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Selected Verse: Acts 7:55 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Ac 7:55 |
King James |
But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God--You who can transfer to canvas such scenes as these, in which the rage of hell grins horribly from men, as they sit condemned by a frail prisoner of their own, and see heaven beaming from his countenance and opening full upon his view--I envy you, for I find no words to paint what, in the majesty of the divine text, is here so simply told. "But how could Stephen, in the council-chamber, see heaven at all? I suppose this question never occurred but to critics of narrow soul, one of whom [MEYER] conjectures that he saw it through the window! and another, of better mould, that the scene lay in one of the courts of the temple" [ALFORD]. As the sight was witnessed by Stephen alone, the opened heavens are to be viewed as revealed to his bright beaming spirit.
and Jesus standing on the right hand of God--Why "standing," and not sitting, the posture in which the glorified Saviour is elsewhere represented? Clearly, to express the eager interest with which He watched from the skies the scene in that council chamber, and the full tide of His Spirit which He was at that moment engaged in pouring into the heart of His heroical witness, till it beamed in radiance from his very countenance. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
Full of the Holy Ghost - See the notes on Act 2:4.
Looked up stedfastly - Fixed his eyes intently on heaven. Foreseeing his danger, and the effect his speech had produced; seeing that there was no safety in the Great Council of the nation, and no prospect of justice at their hands, he cast his eyes to heaven and sought protection there. When dangers threaten us, our hope of safety lies in heaven. When people threaten our persons, reputation, or lives, it becomes us to fix our eyes on the heavenly world; and we shall not look in vain.
And saw the glory of God - This phrase is commonly used to denote the visible symbols of God. It means some magnificent representation; a splendor, or light, that is the appropriate exhibition of the presence of God, Mat 16:27; Mat 24:30. See the notes on Luk 2:9. In the case of Stephen there is every indication of a vision or supernatural representation of the heavenly objects; something in advance of mere "faith" such as dying Christians now have. What was its precise nature we have no means of ascertaining. Objects were often represented to prophets by "visions"; and probably something similar is intended here. It was such an elevation of view - such a representation of truth and of the glory of God, as to be denoted by the word "see"; though it is not to be maintained that Stephen really saw the Saviour with the bodily eye.
On the right hand of God - That is, exalted to a place of honor and power in the heavens. See the Mat 26:64 note; Act 2:25 note. |
| Vincent's Word Studies, by Marvin R. Vincent [1886] |
Being (ὑπάρχων)
See on Jam 2:15.
Looked up steadfastly
Compare Act 1:10; Act 3:4, Act 3:12; Act 6:15; and see on Luk 4:20.
Standing
Rising from the throne to protect and receive his servant. Usually Jesus is represented in the New Testament as seated at the Father's right hand. See Eph 1:20; Col 3:1; Heb 1:3. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| But he looking steadfastly up to heaven, saw the glory of God - Doubtless he saw such a glorious representation, God miraculously operating on his imagination, as on Ezekiel's, when he sat in his house at Babylon, and saw Jerusalem, and seemed to himself transported thither, Eze 8:1-4. And probably other martyrs, when called to suffer the last extremity, have had extraordinary assistance of some similar kind. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
Saw the glory of God - The Shekinah, the splendor or manifestation of the Divine Majesty.
And Jesus standing on the right hand of God - In his official character, as Mediator between God and man. Stephen had this revelation while in the Sanhedrin; for as yet he had not been forced out of the city. See Act 7:58. |
25 For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:
64 Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.
9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.
4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
15 And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.
12 And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?
4 And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us.
10 And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel;
15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
1 And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in mine house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord GOD fell there upon me.
2 Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber.
3 And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy.
4 And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain.
58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul.