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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadGreater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 609. The Martyr
Subjects in this Topic:
II
The Martyr
Literature
Brooke, S. A., Short Sermons (1892), 141.
Dykes, J. O., From Jerusalem to Antioch (1875), 231.
Knowlton, W. H., in Sermons on the Gospels: Advent to Trinity (1896), 50.
Lee, F. T., The New Testament Period and its Leaders (1913), 203.
Liddon, H. P., Christmastide in St. Paul's (1889), 157, 175.
Luckock, H. M., Footprints of the Apostles as traced by Saint Luke in the Acts, i. (1905) 195.
Maclaren, A., The Acts of the Apostles (Bible Class Expositions) (1894), 73.
Maclaren, A., Expositions: The Acts of the Apostles i.-xii. (1907), 226.
Maclaren, A., Last Sheaves (1903), 242.
Meyer, F. B., Paul (1910), 35.
Moulton, W. F., The Old World and the New Faith (1896), 59.
Punshon, W. M., Sermons, i. (1882) 303.
Purves, P. C., The Divine Cure for Heart Trouble (1905), 262.
Rowland, A., in Men of the New Testament: Matthew to Timothy (1905), 261.
Seekings, H. S., The Men of the Pauline Circle (1914), 85.
Stokes, G. T., The Acts of the Apostles (Expositor's Bible), i. (1891) 322.
Symonds, A. R., Fifty Sermons (1871), 133.
Westcott, B. F., Peterborough Sermons (1904), 339.
Wordsworth, C., Primary Witness to the Truth of the Gospel (1892), 104.
Christian World Pulpit, lxxiv. (1908) 20 (F. B. Meyer).
Churchman's Pulpit: St. Stephen, St. John the Evangelist, The Innocents, xiv. 91 (L. Hughes), 96 (H. P. Liddon), 103 (A. O. Johnston), 107 (R. C. Trench).
Examiner, April 6, 1905 (J. H. Jowett).
The apology of Stephen, as it is reported in the seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, struck the keynote of Christian freedom, traced out the fair proportions of the Catholic Church, while the actual martyrdom of Stephen taught men that Christianity was not only the force which was to triumph, but the power in which they were to suffer, and bear, and die. Stephen's career was a type of all martyr lives, and embraces every possible development through which Christ's Church and His servants had afterwards to pass,-obscurity, fame, activity, death-fixing high the standard for all ages.
The illegality of the proceeding is beyond dispute, for, on the admission of the chief priests themselves, the Sanhedrin had no power to put to death; but it is not necessary to view it at all in the light of a judicial action. It was an outbreak of mob violence on the part of the leaders of the nation, which could easily be disavowed, if necessary, by the Council. But they probably felt assured of their safety, for there is every reason to believe that this took place during the interregnum which ensued on the recall of Pilate.