Acts 7:1

1 Then the Chief Priest said, "What do you have to say for yourself?"

Acts 7:1 Meaning and Commentary

Acts 7:1

Then said the high priest
The Ethiopic version adds, "to him"; that is, to Stephen; for to him he addressed himself: or he "asked him", as the Syriac version renders it; he put the following question to him:

are these things so?
is it true what they say, that thou hast spoken blasphemous words against the temple, and the law, and hast said that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the one, and change the other? what hast thou to say for thyself, and in thine own defence? this high priest was either Annas, or rather Caiaphas; (See Gill on Acts 4:6).

Acts 7:1 In-Context

1 Then the Chief Priest said, "What do you have to say for yourself?"

2 Stephen replied, "Friends, fathers, and brothers, the God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was still in Mesopotamia, before the move to Haran,

3 and told him, 'Leave your country and family and go to the land I'll show you.'

4 "So he left the country of the Chaldees and moved to Haran. After the death of his father, he immigrated to this country where you now live,

5 but God gave him nothing, not so much as a foothold. He did promise to give the country to him and his son later on, even though Abraham had no son at the time.