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Acts 22:1
Men, brethren, and fathers, hear ye my defencewhich I make now unto you.

Acts 23:7
And when he had so said, there arose a dissension between the Pharisees and the Sadducees: and the multitude was divided.

The God.

Psalm 24:7,10
Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in…

Psalm 29:3
The voice of the LORDis upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORDis upon many waters.

Isaiah 6:3
And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy,is the LORD of hosts: the whole earthis full of his glory.

appeared.

Genesis 12:1
Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

Nehemiah 9:7
Thouart the LORD the God, who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and gavest him the name of Abraham;

Isaiah 51:2
Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarahthat bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.

when.

Joshua 24:2
And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time,even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.

Charran.

Genesis 11:31
And Terah took Abram his son, and Lot the son of Haran his son's son, and Sarai his daughter in law, his son Abram's wife; and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan; and they came unto Haran, and dwelt there.

Genesis 12:5
And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

Genesis 29:4
And Jacob said unto them, My brethren, whencebe ye? And they said, Of Haranare we.

Haran.

Brothers and fathers, listen to me!
Stephen addresses the Sanhedrin with respect, acknowledging their authority. "Brothers" indicates his shared heritage with them, while "fathers" shows deference to their leadership. This approach is strategic, aiming to gain their attention and respect before delivering his message.

The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham
The phrase "God of glory" emphasizes God's majesty and divine presence. This appearance to Abraham is a foundational event in Jewish history, marking the beginning of God's covenant relationship with Israel. It underscores God's initiative in reaching out to humanity.

while he was still in Mesopotamia,
Mesopotamia, the region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, is where Abraham originally lived. This area is historically significant as the cradle of civilization. God's call to Abraham in this pagan land highlights His sovereignty and the beginning of a new chapter in salvation history.

before he lived in Haran,
Haran is a city in northern Mesopotamia where Abraham temporarily settled with his family. This detail underscores the obedience of Abraham, who left his homeland in response to God's call. It also sets the stage for the journey to Canaan, the land promised to Abraham and his descendants.

(1) by his historical summary, what a true and thorough Israelite he was in heart and feeling and fellowship with the fathers of his race, and therefore how unlikely to speak blasphemous words against either Moses or the temple;

(2) how Moses himself had foretold the coming of Christ as a prophet like himself, to enunciate some new doctrines;

(3) how at every stage of their history their fathers had resisted those who were sent to them by God, and that now his judges were playing the same part. Perhaps it may be further true, as Chrysostom explains it (Hom. 15, 16, 17.), that his intention in the early part of the speech was to show "that the promise was made before the place, before circumcision, before sacrifice, before the temple," in accordance with St. Paul's argument (Galatians 3:16-18); and that therefore the blessings of the Abrahamic covenant could not be dependent upon the Law or the temple.The God of glory. This unusual phrase identifies God, of whom Stephen speaks, with the God whose visible glory was seen by the patriarchs (Genesis 12:7;Genesis 18:1;Genesis 26:2;Genesis 28:12, 13;Genesis 35:9;Exodus 24:16, 17;Numbers 16:19;Isaiah 6;John 12:41). St. Paul uses a similar phrase, "The Lord of glory '(1 Corinthians 2:8). Our father. He thus identifies himself with his judges, whom he had just called "brethren." InMesopotamia, which would be in Hebrew "Aram of the two rivers." The exact place, as we learn fromGenesis 11:31, was "Ur of the Chaldees;" whence the Israelites were taught to say (Deuteronomy 26:5), "An Aramcan ready to perish was my father." That this appearance was in Ur,before he dwelt in Haran, is manifest fromGenesis 11:31, because it is there said that they went forth from Ur "to go into the land of Canaan," which makes it quite certain that the appearance of God to Abraham had preceded their leaving Ur, and was the cause of it. And this is confirmed byGenesis 15:7;Nehemiah 9:7; and Josephus ('Ant.,' 1. 7:1). Moreover, the very language of the call shows plainly that it came to him when he was living in his native country, among his kindred, and in his father's house,i.e. at Ur, not in Haran, where they were only sojourners. There is nothing the least unusual, in Hebrew narrative, in the writer going back to any point in the preceding narrative with which the subsequent narrative is connected.Genesis 12. I precedes in point of timeGenesis 11:31; similar examples areGenesis 37:5, 6;Judges 20,passim;1 Samuel 16:21 compared with1 Samuel 17:28;1 Samuel 22:20, 21, compared with1 Samuel 23:6; and many more. It is, however, of course possible that a fresh call may have been given after Terah's death, though it is by no means necessary to suppose it. Another imaginary difficulty arises from the statement inGenesis 12:4 that Abraham was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran, that Terah lived seventy years and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and that Terah died at the age of two hundred and five; and from the statement in ver. 4 of this chapter that Abram did not leave Haran till Terah's death. From which it is concluded that Terah must have lived sixty years after Abram's departure (70 + 75 + 60 = 205). But the whole difficulty arises from the gratuitous supposition that Abram was Terah's firstborn because he is named first. If Terah were a hundred and thirty at the birth of Abram, he would be two hundred and five when Abram was seventy-five. Now, there is absolutely nothing to forbid the supposition that such was his age. It does not follow that because Abram is named first he was the eldest. He might be named first as being by far the most illustrious of the three, he might be named first because the subsequent genealogies - Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve Patriarchs - were deduced from him. There may, too, have been other sons of Terah, not named here because nothing was going to be said about them. Nahor is mentioned because Rebekah was his granddaughter (Genesis 24:15, 24) and Rachel his great-granddaughter. And Haran is mentioned because he was the father of Lot. Others, whether sons or daughters, would not be mentioned. If Terah, therefore, began to have children when he was seventy, it is quite probable that Abram may not have been born till he was a hundred and thirty. That the son named first need not necessarily be the eldest is clear from the order in which Shem, Ham, and Japheth are named, whereas it appears fromGenesis 9:24 that Ham was the youngest, and fromGenesis 10:2, 21 (according to the A.V. and the LXX., Symmachus, the Targum of Onkelos, and the old Jewish commentators), that Japheth was the eldest. InJoshua 24:4 God says, "I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau," though Esau was the elder; and soHebrews 11:20. So again inExodus 5:20 we read, "Moses and Aaron" (see alsoExodus 40:31;Numbers 16:43;Joshua 24:5;1 Samuel 12:6; etc.), though it appears from1 Chronicles 6:3 that Aaron was the eldest. So again we read inGenesis 48:5, "Thy two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh," and in ver. 20, "God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh," though in ver. I of the same chapter they are named according to the true order of birth - "Manasseh and Ephraim." It is, therefore, an unwarrantable inference that Abram was the eldest son because he is named first; and with the removal of this inference the difficulty vanishes; and Stephen was quite accurate when he said that God appeared to Abraham in Ur, before he dwelt in Haran, and that he did not move from Haran till the death of Terah.Haran.Charran in A.V. marks the difference betweenHaran (הָרָן), Lot's father, and the name of the place (הָרָן). It is called "the city of Nahor" (Genesis 24:10 compared with Genesis 47:43). It still exists as an Arab village, with the name of Harran (see 'Dictionary of Bible').

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