When the blood of Stephen, your witness, was shed, I also was standing by, consenting to his death, and guarding the cloaks of those who killed him.’
Parallel Translations
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When the blood of Stephen, your witness, was shed, I also was standing by, consenting to his death, and guarding the cloaks of those who killed him.’
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And when the bloud of thy witnes Steven was sheed I also stode by and consented vnto his deeth and kept the rayment of them that slewe him.
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And when the blood of thy martyr Steuen was shed, I also stood by, and consented vnto his death, and kept the clothes of them that slew him.
Cross-references (7)
Passages linked to Acts 22:20 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Acts 7:58 They threw him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
- Acts 8:1 Saul was consenting to his death. A great persecution arose against the assembly which was in Jerusalem in that day. They were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except for the apostles.
- Romans 1:32 who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them.
- Revelation 2:13 “I know your works and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is. You hold firmly to my name, and didn’t deny my faith in the days of Antipas my witness, my faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
- Luke 11:48 So you testify and consent to the works of your fathers. For they killed them, and you build their tombs.
- Acts 26:10 I also did this in Jerusalem. I both shut up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death I gave my vote against them.
- Revelation 17:6 I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered with great amazement.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain This is properly spoken: for Stephen was murdered of…
This is properly spoken: for Stephen was murdered of a sort of cutthroats, not by order of justice, but by open force: for at that time the Jews could not put any man to death by Law.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 20 And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen…
20 And when the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by, and consenting unto his death, and kept the raiment of them that slew him.
Ver. 20. When the blood of thy martyr] An honour not afforded to any angel in heaven, said Father Latimer. God forgive me mine unthankfulness, said Bradford, for this, that I must die a martyr, that Christ will be magnified in my mortal body, whether it be by life or by death. Stephen, Christ’s proto-martyr! Antipas, my faithful martyr! what a high style is this! Ignatius professed that he would rather he a martyr than a monarch. He called his bonds his spiritual pearls, and triumphed in his voyage to Rome to suffer, to think that his blood should be found among the mighty worthies, such as Abel, Stephen, Antipas, &c. {a}
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{a} τα δεσμα απεριφερω τους πνευματικους μαργαριτας. Ep. ad Ephes.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Martyr is a Greek word, that signifies a witness;…
Martyr is a Greek word, that signifies a witness; and is here, and since by the ecclesiastical writers, appropriated unto such as suffer death for the testimony they give to the truths of God, or doctrine of the gospel.
Consenting unto his death; as Act 8:1.
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Of them that slew him; that is, of the witnesses against Stephen, as Act 7:58. For the witnesses did slay him not only by the testimony which they gave against him, but they were to be the first who stoned him.
Slew him; or murdered him.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And they gave him audience unto this word..... The…
And they gave him audience unto this word..... The Ethiopic version reads, "and I heard him so speaking unto me"; as if it was to be understood of the apostle hearing Christ speaking to him concerning his mission to the Gentiles; whereas the words refer to the Jews attending quietly to the apostle, till he came to that part of his oration. They heard him patiently, and did not offer to molest him, or hinder his speaking, and being heard, till he came to mention his mission to the Gentiles: all the rest they either did not understand, or looked upon it as an idle tale, as the effect of madness and enthusiasm, at least as containing things they had nothing to do with; but when he came to speak of the Gentiles, and to pretend to a divine mission to them, this they could not bear; for nothing was more offensive, irritating, and provoking to them, than to hear of the calling of the Gentiles, whom they were for depriving of all blessings, and for engrossing all to themselves; see Rom 10:20.
and then lift up their voices; in a very loud and clamorous manner, as one man:
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and said, away with such a fellow from the earth; take away his life from the earth: this they said either to the chief captain, to do it, or as encouraging one another to do it:
for it is not fit that he should live; he does not deserve to live, he is unworthy of life; it is not agreeable to the rules of justice that he should be spared; it is not convenient, and it may be of bad consequence should he be continued any longer; he may do a deal of mischief, and poison the minds of the people with bad notions, and therefore it is not expedient that he should live.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain When the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed,…
When the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed, I also was standing by - A real convert still retains the remembrance of his former sins. He confesses thorn and is humbled for them, all the days of his life.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 20. When the blood of thy martyr Stephen…
Verse 20. When the blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed] See Clarke on Ac 7:58; and See Clarke on Ac 8:1. All these things Paul alleged as reasons why he could not expect to be received by the Christians; for how could they suppose that such a persecutor could be converted?
