Acts 7:57

57 And they cried with a great voice, and stopped their ears, and made with one will an assault into him.

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 when Stephen was full of the Holy Ghost, he beheld into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right half of the virtue of God.
56 And he said, Lo! I see heavens opened, and man's Son standing on the right half of the virtue of God. [And he said, Lo! I see heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right half of the virtue of God.]
57 And they cried with a great voice, and stopped their ears, and made with one will an assault into him.
58 And they brought him out of the city [And they casted him out of the city], and stoned [him]. And the witnesses did off their clothes, beside the feet of a young man, that was called Saul.
59 And they stoned Stephen, that called God to help, saying [And they stoned Stephen in-calling, and saying], Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.