Acts 7:53Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

They, while pretending to defend the law, said, "He spoke blasphemous words against Moses" (Acts 6:11). But he shows that they themselves utter still greater blasphemy, not only against Moses but against God. He shows that they have acted this way from of old. They themselves violated the customs for which there is no longer any need. While accusing him and calling him an opponent of Moses, they themselves opposed the Spirit, and not simply so, but even with murder. From of old they had been at enmity with God.

Do you see how he proves that they opposed Moses and all the rest, and did not keep the law? Moses said, "The Lord will raise up for you a Prophet" (Deut 18:15). The others also foretold His coming. Likewise the prophet says, "What house will you build for Me?" (Is 66:1). And again, "Did you offer Me sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness forty years?" (Amos 5:25).

Such is the boldness of a man who bears the Cross of Christ. Let us also imitate him. Though there is no battle now, there is always a time for boldness. "I spoke," says David, "of Thy testimonies before kings, and was not ashamed" (Ps 119:46). Therefore, if we meet pagans, let us stop their mouths in this way, but without anger and without bitterness. If we do this with anger, it will no longer seem to be boldness, but passion. If we do it meekly, then it is true boldness. Virtue and vice cannot be together at one and the same time. Boldness is a virtue, and anger is a vice.

Therefore, if we wish to have boldness, we must be pure from anger, lest someone ascribe our words to it. If you speak even the truth, but with anger, you have ruined everything, whether you rebuke, instruct, or do anything else. Look at this man, Stephen, and see how he speaks without anger. He did not insult them, but only reminded them of the prophetic word.

That he was not angry, he himself showed when they were tormenting him. He prayed for them and said, "Lord, do not charge them with this sin" (Acts 7:60). Thus he spoke not in anger against them, but in pity and grief for them. For this reason the writer said of his face, "They saw his face as the face of an angel" (Acts 6:15), so that even it could have drawn them.

Let us then be pure from anger. The Holy Spirit does not dwell where anger is. The angry man lies under a curse. Nothing healthy can exist where anger arises. When a storm occurs at sea, there is great confusion and loud shouting, and no one then has time for deliberations. So it is also with anger. If the soul wishes to say or receive anything philosophical, it must first be in a quiet harbor.

Do you not notice how, when we wish to discuss something necessary, we choose places far from noise, where there is calm and silence, so that we may not be distracted? If external noise distracts us, much more does inner turmoil. If a man prays, he prays in vain when he does so in anger and irritation. If he speaks, he will be ridiculous. If he is silent, the same is true again. If he eats, even then he harms himself. Whether he drinks or does not drink, sits or stands, walks or sleeps, similar things appear to him even in sleep.

What, then, is not disordered in such people? Their eyes are repulsive. Their mouth is distorted. The members of the body are tense and trembling. The tongue is unbridled and spares no one. Reason is deranged. Clothing is in an unseemly state. In everything there is great ugliness. Look at the eyes of the demon-possessed, the drunk, and those raging with anger. How do they differ from one another? Is there not madness everywhere?

But this happens only for a time, someone says. True, the man who rages is possessed by anger for a time. But what could be worse than this? And yet they are not ashamed to justify themselves. I did not know, they say, what I said. Why did you not know, you rational being, endowed with reason? Why do you act like irrational animals, like a wild horse carried away by anger and rage? This is a defense worthy of condemnation. It would be desirable that you knew what you were saying.

These are the words of anger, you say, not mine. How are they anger's words? Anger has no power unless it receives it from you. This is like someone saying, These are the wounds of my hand, not mine. Where does anger seem most necessary, if not in war and battle? Yet even there, if anything is done with anger, everything will be spoiled and destroyed. Those who fight should especially not become angry. Those who attack especially have no need to be irritated.

But how else, you say, can one fight? Rationally and calmly. Battle is one side standing against another. Do you not see that wars themselves are subject to law, order, and time? Anger is nothing other than irrational irritation, and an irrational man can do nothing rational.

So Stephen spoke these things and was not angry. Elijah said, "How long will you limp on both knees?" (1 Kgs 18:21), but he was not angry. Phinehas committed a killing, but he was not angry. Anger does not allow one to see. As in a battle by night, it covers everything, both eyes and ears, and leads wherever it wishes.

Let us deliver ourselves from this demon. Let us crush it when it attacks us. Let us place the sign of the Cross upon our breast, like a kind of bridle upon it. Anger is a shameless dog, but let it learn to obey the law. If the dog with the flock is so savage that it does not obey the shepherd's commands or recognize his voice, then all is lost and destroyed. It grazes together with the sheep, but when it begins to bite the sheep, it becomes harmful and is killed.

If the dog learns to obey you, then feed it. It is useful by barking against wolves, robbers, and thieves, but not against sheep and household members. If it does not obey, it harms everything. If it pays no attention to commands, it ruins everything. Therefore let your meekness not be exhausted, but let anger itself guard and nourish it. Anger will preserve meekness and will pasture it in complete safety when it destroys impure and vicious thoughts, and when it drives the devil away from every side.

Meekness is preserved when we think nothing evil against our neighbor. We become worthy of respect when we do not learn to act shamelessly. Nothing makes one so shameless as an evil conscience. Why are harlots shameless? Why are virgins modest? Are not the former so because of sin, and the latter because of chastity? Nothing makes one so shameless as sin.

On the contrary, they say, sin produces shame. True, in the one who is conscious of himself. But it makes the shameless man even more audacious. Whoever is not conscious of himself becomes bold. "When the ungodly comes," says the Wise One, "contempt also comes" (Prov 18:3). The shameless man becomes audacious, and the audacious man becomes desperate.

