Acts 7:1-16 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible - Bible Study & Commentary

Verses 1-16

Acts 7:1-Nehemiah : . Abraham and the Patriarchs.— The High Priest invites Stephen to plead to the charge. Addressing his audience in the style used by Paul ( Acts 22:1), Stephen speaks of the theophany to Abraham, placing it, as Philo does, in Mesopotamia before the move to Haran (contrast Genesis 11:31; Genesis 12:1). The Divine injunction and promise ( Acts 7:3) are those of Genesis 12:1 spoken in Haran. That not a foot-breadth was given Abraham in the land of promise, is taken from Deuteronomy 2:5, where another country is in question. The promise ( Acts 7:5) is from a number of passages (Genesis 12, 13, 17), and that introduced in Acts 7:6 is a quotation from Genesis 15:13-Psalms :, Exodus 2:22; Exodus 12:40; “ a stranger in a strange land” ( Exodus 2:22) of Gershom. “ They shall serve me in this place” ( Exodus 3:12, “ this mountain” ). The phrase “ covenant of circumcision” is composed of Genesis 17:10 and Genesis 17:13; Paul has it in Romans 4:11. For the circumcision of Isaac, see Genesis 21:4. The speaker passes quickly on to Joseph, his sale into Egypt and his rise there ( cf. Genesis 37-41), with the migration of Jacob and the patriarchs.

Acts 7:14 . LXX gives the number as 75 ; Heb. says 70 ( Genesis 46:27, Deuteronomy 10:22).

Acts 7:16 . In Genesis 49:30; Genesis 50:13, Jacob is buried at Machpelah, not in Shechem.

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Arthur Peake

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Arthur Samuel Peake (1865-1929) was an English biblical scholar, born at Leek, Staffordshire, and educated at St John's College, Oxford. He was the first holder of the Rylands Chair of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the University of Manchester, from its establishment as an independent institution in 1904. He was thus the first non-Anglican to become a professor of divinity in an English university.In 1890-92 he was a lecturer at Mansfield College, Oxford, and from 1890 to 1897 held a fellowship at Merton College.In 1892, however, he was invited to become tutor at the Primitive Methodist Theological Institute in Manchester, which was renamed Hartley College in 1906. He was largely responsible for broadening the curriculum which intending Primitive Methodist ministers were required to follow, and for raising the standards of the training.In 1895-1912 he served as lecturer in the Lancashire Independent College, from 1904 to 1912 also in the United Methodist College at Manchester. In 1904 he was appointed Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the (Victoria) University of Manchester. (This chair was in the Faculty of Theology established in that year; it was renamed "Rylands Professor, etc." in 1909.)Peake was also active as a layman in wider Methodist circles, and did a great deal to further the reunion of Methodism which took effect in 1932, three years after his death. In the wider ecumenical sphere Peake worked for the National Council of Evangelical Free Churches, serving as president in 1928, and was a member of the World Conference on Faith and Order held in Lausanne in 1927. He published and lectured extensively, but is best remembered for his one-volume commentary on the Bible (1919), which, in its revised form, is still in use.The University of Aberdeen made him an honorary D. D. in 1907. He was a governor of the John Rylands Library.... Show more

First published in 1919, Peake's commentary of the bible was a one-volume commentary that gave special attention to Biblical archaeology and the then-recent discoveries of biblical manuscripts. Biblical quotations in this edition were from the Revised Version of the Bible.... Show more

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