Acts 6:10

10 But he was too wise for them. They couldn't stand up against the Holy Spirit who spoke through 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 was full of God's grace and power. He did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.

9 But members of the group called the Synagogue of the Freedmen began to oppose him. Some of them were Jews from Cyrene and Alexandria. Others were Jews from Cilicia and Asia Minor. They all began to argue with Stephen.

10 But he was too wise for them. They couldn't stand up against the Holy Spirit who spoke through him.

11 Then in secret they talked some men into lying about Stephen. They said, "We heard Stephen speak evil things against Moses. He also spoke evil things against God."

12 So the people were stirred up. The elders and the teachers of the law were stirred up too. They arrested Stephen and brought him to the Sanhedrin.