Thread by @pj_schreiner

You can't have a temple theology without passing through Stephen's speech in Acts 7.

It might be my new favorite speech in the Bible. So many exegetical gems in there.

Here is one exegetical nerd note. 🤓

In Acts 7:41-43 Stephen collapses Israel's history into a story of false worship. He draws a line from the exodus (the golden calf), to the exile (Amos quote), then finally to the present day (Amos quote; see note on 'beyond Babylon' below).

Amos 5:25–27 supports Stephen’s typology. Amos condemns Israel for neglecting justice in 760–755 BCE when the northern tribes went into Assyrian exile.

Israel’s idolatry stretched from Joseph, to Moses, to the wilderness wandering, to exile, to their rejection of Jesus, to their present worship in the temple.

He shows this not only but the narrative flow, but by switching Amos's text at one key place.

Stephen switches out “beyond Damascus” in the Amos text for “beyond Babylon.”

While Amos’s “beyond Damascus” refers to the Assyrian exile, Stephen uses Babylon to show idolatry continues well beyond that era and even into the “Babylonian” captivity under Rome.

In this way, "beyond Babylon" becomes a clue that Israel's idolatry has been a part of the story from the beginning and continues to be so.

What is shocking though is that Stephen is comparing their worship of foreign gods to their current temple worship!

The golden calf represented worship of Egyptian gods, while Molech is the Canaanite-Phoenician god of sky and sun and Rephan is perhaps the Egyptian sun god Repa.

The temple has become a false idol and it is as if they worship the gods of foreign nations. Even though they are home, they act like they are still in exile and worship foreign gods.

It makes one think of texts like this:

"Do not trust deceitful words, chanting, 'This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.' Instead, if you really correct your ways and your actions, if you act justly toward one another." (Her 7:4-5)

The verses previous to Amos 5:25–27 are worth quoting in full because of their relationship to temple themes and the people of Israel in Stephen’s day.

"I hate, I despise, your feasts! I can’t stand the stench of your solemn assemblies. Even if you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them."

"I will have no regard for your fellowship offerings of fattened cattle. Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice flow like water, and righteousness, like an unfailing stream." (Amos 5:21–24)

So Stephen's alteration of the Amos text is intentional and has big implications for Stephen's hearers.