1007 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Wherefore brethren look ye out among you,.... Or "choose out among you", as the Syriac version adds, and as the Arabic and Ethiopic versions render it; which shows that this sort of officers, deacons, must be members of the church, and of the same church to which they are ordained deacons; and that they must be chosen to that office by the whole...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But we will give ourselves continually to prayer,.... Both in private for themselves, and the church; and in the houses and families of the saints, with the sick and distressed;. and in public, in the temple, or in whatsoever place they met for public worship: and to the ministry of the word; the preaching of the Gospel, to which prayer is...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the saying pleased the whole multitude,.... The speech the apostles made took with them; all things they proposed were universally approved of; the whole body of the church came into it at once unanimously; they all judged it highly reasonable, that the apostles should be eased of the burden in taking care of the poor, and that it should be...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Whom they set before the apostles,.... They did not barely nominate and propose them to them, but they brought them into their presence, and placed them before them, as the persons whom they had chosen, in order to be ordained by them. And when they had prayed; for these seven men set before them, that they might appear to be richly qualified for...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the word of God increased,.... This stratagem of Satan did not succeed to divide the church, but issued in the better decorum and discipline of it, and in the spread and success of the Gospel; God thus making all things to work together for good; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; where Christ was crucified, the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Stephen, full of faith and power,.... The historian proceeds to give a narrative of Stephen particularly, the first of the seven deacons; of his faith and miracles, of his elocution and wisdom, of his courage and intrepidity, of his constancy, and of his suffering martyrdom. He is said to be full of faith, as before, Acts 6:5 the Alexandrian...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then there arose certain of the synagogue,.... Being filled with indignation at the doctrine of Stephen, and with envy at his miracles, they rose up in great wrath, and warmly opposed him: and they be longed to that synagogue which is called the synagogue of the libertines; or free men: it is a Roman name, and signifies the sons of free men; and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they were not able to resist the wisdom,.... In Beza's most ancient copy, and in another manuscript it is added, "which was in him"; that divine wisdom, which the Spirit of wisdom gave him; they were not a match for him with respect to the knowledge of divine things; they could not answer the wise arguments he made use of, fetched out of the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then they suborned men,.... Hired false witnesses, which seems to have been commonly done by the Jews; so they did in the case of Christ: which said, we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God; that is, against the law of Moses, and so against God, who gave the law to Moses, as appears from Acts 6:13 the blasphemous...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And they stirred up the people,.... The common people, who were easily wrought upon, and soon incensed and provoked, when at any time it was suggested to them that the rituals and ceremonies of the law of Moses were treated with any neglect or contempt; see Acts 21:27. And the elders and the Scribes; who belonged to the sanhedrim, to whom they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And set up false witnesses,.... Having hired them, they brought them and set them before the sanhedrim, to bear witness against Stephen: which said, this man; meaning Stephen, who was now before the council, at whom they pointed, and whose name, through contempt, they would not mention: ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For we have heard him say,.... The Ethiopic version adds, "besides"; but rather these words are a reason, giving evidence to, and supporting the general charge: that this Jesus of Nazareth; Stephen spoke of, and whom they so called by way of contempt: shall destroy this place; meaning the temple, as the Ethiopic version renders it; and is the same...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And all that sat in the council,.... The whole sanhedrim, looking steadfastly on him; to observe whether his countenance altered, his tongue stammered, or he trembled in any part of his body, neither of which appeared; but on the contrary, they saw his face, as if it had been the face of an angel. The Ethiopic version adds, "of God"; there was...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then said the high priest,.... The Ethiopic version adds, "to him"; that is, to Stephen; for to him he addressed himself: or he "asked him", as the Syriac version renders it; he put the following question to him: are these things so? is it true what they say, that thou hast spoken blasphemous words against the temple, and the law, and hast said...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
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...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And said unto him,.... Not the words in Genesis 12:1 for they were said in Haran, these in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt there, and besides, these are different from them; no mention is here made of getting out from his father's house, as there; because his father's house sent along with him, or rather he with them from Mesopotamia to Haran: get...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans,.... The same with Mesopotamia; so Pliny says (b), that "because of Babylon the head of the Chaldean nation---the other part of Mesopotamia and Assyria is called Babylonia.'' And he places Babylon in Mesopotamia; it was out of Ur, in the land of the Chaldeans particularly, that Abraham came, upon his...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he gave him none inheritance in it,.... To be personally enjoyed by him; and which was a great trial to Abraham's faith, to be brought out of his country, and into another land, and which was promised to him and his; and yet, as not the whole, so not a single part of it was given him to possess: no, not so much as to set his foot on: so that...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And God spake on this wise,.... The Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions read, "and God spake to him", and so does one of Beza's copies; and the Ethiopic version reads it both ways, God "said thus to Abraham", as in Genesis 15:13. That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; or "be a stranger in a land not theirs"; first in the land of Canaan, and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage,.... At the end of the four hundred years, and which was the Egyptian nation: I will judge, said God; that is, condemn and punish them, as he did, by inflicting the ten plagues upon them: and after that they shall come forth; out of the land of Egypt, and their hard bondage there; and which was...