SEV Biblia, Chapter 7:57
Entonces ellos dando grandes voces, se taparon sus oídos, y arremetieron unnimes contra l;
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Acts 7:57
Verse 57. They-stopped their ears] As a proof that he had uttered blasphemy, because he said, He saw Jesus standing at the right hand of God. This was a fearful proof against them; for if Jesus was at the right hand of God, then they had murdered an innocent person; and they must infer that God's justice must speedily avenge his death. They were determined not to suffer a man to live any longer who could say he saw the heavens opened and Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of God.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 57. Then they cried out with a loud voice , etc.] These were not the sanhedrim, but the common people; the Ethiopic version reads, the Jews cried out; which, they did, in a very clamorous way, either through rage and madness, or in a show of zeal against blasphemy; and cried out, either to God to avenge the blasphemy, or rather to the sanhedrim to pass a sentence on him, or, it may be, to excite one another to rise up at once, and kill him, as they did: and stopped their ears ; with their fingers, pretending they could not bear the blasphemy that was uttered. This was their usual method; hence they say, f375 if a man hears anything that is indecent, (or not fit to be heard,) let him put his fingers in his ears hence the whole ear is hard, and the tip of it soft, that when he hears anything that is not becoming, he may bend the tip of the ear within it. By either of these ways these men might stop their ears; either by putting in their fingers, or by turning the tip of the ear inward. And ran upon him with one accord ; without any leave of the sanhedrim, or waiting for their determination, in the manner the zealots did; (See Gill on Matthew 10:4) (See Gill on John 16:2).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 54-60 - Nothing is so comfortable to dying saints, or so encouraging to suffering saints, as to see Jesus at the right hand of God: blessed be God, by faith we may see him there. Stephen offered up two shor prayers in his dying moments. Our Lord Jesus is God, to whom we are to seek, and in whom we are to trust and comfort ourselves, living an dying. And if this has been our care while we live, it will be ou comfort when we die. Here is a prayer for his persecutors. Though the sin was very great, yet if they would lay it to their hearts, God woul not lay it to their charge. Stephen died as much in a hurry as ever an man did, yet, when he died, the words used are, he fell asleep; he applied himself to his dying work with as much composure as if he ha been going to sleep. He shall awake again in the morning of the resurrection, to be received into the presence of the Lord, where i fulness of joy, and to share the pleasures that are at his right hand for evermore __________________________________________________________________
Greek Textus Receptus
κραξαντες 2896 5660 V-AAP-NPM δε 1161 CONJ φωνη 5456 N-DSF μεγαλη 3173 A-DSF συνεσχον 4912 5627 V-2AAI-3P τα 3588 T-APN ωτα 3775 N-APN αυτων 846 P-GPM και 2532 CONJ ωρμησαν 3729 5656 V-AAI-3P ομοθυμαδον 3661 ADV επ 1909 PREP αυτον 846 P-ASM
Vincent's NT Word Studies
57. Stopped (sunescon). Lit., held together.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
7:57 {Stopped their ears} (sunescon ta wta autwn). Second aorist active of sunecw, to hold together. They held their ears together with their hands and affected to believe Stephen guilty of blasphemy (cf. #Mt 26:65). {Rushed upon him with one accord} (hwrmesan homoqumadon ep' auton). Ingressive aorist active indicative of hormaw, to rush impetuously as the hogs did down the cliff when the demons entered them (#Lu 8:33). No vote was taken by the Sanhedrin. No scruple was raised about not having the right to put him to death (#Joh 8:31). It may have taken place after Pilate's recall and before his successor came or Pilate, if there, just connived at such an incident that did not concern Rome. At any rate it was mob violence like modern lynching that took the law into the hands of the Sanhedrin without further formalities. {Out of the city} (ek tes polews). To keep from defiling the place with blood. But they sought to kill Paul as soon as they got him out of the temple area (#Ac 21:30f.). {Stoned} (eliqoboloun). Imperfect active indicative of liqobolew, began to stone, from liqobolos (liqos, stone, ballw, to throw), late Greek verb, several times in the N.T. as #Lu 13:34. Stoning was the Jewish punishment for blasphemy (#Le 24:14-16). {The witnesses} (hoi martures). The false testifiers against Stephen suborned by the Pharisees (#Ac 6:11,13). These witnesses had the privilege of casting the first stones (#De 13:10; 17:7) against the first witness for Christ with death (_martyr_ in our modern sense of the word). {At the feet of a young man named Saul} (para tous podas neaniou kaloumenou saulou). Beside (para) the feet. Our first introduction to the man who became the greatest of all followers of Jesus Christ. Evidently he was not one of the "witnesses" against Stephen, for he was throwing no stones at him. But evidently he was already a leader in the group of Pharisees. We know from later hints from Saul (Paul) himself that he had been a pupil of Gamaliel (#Ac 22:3). Gamaliel, as the Pharisaic leader in the Sanhedrin, was probably on hand to hear the accusations against Stephen by the Pharisees. But, if so, he does not raise his voice against this mob violence. Saul does not seem to be aware that he is going contrary to the views of his master, though pupils often go further than their teachers.
