Acts 7:51Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

And he says something still greater: "As your fathers did, so do you." Thus Christ also rebuked them, because they always boasted so greatly of their fathers.

There is nothing more wretched than the Jews. They always go against their own salvation.

When they ought to have kept the law, they trampled it down. Now, when the law has ceased to operate, they insist on keeping it.

What could be more wretched than those who provoke God not only by transgressing the law, but also by observing it?

Therefore St. Stephen says, "You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit." They do this not only by violating the law, but also by an untimely desire to observe it.

He rightly called them stiff-necked, because they did not bear the yoke of Christ, though it was good and contained nothing heavy or exhausting.

"Learn from Me," Jesus Christ says, "for I am meek and lowly in heart." And again: "Take My yoke upon you, for My yoke is good and My burden is light" (Mt 11:29-30).

Yet they did not bear this yoke because of their stiff neck. Not only did they not bear it, but they broke and tore it apart.

For it is written, "From of old you have broken your yoke and burst your bonds" (Jer 2:20; cf. Jer 5:5; Ps 2:3).

Paul does not say this, but the prophet cries out, understanding yoke and bonds as symbols of Christ's authority.

For the Jews rejected the dominion of Christ when they said, "We have no king but Caesar" (Jn 19:15).

You, O Jew, broke the yoke, burst the bonds, tore yourself away from the kingdom of heaven, and subjected yourself to human authorities.

And you, hearer, see how precisely the prophet marked the Jews' lack of restraint. He did not say, "You rejected the yoke," but, "You broke the yoke."

This is the vice of spirited and unrestrained animals, which do not endure authority.

But from where did this stiff-neckedness come? From satiety and drunkenness.

Who says this? Moses himself: "And Jacob ate, and Israel grew fat and became thick; and he forsook God who made him" (Deut 32:15).

When animals enjoy abundant feed, they grow fat and become wild and untamable. They admit neither yoke, nor bridle, nor the hand of the driver.

So also the Jewish people, cast down into extreme impiety by drunkenness and satiety, began to leap wildly. They did not take upon themselves the yoke of Christ, nor draw the plough of evangelical teaching.

Pointing to this, another prophet said, "Israel has become stubborn like a stubborn heifer" (Hos 4:16). Another calls the Jewish people "an untamed calf" (Jer 31:18).

Such animals, being unfit for work, become fit for slaughter. This happened to the Jews. By making themselves unfit for work, they became fit only for slaughter.

Therefore Christ also said, "But those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them before me" (Lk 19:27).

Moreover, he did not say, "You resist God," but "the Spirit." For there is no difference between the Spirit and God.

"You resist, as your fathers did, so do you." He shows that this evil falls upon them all the more because it has come down to them from long ago. Christ did the same, because they greatly boasted of their ancestors.

Great fervor, yet the dove rages without malice. So that you may understand that he rages without malice, those who are ravens, hearing these words, immediately rushed for stones to use against the dove. They began to stone Stephen.

He had earlier been threatening and fervent in spirit, as though attacking enemies. He seemed violently carried by the fiery and flaming words you heard: "You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears!"

One who heard these words might have thought that Stephen, if permitted, wished to destroy them at once. But when stones, thrown by their hands, flew at him, he bent his knees and said, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them" (Acts 7:60).

This is like the dove. For the Master upon whom the dove descended first did this. Hanging on the Cross, He said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Lk 23:34).

"Stiff-necked!" Stephen now says, turning to the assembly. "People uncircumcised in heart and ears!" As those men killed the ones who foretold Christ, so you have killed Christ Himself. You carry out this resistance to Christ in the name of the law. But this is false: you have not kept it (vv. 51-53).

The transition to the new speech is swift and impetuous. With the inspiration and majesty of a prophet, he sets before the representatives of the people their sin against Christ and their impiety. A consuming flame comes from his mouth when he indicates that the same spirit of resistance to God, which, as history testifies, was in their fathers, now rages in them, the murderers of the Righteous One.

"Stiff-necked" expresses disobedience, obstinacy, and self-will. The ancient prophets often called the people by this name.

"Uncircumcised in heart and ears" is a reproach that struck especially hard at the pride of Jews who boasted vainly of their circumcision. It too was often addressed to them by the ancient prophets.

The idea of uncircumcision contains the idea of impurity and paganism. By this reproach the Jews are placed alongside the unclean Gentiles, which is especially grievous to a Jew.

"In heart and ears" names the two chief organs of spiritual perception, inward and outward. The speech is plainly not literal but figurative. It denotes people whose feeling and understanding are paganly impure and coarse, closed to the reception and understanding of holy things. Cf. Lev 26:41; Deut 10:16; Deut 30:6; Jer 4:4; Jer 6:10; Jer 9:25; Rom 2:29 and others.

"You always resist the Holy Spirit." This is a strong expression, as though deliberately chosen, to censure the passionate opposition of the people's representatives to the Holy Spirit. Their resistance is stubborn and unhealed.

The censure is generalized and applies to the whole people as a collective person. Christ and the apostles often did this, speaking of the whole people, although pious and God-fearing people were always found among them.

Here the generalization applies not only to the contemporary generation, but also to all previous ones: always, "as your fathers did, so do you." The fathers, being disobedient to the bearers of the divine Spirit, such as Moses, were thereby disobedient to that Spirit Himself.

Many prophets, beginning with Moses, called them this. No less were the Jews hard in ear and heart, since they did not wish to hear and fulfill even what they ought to fulfill as circumcised men. That is, they had wholly enslaved themselves to what they should both hear and do.

Most dreadful of all is that this obstinacy remains unbroken even when they know that the Holy Spirit Himself demands something different from what they want. Yet they persist in their stubborn resistance.

This was observed by many concerning the ancient Jews. Those with whom Saint Stephen spoke also showed themselves the same.

The reproach may seem very general, yet at the same time it is wholly directed against those whom he addressed. In this Stephen could be a clairvoyant judge, although Gamaliel was among the members of the Sanhedrin. For even his hiddenness and slowness in leaving Judaism were not wholly free of the qualities Saint Stephen exposes here.

The speech about uncircumcised hearts and ears is figurative. It denotes people whose feelings and understanding are impure, and therefore closed to the reception and understanding of everything spiritual and mysterious. Cf. Lev 23:41; Deut 10:16; Jer 4:4; Rom 2:29; 2 Pet 1:21.

Jesus Christ often spoke of this insensibility of the Jews (see Mt 23:16-19, 24, 26).

Blessed Theophylact asks: "Why does he, who until now had spoken gently to the people, use harsh words here?" He answers: "Because he saw that they were not paying attention to what was being said."

"You always resist the Holy Spirit." By this he shows that what he had said was from the Holy Spirit. Moreover, he did not say, "You resist God," but "the Spirit." For there is no difference between God and the Spirit.