Early Church Fathers Scripture Index : Texts
Acts 7:59
There are 15 footnotes for this reference.
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 589, footnote 1 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
On the Resurrection of the Flesh. (HTML)
The Change of a Thing's Condition is Not the Destruction of Its Substance. The Application of This Principle to Our Subject. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 7709 (In-Text, Margin)
... give us instances of. The hand of Moses is changed, and it becomes like a dead one, bloodless, colourless, and stiff with cold; but on the recovery of heat, and on the restoration of its natural colour, it is again the same flesh and blood. Afterwards the face of the same Moses is changed, with a brightness which eye could not bear. But he was Moses still, even when he was not visible. So also Stephen had already put on the appearance of an angel, although they were none other than his human knees[Acts 7:59-60] which bent beneath the stoning. The Lord, again, in the retirement of the mount, had changed His raiment for a robe of light; but He still retained features which Peter could recognise. In that same scene Moses also and Elias gave proof that the ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 648, footnote 4 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Anti-Marcion. (HTML)
Scorpiace. (HTML)
Chapter XV. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 8325 (In-Text, Margin)
... sufferings, we know: the teaching is clear. This only I perceive in running through the Acts. I am not at all on the search. The prisons there, and the bonds, and the scourges, and the big stones, and the swords, and the onsets by the Jews, and the assemblies of the heathen, and the indictments by tribunes, and the hearing of causes by kings, and the judgment-seats of proconsuls and the name of Cæsar, do not need an interpreter. That Peter is struck, that Stephen is overwhelmed by stones,[Acts 7:59] that James is slain as is a victim at the altar, that Paul is beheaded has been written in their own blood. And if a heretic wishes his confidence to rest upon a public record, the archives of the empire will speak, as would the stones of Jerusalem. ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 3, page 716, footnote 8 (Image)
Tertullian (I, II, III)
Ethical. (HTML)
On Patience. (HTML)
The Power of This Twofold Patience, the Spiritual and the Bodily. Exemplified in the Saints of Old. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 9169 (In-Text, Margin)
With this strength of patience, Esaias is cut asunder, and ceases not to speak concerning the Lord; Stephen is stoned, and prays for pardon to his foes.[Acts 7:59-60] Oh, happy also he who met all the violence of the devil by the exertion of every species of patience! —whom neither the driving away of his cattle nor those riches of his in sheep, nor the sweeping away of his children in one swoop of ruin, nor, finally, the agony of his own body in (one universal) wound, estranged from the patience and the faith which he had plighted to the Lord; whom the devil smote with all his ...
Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume 6, page 273, footnote 9 (Image)
Gregory Thaumaturgus, Dionysius the Great, Julius Africanus, Anatolius and Minor Writers, Methodius, Arnobius
Peter of Alexandria. (HTML)
The Canonical Epistle, with the Commentaries of Theodore Balsamon and John Zonaras. (HTML)
Canon IX. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2311 (In-Text, Margin)
... death, inasmuch as thus we should be compelling them both to be harsher, and to carry out their deadly works, but He would have us to wait, and to take heed to ourselves, to watch and to pray, lest we enter into temptation. Thus first Stephen, pressing on His footsteps, suffered martyrdom, being apprehended in Jerusalem by the transgressors, and being brought before the council, he was stoned, and glorified for the name of Christ, praying with the words, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.”[Acts 7:59] Thus James, in the second place, being of Herod apprehended, was beheaded with the sword. Thus Peter, the first of the apostles, having been often apprehended, and thrown into prison, and treated with igominy, was last of all crucified at Rome. ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 6, page 396, footnote 3 (Image)
Augustine: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels
Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament. (HTML)
On the words of the Gospel, Matt. xxii. 2, etc., about the marriage of the king’s son; against the Donatists, on charity. Delivered at Carthage in the Restituta. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3027 (In-Text, Margin)
