John Calvin Commentary Acts 7:2

"And he said, Brethren and fathers, hearken: The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran," — Acts 7:2 (ASV)

Men, brethren, and fathers. Although Stephen saw that those who sat in the council were, for the most part, the sworn enemies of Christ, yet because the ordinary government of the people belonged to them, and they had the oversight of the Church, which God had not yet cast off, he is therefore not afraid, for modesty’s sake, to call them fathers. He is not flatteringly purchasing favor by this; rather, he gives this honor to the order and government appointed by God, until their authority would be taken from them, the order being altered.

Nevertheless, the reverence for the position they held does not hinder him or stop his mouth, as he freely dissents from them. This shows how ridiculous the Papists are who want us to be so tied to mere and vainly invented titles that they can force us to subscribe to their decrees, however wicked they may be.

The God of glory. By this beginning, Stephen declares that he does not disagree or dissent from the fathers in the true religion that they followed. For all religion, the worship of God, the doctrine of the law, and all prophecies depended on the covenant that God made with Abraham. Therefore, when Stephen confessed that God appeared to Abraham, he embraces the law and the prophets, which flow from that first revelation as from a fountain. Moreover, he calls Him the God of glory, to distinguish Him from false and feigned gods, as He alone is worthy of glory.

When he was in Mesopotamia. It is well known that the land called by this name is that which lies between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. Stephen previously says that Abraham dwelt in Charran, because Abraham, being warned by a divine message, fled from Chaldea to Charran. Charran is a city of Mesopotamia, famous because of the slaughter of Crassus and the Roman army, although Pliny says that it was a city of Arabia.

It is no wonder that Chaldea is here comprehended under the name of Mesopotamia because, although that region enclosed by the Tigris and Euphrates (Mesopotamia) is properly the land between two rivers, those who describe countries also call both Assyria and Chaldea by this name.

The sum is this: Abraham, being commanded by God, forsook his country. And so he was anticipated by the sheer goodness of God, even when he was seeking what was spontaneously offered to him at home. Read the last chapter of Joshua.

But it seems that Moses’ narration somewhat disagrees with this. For after Moses had declared, about the end of Genesis 11, that Abraham went into another country to dwell, having left his house, he adds in the beginning of Genesis 12 that God spake unto Abraham.

This is easily answered, for Moses does not recount in this latter passage what happened after Abraham's departure. Instead, so that no one would think that Abraham wandered into other countries, having recklessly forsaken his own house (as fickle and indiscreet men sometimes used to do), Moses shows the cause of his departure: namely, that he was commanded by God to move to another place.

And the words of the divine message imply this much. For if Abraham had already been a stranger in another country, God could not have commanded him to depart from his native soil, forsaking his kinsmen and father’s house. Therefore, we see that this passage agrees wonderfully well with the words of Moses.

For after Moses has said that Abraham went to Charran, to show that this journey was undertaken not through any human fickleness but by God’s command, he afterwards adds what he had previously omitted—a manner of speaking much used by the Hebrews.