Acts 7:44-50

7:44 Our ancestors ¹  had the tabernacle ²  of testimony in the wilderness, ³  just as God ⁴  who spoke to Moses ordered him ⁵  to make it according to the design he had seen. 7:45 Our ⁶  ancestors ⁷  received possession of it and brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors, ⁸  until the time ⁹  of David. 7:46 He ¹⁰  found favor ¹¹  with ¹²  God and asked that he could ¹³  find a dwelling place ¹⁴  for the house ¹⁵  of Jacob. 7:47 But Solomon built a house ¹⁶  for him. 7:48 Yet the Most High ¹⁷  does not live in houses made by human hands, ¹⁸  as the prophet says,

7:49 ‘Heaven is my throne,

and earth is the footstool for my feet.

What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord,

or what is my resting place? ¹⁹ 

7:50 Did my hand ²⁰  not make all these things?’ ²¹ 

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¹ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

² tn Or “tent.”

sn The tabernacle was the tent used to house the ark of the covenant before the construction of Solomon’s temple. This is where God was believed to reside, yet the people were still unfaithful.

³ tn Or “desert.”

⁴ tn Grk “the one”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn The word “him” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the modern English reader.

⁶ 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.

⁷ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

⁸ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

sn Before our ancestors. Stephen has backtracked here to point out how faithful God had been before the constant move to idolatry just noted.

⁹ tn Grk “In those days.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “David, who” The relative pronoun was replaced by the pronoun “he” and a new sentence was begun in the translation at this point to improve the English style.

¹¹ tn Or “grace.”

¹² tn Grk “before,” “in the presence of.”

¹³ tn The words “that he could” are not in the Greek text, but are implied as the (understood) subject of the infinitive εὑρεῖν (Jeurein). This understands David’s request as asking that he might find the dwelling place. The other possibility would be to supply “that God” as the subject of the infinitive: “and asked that God find a dwelling place.” Unfortunately this problem is complicated by the extremely difficult problem with the Greek text in the following phrase (“house of Jacob” vs. “God of Jacob”).

¹⁴ tn On this term see BDAG 929 s.v. σκήνωμα a (Ps 132:5).

¹⁵ tc Some mss read θεῷ (qew, “God”) here, a variant much easier to understand in the context. The reading “God” is supported by א² A C E Ψ 33 1739 Ï lat sy co. The more difficult οἴκῳ (oikw, “house”) is supported by Ì⁷⁴ א* B D H 049 pc. Thus the second reading is preferred both externally because of better ms evidence and internally because it is hard to see how a copyist finding the reading “God” would change it to “house,” while it is easy to see how (given the LXX of Ps 132:5) a copyist might assimilate the reading and change “house” to “God.” However, some scholars think the reading “house” is so difficult as to be unacceptable. Others (like Lachmann and Hort) resorted to conjectural emendation at this point. Others (Ropes) sought an answer in an underlying Aramaic expression. Not everyone thinks the reading “house” is too difficult to be accepted as original (see Lake and Cadbury). A. F. J. Klijn, “Stephen’s Speech – Acts vii.2-53,” NTS 4 (1957): 25-31, compared the idea of a “house within the house of Israel” with the Manual of Discipline from Qumran, a possible parallel that seems to support the reading “house” as authentic. (For the more detailed discussion from which this note was derived, see TCGNT 308-9.)

¹⁶ sn See 1 Kgs 8:1-21.

¹⁷ sn The title the Most High points to God’s majesty (Heb 7:1; Luke 1:32, 35; Acts 16:7).

¹⁸ sn The phrase made by human hands is negative in the NT: Mark 14:58; Acts 17:24; Eph 2:11; Heb 9:11, 24. It suggests “man-made” or “impermanent.” The rebuke is like parts of the Hebrew scripture where the rebuke is not of the temple, but for making too much of it (1 Kgs 8:27; Isa 57:15; 1 Chr 6:8; Jer 7:1-34).

¹⁹ sn What kind…resting place? The rhetorical questions suggest mere human beings cannot build a house to contain God.

²⁰ tn Or “Did I.” The phrase “my hand” is ultimately a metaphor for God himself.

²¹ tn The question in Greek introduced with οὐχί (ouci) expects a positive reply.

sn A quotation from Isa 66:1-2. If God made the heavens, how can a human building contain him?