Acts 7:59

59 And they kept on stoning Stephen [as he] was calling out and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!"

Acts 7:59 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 7:59

And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God
As he was praying, and putting up the following petition;

and saying, Lord Jesus receive my Spirit;
from whence we learn, that the spirit or soul of man sleeps not, nor dies with the body, but remains after death; that Jesus Christ is a fit person to commit and commend the care of the soul unto immediately upon its separation; and that he must be truly and properly God; not only because he is equal to such a charge, which none but God is, but because divine worship and adoration are here given him. This is so glaring a proof of prayer being made unto him, that some Socinians, perceiving the force of it, would read the word Jesus in the genitive case, thus; "Lord of Jesus receive my Spirit": as if the prayer was made to the Father of Christ, when it is Jesus he saw standing at the right hand of God, whom he invokes, and who is so frequently called Lord Jesus; whereas the Father is never called the Lord of Jesus; and besides, these words are used in like manner in the vocative case, in ( Revelation 22:20 ) to which may be added, that the Syriac version reads, "our Lord Jesus"; and the Ethiopic version, "my Lord Jesus".

Acts 7:59 In-Context

57 But crying out with a loud voice, they stopped their ears and rushed at him with one purpose.

58 And [after they] had driven [him] out of the city, they began to stone [him], and the witnesses laid aside their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.

59 And they kept on stoning Stephen [as he] was calling out and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!"

60 And falling to [his] knees, he cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them!" And [after he] said this, he fell asleep.

Footnotes

• [a]. *Here "[as]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("was calling out") which is understood as temporal