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Act_7:59-60. Ἐπικαλούμενον ] while he was invoking. Whom? is evident from the address which follows.
κύριε Ἰησοῦ ] both to be taken as vocatives (Rev_22:20) according to the formal expression κύριος Ἰησοῦς (Gersdorf, Beitr. p. 292 ff.), with which the apostolic church designates Jesus as the exalted Lord, not only of His church, but of the world, in the government of which He is installed as σύνθρονος of the Father by His exaltation (Php_2:6 ff.), until the final completion of His office (1Co_15:28); comp. Act_10:36. Stephen invoked Jesus; for he had just beheld Him standing ready to help him. As to the invocation of Christ generally (relative worship, conditioned by the relation of the exalted Christ to the Father), see on Rom_10:12; 1Co_1:2; Php_2:10.
δέξαι τὸ πνεῦμά μου ] namely, to thee in heaven until the future resurrection. Comp. on Php_1:26, remark. “Fecisti me victorem, recipe me in triumphum,” Augustine.
φωνῇ μεγάλῃ ] the last expenditure of his strength of love, the fervour of which also discloses itself in the kneeling.
μὴ στήσῃς αὐτοῖς τ . ἁμαρτ . ταύτ .] fix not this sin (of my murder) upon them. This negative expression corresponds quite to the positive: ἀφιέναι τὴν ἁμαρτίαν , to let the sin go as regards its relation of guilt, instead of fixing it for punishment. Comp. Rom_10:3; Sir_44:21-22; 1Ma_13:38; 1Ma_14:28; 1Ma_15:4, al. The notion, “to make availing” (de Wette), i.e. to impute, corresponds to the thought, but is not denoted by the word. Linguistically correct is also the rendering: “weigh not this sin to them,” as to which the comparison of ùÑÈ÷Çì is not needed (Mat_26:15; Plat. Tim. p. 63 B, Prot. p. 356 B, Pol. x. p. 602 D; Xen. Cyr. viii. 2. 21; Valcken. Diatr. p. 288 A). In this view the sense would be: Determine not the weight of the sin (comp. Act_25:7), consider not how heavy it is. But our explanation is to be preferred, because it corresponds more completely to the prayer of Jesus, Luk_23:34, which is evidently the pattern of Stephen in his request, only saying negatively what that expresses positively. In the case of such as Saul what was asked took place; comp. Oecumenius. In the similarity of the last words of Stephen, Act_7:59 with Luk_23:34; Luk_23:40 (as also of the words δέξαι τὸ πν . μου with Luk_23:46), Baur, with whom Zeller agrees, sees an indication of their unhistorical character; as if the example of the dying Jesus might not have sufficiently suggested itself to the first martyr, and proved sufficient motive for him to die with similar love and self-devotion.
ἐκοιμήθη ] “lugubre verbum et suave,” Bengel; on account of the euphemistic nature of the word, never used of the dying of Christ. See on 1Co_15:18.