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain The blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed -…
The blood of thy martyr Stephen was shed - See Act 7:58; Act 8:1.
I also was standing by - Act 7:58.
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And consenting unto his death - Act 8:1.
And kept the raiment - The outer robes or garments, which were usually laid aside when they engaged in running or labor. See Act 7:58. All this showed that, though Paul was not engaged in stoning Stephen, yet he was with them in spirit, and fully accorded with what they did. These circumstances are mentioned here by him as reasons why he knew that he would not be received by Christians as one of their number, and why it was necessary, therefore, for him to turn to the Gentile world.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Of Stephen, thy witness. Or thy martyr, as the…
Of Stephen, thy witness. Or thy martyr, as the Greek word signifies. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 20. Thy martyr—The English word martyr is pure Greek,…
20. Thy martyr—The English word martyr is pure Greek, and signifies witness; being the same word as is used in Act_22:15. But the word was early and beautifully consecrated to designate those who witnessed to Jesus with their blood; as the word confessor designated those who maintained fast faith through a persecution which they survived. The Greek word for witness is properly rendered in Rev_17:6, “the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” One of the apostolic fathers, Clement of Rome, says of Peter, “Being martyred, he went to his due peace of glory.”
This reference to Stephen must have thrilled the heart of Paul himself with emotion at the recollection of his own share in that deed of blood with some of his murderers now present, and ready to inflict upon himself the same doom.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 20. thy martyr Stephen] Better, “Stephen, thy witness.” The…
20. thy martyr Stephen] Better, “Stephen, thy witness.” The Greek word had not yet come to be applied as it afterwards was to those Christians who bore witness to the truth by their death.
and consenting unto his death] The oldest authorities omit the last three words, which are added to bring the phrase into exact accord with Act_8:1.
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kept the raiment] cp. Act_7:58.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (20) When the blood of thy martyr Stephen .…
(20) When the blood of thy martyr Stephen . . . .—Better, thy witness. The English word is, perhaps, a little too definite and technical, and fails to remind us, as the Greek does, that the same word had been used in Act_22:15 as expressing the office to which St. Paul himself was called. He probably used the Aramaic word Edh, of which the Greek martus (witness, and, in ecclesiastical Greek, martyr) was the natural equivalent.
Consenting unto his death.—The self-same word is used as in Act_8:1, not, we may believe, without the feeling which the speaker had lately expressed in Rom_1:32, that that state of mind involved a greater guilt than those who had been acting blindly,—almost in what John Huss called the sancta simplicitas of devout ignorance—in the passionate heat of fanaticism. The words “unto his death” are wanting in the best MSS., but are obviously implied.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Stephen thy witness for thy martyr Stephen, A.V.; consenting…
Stephen thy witness for thy martyr Stephen, A.V.; consenting for consenting unto his death, A.V. and T.R.; keeping the garments for kept the raiment, A.V. Consenting; suneudokwn, (above Act_8:1; Luk_11:48; Rom_1:32; 1Co_7:12, 1Co_7:13) It is also found in RAPC 1Macc 1:60 2Ma 11:34, 35. Of them that slew him (twn ajnairoun twn aujton). jAnairew, in the sense of "to kill," is a favorite word of St. Luke"s (Luk_22:2 Luk_23:32; Act_2:23 Act_5:33, 36 7:28 9:23, 24, 29 10:39 12:2 13:28 16:27 22:20 23:15, 21, 27 25:3 26:10) but elsewhere in the New Testament only Mat_2:16 and 2Th_2:8, R.T. It is frequent in the LXX and also in medical writers in the sense of "taking away" or removing. "
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain See notes on verse 17
See notes on verse 17
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.