Chapter Seven
CHAPTER SEVEN
G2 Ts God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, and so forth. It must be noted according to the words of Stephen, that God did not (as appears in Genesis!) speak to Abraham after the death of his father, who certainly died in Haran, where his son also lived with him; but [he spoke to him] before he lived in that city, although he was already in the region of Mesopotamia,? of which Haran was a City.
7:3
Go forth from your land and your kindred, and so forth. He [Stephen] calls the homeland and offspring of the Chaldaeans 'the land and kindred' of Abraham. From there he had long before gone forth, since he now dwelt in Mesopotamia. However, whatever the reasons were for his leaving, because he was held by the hope and desire of returning, he heard from the Lord, 'Go forth from your land:' not that he was to remove his body from there, which he had already done, but that he was to erase? the love
[for that place] from his mind. Therefore the following words, Then he went out from the land of the Chaldaeans, ' do not signify a physical but a mental departure, by which he separated himself forever from association with the Chaldaeans and their nation. According to the belief of the chronicles, in one and the same year he left Chaldaea,
1. Gn 11:31-12:1.
2. Aug., De civ. dei 16, 15 (CC 48:519, 53/56).
3. Aug., De civ. dei 16, 15 (CC 48:520, 79/82), Gn 12:1.
4, Ac 7:4.
Chapter Seven entered Mesopotamia, tarried in Haran, and was brought into the land of the promise.
7:6
His offspring will be sojourners in a strange country, and they will subject them to slavery and mistreat them for four hundred years. This is not to be understood as meaning that he said that this offspring was to be mistreated or subjected to slavery for four hundred years. Rather, by hyperbaton'* it should be read in the sense that his offspring would be wanderers for four hundred years, and during part of that time slavery too would fall to their lot. Because it is written, 'In Isaac your offspring will be called,'> there are counted from the year of Isaac's birth to the year of the departure from Egypt
405 years (which scripture according to its usual practice calls 400), during which that offspring would be wanderers, either in the land of Canaan, or in Egypt.® It can thus be understood that the hardship of 400 years may be counted from Isaac's fifth year, during which he began to be ill-treated?* by the son of the slave girl.'
7:14
He [Joseph] sent for his father Jacob and all his kindred, seventy-five souls. In his discourse he [Stephen] followed the Septuagint. In the original Hebrew, however, we find only seventy souls. Even if you should wish to count up the same lineage of souls in Genesis, you would find only seventy souls, even with the addition of Jacob himself, and Joseph with his two sons who were in Egypt.
7:15
And he [Jacob] himself died as did our fathers, and they were transferred to Shechem. In fact, it is only of Joseph that scripture reports his bones being transferred from Egypt and buried in Shechem.? However, from these words of the blessed Stephen and from the writings of 5. Gn 21:12; Rm 9:7; Heb 11:18.
6. Aug., Quaest. in hept. 2, 47, 6 (CC 33:92, 780/794).
7. Gn 21:9, Vulg.
8. Gn 46:26-27; Ex 1:5.
9. Jos 24:32
Chapter Seven vA St. Jerome, who was a resident of these very places, it is to be observed that other patriarchs were also buried in the same place, although the memory of Joseph is rightly held more famous, since it was he who commanded that this be done with his bones, and it is to his tribe that this city belonged. Indeed, in his history of the blessed Paula, Jerome reports thus:!° She passed through Shechem (not Sychar as many erroneously read), which is now named Neapolis, and she entered the church built on the side of Mount
Garizim, in the neighborhood of Jacob's well, upon which the Lord sat.'! And a little further on he says,!2 And turning away from there, she saw the tombs of the twelve patriarchs. Likewise, in his [}erome's] book on the best sort of translating,'> But the twelve patriarchs are not buried in Arboc but in Shechem. But rightly he [Stephen] moved to what follows:
7:16
And they were placed in the tomb which Abraham bought for an amount of silver from the sons of Hamor, the son of Shechem. Now Genesis teaches that Abraham bought a burial place for four hundred shekels of silver from Ephron, the son of Zohar the Hethite, in Kiriatharba, and here were buried Abraham himself, Isaac, Jacob, and Adam the first-formed.!4 Also Genesis teaches that when
Jacob returned from Mesopotamia, having given one hundred lambs he received from Hamor, the father of Shechem, a portion of a field near the city of Shechem, and there he pitched his tents.!5 Therefore, Abraham did not buy a tomb from Hamor the Shechemite, but from Ephron the Hethite, and the twelve patriarchs are not buried here, but in Shechem, as we have said.!° Truly, when speaking to the 10. Jer., Ep. 108, 13 (CSEL 55:322. 14/17).
11. Jn 4:5-6.
12. Jer., Ep. 108, 13 (CSEL 55:322, 20/21).
13. Jer., Ep. 57, 10 (CSEL 54:522, 2/3).
14. Gn 23:3-20; 49:30-32; 50:13; Isid., Etymol. 15, 1, 24.
15. Gn 33:19, Vulg.
16. See com. on 7:15.
hed Chapter Seven populace the blessed Stephen followed the popular opinion in his discourse. In conflating the two accounts he concentrated less on the arrangement of the historical details than on the point with which he was concerned.3* For this man, who was accused of teaching against the holy place and the law, proceeded to show how it might be demonstrated from the law that Jesus Christ was the promised one, and that they [the Jews] had been unwilling to be subject to Moses then, and they were unwilling to be subject to the Lord now.