... him who offendeth God, and not who offendeth thee. One offendeth God, and thou dost not rebuke him; he offendeth thee, and thou criest out; where is that “wedding garment”? Ye have heard therefore how Stephen was severe; now hear how he loved. He offended those whom he was rebuking, and was stoned by them. And as he was being overwhelmed and bruised to death by the hands of his furious persecutors on every side, and the blows of the stones, he first said, “Lord Jesus Christ, receive my spirit.”[Acts 7:59] Then after he had prayed for himself standing, he bent the knee for them who were stoning him, and said, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge; let me die in my body, but let not these die in their souls. And when he had said this, he fell ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 40, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter I. 32, 33. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 121 (In-Text, Margin)
... little before stormed and glowed with ardor of spirit,—who had, as it were, made an onset on his enemies, and like one full of violence had attacked them in such fiery and burning words as you have heard, “Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears,” that any one who heard those words might fancy that Stephen, if he were allowed, would have them consumed at once,—but when the stones thrown from their hands reached him, with fixed knee he saith, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.”[Acts 7:51-59] He held fast to the unity of the dove. For his Master, upon whom the dove descended, had done the same thing before him; who, while hanging on the cross, said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Wherefore by the dove it is shown ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 388, footnote 4 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John. (HTML)
Chapter XVI. 16–23. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 1665 (In-Text, Margin)
... a word that may also be understood in both senses, so that by it the ambiguity is not removed; and even though it were so, every difficulty would not thereby disappear. For we read that the Lord Christ, after He rose again, was both questioned and petitioned. He was asked by the disciples, on the eve of His ascension into heaven, when He would be manifested, and when the kingdom of Israel would come; and even when already in heaven, He was petitioned [asked] by St. Stephen to receive his spirit.[Acts 7:59] And who dare either think or say that Christ ought not to be asked, sitting as He does in heaven, and yet was asked while He abode on earth? or that He ought not to be asked in His state of immortality, although it was men’s duty to ask Him while ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 489, footnote 8 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John. (HTML)
1 John III. 9–18. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2251 (In-Text, Margin)
... but shall be prepared to die for thy brother. This is perfect charity, that thou be prepared to die for thy brother. This the Lord exhibited in Himself, who died for all, praying for them by whom He was crucified, and saying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” But if He alone hath done this, He was not a Master, if He had no disciples. Disciples who came after Him have done this. Men were stoning Stephen, and he knelt down and said, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.”[Acts 7:59] He loved them that were killing him; since for them also he was dying. Hear also the Apostle Paul: “And I myself,” saith he, “will be spent for your souls.” For he was among those for whom Stephen, when by their hands he was dying, besought ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, page 527, footnote 7 (Image)
Augustine: Homilies on the Gospel of John, Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Soliloquies
Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John. (HTML)
1 John V. 16; De Sermone Domini in Monte, lib. i. 22, § 73. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 2554 (In-Text, Margin)
... not unto death” is when a person, not having alienated his love from his brother, yet through some infirmity of mind may have failed to exhibit the due offices of brotherhood. Wherefore, on the one hand, the Lord on the cross said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” since they had not yet, by being made partakers of the grace of the Holy Spirit, entered into the fellowship of holy brotherhood; and blessed Stephen in the Acts of the Apostles prays for them who are stoning him;[Acts 7:59] because they had not yet believed Christ, and were not fighting against that grace of communion. On the other hand, the apostle Paul does not pray for Alexander, and the reason I suppose, is, that this man was a brother, and had sinned “unto death,” ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 316, footnote 9 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXI (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3086 (In-Text, Margin)
