Acts 7:25-27

7:25 He thought his own people ¹  would understand that God was delivering them ²  through him, ³  but they did not understand. ⁴  7:26 The next day Moses ⁵  saw two men ⁶  fighting, and tried to make peace between ⁷  them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why are you hurting one another?’ 7:27 But the man who was unfairly hurting his neighbor pushed ⁸  Moses ⁹  aside, saying, ‘Who made ¹⁰  you a ruler and judge over us?

Acts 7:35

7:35 This same ¹¹  Moses they had rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge?’ ¹²  God sent as both ruler and deliverer ¹³  through the hand of the angel ¹⁴  who appeared to him in the bush.

---

¹ tn Grk “his brothers.”

² tn Grk “was granting them deliverance.” The narrator explains that this act pictured what Moses could do for his people.

³ tn Grk “by his hand,” where the hand is a metaphor for the entire person.

⁴ sn They did not understand. Here is the theme of the speech. The people did not understand what God was doing through those he chose. They made the same mistake with Joseph at first. See Acts 3:17; 13:27. There is good precedent for this kind of challenging review of history in the ancient scriptures: Ps 106:6-46; Ezek 20; and Neh 9:6-38.

⁵ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁶ tn Grk “saw them”; the context makes clear that two individuals were involved (v. 27).

⁷ tn Or “tried to reconcile” (BDAG 964-65 s.v. συναλλάσσω).

⁸ tn Or “repudiated Moses,” “rejected Moses” (BDAG 126-27 s.v. ἀπωθέω 2).

⁹ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁰ tn Or “appointed.”

¹¹ sn This same. The reference to “this one” occurs five times in this speech. It is the way the other speeches in Acts refer to Jesus (e.g., Acts 2:23).

¹² sn A quotation from Exod 2:14 (see Acts 7:27). God saw Moses very differently than the people of the nation did. The reference to a ruler and a judge suggests that Stephen set up a comparison between Moses and Jesus, but he never finished his speech to make the point. The reader of Acts, however, knowing the other sermons in the book, recognizes that the rejection of Jesus is the counterpoint.

¹³ tn Or “liberator.” The meaning “liberator” for λυτρωτήν (lutrwthn) is given in L&N 37.129: “a person who liberates or releases others.”

¹⁴ tn Or simply “through the angel.” Here the “hand” could be understood as a figure for the person or the power of the angel himself. The remark about the angel appearing fits the first century Jewish view that God appears to no one (John 1:14-18; Gal 3:19; Deut 33:2 LXX).