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2. ἄνδρες ἀδελφοὶ καὶ πατέρες. Render, Brethren and fathers. For an account of the argument in Stephen’s speech and its connexion with the whole design of the writer of the Acts, see Introduction, p. xv.
ὁ θεὸς τῆς δόξης. The expression occurs in LXX. of Psa 28:3, but is not common. It is probably used here because Stephen is about to speak of the several stages of God’s manifestation. The equivalent of these words is applied (Joh 1:14) to the supreme manifestation in the incarnate Son. ‘We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father.’
τῷ πατρὶ ἡμῶν, to our father. There is another reading ὑμῶν, due probably to the correction of some one who remembered that Stephen was a Greek. But even if he were merely a proselyte he might use this expression, for Abraham is regarded as the father of proselytes. On Gen 12:5, ‘the souls which they had gotten [Heb. made] in Haran,’ the Targum of Onkelos explains, ‘the souls which they (Abraham and his family) had brought to serve the Law,’ i.e. made proselytes: and on the same text Berashith Rabbah, p. 39, has: ‘Rabbi Eliezer, the son of Zimra, said: If all the men in the world were to combine to create even a single gnat, they could not infuse into it a soul; and thou sayest, ‘The souls which they made.’ But these are the proselytes whom they brought in. Yet, if so, why does it say they made them? This is to teach thee that when anybody brings near the stranger, and makes him a proselyte, it is as good as if he had created him.’
Μεσοποταμίᾳ. The ancestral home of Abraham is called ‘Ur of the Chaldees’ (Gen 11:31), and it is said (Jos 24:2-3) to have been ‘on the other side of the flood,’ i.e. beyond the Euphrates. It is not possible to determine the site of Ur, but the most probable opinion seems to be that which places it at Edessa, now called Orfah, and said to have been called Orrha in early times. If this were the place, the journey thence to Charran (O.T. Haran), i.e. Carrhæ, would not have been so very formidable for the father of the patriarch to undertake, and at Charran Terah remained till he died (Gen 11:32). Abraham, when without his father, could remove with greater ease to the distant Canaan.
πρὶν ἢ κατοικῆσαι, before he dwelt. The verb implies a settled residence, though not necessarily a permanent abode. It is used (Mat 2:23) of Joseph and Mary dwelling at Nazareth, and (Mat 4:13) of the less fixed dwelling of Jesus at Capernaum.