Acts 7:39-43

7:39 Our ¹  ancestors ²  were unwilling to obey ³  him, but pushed him aside ⁴  and turned back to Egypt in their hearts, 7:40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go in front of us, for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt ⁵  – we do not know what has happened to him!’ ⁶  7:41 At ⁷  that time ⁸  they made an idol in the form of a calf, ⁹  brought ¹⁰  a sacrifice to the idol, and began rejoicing ¹¹  in the works of their hands. ¹²  7:42 But God turned away from them and gave them over ¹³  to worship the host ¹⁴  of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘It was not to me that you offered slain animals and sacrifices ¹⁵  forty years in the wilderness, was it, ¹⁶  house of Israel? 7:43 But you took along the tabernacle ¹⁷  of Moloch ¹⁸  and the star of the ¹⁹  god Rephan, ²⁰  the images you made to worship, but I will deport ²¹  you beyond Babylon.’ ²² 

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¹ tn Grk “whom our.” The continuation of the sentence as a relative clause is awkward in English, so a new sentence was started in the translation at this point.

² tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

³ sn To obey. Again the theme of the speech is noted. The nation disobeyed the way of God and opted for Egypt over the promised land.

⁴ sn Pushed him aside. This is the second time Moses is “pushed aside” in Stephen’s account (see v. 27).

⁵ tn Or simply “of Egypt.” The phrase “the land of” could be omitted as unnecessary or redundant.

⁶ sn A quotation from Exod 32:1, 23. Doubt (we do not know what has happened to him) expresses itself in unfaithful action. The act is in contrast to God’s promise in Exod 23:20.

⁷ tn Grk “And.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

⁸ tn Grk “In those days.”

⁹ tn Or “a bull calf” (see Exod 32:4-6). The term μοσχοποιέω (moscopoiew) occurs only in Christian writings according to BDAG 660 s.v.

¹⁰ tn Grk “and brought,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

¹¹ tn The imperfect verb εὐφραίνοντο (eufrainonto) has been translated ingressively. See BDAG 414-15 s.v. εὐφραίνω 2.

¹² tn Or “in what they had done.”

¹³ sn The expression and gave them over suggests similarities to the judgment on the nations described by Paul in Rom 1:18-32.

¹⁴ tn Or “stars.”

sn To worship the hosts of heaven. Their action violated Deut 4:19; 17:2-5. See Ps 106:36-43.

¹⁵ tn The two terms for sacrifices “semantically reinforce one another and are here combined essentially for emphasis” (L&N 53.20).

¹⁶ tn The Greek construction anticipates a negative reply which is indicated in the translation by the ‘tag’ question, “was it?”

¹⁷ tn Or “tent.”

sn A tabernacle was a tent used to house religious objects or a shrine (i.e., a portable sanctuary).

¹⁸ sn Moloch was a Canaanite deity who was believed to be the god of the sky and the sun.

¹⁹ tc ‡ Most mss, including several important ones (Ì⁷⁴ א A C E Ψ 33 1739 Ï h p vg sy^h mae bo Cyr), have ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “your”) here, in conformity with the LXX of Amos 5:26. But other significant and diverse witnesses lack the pronoun: The lack of ὑμῶν in B D 36 453 gig sy^p sa Ir^lat Or is difficult to explain if it is not the original wording here. NA²⁷ has the word in brackets, indicating some doubt as to its authenticity.

²⁰ sn Rephan (῾Ραιφάν, RJaifan) was a pagan deity. The term was a name for Saturn. It was variously spelled in the mss (BDAG 903 s.v. has Rompha as an alternate spelling). The references cover a range of deities and a history of unfaithfulness.

²¹ tn Or “I will make you move.”

²² sn A quotation from Amos 5:25-27. This constituted a prediction of the exile.