Acts 7:46Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Stephen expresses the same reverence for the temple. It was built by God's special favor toward David, though the actual accomplishment of the work belonged to Solomon (vv. 46-47).

Yet, by pointing out that in the promised land the Israelites had only the tabernacle until David (v. 45), Stephen wishes to show the nonessential significance of the temple in the work of worship. Then he states this thought directly and confirms it by the word of the prophet Isaiah (vv. 48-50).

These thoughts were also expressed by Solomon himself, the builder of the temple (3 Kgs 8:27), and by Isaiah, whom the holy deacon Stephen cites. Speaking in God's name, Isaiah said, "Heaven is My throne. What house will you build for Me?" (Is 66:1-2).

If one were to regard the temple, for example the temple in Jerusalem, as necessary for God and not for men, and as sufficient to contain the very essence of God, then one would have to accept and assert something further. Apart from this temple, God would appear to men nowhere, and nowhere would He receive prayers and sacrifices from them.

This is what the Jews thought about their temple. But Stephen, foreseeing the swift spread of Christ's faith throughout the whole world, says that although the temple in Jerusalem is God's house (v. 47), it is not so by necessity or by sufficiency for God. "The Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands."

Rather, it is so only by God's condescension and goodness, for the sake of the prayers of David (v. 46) and Solomon. God needs no dwelling at all. Yet in His goodness toward men, He dwells in a small temple, so that there men may most surely find Him.

This is how we too think about the temple. But if the Stundists assert that in v. 48 Saint Stephen completely rejected temples, let them explain why, in the two preceding verses, he calls the temple first God's dwelling and then His house.

This temple was called the first, in distinction from the second. The second was built by Ezra and Nehemiah in place of Solomon's temple, which Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed, and was later restored by Herod.

According to the explanation of His Eminence Philaret, "The Holy Spirit, speaking by Stephen's mouth, makes us understand that the very intention or desire to build the temple of God, and the very thought of it, did not arise simply. It arose in a man filled with grace, under the overshadowing of the Spirit of God.

"If the intention to build the temple was a gift of grace in David, then there is no doubt that its fulfillment was also a work of grace in Solomon (see 2 Kgs 7:13-14). Its end must be the spread of grace among men.

"And God filled His temple with glory (see 3 Kgs 8:27, 11), and said, 'My eyes and My heart shall be there all the days' (3 Kgs 9:3). It cannot be thought that God's grace would exert its action upon what is unworthy of it, or inconsistent with its intentions for men."

Special works by two modern professors, A. Olesnitsky and M. Muretov, are devoted to the description of the temple in Jerusalem.

Today, by God's mercy, we see this temple renewed within, with every possible preservation of its ancient form. It has been renewed not so much because use required it, as out of reverence for its antiquity.

Now another renewal is timely: the renewal in our thoughts of the ancient destiny of this place, stretching from old times to new.

Four hundred and eighty years, and a little more, before this, this place belonged to a Tatar khan, because Tatar power then weighed upon Russia. The Grand Prince surely found it grievous to see the possession of the Horde's king in his own Kremlin, near his palace.

Likewise, Saint Alexis surely found it grievous to see, near the cathedral church, a nest of those who honored the false prophet. If the Grand Prince had not yet found means to change this, then the hierarch certainly had even less means.

But Alexis "found grace before God," and it gave him the means to turn the courtyard of the enemies of Christianity into a house and dwelling of the Christian God.

Taydula, the wife of Khan Janibek, who owned this place, suffered severe attacks and lost her sight. Once, the severity of Naaman's illness forced faith in the spiritual power of the Prophet Elisha. So it also happened with the Muslim Taydula, because she had heard of the spiritual power of Saint Alexis.

The khan required him to come and heal her. The saint did not waver in faith. He came to the Horde and healed the queen. Grateful Taydula gave him this place.

Twelve years before his repose, he built here a monastery and a temple in the name of the holy Archangel Michael, "by God's revelation," as the ancient account says. What that revelation was, we do not know.

The saint reposed and, according to his testament, was buried here in the temple he had built. About sixty years later, the temple suddenly collapsed during the divine service being celebrated in it. Yet, by the grace found by Saint Alexis, this harmed no one. It was a sign of Providence for the uncovering of the saint's relics.

Grand Prince Vasily Vasilyevich ordered a new stone temple to be built on the site of the ruined one. When it was necessary to dig deep into the earth for its foundation, the relics of Saint Alexis were found, fragrant with incorruption and healing power.

If the temple now renewed is not in all its parts the very one founded by Grand Prince Vasily Vasilyevich, it is at least the same in its foundation. Even after it was rebuilt at the beginning of the sixteenth century, it still preserved within itself the grave of Saint Alexis.

In that grave, Archbishop Gennady of Novgorod was then deemed worthy to be laid. He had served this monastery and Orthodoxy with zeal.

After its consecration, this temple received the already reverently venerated relics of Saint Alexis into the side chapel of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos, which was attached to it. It kept them for several decades.

