681
. From Craig S. Keener, “Three Notes on Figurative Language: Inverted Guilt in Acts
7
:
55–60
, Paul’s Figurative Vote in Acts
26
:
10
, Figurative Eyes in Galatians
4
:
15
,” Journal of Greco-Roman Christianity and Judaism
5
(
2008
):
41–49
. Reprinted by permission from Sheffield Phoenix.
. See e.g., Lysias Or.
3
.
1
, §
96
; Aeschines Tim. passim, esp. (and ironically)
179
; Philo Embassy
3
,
14
,
56
,
69
; Thucydides
3
.
61
.
1
; Rhet. Alex. 36
,
1442
b.
6–9
; Cicero Orator
40
.
137
; Verr.
2
.
1
.
6
.
17
; Rosc. Amer.
30
.
82–45
.
132
; Pro Caelio
13
.
31
;
24
.
60
; Quinct.
3
.
11–9
.
33
(the entire narratio!); Scaur.
13
.
29
; Keener, John,
753
.
. E.g., Xenophon Apol.
29
; Mem.
4
.
4
.
4
; esp. Maximus of Tyre Or.
3
.
8
. For the moralist principle of judges’ verdicts passing judgment on themselves, see e.g., Publilius Syrus
698
; Cicero Verr.
2
.
5
.
69
.
177
. Such reversals could generate irony (cf. Aeschines Tim.
117–18
; Xenophon Mem.
4
.
8
.
9–10
; Seneca the Elder Controv.
6
.
5
).
. For surveys of views, see Barrett, Acts,
384–85
; Bock, Proclamation,
222–24
; Johnson, Acts,
139
.
. Speakers normally rose to speak in various settings, and this would include accusers (Zech
3
:
1–8
), intercessors or advocates (Jer
18
:
20
; Pliny Ep.
1
.
23
.
2
) and judges (Isa
3
:
13
; t. Sanh.
6
:
2
).
. E.g., as judge in Ps
9
:
19
;
74
:
22
;
82
:
8
; Isa
3
:
13
; as advocate in Ps
109
:
31
.
. Others have suggested that Stephen is pronouncing judgment on his judges (cf. Conzelmann, Acts,
60
; Fitzmyer, Acts,
392
), which points in this same direction.
. Polybius
11
.
30
.
1
; Dionysius of Halicarnassus Ant. rom.
7
.
69
.
2
; Josephus Ag. Ap.
2
.
53
. Most relevant here may be the practice (for purposes of shaming) before illegal lynchings (Suetonius Vit.
17
.
1
; Herodian
8
.
8
.
6
).
. M. Sanh.
6
:
3
.
. E.g., Apollonius Rhodius
1
.
364
; Plutarch M. Cato
3
.
2
; Dio Chrysostom Or.
28
.
6
; Lucian Luc.
8–9
; Anach.
36
; Diogenes Ep.
37
; Philostratus Her.
15
:
9
;
26
.
20
.
. Against Conybeare, “Stoning of Stephen,” Acts
22
:
20
makes this emendation improbable.
. I suggested this earlier in Keener, Background Commentary,
343
. Probably Acts
22
:
23
implies an analogous reversal.
. M. Sanh.
6
:
3
. Any person expecting death might pray thus (e.g., tos. Ber.
6
:
17
; b. Ber.
60
a, bar.; y. Ber.
9
:
4
, §
2
).
. The parallel does not suggest that Luke invented Jesus’s prayer; unknown to most of Luke’s audience and probably to Luke himself, Jesus’s words at this time fit a Jewish prayer that would have also been prayed at that time (Stauffer, Jesus and Story,
142
).
. E.g., Rapske, Custody,
103
; LaSor, Knew,
91–92
. Granted, Paul apparently came from a family of means, but they were also recent Hellenist immigrants (cf. Acts
6
:
9
).
. The rule requiring marriage in the Sanhedrin (b. Sanh.
36
b) is probably not pre-
70
in any case.
. See Sherwin-White, Society,
32–43
.
. Following rhetorical convention, Luke is ready to reverse the charges even within his narrative. But lest we immediately dismiss his narrative as too tendentious, Josephus reports plenty of intrigue and even complicity with assassins among some of the Sadducean aristocrats in precisely the years preceding the Judean-Roman war.
. See e.g., Aeschines Fals. leg.
3
,
69
; Ctes.
113
,
156
,
259
; Thucydides
3
.
61
.
1
; Rhet. Alex.
36
,
1442
b.
6–9; Dionysius of Halicarnassus Lys.
24
; Cicero Orator
40
.
137
; De or.
3
.
204
; Sest.
37
.
80
; Keener, John,
753
.
. E.g., Plutarch Alc.
22
.
2
; Iamblichus Vit. Pyth.
35
.
260
.
. Some thus allow its application to “unofficial action” (Lake and Cadbury, Commentary,
317
; Bruce, Acts
¹
,
443
) or a figurative sense (Witherington, Acts,
742
) such as siding with those so voting (Fitzmyer, Acts, 758
).
. Johnson, Acts,
434
.
. E.g., Xenophon Symp.
5
.
8
(in a jest); figurative cooperation with God’s decree in Musonius Rufus frg.
38
, p.
136
.
4–5
Lutz; an analogy in Maximus of Tyre Or.
16
.
3–4
; evaluating truth in Maximus of Tyre Or.
33
.
1
. I am not at this point convinced that the figurative usage was so pervasive as to have lost its figurative connotations; but it was a common image.
. Aelius Aristides Defense
1
,
1
D.
. Dionysius of Halicarnassus Lys.
11
. When weighing a decision, one could ask a friend to cast his vote (calculam, pebble; Pliny Ep.
1
.
2
.
5
).
. Lucian Harm.
3
.
. With Johnson, Acts,
434
.
. E.g., Plutarch Cic.
7
.
4
; see BDAG.
. E.g., Rhet. Her.
4
.
21
.
29
—
4
.
22
.
31
; Suetonius Jul.
50
.
2
; Lucian True Story
2
.
20; Ps.-Callisthenes Alex.
1
.
35
.
. Hipponax frg.
89
(LCL p.
61
).
. Lucian Fish.
11
(LCL
3
:
19
).