Acts 7:2-3

Stephen called for the Sanhedrin’s attention, addressing his hearers respectfully as "brethren and fathers" (cf. Acts 22:1). These men were his brethren, in that they were fellow Jews, and fathers, in that they were older leaders of the nation.

He took the title "God of glory" from Psalms 29:2 where it occurs in a context of God revealing His glory by speaking powerfully and majestically. God had revealed His glory by speaking this way to their father (ancestor) Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia (cf. Genesis 15:7; Nehemiah 9:7). Genesis 12:1-3 records God’s instruction for Abraham to leave his homeland to go to a foreign country that God would show him. Stephen was quoting from the Septuagint translation of Genesis 12:1. [Note: Barrett, p. 342.] According to Rackham, this is one of 15 historical problems in Stephen’s speech, but these problems include additions to previous revelation as well as apparent contradictions. [Note: Rackham, pp. 99-102. See Gleason L. Archer, Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, pp. 378-82, for suggested solutions to problems in Acts 7:4; Acts 7:14; Acts 7:16; Acts 7:43.]

At least three solutions are possible. First, Stephen may have been referring to a Jewish tradition that God first called Abraham in Ur. Second, he may have been telescoping Abraham’s moves from Ur and Haran and viewing them as one event. Third, he may have viewed Genesis 15:7 as implying Abraham’s initial call to leave Ur. [Note: See Bock, Acts, pp. 282-83.]

God directed Abraham to a promised land. The Promised Land had become a Holy Land to the Jews, and in Stephen’s day the Jews venerated it too greatly. We see this in the fact that they looked down on Hellenistic Jews, such as Stephen, who had not lived there all their lives. What was a good gift from God, the land, had become a source of inordinate pride that made the Jews conclude that orthodoxy was bound up with being in the land.