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Acts 7:40

in Acts 7

They said to Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us! As for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

saying unto Aaron, Make us gods that shall go before us: for as for this Moses, who led us forth out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him.

KJV

Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

This verse in Acts 7

Commentary

8 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge, &c.--Here, again, "the stone which the builders refused is made the head of the corner" (Ps 118:22).

This site's exposition

the assembly in the wilderness

on Acts 7:38-41

Stephen calls Israel at Sinai the assembly in the wilderness, using the Greek ekklesia, the word the New Testament uses for its own gathering. That assembly received living words, yet made a calf weeks after hearing God's voice.

This site's exposition

Make us gods

The request comes from Exodus 32:1, and Albert Barnes explains that the gods meant are idols. Chrysostom notices the contempt in "this Moses," and that the people credit Moses alone for bringing them out, with no mention of God. They would not wait for his return.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers2 voices

A commentator

Oecumenius

Commentary on Acts · Written before 550.

proposed

Consider that at first they brought them offering sacrifices, and then that they offered them to idols. For previously the name "sacrifices" is nowhere found, but there were precepts concerning living and rational animals. The testimony, however, does not introduce this randomly, but so as …

A commentator

John Chrysostom

Homily on Acts 17 · Written before 407.

proposed

"And said unto Aaron, Make us gods which shall go before us." O the folly! "Make," say they; "that they may go before us." Whither? "Into Egypt." See how hard they were to tear away from the customs of Egypt! What sayest thou? What, not wait for him that brought thee out, but flee the benefit, and deny the Benefactor? And mark how insulting they are: "For as for this Moses," they say:-"which brought us out of the land of Egypt" nowhere the name of God: instead of that, they ascribed all to Moses. Where they ought to give thanks (to God), they bring Moses forward: where it was, to do as the Law bade them, they no longer make account of Moses. "We know not what is become of him." And yet he told them that he was going up to receive the Law: and they had not patience to wait forty days.

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

Saying unto Aaron, make us gods to go before us,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

He applies this to those that prosecuted him, and sat in judgment upon him, sharply reproving them for their wickedness, by which they had brought upon themselves the ruin of their place and nation, and then could not bear to hear of it,

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

Saying unto Aaron - Exo 32:1. Make us gods - That is, idols.

The words behind it

24 Greek words

Every Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

7 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Exodus 32:1

    Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses…

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 9:9

      When I went up on the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.…

    • Exodus 24:18

      Moses entered the cloud as he went up on the mountain, and he remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

    • 2 Peter 3:4

      “Where is the promise of His coming?” they will ask. “Ever since our fathers fell asleep, everything continues as it has from the beginning of creation.”

    • Matthew 24:48

      But suppose that servant is wicked and says in his heart, ‘My master will be away a long time.’

    • Deuteronomy 9:11–12

      And at the end of forty days and forty nights, the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant.

  • Through

    Exodus 32:23

    They told me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!’

    it leads to

    • Exodus 32:1–4

      Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses…

    • Exodus 32:8

      How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it. They have sacrificed to it and said,…

Where this verse is studied

About Acts

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, Homily on Acts 17; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Oecumenius, Commentary on Acts.