... counted for righteousness. Even so then the righteousness shall be mine, not however as though mine own, not as though by mine own self given to myself: as they thought who through the letter made their boast, and rejected grace.…It is a small thing then that thou acknowledge the good thing which is in thee to be from God, unless also on that account thou exalt not thyself above him that hath not yet, who perchance when he shall have received, will outstrip thee. For when Saul was a stoner of Stephen,[Acts 7:59] how many were the Christians of whom he was persecutor! Nevertheless, when he was converted, all that had gone before he surpassed. Therefore say thou to God that which thou hearest in the Psalm, “In Thee I have hoped, O Lord, I shall not be ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 8, page 381, footnote 12 (Image)
Augustine: Expositions on the Psalms
Expositions on the Book of Psalms. (HTML)
Psalm LXXIX (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3681 (In-Text, Margin)
... among whom was also that company of children, in whom He declared to have been fulfilled, “Out of the mouth of infants and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise.” Hence also were those after His resurrection, of whom on one day three and on another five thousand were baptized, welded into one soul and one heart by the fire of love; of whom no one spoke of anything as his own, but to them all things were common. Hence the holy deacons, of whom Stephen was crowned with martyrdom before the Apostles.[Acts 7:59] Hence so many Churches of Judæa, which were in Christ, unto whom Paul was unknown by face, but known for an infamous ferocity, and more known for Christ’s most merciful grace. Hence even he, according to the prophecy sent before concerning him, “a ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 3, page 134, footnote 10 (Image)
Theodoret, Jerome and Gennadius, Rufinus and Jerome
The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of Theodoret. (HTML)
The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret. (HTML)
Book V (HTML)
Of Eusebius Bishop of Samosata. (HTML)
Thus, too, he followed the example of Stephanus, his fellow slave, who, after the stones had stormed upon him, cried aloud, “Lord lay not this sin to their charge.”[Acts 7:59] So died the great Eusebius after many and various struggles. He had escaped the barbarians in Thrace, but he did not escape the violence of impious heretics, and by their means won the martyr’s crown.
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 6, page 419, footnote 6 (Image)
Jerome: Letters and Select Works
Treatises. (HTML)
Against Vigilantius. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 4960 (In-Text, Margin)
... but once we die, the prayer of no person for another can be heard, and all the more because the martyrs, though they cry for the avenging of their blood, have never been able to obtain their request. If Apostles and martyrs while still in the body can pray for others, when they ought still to be anxious for themselves, how much more must they do so when once they have won their crowns, overcome, and triumphed? A single man, Moses, oft wins pardon from God for six hundred thousand armed men; and[Acts 7:59-60] Stephen, the follower of his Lord and the first Christian martyr, entreats pardon for his persecutors; and when once they have entered on their life with Christ, shall they have less power than before? The Apostle Paul says that two hundred and ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 262, footnote 8 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
On the Death of His Father. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3243 (In-Text, Margin)
... meekness, Samuel prophecy, seeing into the future, Phineas zeal, for which he has a name, Peter and Paul eagerness in preaching, the sons of Zebedee magniloquence, whence also they were entitled Sons of thunder. But why should I enumerate them all, speaking as I do among those who know this? Now the specially distinguishing mark of Stephen and of my father was the absence of malice. For not even when in peril did Stephen hate his assailants, but was stoned while praying for those who were stoning him[Acts 7:59] as a disciple of Christ, on Whose behalf he was allowed to suffer, and so, in his long-suffering, bearing for God a nobler fruit than his death: my father, in allowing no interval between assault and forgiveness, so that he was almost robbed of pain ...
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Volume 7, page 332, footnote 2 (Image)
Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen
Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen. (HTML)
Against The Arians, and Concerning Himself. (HTML)
CCEL Footnote 3774 (In-Text, Margin)
... have such examples, even apart from which it is hard and rare not to be bad? Concerning what churches or property have I disputed with you; though you have more than enough of both, and the others too little? What imperial edict have we rejected and emulated? What rulers have we fawned upon against you? Whose boldness have we denounced? And what has been done on the other side against me? “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge,” even then I said, for I remembered in season the words of Stephen,[Acts 7:59] and so I pray now. Being reviled, we bless: being blasphemed we retreat.