Acts 7

この章を意図をもって読む

Acts 7 is Stephen's defense before the Sanhedrin, the longest speech in Acts, and the story of the first Christian martyr. Accused of speaking against the temple and the law, Stephen retells Israel's history from Abraham through Joseph and Moses to David and Solomon, showing that God has always met his people outside the land and outside any building, and that Israel has always resisted the deliverers God sent. He ends by charging the council with betraying and murdering the Righteous One. Enraged, they stone him while he sees Jesus standing at God's right hand and prays for their forgiveness. A young man named Saul watches.

章の解説を開く

Acts 7 is a history lesson that ends in a stoning. Stephen, accused of speaking against the temple and the law, does not deny the charges directly. He tells Israel's story, and the way he tells it is the defense. God appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia, long before there was a land or a temple, and gave him a promise rather than a foot of ground. Joseph was rejected by his brothers and became the ruler who saved them. Moses was rejected by his people twice, once in Egypt and once in the wilderness, and met God on holy ground in the desert near Sinai, far from Jerusalem. The people who received the tabernacle, built to a heavenly pattern, turned to a calf and to the stars. Solomon built a house, but the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands; heaven is his throne. Then Stephen turns on his judges. You always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did; they killed the prophets who foretold the Righteous One, and you have betrayed and murdered him. The council's rage is immediate. But Stephen is looking elsewhere. He sees heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God, and he says so. They drag him out and stone him, laying their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. Stephen's last words are prayers: receive my spirit, and do not hold this sin against them. Luke says he fell asleep.

主要な箇所

Acts 7:2-8 Acts 7:30-38 Acts 7:44-53 Acts 7:54-60 Isaiah 66:1-2

Historical and literary context

Stephen was one of seven men chosen in chapter 6 to serve the Greek-speaking widows, and his preaching in the Hellenistic synagogues drew the charge that he spoke against Moses and the temple. The Sanhedrin was the same council that had condemned Jesus. Stephen's speech draws on Genesis, Exodus, Amos, and Isaiah, and reflects a reading of Israel's story in which the tabernacle, made to a heavenly pattern, stands over against the temple, and in which God's presence was never confined to Jerusalem. His death, apparently a mob action rather than a formal execution, scattered the church and, Luke notes, was approved by Saul of Tarsus.

How the chapter unfolds

Verses 1 to 8 cover Abraham, called in Mesopotamia and given no land but a promise. Verses 9 to 16 cover Joseph, rejected by his brothers and made a ruler in Egypt. Verses 17 to 43 cover Moses at length: his birth, his rejection by his own people, the burning bush on holy ground far from the land, the exodus, the promise of a prophet like him, and the golden calf, with Amos quoted on Israel's idolatry. Verses 44 to 50 move from the tabernacle to Solomon's temple and Isaiah's word that the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands. Verses 51 to 53 are the indictment. Verses 54 to 60 are the vision, the stoning, Saul at the edge, and Stephen's two prayers.

Why this chapter matters

Stephen's speech is the New Testament's most sustained reading of the Old Testament as a story of rejected deliverers, Joseph and Moses foreshadowing Jesus, and of a God who is not bound to one place. It laid the foundation for the church's move beyond Jerusalem and the temple. His death models Christian martyrdom on the pattern of Christ: he commits his spirit to the Lord Jesus, as Jesus committed his to the Father, and prays for his killers' forgiveness, as Jesus did. His vision of the Son of Man standing, rather than seated, at God's right hand has been read as Jesus rising to receive him. And the presence of Saul at the stoning is Luke's quiet introduction of the man whose conversion the death helped prepare.

Interpretive tension to watch

Stephen's history contains details that differ from Genesis and Exodus as usually read, seventy-five people going down to Egypt, a tomb at Shechem bought by Abraham, which reflect the Greek Old Testament and the traditions of his day. And his tone shifts from careful narration to fierce accusation in verse 51. Was the speech a defense at all, or a prophetic indictment that made his death certain? The chapter invites readers to hear it as both.

この章のための質問

Stephen shows that God met Abraham, Joseph, and Moses outside the promised land. What does that pattern say about where God can be found?
Joseph and Moses were both rejected by the people they were sent to save. How does that pattern prepare the council to hear about Jesus?
Stephen dies praying for his killers, with Saul watching. What might it have meant for Paul to remember that day after his conversion?

Study with context

Use this as a chapter guide, then press deeper into the text itself. The goal is to slow down observation, notice structure, and ask better questions before jumping to conclusions.

