The Meaning of the temple in Stephen's speech

Abstract

Scholars have adopted three major interpretations for Acts 7:44-50. Some hold the rejection view, arguing that Stephen in his speech saw the building of the temple as an act of rebellion against God. The proponents of the transcendence view advance that Stephen's speech conveys the idea of God's transcendence of the temple, since He could not be confined in it. The replacement view asserts that Stephen was spiritualizing the temple; this view recognizes in Jesus the replacement of the temple, and the believers its living stones. In this study, the rejection view is refuted, the transcendence and replacement views are evaluated, and an alternative view is adopted as the conclusion of the study. This has been done by examining the social and religious backgrounds of the temple and the setting of the speech. These backgrounds, along with the analysis of its context and the exegesis of Acts 7:44-50, lead to the conclusions of the study. The study reveals that stephen did not reject the temple as God's dwelling place on earth. God transcends the temple, because His real dwelllng is in heaven: the tabernacle and Solomon's temple was just an earthly counterpart of the heavenly temple. But Stephen's declaration in Acts 7:48 likely involves more than God's transcendence of the temple. God left the temple. It was no longer His earthly, man-made dwelling p1ace. At the death of Jesus, the ministry in the temple ceased to have meaning. The temple was doomed to its final destruction. Jesus began His heavenry ministry in the heavenly temple, which in this sense replaced the earthly temple. The type met the antitype. The copy was gone. The reality took its pIace. Though God no longer dwelt in the earthly man-made temple, He promised to dwell in the earthry non-man-made temple. This appears to be the reasonable interpretation of Acts 7:49,50 regarding the temple that God's people would build for Him. The New Testament teaches that believers are God's temple. God requires them to be obedient, to be humble, and to practice "right" not "rites."