Bible Strands
Acts 7:58
They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator describes the mob dragging Stephen outside Jerusalem immediately after they rush at him following his defense. The moment captures the abrupt shift from courtroom testimony to extrajudicial execution.
The words — The text uses ἐκβαλόντες (ekbalontes), meaning "having cast out," and ἐλιθοβόλουν (elithoboloun), meaning "they were stoning," to record the physical removal and method of death. These verbs establish the sequence of violence before the witnesses prepare for the execution.
The thread — The removal outside the city and the witnesses' preparatory actions follow the execution pattern in Leviticus 24:14. The detail about Saul guarding the garments directly supplies the factual basis for his later testimony in Acts 22:20 and his presence at the persecution in Acts 8:1.
Why it lands — The passage requires readers to acknowledge Saul's documented complicity in Stephen's death before his conversion. It demands a clear-eyed view of how religious authority can orchestrate violence and how Scripture records human opposition without softening the facts.
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
And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.
Cross-references
- Acts 22:20 And when the blood of Your witness Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and watching over the garments of those who killed him.’
- Acts 8:1 And Saul was there, giving approval to Stephen’s death. On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.
- Leviticus 24:14 “Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and have all who heard him lay their hands on his head; then have the whole assembly stone him.
- Acts 6:13 where they presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law.
- Deuteronomy 13:9 Instead, you must surely kill him. Your hand must be the first against him to put him to death, and then the hands of all the people.
- Deuteronomy 17:7 The hands of the witnesses shall be the first in putting him to death, and after that, the hands of all the people. So you must purge the evil from among you.
- 1 Kings 21:13 And the two scoundrels came in and sat opposite Naboth, and these men testified against him before the people, saying, “Naboth has cursed both God and the king!” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death.
- Luke 4:29 They got up, drove Him out of the town, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw Him over the cliff.
- Acts 22:4 I persecuted this Way even to the death, detaining both men and women and throwing them into prison,
- Numbers 15:35 And the LORD said to Moses, “The man must surely be put to death. The whole congregation is to stone him outside the camp.”