I have given the best explanation that I can, not [intending to] pass judgment in advance on a better opinion, if there should be one. Furthermore, the phrase, from the sons of Hamor, the son of Shechem, in the Greek exemplar is written,!7 from the sons of Hamor, who was in Shechem. This seems to be more in accord with the history in Genesis, although it could have been the case that the same Hamor had both a father and a son named Shechem.**
7:17.
Now when the time of the promise which God had made to Abraham drew near. It is surely in reference to this promise that it is said, And after this they will go forth and serve me in this place.'® There follows:
7:27
Who has appointed you ruler and judge over us? In his entire address he [Stephen] confuted them, showing that already back then they had been antagonistic to the law of Moses.!9
7:37
This is the Moses who said to the children of Israel, 'God will raise up a prophet like myself for you from among your brethren.' Like myself in being visible in the flesh, but surpassing me in being terrible in majesty. He [Stephen] says: Lest the teaching about Christ be said to be new and strange, Moses himself, whom your fathers were unwilling to obey, proclaimed that he would
Wn 2 18. Ac 7:7.
19. Ex 2:11-14.
Chapter Seven
have the form of a man and give precepts of life for all souls.2° 7:42
Did you offer victims and sacrifices to me for forty years in the desert? Although they may have made offerings to the Lord because of the necessity of offering him service, it is nevertheless true to say that their minds were turned aside to the service of idols from the time when they had transformed gold into the head of a calf2'! For the things we read they afterwards offered to God they did not offer of their own free will, but, as we learn from this passage, they made them out of fear of punishment, and because of the slaying of those who fell on account of the idols.?? The Lord, however, does not accept the things offered but the wills of those making the offering. Besides, whenever there was an opportunity they returned in their hearts to Egypt.
7:43a And you took up the tent of Moloch. He [Stephen] says: However much you may have been seen bringing victims and sacrifices to the tabernacle of the Lord, nevertheless, with the whole concentration of your minds you clung to the temple of Moloch. Now Moloch, or Melchom as it is often also read, is the idol of the Ammonites. It means your king.?4
7:43b And the star of your God Remfam.** He says:
You have abandoned the living and true God and taken for your God the star Remfam, that is, 'of your own making'.
It signifies, however, Lucifer, the morning star, to the worship of which the Saracen people were devoted, in connection with the honor paid to Venus.?5 Because Remfam, as 20. Dt 18:15-18 21. Ex 32:1-5.
22. Ex 32:25-29.
23. Jer., Comm. in Am. 2, 5, 25/27 (CC 76:296, 841-297, 849).
24. Jer., De sit.(PL 23:912B), Comm. in Es. 16, 57, 9 (CC 73A:648, 28/30); De nom. Hebr. (CC 72:147, 5, MSS. BH).
25. Jer., Comm. in Am. 2, 5, 25/27 (CC 76:296, 835/836); Vit. Hil. 25 (PL 23, 41B).
Chapter Seven I have said, means your'making, or your repose,"® the prophet adds accordingly:
7:43c [And] the images you made to worship. By ano xowov, 'You took up with' is understood [as the verb].°*
7:43d And I will carry you away beyond Babylon. He says: On account of these sacrileges you will be led as captives, not only into Babylon, but even beyond Babylon. And we should not suppose that the first martyr made a mistake in saying 'beyond Babylon' for what in the prophet is written 'beyond Damascus',?' he expressed the idea rather than the word, because they were led beyond Damascus into Babylon, or "'beyond Babylon''.?8
7:44
There was a tent of testimony for our fathers in the desert. Since they were saying that he [Stephen] was acting against the holy place, he showed from this [Old
Testament parallel] that the Lord does not place a high value on dressed stone, but rather desires the splendor of heavenly souls. From this he wanted them to understand that just as the tent was forsaken when the temple was built, so also they should understand that the temple itself would have to be destroyed when a better dispensation came to take its place, as Jeremiah long before had prophesied saying,
Do not trust in words of falsehood which say, 'This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.*? And a little later he says, I will treat this house in which my name ts invoked, and in which you put your trust, just as I treated Shiloh, where my name had its dwelling from the beginning, and I will drive you from my sight. 3° 7:49a Heaven is my throne, but the earth is my foot26. Jer., De nom. Hebr. (CC 72:123, 26, MSS. BFHv).
Zi MAME 276 28. Jer., Comm. in Am. 2, 5, 25/27 (CC 76:297, 860/864).
29. Jr 7:4.
305 Jn 7.14502 515:
Chapter Seven "> stool.3! This is not to be understood in a material way, as though God has parts of his body placed in heaven and on earth, as we do when we sit down. Rather, to show that he is within and above all things, he [Isaiah] represents heaven as his [God's] throne and earth as a footstool. To demonstrate that he also encompasses all things, in another place he asserts that he measures heaven with his hand and holds the earth in his palm.>? Spiritually, however, heaven stands for the saints, while the earth stands for sinners, since
God watches over the former by dwelling within them; the latter he brings to the ground by condemning them.
