One man full of the Holy Spirit faces a gallery of men full of hate. Luke is not describing a special momentary gifting in Stephen (as Haenchen 1971:292; Bruce 1990:240), but the fitting climax of a life in the Spirit (6:5, 8, 15; Williams 1985:132). The gallery concentrates on him; Stephen gazes into heaven (atenizo is stronger than the NIV looked up to; compare 1:10; 3:4, 12; 6:15). God grants that Stephen may peer into heaven itself with his mind's eye and see the glory of God (either a circumlocution for God the Father or the shekinah glory that both conceals and reveals the divine presence and nature; compare 7:2; 22:11).

This vision positively culminates the climactic thesis of Stephen's sermon: God dwells in heaven, not in temples made with hands (7:48-50). The Son of Man standing at the right hand of God is at the center of Stephen's attention and the heart of his confession. Son of Man, a phrase otherwise present primarily on the lips of Jesus during his earthly ministry, points at once to Jesus' incarnation, saving death and resurrection, and heavenly exaltation, universal dominion, and glorious future reign (Mt 8:20; Lk 9:22, 44; 18:31; 19:10; 21:27, 36; 22:69/Dan 7:13; Ps 110:1). When we think of the title against its background (Dan 7), the divine nature of this figure comes to the fore.

By this confession Stephen and Luke invite us to see Jesus for who he really is, and in that vision to recognize him as worthy of worship, of complete devotion and obedience even to death.

The Sanhedrin will have none of this "Jesus worship." To them it is a blasphemy (Mk 14:61-64) that their loud yells must drown out and their hands must prevent from entering their ears (Strack and Billerbeck [1978:2:684] relate the rabbinic teaching on such a pious duty). And what a perfect picture of their spiritual deafness, these who are "uncircumcised in ear" and refuse to take that essential first step to salvation—having ears to hear God's message (7:51; Lk 4:21; 8:8; 9:44; 14:35; Acts 28:27/Is 6:10).

Like a herd of stampeding animals (compare Lk 8:33), yet intent on one purpose (NIV all), they rush together against Stephen, drag him out of the city and begin to stone him. Throwing him down from a high place, they gather and heave paving stones on top of him until death comes. These are the appropriate punishment, place and executioners (the witnesses) for the sin of blasphemy (Lev 24:14; Deut 17:7; m. Sanhedrin 6:1, 4; 7:4).

In an extraneous note indicating the custodian of the witness-executioners' cloaks Luke introduces us to a young man named Saul. He will figure prominently in the advance of the church in the near and long term (Acts 8:3; chaps. 9, 13—28).

When we reflect on how quickly a dignified high court was transformed into a lynch mob, we see how thin can be the veneer of civility and judicial order in society. This is especially true when those opposing God's truth see themselves as guardians of his message. There is nothing to stop their violence, as Stephen and many martyrs in his train have learned.