Acts 7:58, commentary and pictures

Stephen was driven out of Jerusalem and stoned to death there, while the witnesses who had accused him laid their garments at the feet of the young man Saul, who as accusing witnesses were required to cast the first stones. The killing was unlawful with no legal sentence passed, the Roman authorities bribed to make no investigation and secretly aiding the work. The young man Saul is Paul, a member of the Sanhedrin educated under Gamaliel, who had disputed with Stephen, consented to his death and took charge of the stoners' clothes though he did not throw the stones himself. Stephen's radiant steadfastness in death shook Saul and stirred him with secret conviction that God was with him, yet he was persuaded by priests and rulers that Stephen was a blasphemer and became bitter in leading persecution against believers for faith in Jesus alone. That memory returned with terrible clearness at his conversion near Damascus, leaving lifelong sorrow and remorse that turned the consenting persecutor into the chosen messenger who more than filled Stephen's place and defended the cause for which Stephen died.

Stoning Outside the City

Stephen was cast and driven out of the city and stoned to death there, taken outside and killed by an enraged crowd in a furious rush. The stoning was a most cruel death suffered in agony, inflicted after his testimony that he saw Christ standing at the right hand of God, which his hearers met by stopping their ears, crying out, and running upon him with one accord. His death and dying prayer did not defeat the gospel but convicted Saul, the persecuting Pharisee, who became a chosen messenger of Christ to Gentiles, kings, and Israel.

The witnesses who had accused him laid down their clothes at the feet of the young man Saul. As accusing witnesses they were required to cast the first stones, throwing first after laying aside their garments. Saul had taken an active and leading part in disputing with Stephen and consented to his death, witnessing the killing before him.

The killing was unlawful, with no legal sentence passed upon Stephen. The Roman authorities were bribed with large sums of money to make no investigation into his case. They made no special effort to stop the cruel work but secretly aided the Jews in order to conciliate them and secure their favor.

The martyrdom took place at Jerusalem, where Stephen's blood witnessed for Christ. It was the city that had been the murderer of the prophets, that had rejected and slain the Son of God, and over which hung the threatenings of divine wrath. His witness and death there, bearing testimony and laying down his life with his face like an angel's, came after the gospel had first been preached in Jerusalem and the Holy Spirit had been poured out there, showing the abundant care and opportunity given to Israel.

Stephen's Character and Testimony

Stephen was the foremost of the seven deacons, a man of deep piety and broad faith. He was a Jew by birth who spoke the Greek language and knew Greek customs and manners, and for that reason he preached in the synagogues of the Greek Jews, very active in the cause of Christ and bold in proclaiming his faith. He was a student of the prophecies and learned in all matters of the law, speaking in the power of the Holy Spirit with a mouth and wisdom his adversaries could not gainsay nor resist, so that learned rabbis and doctors of the law who engaged him in public discussion were utterly defeated and unable to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spoke. After the rulers failed to overcome his arguments he was brought before the Sanhedrin on the false charge by witnesses that he spoke against the temple and the law. As he spoke about Christ and the prophecies and the temple the people became tumultuous, and the priest's tearing of his robe signaled that his voice would soon be silenced, which he recognized as his last testimony, abruptly concluding his address at a decisive moment and place.

His triumphant testimony was that he saw the heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God, and his hearers understood its force yet refused it. Being cut to the heart they gnashed on him with their teeth, then cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears. Then with one accord they ran furiously upon him, priests and rulers beside themselves with anger like wild beasts together with an excited mob, to drag him out and kill him. The enraged crowd drove him out of the city and stoned him, a most cruel death, in deliberate united murder for that witness to Jesus standing at the right hand of God. That act was hatred for Christ turned against His follower, worked by Satan in disobedient religious zealots in conflict with heaven.

He was not intimidated but calm, with his face shining with angelic light and heavenly glory like an angel's. The scene about him faded as the gates of heaven stood ajar and he saw the glory of God with Christ as if just risen from His throne standing ready to sustain His servant in martyrdom for His name. Dragged out of the judgment hall because the leaders could not answer his words of truth, they silenced his eloquence with stones rather than answering from the law and the prophets. While being stoned in cruel agony he called upon God, Lord Jesus receive my spirit, then kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, Lord lay not this sin to their charge, praying for his murderers, and then fell asleep. His faith, steadfastness, constancy, glorification, the signet of God upon his face, and soul-reaching words remained in the memory of the beholders and testified to the truth he had proclaimed.

