Albert Barnes Commentary Acts 6:11

"Then they suborned men, who said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and [against] God." — Acts 6:11 (ASV)

Then they suborned men. To suborn in law means to procure a person to take a false oath that constitutes perjury—Webster. It has substantially this meaning here. It means that they induced them to declare what was false or to bring a false accusation against him. This was done not by declaring a palpable and open falsehood, but by perverting his doctrines and by stating their own inferences as what he had actually maintained—the common way people oppose doctrines from which they differ. The Syriac reads this passage: "Then they sent certain men, and instructed them that they should say," etc. This was repeating an artifice they practiced so successfully in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ .

We have heard, etc. When they alleged that they had heard this is not stated. Probably, however, it was in some of his discourses with the people, when he performed miracles and wonders among them (Acts 6:8). Blasphemous words. See notes on Matthew 9:3.

Moses was regarded with profound reverence. They regarded his laws as unchangeable. Any intimation, therefore, that there was a greater lawgiver than he, or that his institutions were mere shadows and types and were no longer binding, would be regarded as blasphemy, even if it was spoken with the highest respect for Moses. All Christian teachers would affirm that the Mosaic institutions were to be changed and give place to another and better dispensation; but this was not said with the intention to blaspheme or revile Moses. In the view of the Jews, to say that was to speak blasphemy; and therefore, instead of reporting what he actually did say, they accused him of saying what they regarded as blasphemy. If reports are made of what people say, their very words should be reported, and we should not report our inferences or impressions as what they actually said.

And against God. God was justly regarded by the Jews as the Giver of their law and the Author of their institutions. But the Jews, either willfully or involuntarily, not knowing that these institutions were a shadow of good things to come and were therefore to pass away, regarded all intimations of such a change as blasphemy against God. God had a right to change or abolish those ceremonial observances; and it was not blasphemy for Stephen to declare it.