John Gill Commentary Acts 7

Then said the high priest
The Ethiopic version adds, "to him"; that is, to Stephen; for to him he addressed himself: or he "asked him", as the Syriac version renders it; he put the following question to him:

are these things so?
is it true what they say, that you have spoken blasphemous words against the temple, and the law, and have said that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the one, and change the other? what have you to say for yourself, and in your own defence? this high priest was either Annas, or rather Caiaphas; (See Gill on Acts 4:6).

And he said
Stephen replied, in answer to the high priest's question, and addressed himself to the whole sanhedrim, saying:

men, brethren, and fathers, hearken ;
to the following oration and defence; he calls them men, brethren, by an usual Hebraism, that is, "brethren"; and that, because they were of the same nation; for it was common with the Jews to call those of their own country and religion, brethren; and he calls them "fathers", because of their age and dignity, being the great council of the nation, and chosen out of the senior and wiser part of the people:

the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham ;
he calls God "the God of glory", because he is glorious in himself, in all his persons, perfections, and works, and is to be glorified by his people; and his glory is to be sought by all his creatures, and to be the end of all their actions; and the rather he makes use of this epithet of him, to remove the calumny against him, that he had spoke blasphemous things against God; and because God appeared in a glorious manner to Abraham, either in a vision, or by an angel, or in some glorious form, or another; and it is observable, that when the Jews speak of Abraham's deliverance out of the fiery furnace, for so they interpret Ur of the Chaldees, they give to God much such a title; they say ^F18 "the King of glory" stretched out his right hand, and delivered him out of the fiery furnace, according to (Genesis 15:7).'' Stephen uses a like epithet; and he calls Abraham "our father", he being a Jew, and according to the common usage of the nation: and this appearance of God to Abraham was "when he was in Mesopotamia"; a country that lay between the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates, from where it had its name; and is the same with Aram Naharaim, the Scriptures speak of; (See Gill on Acts 2:9).

Of this appearance of God to Abraham, mentioned by Stephen, the Scriptures are silent; but the Jewish writers seem to hint at it, when they say ^F19 , ``thus said the holy blessed God to Abraham, as you have enlightened for me Mesopotamia and its companions, come and give light before me in the land of Israel.'' And again, mentioning those words in (Isaiah 41:8Isaiah 41:9) "the seed of Abraham my friend, whom I have taken from the ends of the earth"; add by way of explanation, from Mesopotamia and its companions ^F20 : and this was

before he dwelt in Charan ;
or Haran; see (Genesis 11:31) where the Septuagint call it "Charan", as here; and by Herodish ^F21 it is called (karrai) , where Antoninus was killed; and by Pliny ^F23 , "Carra"; and by Ptolomy ^F24 , "Carroe"; it was famous for the slaughter of M. Crassus, by the Parthians ^F25 .

R. Benjamin gives this account of it in his time ^F26 ; ``in two days I came to ancient Haran, and in it were about twenty Jews, and there was as it were a synagogue of Ezra; but in the place where was the house of Abraham our father, there was no building upon it; but the Ishmaelites (or Mahometans) honour that place, and come thither to pray.'' Stephanus ^F1 says it was a city of Mesopotamia, so called from "Carra", a river in Syria.

FOOTNOTES:

• F18: Pirke Eliezer, c. 26.
• F19: Bereshit Rabba, sect. 30. fol. 25. 1
• F20: lb. sect. 44. fol. 38. 3.
• F21: L. 4. sect. 24.
• F23: L. 5. c. 24.
• F24: L. 5. c. 18.
• F25: ----Miserando funere Crassus Assyrias Latio maculavit sanguine Carrhas. Lucan. Pharsal. l. 1. v. 105.
• F26: Itinerar. p. 60.
• F1: De Urbibus.

And said unto him
Not the words in (Genesis 12:1) for they were said in Haran, these in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt there, and besides, these are different from them; no mention is here made of getting out from his father's house, as there; because his father's house sent along with him, or rather he with them from Mesopotamia to Haran:

get you out of your country ;
from Ur of the Chaldees, where he was born:

and from your kindred ;
his relations that lived in the same place, who did not go along with him:

and come into the land which I shall show you ;
not telling him the place where he was to go; wherefore when he had his first call, and first set out, he knew not where he went; see (Hebrews 11:8) . This was an emblem of the calling of the saints out of the world, from their former course of life, and from among their old companions and friends, to follow Christ wherever he is pleased to lead them; and who at last will bring them safe to the land afar off, the better and heavenly country.

Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans
The same with Mesopotamia; so Pliny says ^F2, that "because of Babylon the head of the Chaldean nation---the other part of Mesopotamia and Assyria is called Babylonia." And he places Babylon in Mesopotamia; it was out of Ur, in the land of the Chaldeans particularly, that Abraham came, upon his first call:

and dwelt in Charan :
according to the Jewish writers ^F3, he dwelt here five years:

and from thence, when his father was dead ;
who died in Haran, as is said in (Genesis 11:32) and that it was after the death of Terah his father, that Abraham went from thence, is manifest from (Genesis 11:31Genesis 11:32) (Genesis 12:4Genesis 12:5) and yet a Jew ^F4 has the impudence to charge Stephen with a mistake, and to affirm, that Abraham went from Haran, whilst his father was yet living; proceeding upon a false hypothesis, that Terah begat Abraham when he was seventy years of age: but Philo the Jew is expressly with Stephen in this circumstance; he says ^F5, "I think no man versed in the laws can be ignorant, that Abraham, when he first went out of the land of Chaldea, dwelt in Charan; (teleuthsantov te autw tou patrov ekenyi) "but his father dying there", he removed from thence:" and so says Stephen:

he removed him into this land, wherein you now dwell ;
the land of Canaan; see (Genesis 12:5) or "he removed himself", as the Ethiopic version renders it; or rather "God removed him", as the Syriac version reads, and so one copy in the Bodleian library; for it was by the order and assistance, and under the direction and protection of God, that he came into that land: after the words

wherein you now dwell ,
Beza's ancient copy adds, "and our fathers that were before us".

FOOTNOTES:

• F2: De Urbibus, l. 6. c. 26.
• F3: Seder Olam Rabba, c. 1. p. 2. Ganz Tzemach David, par. 1. fol. 5. 2.
• F4: R. Isaac Chizzuk Emuna, par. 2. c. 61. p. 448.
• F5: De Migratione Abrahami, p. 415.

And he gave him none inheritance in it
To be personally enjoyed by him; and which was a great trial to Abraham's faith, to be brought out of his country, and into another land, and which was promised to him and his; and yet, as not the whole, so not a single part of it was given him to possess:

no, not so much as to set his foot on :
so that when Sarah his wife died, he was obliged to buy a piece of ground for a burying place to bury her in: and which could not be said to be given him by the Lord, for he bought it with his money:

yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and
to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child ;
which was another exercise of Abraham's faith, that he should have a whole country promised him and his seed, and yet had no seed given him; see (Genesis 12:7) (13:15) (Genesis 15:2Genesis 15:3Genesis 15:7) .