Kisah Para Rasul 6:13-14

6:13 They brought forward false witnesses who said, “This man does not stop saying things against this holy place ¹  and the law. ²  6:14 For we have heard him saying that Jesus the Nazarene will destroy this place and change the customs ³  that Moses handed down to us.”

Kisah Para Rasul 7:48

7:48 Yet the Most High ⁴  does not live in houses made by human hands, ⁵  as the prophet says,

[6:13]  ¹ sn This holy place is a reference to the temple.

[6:13]  ² sn The law refers to the law of Moses. It elaborates the nature of the blasphemy in v. 11. To speak against God’s law in Torah was to blaspheme God (Deut 28:15-19). On the Jewish view of false witnesses, see Exod 19:16-18; 20:16; m. Sanhedrin 3.6; 5.1-5. Stephen’s speech in Acts 7 may indicate why the temple was mentioned.

[6:14]  ³ tn Or “practices.”

[6:14]  sn Will destroy this place and change the customs. Stephen appears to view the temple as a less central place in light of Christ’s work, an important challenge to Jewish religion, since it was at this time a temple-centered state and religion. Unlike Acts 3-4, the issue here is more than Jesus and his resurrection. Now the impact of his resurrection and the temple’s centrality has also become an issue. The “falseness” of the charge may not be that the witnesses were lying, but that they falsely read the truth of Stephen’s remarks.

[7:48]  ⁴ sn The title the Most High points to God’s majesty (Heb 7:1; Luke 1:32, 35; Acts 16:7).

[7:48]  ⁵ sn The phrase made by human hands is negative in the NT: Mark 14:58; Acts 17:24; Eph 2:11; Heb 9:11, 24. It suggests “man-made” or “impermanent.” The rebuke is like parts of the Hebrew scripture where the rebuke is not of the temple, but for making too much of it (1 Kgs 8:27; Isa 57:15; 1 Chr 6:8; Jer 7:1-34).