Stephen’s
speech and vision in Acts 6-7 show many interesting parallel ideas to the
Transfiguration incident with Jesus’ teaching of the martyrdom and Parousia in
Lk 9. Immediately before the Transfiguration, replying to Peter’s answer, Jesus
reveals and teaches his martyrdom, resurrection and return as the Son of Man
with glory (Lk 9:22-26). Moreover, Jesus expects his disciples to be willing to
sacrifice their lives for his sake as an expression of genuine discipleship. In
his speech, Stephen mentions how the Jews, and their ancestors not only
rejected Moses and Jesus, the Prophet-like-Moses, but also the prophets who
prophesied the coming of “the Righteous One Jesus” (Acts 7:52). He also
mentions the tent in the wilderness (σκηνη in Acts 7:43) and announces that God does not dwell in
the Temple made by human hands. In my reading of Luke-Acts, this part of
Stephen’s speech resonates with Peter’s proposal to erect the tents (σκηνη in Lk 9:33) at the Transfiguration and God’s
implicit rejection of it.
In
his vision, Stephen sees the heavens opened up and Jesus as the Son of Man
standing at the right hand of God with divine glory (Acts 7:55-56). While the
opened heavens, along with Stephen’s being filled with the Spirit, recalls the
scene of Jesus’ baptism, the Son of Man with glory reminds readers of the
Transfiguration incident. Since the three disciples’ experience of Jesus’
Transfiguration is a proleptic revelation of the Son of Man’s glory at the
Parousia, Stephen’s vision of the Son of Man with glory is identical to their
experience. In Stephen’s vision we find that Jesus’ promise of his return as
the Son of Man, to vindicate his righteous followers, is fulfilled for Stephen
on an individual level. Moreover, Luke describes Stephen’s transformation into
someone with an angelic face, while confronting his martyrdom (Acts 6:15). By
this transformation, Luke claims that the Son of Man’s vindication of his
righteous martyrs, which is promised to take place in the future in Lk 9, is
actualized in Stephen’s present experience of martyrdom and his personal
vindication and transformation. Regarding Stephen’s vision, C. K. Barrett
maintains, “It is an actual but personal and individual Parousia taking place
for the benefit of Stephen himself” (C. K. Barrett, “Stephen and the Son of
Man,” in Apophoreta: Festschrift für Ernst Haenchen zu Seinem Siebzigsten
Geburtstag [Berlin: Töpelmann, 1964], 35-36). According to Barrett, this
individual Parousia is distinct from the universal Parousia of the last days
and in this way,, Luke offers to his community a solution to the delay of the
Parousia. In my opinion, for the Lukan readers, “the individual Parousia” still
functions as strong evidence for “the universal Parousia.”
It
is significant that Luke presents Stephen the Hellenist as the first martyr who
experiences, even prior to Peter, James and John, Jesus’ prediction of his
coming as the Son of Man with glory. Also, since Stephen’s announcement of the
Son of Man standing at the right hand of God corresponds to Peter’s witness to
the exalted Lord at God’s right hand (Acts 2:33-35; 5:31), in Luke’s mind,
Stephen is well qualified to become a witness of Jesus’ resurrection like Peter
and the twelve (See Tannehill, The Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts: A literary
Interpretation, vol. 2, 80-101). (Simon S. Lee, Jesus’ Transfiguration
and the Believers’ Transformation [Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen Zum
Neuen Testament 2.Reihe 265; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2009], 124-25)