SEV Biblia, Chapter 7:51
¶ Duros de cerviz, e incircuncisos de corazn y de oídos, vosotros resistís siempre al Espíritu Santo; como vuestros padres, así tambin vosotros.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Acts 7:51
Verse 51. Ye stiff-necked] sklhrotrachloi. A metaphor taken from untoward oxen, who cannot be broken into the yoke; and whose strong necks cannot be bended to the right or the left. Uncircumcised in heart and ears] This was a Jewish mode of speech, often used by the prophets. Circumcision was instituted, not only as a sign and seal of the covenant into which the Israelites entered with their Maker, but also as a type of that purity and holiness which the law of God requires; hence there was an excision of what was deemed not only superfluous but also injurious; and by this cutting off, the propensity to that crime which ruins the body, debases the mind, and was generally the forerunner of idolatry, was happily lessened. It would be easy to prove this, were not the subject too delicate. Where the spirit of disobedience was found, where the heart was prone to iniquity, and the ears impatient of reproof and counsel, the person is represented as uncircumcised in those parts, because devoted to iniquity, impatient of reproof, and refusing to obey. In Pirkey Eliezer, chap. 29, "Rabbi Seira said, There are five species of uncircumcision in the world; four in man, and one in trees. Those in man are the following: - "1. Uncircumcision of the EAR. Behold, their EAR is uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken, Jer. vi. 10.
"2. The uncircumcision of the LIPS. How shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised LIPS? Exod. vi. 12.
"3. Uncircumcision of HEART. If then their uncircumcised HEARTS be humbled, Lev. xxvi. 41. Circumcise therefore the FORESKIN of YOUR HEART, Deut. x. 16; Jeremiah iv. 4. For all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the HEART, Jer. ix. 26.
"4. The uncircumcision of the FLESH. Ye shall circumcise the FLESH of your FORESKIN, &c., Gen. xvii. 11." Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost] 1. Because they were uncircumcised in heart, they always resisted the influences of the Holy Spirit, bringing light and conviction to their minds; in consequence of which they became hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, and neither repented at the preaching of John, nor credited the glad tidings told them by Christ and the apostles. 2. Because they were uncircumcised in ears, they would neither hear nor obey Moses, the prophets, Christ, nor the apostles.
As your fathers did, so do ye.] They were disobedient children, of disobedient parents: in all their generations they had been disobedient and perverse. This whole people, as well as this text, are fearful proofs that the Holy Spirit, the almighty energy of the living God, may be resisted and rendered of none effect. This Spirit is not sent to stocks, stones, or machines, but to human beings endued with rational souls; therefore it is not to work on them with that irresistible energy which it must exert on inert matter, in order to conquer the vis inertiae or disposition to abide eternally in a motionless state, which is the state of all inanimate beings; but it works upon understanding, will, judgment, conscience, &c., in order to enlighten, convince, and persuade. If, after all, the understanding, the eye of the mind, refuses to behold the light; the will determines to remain obstinate; the judgment purposes to draw false inferences; and the conscience hardens itself against every check and remonstrance, (and all this is possible to a rational soul, which must be dealt with in a rational way,) then the Spirit of God, being thus resisted, is grieved, and the sinner is left to reap the fruit of his doings. To force the man to see, feel, repent, believe, and be saved, would be to alter the essential principles of his creation and the nature of mind, and reduce him into the state of a machine, the vis inertiae of which was to be overcome and conducted by a certain quantum of physical force, superior to that resistance which would be the natural effect of the certain quantum of the vis inertiae possessed by the subject on and by which this agent was to operate. Now, man cannot be operated on in this way, because it is contrary to the laws of his creation and nature; nor can the Holy Ghost work on that as a machine which himself has made a free agent. Man therefore may, and generally does, resist the Holy Ghost; and the whole revelation of God bears unequivocal testimony to this most dreadful possibility, and most awful truth. It is trifling with the sacred text to say that resisting the Holy Ghost here means resisting the laws of Moses, the exhortations, threatenings, and promises of the prophets, &c. These, it is true, the uncircumcised ear may resist; but the uncircumcised heart is that alone to which the Spirit that gave the laws, exhortations, promises, etc;, speaks; and, as matter resists matter, so spirit resists spirit. These were not only uncircumcised in ear, but uncircumcised also in heart; and therefore they resisted the Holy Ghost, not only in his declarations and institutions, but also in his actual energetic operations upon their minds.