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26th December 2024
ThursdayReflection
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'Mikeal C. Parsons'
'Chair of Religion at Baylor University'
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"Stephen is recognized in the church as the first or "proto-martyr.""
Before considering Acts 7:55-60, we would do well to ask:
Why was Stephen martyred?
For the contemporary Christian audience, it is crucial to observe that in his speech, Stephen is not pitting Christianity over against Judaism as though they were two distinct religions.
The debate depicted by Luke in Acts 6-7 is an intra-Jewish struggle over identity and the continuing role of Temple and Law.
In his speech, Stephen draws on Israel's Scriptures and Story for both positive and negative examples in order to refute the charges that the Christian "Way" represents a radical departure from the worship of and covenant with Israel's God.
Stephen needed to supply a competing version of the story that was coherent and compelling.
There are in Stephen's version of Israel's history two Jewish groups: those who accept God's message and messengers and those who reject them.
The comparison Stephen develops in Acts 7 aligns Stephen and the church with Abraham, Joseph, the prophets, and Jesus.
His opponents are aligned with the Egyptians, Joseph's brothers, the rebellious in the wilderness who disobeyed Moses, and the ancestors who killed the prophets.
For Luke, rather than rejecting God's house or God's law, the followers of the Way are in line with the 'faithful' in Jewish history who have sought to keep covenant with God.
Stephen's words enrage his interlocutors, and they put him to death by stoning.
Stephen thus becomes the first martyr of the Church.
Much has been made of the meaning of Stephen's name ("crown") with regard to his martyrdom.
An 18th century St. Stephen's Day anthem proclaims:
First of martyrs, thou whose name
Doth thy golden crown proclaim.
Stephen remains an important figure in the history of the church, as a quick survey of the reception history of several key points in Acts 7:55-60 demonstrates.
Several early interpreters commented on the fact that Stephen sees Jesus standing, rather than sitting, at the right hand of God (7:55, 56).
Ambrose observed: "Jesus stood as a helpmate; he stood as if anxious to help Stephen, his athlete, in the struggle.
He stood as though ready to crown his martyr.
Let him then stand for you that you may not fear him sitting, for he sits when he judges"
Ambrose puts the point more succinctly: "He sits as Judge of the quick and the dead; he stands as his people's Advocate"
Despite the hostile violence wrought against him, Stephen prays for his enemies.
Sir Thomas More (1478-1535) greatly admired and often appealed to the example of Saint Stephen in his writings.
His son-in-law and first biographer, William Roper, recorded these words by More after he was tried in Westminster Hall on July 1, 1535, and condemned to die.
According to Roper, More found the presence of Saul (Paul) at Stephen's death to be a poignant, yet hopeful detail :
More have I not to say (my Lords) but like as the blessed Apostle St. Paul, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, was present, and consented to the death of St. Stephen, and kept their clothes that stoned him to death, and yet be they now both twain holy saints in heaven.
For Sören Kierkegaard, the words of forgiveness uttered by Stephen explained one of the last details of the text:
"he fell asleep".
When he had said this, he fell asleep.
What was it he said?
He said: Father, do not hold this sin against them.
This, then, is the formula - then one falls asleep; as we tell a child to say his prayer aloud and go to sleep - so he went to sleep, he went to sleep saying this.
Now there is only a moment left, a minute: he prays for his enemies ... we learn from him - to pray for ourselves, to pray for our enemies - and then to fall asleep
For 1,800 years he has been famous and eulogized; but he cares nothing about that - he sleeps.
Material adapted from The Acts of the Apostles. Paideia Commentary Series. Eds. Mikeal C. Parsons and Charles H. Talbert. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic (a division of Baker Publishing Group), 2008. Used by permission.
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This is an edited version.
The full article and Bible references are avaiable on request
Mikeal C. Parsons
is Professor and Kidd L. and Buna Hitchock Macon Chair of Religion at Baylor University, where he has taught since 1986. He is the author of numerous works on Luke and Acts, including the Paideia Commentary on Acts (Baker Academic, 2008); with Martin Culy, Acts: A Handbook on the Greek Text (Baylor, 2003), and with Heidi J. Hornik, Illuminating Luke (3 vols.; Continuum, 2003-2007). He and Heidi J. Hornik are currently working on a reception history commentary, The Acts of the Apostles Through the Centuries, for Wiley Blackwell.
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