Acts 7:47-50
Verse 48 The Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands - Here St. Stephen evidently refers to Solomon's speech, 1Kgs 8:27. But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven, and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house that I have builded? Both Solomon and St. Stephen mean that the majesty of God could not be contained, not even in the whole vortex of nature; much less in any temple which human hands could erect. As saith the prophet - The place referred to is Isa 66:1, Isa 66:2 : Thus saith the Lord, the heaven is my throne, and the earth my footstool. Where is the house that ye build unto me? And where is the place of my rest, etc., with which the quotation by Stephen agrees. Verse 50 Hath not my hand made all these things? - Stephen certainly had not finished his discourse, nor drawn his inferences from the facts already stated; but it is likely that, as they perceived he was about to draw conclusions unfavourable to the temple and its ritual, they immediately raised up a clamor against him, which was the cause of the following very cutting address.
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