Acts 7:4Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

All these things were types: Abraham’s leaving his fatherland and relatives at God’s command, for his fatherland was where God would lead him, and his not receiving an inheritance here.

They showed that the Jews are Persians, if one examines the matter properly. They showed that one must obey God’s words even without signs, even if something grievous is encountered.

For the patriarch left his father’s grave and everything else out of obedience to God.

If Abraham’s father did not accompany him in his migration to Palestine because he did not believe in the true God, then still more will his descendants not share in it.

This is true even if they traveled most of the way, because they did not imitate the virtue of the forefather.

But if some of them were carried there unwillingly together with the people, we understand by these those who leave the higher word of knowledge for the sake of guiding those in need.

They do this not by choosing something preferable, but because salvation required it. For the sake of those needing guidance, they pass through teaching concerning the passions.

This included all its many varied ordinances and institutions, not excluding the temple of Jerusalem, which was no longer the sole place of true worship (Jn 4:21 and following).

Now Stephen briefly recounts the history of God’s divine economy for the salvation of Israel.

By the simple telling of this history, he already defends himself against the charge of blasphemy. Through it he clearly shows what God he confesses, and how he confesses Him.

For this purpose, among other things, at the beginning of his speech he calls God the God of glory (v. 2). By this he shows the reverence with which he treats this holy name.

Then, by pointing in the history of the Israelite people to the world-governing right hand of God, he confesses the whole greatness of God still more clearly.

But this again is only an apparent disagreement. The point is that Abraham was probably not Terah’s firstborn son, but the third.

The first was Haran, the second Nahor, after whom came Milcah, Haran’s daughter, and the third Abraham. Abraham is named first because of his superiority over his brothers.

Therefore the words of Moses (Gen 11:26) should be paraphrased in this way: Terah lived seventy years before the birth of Haran.

How many years after this Abraham was born, Moses does not mention. But Stephen’s words, that Abraham went out from Haran after Terah’s death, indicate that Abraham was born in the 130th year of Terah’s life.

This is very probable. The opinion that Abraham left Haran after Terah’s death is also confirmed in Philo, De Abrahamo.

And, of course, filial duty compelled Abraham not to leave that place without paying the last duty to his aged father.

His father had stopped on the road to Canaan in Haran, probably because of illness. Compare Chrysostom.

Thus in this point also Stephen is based on a tradition that does not contradict the indications of Genesis when they are correctly understood.

“In which you now dwell” means in Palestine, called the land of Canaan. Terah set out for it from Ur of the Chaldeans with Abraham and the family.

On the way, in Haran, he died. After Terah’s death, God again appeared to Abraham and repeated the command to continue the journey.

This tradition has confirmation, and perhaps even its foundation, in Moses’ own narrative.

At one of the later appearances, God said to Abraham: ‘I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess’ (Gen 15:7).

From this it follows that Abraham had already received from God in Ur the command to leave that land and go to Canaan.

This is also confirmed by a passage from the book of Nehemiah, where Ezra’s prayer is given: ‘You are the Lord God, who chose Abraham and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans’ (Neh 9:7).

Thus Stephen, by apparently referring the appearance of Jehovah to Abraham to a time different from that assigned by Moses, follows Jewish tradition in this case.

This tradition is confirmed by the narrative of Moses and by the book of Nehemiah, or perhaps is even based upon them.”

“Scripture says that Abraham’s father wished to go out (see Gen 11:41), while here it says that Abraham was told, ‘Go forth.’

From this we conclude,” writes blessed Theophylact, “that God’s appearance to Abraham acted upon his father, and he wished to go out from the land of the Chaldeans.

But by this very fact Stephen shows that they, the Jews, are not Abraham’s children. For Abraham, leaving fatherland and kin, showed obedience, while they are disobedient.”

Abraham’s father Terah died at the age of 205 years (see Gen 11:26, 32). Understandably, his final years were not without illness.

Therefore Abraham, having left his native land, did not immediately hasten to Canaan. He did not wish to deprive himself of the possibility of paying the final filial duty to his father.

He fulfilled this duty in Haran, where, according to St. John Chrysostom, Terah fell ill.