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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - Acts 6:11 - 6:11
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Then they suborned men (tote hupebalon andras). Second aorist active indicative of hupoballō, old verb, but here only in the N.T., to put under like a carpet, to bring men under one’s control by suggestion or by money. One recalls the plight of Caiaphas in the trial of Jesus when he sought false witnesses. Subornaverunt. They put these men forward in an underhand way for fraud.
Blasphemous words against Moses and God (blasphēma eis Mōusēn kai ton theon). The punishment for blasphemy was stoning to death. See note on Mat 12:31 for discussion of the word blasphēmia, blasphēmeō, blasphēmos, all in the N.T. from blaptō, to harm, and phēmē, speech, harmful speech, or blax, stupid, and phēmē. But the charge against Stephen was untrue. Please note that Moses is here placed before God and practically on a par with God in the matter of blasphemy. The purpose of this charge is to stir the prejudices of the people in the matter of Jewish rights and privileges. It is the Pharisees who are conducting this attack on Stephen while the Sadducees had led them against Peter and John. The position of Stephen is critical in the extreme for the Sadducees will not help him as Gamaliel did the apostles.