Acts 7:60
Read Acts 7:60 Using Other Translations
What does Acts 7:60 mean?
And he kneeled down
It seems as if he stood before while they were stoning him, and
while he was commending his soul to Christ, but now he kneeled
down; prayer may be performed either kneeling or standing:
and cried with a loud voice;
not only to show that he was in good spirits, and not afraid to
die, but chiefly to express his vehement and affectionate desire
to have the following petition granted:
Lord, lay not this sin to their charge:
do not impute it to them, or place it to their account; let it
not rise and stand in judgment against them, or they be condemned
for it; grant them forgiveness for it, and for every other sin:
there is a great deal of likeness between Christ and this first
martyr of his at their deaths; Christ committed his Spirit into
the hands of his Father, and Stephen commits his into the hands
of Christ; both prayed for forgiveness for their enemies; and
both cried with a loud voice before they expired; for so it
follows here,
and when he had said this, he fell asleep;
or died; for death, especially the death of the saints, or dying
in Jesus, is expressed by sleep. This way of speaking is common
with the Jews, who say F20, that Rabbi such an one
(Kymd) , "slept"; i.e.
"died"; and this they say is a pure and honourable way of
speaking with respect to an holy body, whose death is no other
than as it were a sleep: and elsewhere
F21 it is said, that one saw such an one (Mnmnm) , "sleeping"; the gloss upon it is, (oowg) , "expiring": (See Gill on John 11:11), (See Gill on 1 Thessalonians 4:13). The Vulgate Latin version adds, "in the Lord."
F20 T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 11. 1. T.
Hieros. Sota, fol. 23. 2. Avoda Zara, fol. 42. 3. & Horayot, fol.
483.
F21 Bereshit Rabba. sect. 91. fol. 79. 3.
& Mattanot Cehuna in ib. T. Bab. Moed. Katon, fol. 28. 1.
