Catholic Commentary
Stephen's Defense Begins: The Call of Abraham
1The high priest said, “Are these things so?”2He said, “Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,3and said to him, ‘Get out of your land and away from your relatives, and come into a land which I will show you.’4Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans and lived in Haran. From there, when his father was dead, God moved him into this land where you are now living.5He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his offspring after him, when he still had no child.6God spoke in this way: that his offspring would live as aliens in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.7‘I will judge the nation to which they will be in bondage,’ said God, ‘and after that they will come out and serve me in this place.’8He gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.
Acts 7:1–8 records Stephen's opening defense before the Sanhedrin, beginning with God's call to Abraham in Mesopotamia and tracing the patriarchal covenant through Isaac and Jacob. Stephen emphasizes that God appeared and made promises outside the Temple and Promised Land, establishing his theological argument that divine presence is not confined to a physical location.
God's glory appeared outside the temple and outside the Promised Land — to show that his presence has never been confined to any building or geography.
Commentary
Acts 7:1 — The Accusation Sets the Stage The high priest's terse question — "Are these things so?" — refers back to the charges of Acts 6:13–14: that Stephen spoke against "this holy place and the law," claiming Jesus would destroy the Temple and change Mosaic customs. Rather than mounting a narrow legal defense, Stephen launches into a theologically dense historical recitation that will ultimately indict his accusers from within their own tradition. This rhetorical strategy — turning the prosecution's ground against itself — reflects the pattern of the prophets before him.
Acts 7:2 — "The God of Glory Appeared … in Mesopotamia" Stephen's opening address, "Brothers and fathers," is respectful but deliberately inclusive, positioning himself within the tradition he is about to reinterpret. The phrase "God of glory" (ὁ θεὸς τῆς δόξης, ho theos tēs doxēs) is striking and programmatic. It echoes Psalm 29:3 ("The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders") and signals that divine majesty is not anchored to the Jerusalem Temple. Crucially, Stephen specifies that this theophany occurred in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran — a geographical detail absent from Genesis 12 but consistent with Genesis 15 and confirmed by Joshua 24:2–3. This is not careless history; Stephen is stressing that the God of Israel manifested his glory outside the Promised Land, to a man dwelling among pagans. The very foundation of covenant history is a divine initiative taken on foreign, un-consecrated soil.
Acts 7:3 — The Command to Leave (Genesis 12:1) The quotation of Genesis 12:1 is slightly condensed but faithfully renders its force: total severance from land, kindred, and father's house. The verb "show" (δείξω, deixō) — "a land which I will show you" — is significant: Abraham does not choose a destination; he follows a revelation still forthcoming. He is the paradigm of faith as forward movement into the unseen, holding the promise without possessing the fulfillment. This is the first of many moments in Stephen's speech where Israel's great heroes are portrayed as people perpetually living ahead of the fulfillment, in trust.
Acts 7:4 — Movement and Divine Timing Stephen notes Abraham's obedient departure and his sojourn in Haran, and then underscores that God moved him into Canaan only after Terah's death. The verb "moved" (μετῴκισεν, metōkisen) carries the sense of resettlement, even displacement — a reminder that Abraham in Canaan was still a resident alien (cf. Heb 11:9), never a true native. God is the architect of every migration in this story.
Acts 7:5 — Promise Without Possession This is the theological heart of the opening section: God "gave him no inheritance in it, not so much as a foot's breadth" (cf. Gen 23, where Abraham must purchase even a burial plot), yet promised the land to him and his descendants. Stephen dwells on the gap between promise and fulfillment, and sharpens the paradox: Abraham had no child when the promise was made. The covenant rests entirely on God's fidelity, not on any human precondition. This sets up Stephen's implicit argument: if the Temple were the necessary dwelling-place of God, then God had no dwelling-place during the centuries of the patriarchs — yet he was present and active throughout.
Verses 6–7 — The Prophecy of Exile and Exodus (Genesis 15:13–14) Stephen quotes God's words from the covenant of the pieces (Gen 15), foretelling four hundred years of slavery in a foreign land followed by judgment on the oppressor and worship "in this place." The phrase "this place" (ἐν τῷ τόπῳ τούτῳ, en tō topō toutō) is delicately ambiguous: it could refer to Canaan generally, but Stephen's accusers had used "this place" (Acts 6:13–14) to mean the Temple specifically. Stephen is already laying the groundwork to show that Israel's worship has always been oriented toward something greater and freer than a fixed building.
