Acts 7:40Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

And not only did they fail to obey, but they did the opposite. Stephen points this out and adds it.

O madness! "Make," they say, "gods to go before us." To where? To Egypt. Do you see how unwillingly they parted with Egyptian customs?

What are you saying? You do not want to wait for the one who led you out, but you reject the benefaction and flee from the benefactor?

And see how they insult him: "Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt." They nowhere mention the name of God, but ascribe everything to Moses.

When they had to be grateful, they accused Moses. But when they had to fulfill the law, they no longer remembered even Moses. He told them that he was going up the mountain to receive the law. Yet they did not wait even forty days.

"Make us gods." They did not say "a God," but "gods." So frenzied were they that they themselves did not know what they were saying.

In order afterward to defend himself against the charge of insulting Moses and his law, he dwells at length on this great Old Testament figure (vv. 20-43). He strives to show all his reverence both for Moses and for the law given through him.

In God's special providence over Moses' salvation and destiny, his particular calling is already revealed (vv. 20-22). Stephen indicates that Moses, while still at Pharaoh's court, already foresaw this calling. He did so, of course, by reflecting on the extraordinary circumstances of his life. His calling was to be the deliverer of his people from the Egyptian yoke (v. 25).

Then, turning to the charge that he blasphemed the temple, he again showed historically how they themselves had proved to be the greatest blasphemers of God’s temple. From the time of Moses, they had constantly turned aside from true worship to idolatry.

"Saying to Aaron," and so forth. The event described in Exodus 32 is briefly depicted.

"Make us gods": so according to the Septuagint. From the original one may translate "a god," that is, an image of God, since at the people's demand Aaron made them one calf.

"To go before us": that is, in the further journey to the promised land, not in returning to Egypt. In Moses' account there is not even a hint of such a return on this occasion.

"As for Moses," in Greek, "as for this Moses," a contemptuous expression toward Moses, "we do not know what has become of him." This is the reason for the people's demand.

The disobedience of the Jews to Moses is now indicated in their most vile apostasy from God. This occurred precisely when, by their own authorization, he was receiving the complete law from the Lord, dwelling for this purpose on the summit of Mount Horeb (see Ex 32).

When Saint Stephen speaks of the hearts of the Jews turning to Egypt, he shows that they thought of God like pagans. They desired to see an image of God, or of gods according to the Septuagint, after the likeness of pagans and Egyptians.

They also plainly had a perverse and purely external understanding of God's guidance.