Acts 7:38

Footnotes

1. 104 This term, ἐκκλησία (ekklēsia), is a secular use of the term that came to mean “church” in the epistles. Here a reference to an assembly is all that is intended.
2. 105 Or “desert.”
3. 106 Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”
4. 107 Grk “fathers, who.” The relative pronoun was replaced by the pronoun “he” and a new clause introduced by “and” was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style.
5. 108 Or “messages.” This is an allusion to the law given to Moses.
6. 109 The first person pronoun ἡμῖν (hēmin, “to us”) is read by A C D E Ψ 33 1739 𝔐 lat sy, while the second person pronoun ὑμῖν (humin, “to you”) is read by 𝔓74 א B 36 453 co. The second person pronoun thus has significantly better external support. As well, ὑμῖν is a harder reading in this context, both because it is surrounded by first person pronouns and because Stephen perhaps “does not wish to disassociate himself from those who received God’s revelation in the past, but only from those who misinterpreted and disobeyed that revelation” ( ). At the same time, Stephen does associate himself to some degree with his disobedient ancestors in v. 39, suggesting that the decisive break does not really come until v. 51 (where both his present audience and their ancestors are viewed as rebellious). Thus, both externally and internally ὑμῖν is the preferred reading.