Acts 7:8 — The Covenant of Circumcision and the Patriarchal Line The giving of circumcision (Gen 17) seals the covenant in the body of the covenant people, connecting Abraham to Isaac, Jacob, and the twelve patriarchs. The precision "on the eighth day" echoes Leviticus 12:3 and anticipates Paul's use of Abraham's faith as prior to circumcision (Rom 4:10–11). Stephen does not disparage circumcision; he simply locates it within a history of grace that precedes and exceeds it. The patriarchal genealogy closes this opening unit, preparing the transition to the Joseph narrative in Acts 7:9.
Typological and Spiritual Senses The Fathers consistently read Abraham's call as a type of baptismal departure: leaving the "Mesopotamia" of sin for the promised land of grace. Origen (Homilies on Genesis 2) sees in Abraham's journeying the soul's itinerary toward God. More directly, Stephen's portrait of Abraham as one who possessed the promise without the land typifies the Church's own condition as ecclesia peregrinans — a pilgrim people who hold the Kingdom in hope but not yet in full possession.
Catholic Commentary
Catholic tradition illuminates this passage at several distinct levels.
The Freedom of God's Presence. Stephen's insistence that the God of glory appeared outside the Holy Land directly anticipates the theology of the Church as the new, universal temple. The Catechism teaches that "the Temple prefigures his own mystery" (CCC 586), but also that Christ himself — and in him the Church — supersedes the Jerusalem Temple as the true locus of divine encounter (CCC 756–757). Stephen is not attacking Israel's sacred institutions; he is tracing the trajectory within Israel's own tradition toward a worship "in spirit and truth" (John 4:23).
Abraham as the Father of Faith. The Council of Trent and the Second Vatican Council both affirm that Abraham is the father of all believers (cf. Lumen Gentium 2; Romans 4). St. Augustine in City of God (Book XVI) sees Abraham's departure as the moment the City of God begins its visible pilgrimage through history, distinct from the City of Man. The detail that he received the promise with no heir and no land is, for Augustine and Aquinas (ST II-II, q.2, a.2), the supreme Old Testament illustration of faith as the "substance of things hoped for" (Heb 11:1).
Covenant and Circumcision. The mention of the "covenant of circumcision" in verse 8 allows Catholic exegetes to trace the development from circumcision to baptism as the rite of covenant incorporation. St. Paul's argument in Colossians 2:11–12 and Romans 4:11 — that circumcision was a "seal" of pre-existing faith, and that baptism is its fulfillment — is rooted in precisely this Abrahamic moment. The Catechism (CCC 1150, 1221) identifies circumcision as a prefiguration of baptism.
The Pattern of Promise and Pilgrimage. Hebrews 11:8–16 elaborates on Stephen's portrait of Abraham, concluding that the patriarchs "acknowledged that they were strangers and foreigners on the earth" and desired "a better country, a heavenly one." This is the theological DNA of the Catholic understanding of the Church Militant — the people of God always en route, living by promise, not yet by possession.
For Today
Stephen stands before a hostile tribunal and responds not with panic or political calculation, but by going deeper into the tradition — letting God's own history of faithful action speak. This is a model for Catholics who feel their faith is on trial in secular or hostile settings: the answer is not merely to defend a position but to tell the larger story, trusting that the truth of salvation history carries its own persuasive weight.
More practically, Stephen's portrait of Abraham invites every Catholic to examine what "Mesopotamias" they cling to — familiar comforts, social belonging, secure identities — that God may be calling them to leave for a land not yet shown. The spiritual life is, by design, a pilgrimage. The promise comes before the possession; the call precedes the destination. In an age that prizes certainty, measurable progress, and immediate return, Abraham's posture of departure-in-trust is countercultural and deeply necessary.
Parishes discerning major transitions — a merger, a new evangelization effort, a difficult pastoral change — may find in this passage a grounding word: the God of glory has always been ahead of his people, moving them forward, requiring trust before showing the destination.
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