He was the first Christian martyr, whose steadfast witness ended in death and sealed his testimony with his blood after the Holy Spirit had presented powerful evidence that Jesus was the Son of God. He fell as a faithful and noble builder of Christ's church at his work by the hand of the enemy while doing God's work, showing the violent opposition faced by those who stood for the truth. His death did not stop the building, for stone after stone was still added and other workers took the place of those who fell, so the church increased in the midst of terrible persecution.

Saul's Presence and Part

The young man named Saul is Paul, afterward called Paul after his conversion on the way to Damascus to arrest Christians, when he united with the disciples and became among the chief of the apostles. At the time of the stoning he was educated by the most learned teachers of the age, taught by Gamaliel as rabbi and statesman. He was a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin by which Stephen was condemned, taking part in that condemnation.

Saul had taken an active and leading part in disputing with Stephen, using rabbinic learning and eloquence to argue against his teaching. He was present at Stephen's trial and death with frenzied zeal, having failed with others to overcome Stephen's arguments before false charges were brought. The witnesses who had accused Stephen laid down their clothes at Saul's feet, as those witnesses were required to cast the first stones.

He consented to Stephen's death and took charge of and kept the clothes, or raiment, of those who stoned him, standing by when the blood of Stephen was shed. This keeping showed his complicity as a witness before whom the killing took place, though he himself did not throw the stones. His presence at the stoning marks the beginning of a later reversal, in which Jesus chose this zealous persecutor as a preacher who would strengthen the disciples and more than fill Stephen's place.

He was the instrument through whom the holy Stephen, Christ's martyr, was sacrificed, and through whom many other worthy saints were brought to death by cruel persecution. In this he imagined in zeal for the suppression of Christianity that he was serving God, resting his faith on the priests and rulers. Those rulers taught that the resurrection was an artificial fabrication, that Jesus was an impostor, and that Stephen's sermon was blasphemy, but in reality Saul in ignorance and error was doing the work of Satan.

His part in the condemnation and death later helped win him election to the Sanhedrin. He had worked to secure the condemnation of the servant of Christ with settled conviction that those in holy office were right.

Conviction Turning to Persecution

Stephen's death made a deep impression on all who witnessed it, and his faith and steadfastness and constancy, his radiant appearance and glorification with the signet of God upon his face, and his soul-reaching words remained in memory and testified to the truth he had proclaimed. That abiding testimony helped lead to Saul's conversion. Saul himself could never efface it from memory.

His triumphant death greatly stirred Saul's mind and shook his prejudice against believers. The evidence of God's presence with Stephen as he faced death, the radiance of heaven upon him, and a power higher than earthly strength sustaining him stirred Saul to doubt whether his opposition to the followers of Jesus was right. He was angered by his own secret conviction that Stephen was honored of God at the very time he was dishonored of men.

Saul was then persuaded by the priests and rulers that Stephen was a blasphemer and his sermon blasphemy. They taught that the resurrection was an artificial fabrication and that Jesus whom Stephen preached was an impostor. Having settled in his mind that those in holy office were right and resting his faith on them, Saul with decided mind and strong purpose became very bitter in opposition to Christianity.

He voluntarily took up persecuting believers and led the van in the persecution that followed without legal sentence. He hunted Christians down, seized them in their homes, had holy men dragged before councils, and delivered them up to the priests and rulers for imprisonment and death for no offense except faith in Jesus. Through his actions many believers were put to death, breathing threatenings and slaughter and seeking letters to bind believers, and his zeal in carrying forward the persecution was a terror to the Christians in Jerusalem.

Guilt Remembered After Conversion

The light above the brightness of the sun that met Saul near Damascus brought the memory of Stephen's death by his consent and the truth of Stephen's sermon forcibly to his mind. In that clear but terrible light he saw Christ as having come in fulfillment of His mission, only to be rejected, abused, condemned and crucified by those He came to save, then risen from the dead and ascended into heaven. During three days of total blindness alone in the house of Judas without eating or drinking, in reflection, repentance and earnest prayer under remorse and conviction, he remembered Stephen with bitterness and saw in the martyrdom evidence that Stephen had been sustained by a power higher than earth. He saw his own guilt with horror in having been carried away by the malice and prejudice of the priests and rulers, in closing his eyes and ears against the most striking evidence, including the radiance of heaven on Stephen's face, and in relentlessly leading the van in persecuting believers in Christ. He had rested his faith on those in holy office who taught that the resurrection was an artificial fabrication, that Stephen's sermon was blasphemy and Jesus an impostor, and had imagined in zeal for suppression that he was serving God, when in ignorance and error he was doing the work of Satan, yet prophetic history now proved from Christ's rejection, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension that He was the promised Messiah.

That cruel part left a stain that filled him with sorrow, shame, remorse and deep anxiety to wipe it out and make amends. He became eager to vindicate the truth for which Stephen had died by boldly proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God, the same message Stephen had defended and the same cause for which Stephen died. The voice that had disputed with Stephen now defended that cause, and he lingered in Jerusalem unwilling to leave, anxious to labor longer for his Jewish brethren. He would willingly have yielded up his own life if by that means they might be brought to knowledge of the truth, and he regarded flight from Jerusalem as cowardice even when the same fury that burst upon Stephen was visited upon himself and the Jews laid plans to take his life. He had to separate from his Jewish brethren after miscalculating their spirit, and though he longed to make amends by preaching in Jerusalem for a fearful account, God directed him to leave Jerusalem and carry his testimony to the Gentiles.

His conversion turned the persecuting Pharisee who consented to Stephen's death, keeping the clothes of those who stoned him though not throwing stones himself, into a chosen messenger of Christ to Gentiles, kings and Israel. Jesus chose Saul, then a zealous persecutor, as a preacher who would strengthen the disciples and more than fill Stephen's place, taking up the work Stephen had begun. Stephen's death and dying prayer had convicted him, and despite the appearance that his enemies had triumphed, that death became the occasion of his conversion through whom thousands came to the gospel.

Later visits to Jerusalem brought the stoning scene vividly before him at the place of martyrdom where Stephen's blood witnessed for Christ. The spot recalled his former life in bitter prejudice and filled him with anxiety and remorse, raising whether he was going forward to a similar fate. It stood in the city that had been the murderer of the prophets, that had rejected and slain the Son of God and over which hung the threatenings of divine wrath. It kindled in him deepest pity for his deluded countrymen kindled with the same blind wrath that had once burned in his own heart.

When he himself was violently stoned at Lystra by an enraged mob, bruised, battered and fainting until he felt his end had come, the martyrdom of Stephen with his own cruel part and guilt in it came vividly to his mind. As Stephen had been cast out of the city and stoned, so Paul fell to the ground apparently dead and was dragged insensible through the gates of the city and thrown outside beneath the walls. The later crowd dragging Paul from the temple to stone him, which would have stoned him if the murderous attack had not been interrupted, echoes that same stoning.

Church Growth and Meaning

Stephen's death was part of the persecution of Christ's disciples for faithful witness to Jesus as the Son of God, and his steadfast witness ended in death and sealed his testimony with his blood. It was a deliberate, united murder for his triumphant testimony that Jesus stood at the right hand of God, which his hearers understood and refused by crying out, stopping their ears, and rushing upon him with one accord to drag him out of the city and stone him. The act was hatred for Christ turned against His follower, worked by Satan in disobedient religious zealots in conflict with the army of heaven that commended its faithful witness, and the laying down of clothes at the feet of the young man Saul marks his presence and part in the martyrdom. Though stoned for his faith, Stephen fell as a faithful builder of Christ's church at his work by the hand of the enemy, and despite the deaths of its builders and workers the church continued to grow, with other workers taking the place of those who fell and stone after stone added to the building. His martyrdom belonged to the persecution that scattered the church and led Christians to proclaim the gospel beyond Jerusalem.

Stephen's death is an example of God's servants bearing witness even when persecutors take their lives, for their bodies may be imprisoned or killed but their hope and eternal life cannot be taken away. He was cast out of the city and stoned, yet the persecution did not defeat the gospel, for his death and dying prayer convicted Saul, the persecuting Pharisee, who became a chosen messenger of Christ to Gentiles, kings, and Israel. Stephen was driven outside the city and stoned while the witnesses placed their clothes at Saul's feet, linking that witness unto death with the conversion of the very man who guarded the garments.

Saul had taken part in the condemnation of Stephen by the Jewish Sanhedrin, himself a member of that council by which Stephen was condemned, and he had worked to secure the condemnation of the servant of Christ. When Paul afterward stood as a prisoner before the same Sanhedrin with the high priest, the memory of that scene came vividly before his mind. Many of those sitting as his judges were men he recognized as his former associates in the school of Gamaliel who had united with him in persecuting the disciples of Jesus, and they were now as eager to put Paul to death as they had been to destroy Stephen.