While reading through acts 6:8 – 8-1 I could not fail to be amazed at the vivid account of Stephen before the council. His speech is one of the longest in Acts and is very detailed. I know that Luke researched his work very thoroughly, but I have been left wondering who spoke to him about it.
Firstly the meeting was held in private and only the council members and their supporters would have been present. Stephen was ‘lifted’ off the street so there would have been no time for the apostles to have shown up, and shortly afterwards the church did a runner out of Jerusalem in fear of the persecution from the Jewish leaders. So who told Luke this detailed account of what Stephen said and the other eye witness elements of the account?
Personally I think that it must have been Saul / Paul. We know he was present at the stoning and since that was an overspill from the council I think it is fair to say he must have been in that meeting. We know that Gamalial was part of the council so it is fair to presume that one of his prominent followers would have been as well.
In Acts 6:15 we are told that “they saw his face like an angel” this is only admissible via an eye witness again this points to someone who Luke had access to after the event someone from the council that was also a Christian at a later date.
We are also told in Acts 7:59 his final prayers as he was dying, again this could only have come from someone who had been a witness to it and we know Paul was there as well. Especially as the stoning would have been done away from prying eyes as it was highly illegal and the Romans would not have been pleased about it.
So if Acts 6:8 – 8:1 are the recollections of Paul I would like to put forward a possible candidate for what Paul calls this “Thorn was given in my flesh” in 2Cor12:7. Could this thorn be his grief and remembrance of the persecution he waged on church which we are informed of later in Acts and the stoning of Stephen?
The full verse is
“So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. “
Now I have always been a supporter for the thorn to be a physical illness, now I am not so sure. Maybe this is something more emotional or psychological. Paul calls himself the ‘Least’ of the apostles because of his former action Eph 3:8 & 1 Cor 15:9, so maybe this is what stops him from becoming conceited. This ‘thorn’ is a reminder of what he has done to keep Paul ‘grounded’. It was also a thorn that God did not want to remove, in the next verse we see that Paul has asked three times for it to be removed, but he gets the reply of “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness”.
I don’t really have much more to say about this, it may be complete rubbish but it was just something that caught my eye and got me thinking. I guess in terms of life application it just shows again and again that God will use those who HE will use, and sometimes He will choose the least likely person to do what He wants doing. I think it also shows that even the great hero’s of the bible and early church were real people, with real personalities, real concerns, and real problems…. just like me and you. It also shows that our life as Christians will never be a bed of roses because in our weakness is His true glory and power found.
Feel free to leave yor comments on this I think it could be something to discuss further.