Do you wish to know when meekness is exhausted? It is when evil thoughts crush it. But if it happens that this dog does not stand and bark loudly, even then one must not despair. We have both sling and stone. You know what I mean. We also have spear, enclosure, and gate, where we can keep our thoughts pure.

If the dog is gentle toward the sheep, but barks at strangers and is not sleepy, these are good qualities in a dog. When it is hungry, it still does not bite the sheep. When it is fed, it does not spare the wolves. So also with anger. When it is stirred, it must not depart from meekness. When it is not stirred, it must rise up against its own vicious thoughts. Even if they strike it, it must not abandon them, but must recognize them. To strangers, even if they flatter it, it must give no quarter.

The devil often fawns like a dog, but let everyone know that he is a stranger to us. Thus we too shall love virtue, even if it causes us grief. We shall turn away from vice, even if it gives us pleasure. Let us not be worse than dogs, which do not flee their own yard even if they are beaten and tormented. They would rather harm a stranger, even if he has fed them.

So anger is useful when it rises up against strangers. What does the saying mean, "Whoever is angry with his brother without cause" (Mt 5:22)? It means this: do not avenge yourself, and do not repay evil. If you see another perishing, stretch out a helping hand to him. Anger will no longer have a place when you are free from attachment to yourself.

David found Saul, but he was not angry and did not thrust in the spear, though his enemy was in his hands (1 Sam 26:7). He took vengeance on the devil by his meekness. Moses, seeing that an Egyptian was wronging a Hebrew, killed him. But when a Hebrew wronged another Hebrew, he did not do this. Rather, he wished to reconcile the brothers, while he separated the others (Ex 2:12). Although Scripture calls him the meekest man (Num 12:3), anger was sometimes stirred even in him.

But we are not like this. When we must show meekness, we are fiercer than all beasts. When we must be angry, we are lazier and more careless than all. Thus, using our powers for what they should not be used, we spend our life in vain. It is like weapons. When they are used one in place of another, they are all ruined.

For example, if someone has a sword and does not use it when it must be used, but acts with his hand, he will not succeed. Conversely, if he uses the sword where he must act with his hand, he will ruin everything. So also a physician ruins everything if he does not cut where he should, and cuts where he should not.

Therefore, I entreat you, let us use this instrument, anger, at its proper time. It is never the time for anger when we must help ourselves. But if others must be corrected, then especially it should be used, so that others may be saved. Thus, everywhere guarding ourselves from anger, we shall become like God and be counted worthy of the good things to come, by the grace and love for mankind of our Lord Jesus Christ. With Him, to the Father, together with the Holy Spirit, be glory, dominion, and honor, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Being immortally blessed, they delight in His unchanging truth. They hear what must be done, and immediately, without difficulty, bring it into the visible and sensible realm. This Law was given according to the conditions of time. Thus, as has been said, it first contained earthly promises, which prefigured eternal promises. Many performed these through visible mysteries, but few understood them. Yet the worship of the one God was prescribed there by the clearest testimonies of both Law and nature. It prescribed the worship, not of one among many, but of that one God Who made heaven and earth, every soul, and every spirit, none of which is what He Himself is. For He is the Creator. All these things are created, and they need the One Who created them in order to exist and to be sustained in good order.

"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).

"You who received the law." The fathers, the generation contemporary with Moses, received it, and from them by succession you received it.

"At the service," or through the mediation, "of angels." In the sacred books, in the passages concerning the Sinai legislation, angels are not mentioned. Undoubtedly this belief rests on ancient tradition.

Traces of this tradition are already found in the LXX translation of Deut 33:2: "At His right hand angels were with Him." Yet from the original one would have to translate, "At His right hand was a fire of law for them," that is, probably, the Shekinah, the fiery pillars and clouds.

The same belief seems to be expressed in Psalm 67 (Ps 67:18) and in Josephus (Antt. 15, 5.3), who included many traditions in his depiction of the ancient life of the Jewish people. Finally, this belief is confirmed by the authority of the great teacher of the nations, the holy Apostle Paul (Gal 3:19; Heb 2:2).

"They, pretending to defend the law, said, 'He spoke blasphemous words against Moses'" (Acts 6:11). But Stephen shows that they themselves utter still greater blasphemy, not only against Moses but against God, and that they have acted this way from ancient times.

He shows that they themselves violated the customs for which there is now no need. While accusing him and calling him an opponent of Moses, they themselves resisted the Spirit, and not simply, but with murder. From ancient times they had been enemies of God" (Chrysostom).

"If your fathers killed these forerunners, then there is nothing surprising if I too, who preach this One who was foretold, will be killed by you, who are excessively proud of your ancestors" (Theophylact).

"Here he presents them as disobedient to God, to the angels, to the prophets, to the Spirit, and to all" (Chrysostom; cf. Theophylact).

It is no wonder that I, who preach this One foretold, shall be killed by you, who take excessive pride in your ancestors." "He sets before them two crimes, the murder and betrayal of the Righteous One. He shows that He was unjustly killed by them, for if He is Righteous, then those who killed Him are most unrighteous." In the account of Saint Stephen's death, his speech stands out and occupies the greater part of the narrative. Yet this does not set the account apart from the others. Compare this separate narrative with such sections as 2:1-41, 13:13-52, 17:16-34, and 20:17-38. We shall see that in other places of Acts, monologic speeches also form the center of the sacred historian's narrative. Saint Stephen's speech contains many characteristic features which compel us to suppose that we have here its authentic presentation.