Acts 6:10

10 But the Spirit gave Stephen such wisdom that when he spoke, they could not refute him.

Acts 6:10 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 6:10

And they were not able to resist the wisdom
In Beza's most ancient copy, and in another manuscript it is added, "which was in him"; that divine wisdom, which the Spirit of wisdom gave him; they were not a match for him with respect to the knowledge of divine things; they could not answer the wise arguments he made use of, fetched out of the Scriptures of truth, in which he was well versed, and had a large knowledge of:

and the Spirit by which he spake;
that is, the Holy Spirit, as the above exemplars of Beza, and the Ethiopic version read; the meaning is, they could not resist the Holy Spirit, by which Stephen spake, so as to overcome him, or put Stephen to silence, or confute him; otherwise they did resist him, or oppose themselves to him, but in vain, and without success; for they always resisted the Holy Ghost in Christ and in his apostles, as their fathers before them resisted him in the prophets, as Stephen observes to them, ( Acts 7:51 ) hereby was fulfilled what our Lord promised to his disciples, ( Matthew 10:19 Matthew 10:20 ) ( Luke 21:15 ) .

Acts 6:10 In-Context

8 Stephen, a man richly blessed by God and full of power, performed great miracles and wonders among the people.

9 But he was opposed by some men who were members of the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), which had Jews from Cyrene and Alexandria. They and other Jews from the provinces of Cilicia and Asia started arguing with Stephen.

10 But the Spirit gave Stephen such wisdom that when he spoke, they could not refute him.

11 So they bribed some men to say, "We heard him speaking against Moses and against God!"

12 In this way they stirred up the people, the elders, and the teachers of the Law. They seized Stephen and took him before the Council.