The life and work of St. Paul

WORK AND MAETYEDOM OF ST. STEPHEN. 93
expressed the agony of hatred which was sawing their hearts asunder, by outward
signs which are almost unknown to modern civilisation by that grinding
and gnashing of the teeth only possible to human beings in whom " the ape
and the tiger " are not yet quite dead. To reason with men whose passions
had thus degraded them to the level of wild beasts would have been worse
than useless. The flame of holy anger in the breast of Stephen had died away
as suddenly as the lightning. It was a righteous anger; it was aimed not at
them but at their infatuation ; it was intended not to insult but to awaken. 1
But ha saw at a glance that it had failed, and that all was now over. In one
instant his thoughts had passed away to that heaven from which his inspiration
had come. From those hateful faces, rendered demoniac by evil passion, his
earnest gaze was turned upward and heavenward. There, in ecstasy of vision,
he saw the Shechinah the Glory of God the Jesus" standing "as though to aid
and receive him " at the right hand of God." Transported beyond all thought
of peril by that divine epiphany, he exclaimed as though he wished his enemies
to share his vision :
" Lo ! I behold the heavens parted asunder, 2 and the Son
of Man standing at the right hand of God." At such a moment he would not
pause to consider, he would not even be able to consider, the words he spoke ;
but whether it was that he recalled the Messianic title by which Jesus had so
often described himself on earth, or that he remembered that this title had
been used by the Lord when He had prophesied to this very Sanhedrin that
hereafter they should see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power
certain it is that this is the only passage of the New Testament where Jesus is
3
called the Son of Man by lips other than His own.
But those high words were too much for the feelings of his audience.
Stopping their ears as though to shut out a polluting blasphemy, thoy rose in
a mass from both sides of the semi-circular range in which they sat, and with
4 one wild yell rushed upon Stephen. There was no question any longer of a
legal decision. In their rage they took the law into their own hands, and then
and there dragged him off to be stoned 5
outside the city gate.
"We can judge how fierce must have been the rage which turned a solemn
Sanhedrin into a mob of murderers. It was true that they were at this
moment under Sadducean influence, and that this influence, as at the Trial of
Christ, was mainly wielded by the family of Hanan, who were the most
merciless members of that least merciful sect. If, as there is reason to believe,
the martyrdom took place A.D. 37, it was most probably during the brief
presidency of the High Priest Jonathan, son of Hanan. Unhappy family of
the man whom Josephns pronounces to have been so exceptionally blest ! The
hoary father, and his son-in-law Caiaphas, imbrued their hands in the blood of
Jesus ; Jonathan during his few months' term of office was the Nasi of the
Sanhedrin which murdered Stephen ; Theophilus, another son, was the High
* " Non fratri irascitur qui peccato fratris irascitur " (Aug.).
1 Acts vii. 56, leg., in)votyfiVovs, , A, B, C. 8 See, however, Rev. i. 13 ; xlv. 14,
* Acts vii. 57, Kpagavrt* fysavfi ftryaAjj.
* See Excursus VI., "Capital Punishments."