Bible Strands
Acts 6:14
For we have heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — False witnesses deliver this charge before the Sanhedrin during Stephen’s trial. They speak at the precise moment the council examines Stephen’s alleged defiance of the temple and the Mosaic law.
The words — ἀκηκόαμεν (akēkoamen) translates literally as “we have heard,” marking the accusation as secondhand report. Ναζωραῖος (Nazōraios) specifies the accused as “of Nazareth,” anchoring the charge to a particular geographic and ethnic identifier.
The thread — The claim that Jesus overturns Mosaic customs repeats the pattern in Acts 21:21, where opponents allege Paul teaches Jews to abandon Moses. The warning about the temple’s fate aligns with the destruction foretold in Daniel 9:26 and the divine shaking described in Hebrews 12:26.
Why it lands — It forces the reader to separate the reported speech of the accusers from the factual record of Jesus’ actions. The verse demands a clear-eyed assessment of how fabricated testimony operates within legal and religious proceedings.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.
Cross-references
- Daniel 9:26 Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing. Then the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood, and until the end there will be war; desolations have been decreed.
- Acts 21:21 But they are under the impression that you teach all the Jews who live among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children or observe our customs.
- Hebrews 12:26 At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth, but heaven as well.”
- Acts 15:1 Then some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
- Luke 21:6 “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
- John 4:21 “Believe Me, woman,” Jesus replied, “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
- Acts 28:17 After three days, he called together the leaders of the Jews. When they had gathered, he said to them, “Brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our fathers, I was taken prisoner in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans.
- Galatians 3:19 Why then was the law given? It was added because of transgressions, until the arrival of the seed to whom the promise referred. It was administered through angels by a mediator.
- Galatians 3:23 Before this faith came, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until faith should be revealed.
- Galatians 4:3 So also, when we were children, we were enslaved under the basic principles of the world.