Acts 7:16Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

"And they were laid in the tomb." By saying this, Stephen shows that Abraham was not master of the land even to the point of burial.

The apostolic man and Evangelist Luke writes that Stephen, the first martyr of Christ, said in the Jewish assembly: “Jacob came into Egypt with seventy-five souls, and he died.

“He himself was buried, and our fathers were carried over to Shechem and laid in the tomb which Abraham bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Emmor, the father of Shechem” (Acts 7:15-16; Gen. 23).

In Genesis this appears considerably otherwise. There it is said that Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite, the son of Seor, near Hebron, the double cave for four hundred drachmas of silver, and buried Sarah his wife in it.

In the same book we read that later Jacob returned from Mesopotamia with his wives and sons. He pitched his tent before Salem, the city of Shechem, in the land of Canaan, and lived there.

The Law pointed to Christ. Yet blessed Stephen, speaking with the crowd, adapts his words more to the crowd’s opinion.

By joining two accounts together, he is concerned not so much with chronological sequence as with the facts under discussion.

For, being accused of teaching against the holy place and against the Law, he continues to show that the Law promises the coming of Jesus Christ.

He also shows that his accusers themselves were unwilling to serve either Moses in those days or the Lord now.

I have said this as I could, without prejudging a more gracious verdict, should one be given.

As for what is said further, “from the sons of Emmor, son of Shechem,” in the Greek text we read: “from the sons of Emmor, who was in Shechem.”

In the speech which Stephen delivered in the hall of the Sanhedrin, in answer to the high priest’s interrogation, he recalled before his judges the history of the people of God. He began with their forefather Abraham and ended with Solomon (vv. 1-50).

In conclusion he reproached the persecutors of Christians for their resistance to the Holy Spirit, Who was calling them to salvation (vv. 51-53).

Stephen’s speech is both defensive and accusatory. The accusation reported that he had spoken blasphemous words against the Law of Moses and the Jerusalem temple, and against Moses and God.

“And they were carried over to Shechem and laid in the tomb,” and so forth: strictly speaking, the speech concerns only the fathers, or the twelve sons of Jacob, and not Jacob himself.

Jacob was buried by Joseph and his brothers near Hebron, in the cave which Abraham bought there together with the field for Sarah’s burial (Gen. 50:13; compare ch. 23).

From the book of Joshua it is known that only Joseph’s bones were carried out of Egypt by the Hebrews when they departed from there, and were buried in Shechem (Josh. 24:32).

But an ancient Jewish tradition, widespread also in apostolic times, said that the bones of Joseph’s brothers were also buried in Shechem together with Joseph. Stephen, by the words under consideration, confirms the truth of this tradition.

The death of the patriarchs and their burial in Shechem, in the place bought by Abraham, together with Stephen’s calling the patriarchs “our fathers,” shows the deep kinship of all the Jews.

Archdeacon Stephen evidently honored this kinship deeply. Therefore he considered it necessary to say that even in the joining of fathers to fathers, the great sacred unity of the God-chosen people was manifested.

At the same time, he did not keep silent about how little place of their own the patriarchs possessed. They were buried not quite in their own place, but in Shechem’s.

They, like Abraham, did not possess the promised land even to the extent of having a secure place to bury the dead, not even a foot’s breadth. For everything bought is less secure than what is given by God.

A second difficulty against Gen. 23:17, which some find themselves forced to explain by a lapse of Stephen’s memory, or even by corruption of the sacred text by copyists, is resolved in a manner fitting the dignity of Holy Scripture.

In Stephen’s words (Acts 7:15-16), because of the brevity of his speech, various events concerning the patriarchs are presented together under one general view. This accords with the order and intention of his speech.

His words may be set out thus: Jacob came into Egypt, and he died, and our fathers also.

They were carried over, μετετεθησαν, to Shechem, as Joseph was, or, according to tradition, all twelve patriarchs also.