not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law, and with an addition, the customs which Moses delivered to us Acts 6:14; Moses, not God. Upon the supposition of a design to overturn their manner of life (πολιτείας), they accused him of impiety also. But to show that it was not in the nature of such a man to speak such things, and harshly [Then all, it says, which were in the council, looking steadfastly upon him, saw his face, as it had been the face of an angel] Acts 6:15: so mild was he even in countenance. For, in cases where persons were not falsely accused, Scripture mentions nothing of this kind: but as in this case it was all false accusation, with reason does God rectify it by the very look of the man. For the Apostles indeed were not falsely accused, but were forbidden: but this man is falsely accused: and therefore before all else his...