ノートに追加

1 Then the high priest said, Are these things true? 2 And he said, My brothers and fathers, give hearing. The God of glory came to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he was living in Haran, 3 And said to him, Go out of your land, and away from your family, and come into the land to which I will be your guide. 4 Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and went into Haran; and from there, when his father was dead, he was guided by God into this land, where you are living now: 5 And God gave him no heritage in it, not even enough to put his foot on: but he gave him an undertaking that he would give it to him and to his children after him, though he had no child at that time. 6 And God said that his seed would be living in a strange land, and that they would make them servants, and be cruel to them for four hundred years. 7 And I will be the judge, said God, of that nation which made them servants: and after that, they will come out and give me worship in this place. 8 And he made with him the agreement of which circumcision was the sign. And so Abraham had a son, Isaac, and gave him circumcision on the eighth day; and Isaac had a son, Jacob, and Jacob was the father of the twelve heads of the families of Israel. 9 And the brothers, moved with envy against Joseph, gave him to the Egyptians for money: but God was with him, 10 And made him free from all his troubles, and gave him wisdom and the approval of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and all his house. 11 Now there was no food to be had in all Egypt and Canaan, and there was great trouble: and our fathers were not able to get food. 12 But Jacob, hearing that there was grain in Egypt, sent out our fathers the first time. 13 And the second time his brothers had a meeting with Joseph, and Pharaoh had knowledge of Joseph's family. 14 Then Joseph sent for Jacob his father and all his family, seventy-five persons. 15 And Jacob went down to Egypt, and came to his end there, and so did our fathers; 16 And they were taken over to Shechem, and put to rest in the place which Abraham got for a price in silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem. 17 But when the time was near for putting into effect the undertaking which God had given to Abraham, the people were increasing in Egypt, 18 Till another king came to power, who had no knowledge of Joseph. 19 He, having evil designs against our nation, was cruel to our fathers, and they were forced to put out their young children, so that they might not go on living. 20 At which time Moses came to birth, and he was very beautiful; and he was kept for three months in his father's house: 21 And when he was put out, Pharaoh's daughter took him and kept him as her son. 22 And Moses was trained in all the wisdom of Egypt, and was great in his words and works. 23 But when he was almost forty years old, it came into his heart to go and see his brothers, the children of Israel. 24 And seeing one of them being attacked, he went to his help and gave the Egyptian a death-blow: 25 And he was hoping that his brothers would see that God had sent him to be their saviour; but they did not see. 26 And the day after, he came to them, while they were having a fight, and would have made peace between them, saying, Sirs, you are brothers; why do you do wrong to one another? 27 But the man who was doing wrong to his neighbour, pushing him away, said, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Will you put me to death as you did the Egyptian yesterday? 29 And at these words, Moses went in flight to the land of Midian, and was living there for a time, and had two sons. 30 At the end of forty years, an angel came to him in the waste land of Sinai, in the flame of a burning thorn-tree. 31 And Moses, seeing it, was full of wonder, and when he came up to have a nearer view of it, the voice of the Lord came to him, saying, 32 I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob. And Moses, shaking with fear, kept his eyes from looking at it. 33 And the Lord said, Take off the shoes from your feet, for the place where you are is holy. 34 Truly, I have seen the sorrows of my people in Egypt, and their cries have come to my ears, and I have come down to make them free: and now, come, I will send you to Egypt. 35 This Moses, whom they would not have, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge? him God sent to be a ruler and a saviour, by the hand of the angel whom he saw in the thorn-tree. 36 This man took them out, having done wonders and signs in Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the waste land, for forty years. 37 This is the same Moses, who said to the children of Israel, God will give you a prophet from among your brothers, like me. 38 This is the man who was in the church in the waste land with the angel who was talking to him in Sinai, and with our fathers; and to him were given the living words of God, so that he might give them to you. 39 By whom our fathers would not be controlled; but they put him on one side, turning back in their hearts to Egypt, 40 And saying to Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: as for this Moses, who took us out of the land of Egypt, we have no idea what has become of him. 41 And they made the image of a young ox in those days, and made an offering to it, and had joy in the work of their hands. 42 But God was turned from them and let them give worship to the stars of heaven, as it says in the book of the prophets, Did you make offerings to me of sheep and oxen for forty years in the waste land, O house of Israel? 43 And you took up the tent of Moloch and the star of the god Rephan, images which you made to give worship to them: and I will take you away, farther than Babylon. 44 Our fathers had the Tent of witness in the waste land, as God gave orders to Moses to make it after the design which he had seen. 45 Which our fathers, in their turn, took with them when, with Joshua, they came into the heritage of the nations whom God was driving out before the face of our fathers, till the time of David, 46 Who was pleasing to God; and he had a desire to make a holy tent for the God of Jacob. 47 But Solomon was the builder of his house. 48 But still, the Most High has not his resting-place in houses made with hands, as the prophet says, 49 Heaven is the seat of my power, and earth is a resting-place for my feet: what sort of house will you make for me, says the Lord, or what is my place of rest? 50 Did not my hand make all these things? 51 You whose hearts are hard and whose ears are shut to me; you are ever working against the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets was not cruelly attacked by your fathers? and they put to death those who gave them the news of the coming of the Upright One; whom you have now given up and put to death; 53 You, to whom the law was given as it was ordered by angels, and who have not kept it. 54 Hearing these things, they were cut to the heart and moved with wrath against him. 55 But he was full of the Holy Spirit, and looking up to heaven, he saw the glory of God and Jesus at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, Now I see heaven open, and the Son of man at the right hand of God. 57 But with loud cries, and stopping their ears, they made an attack on him all together, 58 Driving him out of the town and stoning him: and the witnesses put their clothing at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And Stephen, while he was being stoned, made prayer to God, saying, Lord Jesus, take my spirit. 60 And going down on his knees, he said in a loud voice, Lord, do not make them responsible for this sin. And when he had said this, he went to his rest.

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