The life and work of St. Paul

WOBK AND MABTYBDOM OF ST. STEPHEN. 89
St. Paul, we find little difficulty in adopting the conjecture that its preservation
was due to him. The Hagadoth in which it abounds, the variations
from historical accuracy, the free citation of passages from the Old Testament,''
the roughness of style, above all the concentrated force which makes
it lend itself so readily to differing interpretations, are characteristics which
leave on our minds no shadow of doubt that whoever may have been the
reporter, we have here at least an outline of Stephen's speech. And this
speech marked a crisis in the annals of Christianity. It led to consequences that
changed the Church from a Judaic sect at Jerusalem, into the Church of the
Gentiles and of the world. It marks the commencing severance of two insti-
tutions which had not yet discovered that they were mutually irreconcilable.
Since the charge brought against St. Stephen was partly false and
partly true, it was his object to rebut what was false, and justify himself
and demonstration
against all blame for what was true. Hence apology
are subtly blended throughout his appeal, but the apology is only secondary,
and the demonstration is mainly meant to rouse the dormant consciences
of his hearers. Charged with blasphemous words, he contents himself
with the incidental refutation of this charge by the entire tenor of the
language which he employs. After his courteous request for attention, his
very first words are to speak of God under one of His most awful titles of
majesty, as the God of the Shechinah. On the history of Moses he dwells
with all the enthusiasm of patriotic admiration. To the Temple he alludes
with entire reverence. Of Sinai and the living oracles he uses language
as full of solemnity as the most devoted Rabbi could desire. But while
he thus shows how impossible it must have been for him to have uttered
the language of a blasphemer, he is all the while aiming at the establishment
of facts far deeper than the proof of his own innocence. The
consummate art of his speech consists in the circumstance that while he
seems to be engaged in a calm, historical review, to which any Jewish
patriot might listen with delight and pride, he is step by step leading up
to conclusions which told with irresistible force against the opinions of his
judges. While he only seems to be reviewing the various migrations of
Abraham, and the chequered fortunes of the Patriarchs, he is really showing
that the covenants of God with His chosen people, having been made in Ur
and Haran and Egypt, were all parts of one progressive purpose, which
was so little dependent on ceremonials or places as to have been anterior
not only to the existence of the Tabernacle and Temple, not only to the
possession of the Holy Land, but even to the rite of circumcision itself. 1
1 What fruit the argument bore in the mind of St. Paul we may see in the emphasis
with which he dwells on " that faith of our father Abraham which he had being yet uncircumcised
" (Rom. iv. 12). How necessary it was to point
this out will be seen from the
opinions of succeeding Rabbis. "Abraham," says Rabbi as "Juda the Holy," the
compiler of the Mishna, is called, KOT' ttoxnv "was not called perfect until he was circumcised,
and by the merit of circumcision a covenant was made with him respecting the
giving of the land " (Joreh Deah, 260, ap. McCaul, Old Paths, p. 451 ; Nedarim, f . 31, 2).
It is superfluous to add that the latter statement is a flat contradiction of Gen. xv. 18.