Acts 7:57

57 Then they gave a shute with a loude voyce and stopped their eares and ranne apon him all at once

Acts 7:57 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 7:57

Then they cried out with a loud voice
These were not the sanhedrim, but the common people; the Ethiopic version reads, "the Jews cried out"; which, they did, in a very clamorous way, either through rage and madness, or in a show of zeal against blasphemy; and cried out, either to God to avenge the blasphemy, or rather to the sanhedrim to pass a sentence on him, or, it may be, to excite one another to rise up at once, and kill him, as they did:

and stopped their ears;
with their fingers, pretending they could not bear the blasphemy that was uttered. This was their usual method; hence they say, F15

``if a man hears anything that is indecent, (or not fit to be heard,) let him put his fingers in his ears hence the whole ear is hard, and the tip of it soft, that when he hears anything that is not becoming, he may bend the tip of the ear within it.''

By either of these ways these men might stop their ears; either by putting in their fingers, or by turning the tip of the ear inward.

And ran upon him with one accord;
without any leave of the sanhedrim, or waiting for their determination, in the manner the zealots did; (See Gill on Matthew 10:4) (See Gill on John 16:2).


FOOTNOTES:

F15 T. Bab. Cetubot, fol. 5. 1. 2.

Acts 7:57 In-Context

55 But he beynge full of the holy goost loked vp stedfastlye with his eyes into heven and sawe the glorie of God and Iesus stondynge on the ryght honde of God
56 and sayde: beholde I se the hevens open and the sonne of man stondynge on the ryght honde of god.
57 Then they gave a shute with a loude voyce and stopped their eares and ranne apon him all at once
58 and caste him out of the cite and stoned him. And the witnesses layde doune their clothes at a yonge mannes fete named Saul.
59 And they stoned Steven callynge on and sayinge: Lorde Iesu receave my sprete.
The Tyndale Bible is in the public domain.