Later, near this ancient temple, a new temple was raised in the name of Saint Alexis, and his relics were transferred into it. But in time this new temple became dilapidated, and its traces disappeared.

It was replaced by the temple of Saint Alexis and the Annunciation of the Theotokos now visible. There the relics of Saint Alexis finally came to rest, carried in by the hands of kings John and Peter.

One may say that this ancient temple endured rather firmly the trial which, according to the Gospel word, is endured by the house built by a wise man: "The rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock" (Mt 7:25).

More than once the rain of calamities fell upon this land, sent down by heaven to wash it from sins and awaken good growths. More than once fiery rivers of conflagration came. More than once the winds of various human reversals blew violently.

The Poles raged here. From them, in this very monastery, blessed Patriarch Hermogenes tasted a martyr's death by hunger, for zeal for the faith and unshakable loyalty to the fatherland. The Gauls devastated and destroyed the Kremlin.

Yet this temple and this wall of ancient sacred images stand, having endured the assaults of men, times, and elements, because they are founded "on the rock." On what rock? On the rock of Saint Alexis's faith, on the grace given to him, on his first blessing here.

It is founded on him himself, on his body, which rested in the foundation of this temple before its stone foundation was laid.

Not every man is given the lot of building or renewing a temple for God, whether of stone or wood. But each of us has a living temple of God, more or less aged, which he can and must renew.

By creating man, God created for Himself a living temple and set His image within it. Man, deceived by the flattering spirit, was not satisfied with the honor of being God's temple, but wanted himself to be god. He darkened God's image in himself and brought God's temple into desolation and decay.

The all-good God the Father did not surrender His work to evil. He sent His Only-begotten Son, by Whom "all things were created" (Col 1:16), to create His temple anew in man.

To renew His image in man, He introduced into humanity, through the Incarnation, the consubstantial "image of His Hypostasis" (Heb 1:3).

The God-man, Jesus Christ, according to His own preordination and foretelling, raised up by the Resurrection "the temple of His body," which had been "destroyed" by the death of the Cross (Mt 27:40).

He did this so that, according to its likeness and by its power, the new temple of God, or the Church, might be raised up both in all humanity and in each man.

Christ Himself is the foundation of this temple, according to the apostolic word: "No other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (1 Cor 3:11). He Himself is also the builder, according to His own word: "I will build My Church" (Mt 16:18).

There are also assistant builders, who build with the instruments of the word and the Mysteries. The Apostle says of this, "We are fellow workers with God. As a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another builds upon it" (1 Cor 3:9-10).

But since it is not dead temples, but living temples, that are being built, we who are built must not remain idle. The Apostle gives us our work when he says: "Coming" to Christ, "a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, you also, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual temple" (1 Pet 2:4-5).

Build yourself into a spiritual temple. Is this not a difficult demand? Truly, brethren, it is difficult. I will say more: it is even impossible to fulfill, if we decide to build ourselves only by our own mind and our own strength.

When the first of the Apostles, called Peter, that is, "rock" (Mk 3:16), wished to stand firm on his own thoughts and strength, he said, "Even if all fall away, I will never fall away" (Mt 26:33). He was called this, no doubt, for special firmness.

Soon it became clear that he was building on sand. From the light wind that came from the mouth of an idle-talking maidservant, his spiritual house fell through denial of Christ.

But "the things impossible with men are possible with God" (Lk 18:27). The same Peter corrected the error of self-foundation and self-reliance. He ceased to stand upon his own strength and virtue, and therefore said, "By our own power or piety have we done this?" (Acts 3:12).

When he began to stand upon the gracious power of Christ, he said, "This is the stone which became the head of the corner, and there is salvation in no other" (Acts 4:11). Then he not only firmly founded and highly built his own spiritual temple.

He also sometimes built several thousand living temples in a single day, through teaching, baptism, and the bestowal of the Holy Spirit.

Likewise, the other chief Apostle, while "laboring more abundantly than all" the Apostles, attributed nothing to himself, but everything to grace: "Not I, but the grace of God which was with me" (1 Cor 15:10).

He built many great Churches, and by his writings he greatly strengthened and adorned the whole catholic Church.

These examples are high for us. Yet the law of firm foundation and building is one and the same for great buildings and small. Therefore, let each of us, in order to form himself into a spiritual temple, not rely on his own reasoning.

Let him not trust in his own strength. Let him seek God's grace. Let him ask God's mercy. Let him lay Christ, faith in Him, and love for Him as the foundation of his thoughts, deeds, and life.

Upon this "foundation," according to Saint Paul's allegory, let us build not "wood, hay, straw," that is, not vain and corruptible thoughts and works of the flesh and of the world. Rather, let us build "silver, gold, precious stones" (1 Cor 3:12), that is, pure thoughts and works of piety and virtue.

If we build ourselves in this way, then "if our earthly house of the body is destroyed, we shall have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Cor 5:1). Amen.