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 51. Ye stiffnecked , etc.] Or hard necked, the same with Prw[ hq , which is a character frequently given of this people, ( Exodus 32:9, 33:3,5, 34:9) and elsewhere, and is expressive of their obstinacy, stubbornness and refractoriness; who would not submit their necks to the yoke of Gods law, and be obedient to his commands: and uncircumcised in heart and ears ; for though they had the mark of circumcision in their flesh, of which they boasted; yet they had not the true circumcision of the heart; their hearts were not circumcised to fear and love the Lord, nor their ears to hear the word of the Lord and the Gospel of Christ; so that notwithstanding their confidence in carnal privileges, they were uncircumcised persons: ye do always resist the Holy Ghost ; the resistance made by these persons was not to the Spirit of God in them, of which they were destitute, but to the Spirit of God in his ministers, in his apostles, and particularly in Stephen; nor to any internal operation of his grace, but to the external ministry of the word, and to all that objective light, knowledge, evidence, and conviction that it gave of Jesuss being the Messiah: and such who resist Christs ministers, resist him, and such who resist him, may be said to resist his Holy Spirit; and the word here used signifies a rushing against, and falling upon, in a rude and hostile way, and fitly expresses their ill treatment of Christ and his ministers, by falling upon them and putting them to death: which is the resistance here designed, as appears by the following verse: so that this passage is no proof of the resistance of the Holy Spirit, and the operations of his grace in conversion, when he is in men, and acts with a purpose and will to convert them; since it does not appear that he was in these persons, and was acting in them, with a design to convert them; and if he was, it wilt be difficult to prove that they so resisted, and continued to resist, as that they were not hereafter converted; since it is certain that one of them, Saul, was really and truly converted, and how many more we know not. Though it will be allowed, that the Holy Ghost in the operations of his grace upon the heart in conversion may be resisted, that is, opposed; but not so as to be overcome or be hindered in, or be obliged to cease from, the work of conversion, insomuch that may come to nothing: as your fathers did, so do ye ; or as your fathers were, so are ye; as they were stiffnecked, self-willed, obstinate, and inflexible, so are ye; as they were uncircumcised in heart and ears, so are ye; and as they resisted the Spirit of God in his prophets, so do ye resist him in the apostles and ministers of the Gospel.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 51-53 - Stephen was going on, it seems, to show that the temple and the templ service must come to an end, and it would be the glory of both to giv way to the worship of the Father in spirit and in truth; but he perceived they would not bear it. Therefore he broke off, and by the Spirit of wisdom, courage, and power, sharply rebuked his persecutors When plain arguments and truths provoke the opposers of the gospel they should be shown their guilt and danger. They, like their fathers were stubborn and wilful. There is that in our sinful hearts, whic always resists the Holy Ghost, a flesh that lusts against the Spirit and wars against his motions; but in the hearts of God's elect, when the fulness of time comes, this resistance is overcome. The gospel wa offered now, not by angels, but from the Holy Ghost; yet they did no embrace it, for they were resolved not to comply with God, either in his law or in his gospel. Their guilt stung them to the heart, and the sought relief in murdering their reprover, instead of sorrow an supplication for mercy.
Greek Textus Receptus
σκληροτραχηλοι 4644 A-VPM και 2532 CONJ απεριτμητοι 564 A-VPM τη 3588 T-DSF καρδια 2588 N-DSF και 2532 CONJ τοις 3588 T-DPN ωσιν 3775 N-DPN υμεις 5210 P-2NP αει 104 ADV τω 3588 T-DSN πνευματι 4151 N-DSN τω 3588 T-DSN αγιω 40 A-DSN αντιπιπτετε 496 5719 V-PAI-2P ως 5613 ADV οι 3588 T-NPM πατερες 3962 N-NPM υμων 5216 P-2GP και 2532 CONJ υμεις 5210 P-2NP
Vincent's NT Word Studies
51. Stiff-necked and uncircumcised (sklhrotrachloi kai aperitmhtoi). Both only here in New Testament.Resist (antipiptete). It is a very strong expression, implying active resistance. Lit., to fall against or upon. Used of falling upon an enemy. Only here in New Testament.
Ye have been (gegenhsqe). More correctly, as Rev., ye have become.
Robertson's NT Word Studies
7:51 {Stiffnecked} (sklerotraceloi). From skleros (hard) and tracelos, neck, both old words, but this compound only in the LXX and here alone in the N.T. Critics assume that Stephen was interrupted at this point because of the sharp tone of the speech. That may be true, but the natural climax is sufficient explanation. {Uncircumcised in heart} (aperitmetoi kardiais). Late adjective common in LXX and here only in the N.T. Verbal of peritemnw, to cut around and a privative. Both of these epithets are applied to the Jews in the O.T. (#Ex 32:9; 33:3,5; 34:9; Le 26:41; De 9:6; Jer 6:10). kardiais is locative plural like "sin (ears), but some MSS. have genitive singular kardias (objective genitive). No epithet could have been more galling to these Pharisees than to be turned "uncircumcised in heart" (#Ro 2:29). They had only the physical circumcision which was useless. {Ye always} (humeis aei). Emphatic position of humeis and "always" looks backward over the history of their forefathers which Stephen had reviewed. {Resist} (antipiptete). Old word to fall against, to rush against. Only here in the N.T., but used in the O.T. which is here quoted (#Nu 27:14). Their fathers had made "external worship a substitute for spiritual obedience" (Furneaux). Stephen has shown how God had revealed himself gradually, the revelation sloping upward to Christ Jesus. "And as he saw his countrymen repeating the old mistake--clinging to the present and the material, while God was calling them to higher spiritual levels--and still, as ever, resisting the Holy Spirit, treating the Messiah as the patriarchs had treated Joseph, and the Hebrews Moses--the pity of it overwhelmed him, and his mingled grief and indignation broke out in words of fire, such as burned of old on the liy of the prophets" (Furneaux). Stephen, the accused, is now the accuser, and the situation becomes intolerable to the Sanhedrin.