7:49b Or what will be the place of my resting? Not, to be sure, a golden or marble earthly dwelling place. Rather it will be what the prophet adds: Upon whom does my spirit rest except upon one who is humble and peaceful and who trembles at my words? 33
7:53
[You] who received the law as a dispensation of angels. For the law was ordained by angels through the hands of a mediator. 3* 7:56
Behold, I see the heavens opened and the son of man standing at the right hand of God. Since Christ the Lord was the perfect son of both God and man, why is it that the blessed martyr preferred to call him the "'son of man'' rather than the son of God? It would seem that he could have offered him greater glory if he had chosen to call him the son of God rather than the son of man—unless by this testimony the infidelity of the Jews could be confounded, for they remembered that they had crucified a man and that they had not chosen to believe that he was God.
Therefore, to strengthen the blessed martyr's endurance the doors of the heavenly kingdom are opened and, so that the innocent man being stoned may not stumble to the ground,
31. Is 66:1.
32. Is 40:12.
35248 11:23 66:2) 34. Ga 3:19.
Chapter Seven the crucified God-man:appears crowned in heaven.
Hence, because to stand is proper to one who does battle or to one who gives help, he fittingly saw standing at God's right hand the one whom he had as [his] helper among the men who were persecuting him. And it does not seem inconsistent that Mark describes him as sitting at God's right hand, which is the posture of judging, for now he judges all things invisibly, and at the end he will come as the visible judge of all.3°
7:58
And casting him outside the city, they stoned him. The Lord too, who chose us out of the world for his heavenly kingdom and glory, suffered outside the gate, like Stephen, who, as though he were a stranger to the world, was stoned outside the city. For he had no permanent city here, but with his whole heart he sought the city to come. And, in accordance with the vicissitudes of events, the martyr directed the gaze of his pure heart to heaven, while the stiffnecked persecutor stretched out his hands toward the stones. Hence Arator says,>" You take up stones against Stephen, frantic, rebellious Judaea, you who will always be hard like stone in acts of guilt.
7:60
But falling on his knees he cried out with a loud voice saying, 'Lord, do not hold this sin against them'.
For himself he prayed standing up;38 for his enemies he knelt down. Because their iniquity was so great it called out for the greater remedy of falling upon his knees.39 And marvelous was the virtue of the blessed martyr who was so inflamed with zeal that he openly reproached his captors for their fault in lacking faith, and burned so with love that even at his death he prayed for his murderers.
35. Greg., Hom. in ev. 2, 29, 7 (PL 76:1217C); Mk 16:19.
36. Jn 15:19.
37. Arat., De act. ap. 1 (CSEL 72:48, 593/595).
38. Ac 7:59-60 39. Aug., Serm. 315, 3, 3; 319, 4, 4 (PL 38:1433-1434, 1441).
NOTES TO CHAPTER SEVEN
1. For a definition of hyperbaton, see note 1 to ch. 1. In the Vulgate 'for forty years' comes at the end of the verse cited, but Bede argues that by hyperbaton the time phrase can be applied only to the first verb, not the entire statement.
2. 'Ill-treated': adfligi. Bede evidently takes the Vulgate /udentem in Gn 21:9 in a negative sense, 'mocking, rather than merely
'playing with'
3. Bede was aware that Ac 7:16 contained an apparent factual error, that is, that Stephen gave the wrong burial place for the patriarchs, taking his information from Gn 33:19, which is irrelevant to the question, instead of from Gn 23:3-20 or 49:30-32.
Being unwilling to impute this error to Stephen, Bede solves his dilemma by attributing the error to 'the popular opinion' (vulgi opinionem). He argues that Stephen went along with this erroneous view, in a matter of incidental detail, in order not to offend his hearers and thereby sacrifice their receptivity to the more crucial point of salvation history which was his real concern.
Stephen, in other words, repeated factual error for rhetorical reasons. In a recent article in Speculum (Vol. 55, 1980, 1-21),
Roger Ray has suggested that Bede's language in the Commentary on Ac 7:16 indicates considerably greater familiarity on Bede's part with works of classical rhetoric than scholars have previously thought that he possessed.
4. Bede refers to the fact that Gn 33:19 has 'from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem'.
5. I have retained Bede's spelling 'Remfam' in place of the JB spelling 'Rephan' because the etymology which Bede puts forward depends upon the 'Remfam' spelling.
6. Bede's grammatical point is that the verb of Ac 7:43a, "You took up (suscepistis) the tent of Moloch, is to be understood also as the verb which governs the object in 7:43c, 'images'. a0 xoiwvot
('in common') is not a common grammatical term. It is cited in Liddell and Scott, Greek-English Lexicon, as a grammatical term
'of two clauses taking a word in common,' and the reference there given is to Apollonius Dyscolus, a second-century A.D. grammarian. Bede may have become acquainted with the term from Jerome, who uses it in his Commi. in Es. 5, 17, 1/3 (CC 73:184, 32).
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