Acts 7:23 - Printer Friendly

ESV: "When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.

NIV: "When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites.

NASB: But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his mind to visit his countrymen, the sons of Israel.

CSB: "When he was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites.

NLT: One day when Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his relatives, the people of Israel.

KJV: And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.

NKJV: “Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.

Moses' life was divided into three periods of forty years. For his first forty years, he grew up in the home of the pharaoh's daughter, receiving the education of the Egyptian nobility (Acts 7:21–22). His birthmother had nursed him as a child (Exodus 2:4–10), and it's evident he still remembered not only his people (Exodus 2:11) but also his birth family (Exodus 4:14, 27–28). Moses spent the middle forty-year period in exile in Midian. In the last third of his life, he rescued the Israelites from slavery and led them through the wilderness to the doorstep of the Promised Land.

The phrase "children of Israel" means the same thing as "Israelites." Abraham is the father of the Israelites. His son Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob. Jacob left his homeland to find a wife among his mother's family (Genesis 28:1–5). On his return trip, twenty years later with his wives and children, he literally wrestled with God—possibly a pre-incarnate Christ. God told him, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed" (Genesis 32:28). Throughout the rest of the Bible, Jacob is sometimes referred to as "Jacob" and sometimes as "Israel."

While with his mother's family, Jacob married two sisters, Leah and Rachel, who gave their handmaidens, Bilhah and Zilpah, to him as concubines. Between the four women, Jacob had twelve sons and one daughter. The older sons sold Joseph, the second youngest, to slave traders (Genesis 37:12–28). Joseph was taken to Egypt where he eventually became the second in command of the entire nation (Genesis 41:38–45). During a famine, Joseph was able to bring his father and his brothers' families to Egypt where they would have sufficient provisions (Genesis 46). After Joseph's and Pharaoh's deaths, the new pharaoh enslaved the families.

So, the people from whom Moses came are the "children of Israel," not because they came from the nation of Israel, which didn't exist in Joseph's or Moses' time, but because their single common patriarch was named Israel.

Acts 7:23–29 furthers Stephen's defense against allegations that he disrespects the Law, the temple, and Moses (Acts 6:8–15). He has obliquely reminded his audience that God was the God of the Jews before they had a temple or even a homeland (Acts 7:1–16). Now, he outlines their beloved Moses' not-so-honorable beginnings. Their most-respected prophet and leader started as a murderer. Stephen is recounting the story originally given in Exodus 2:11–22.

Stephen is a Greek-speaking Jewish Christian and one of the first deacons in the church in Jerusalem (Acts 6:1–7). He's also a skilled apologist and has been debating Jews from outside Judea about the proper place of the Mosaic law and the temple (Acts 6:8–15). His opponents cannot counter his arguments so they resort to lies. They tell the Sanhedrin that Stephen wants to destroy the temple and repeal the Mosaic law. Stephen counters that his accusers don't respect Moses or the Law, and the temple isn't necessary to worship God. This enrages the mob, and Stephen is stoned, becoming the first Christian martyr.

Chapter 7 is one of the pivot points of the book of Acts. Until recently, the early church has seen favor from the people and indifference from the Sanhedrin. Now, the Sanhedrin has beaten the apostles and ordered them not to preach about Jesus (Acts 5:40), and the people are starting to realize how different Christianity is. In Jerusalem, a Hellenist Jewish Jesus-follower named Stephen has been in a debate with other foreign Jews who finally accuse him of wishing to destroy the temple, like Jesus (Acts 6:8–15). This is Stephen's defense, which leads to his death and the introduction of Paul.

The summary of the book of Acts is provided in Jesus' words in Acts 1:8: ''But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.'' In Acts 2:1–13, the Christ-followers receive the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:14—7:60 describes the rapid growth of the church in Jerusalem. Chapters 8—12 find Jewish persecution inadvertently spreading the gospel throughout Judea and Samaria. And in chapters 13—28, Paul and his companions spread the good news throughout the Roman Empire.