Scholarship is
sharply divided over whether Stephen completely rejected the temple or whether
he was offering a prophetic critique. In light of the overall picture of the
temple in Luke-Acts and even in Stephen’s speech itself, the latter seems the
more likely. The theme of worshipping God in this place (i.e., in the Jerusalem
temple) is set forth quite positively in the beginning of Stephen’s speech (v.
7) (Dahl argues that the promise of “worship in this place” made to Abraham [v.
7] is never actually fulfilled in Stephen’s speech, but rather Stephen was
implying that the true worship is only realized in the community of the
Messiah, not in a man-made cult [“Story of Abraham,” 145-47). The emphasis,
however, is on the worship—not the “place” of worship. Stephen did not reject
the temple as such but the abuse of the temple, which made it into something
other than a place for offering worship of God. His view is thus closely linked
to that of Jesus, who also attacked the abuses of the temple cult and stressed
its true purpose of being a “house of prayer” (Luke 19:46).
The particular abuse
that Stephen addressed was the use of the temple to restrict, confine, and
ultimately to try to manipulate God. This seems to have been the significance in
his contrast between the tabernacle in vv. 44-46 and the temple in vv. 47-48.
The tabernacle was designed (v. 44) and approved by God. It was a “dwelling
place” for God, but not a “house” of God (Kilgallen argued that Stephen was criticising
not the temple as such but the false concept of the temple as a “house of God”:
The Stephen Speech, 94; cf. his “The Function of Stephen’s Speech (Acts
7:2-53),” Bib 70 [1989]:173-93 and F.D. Weinert, “Luke, Stephen, and the
Temple in Luke-Acts,” BTB 17 [1987]:88-90). It is the concept of “house”
to which Stephen objected. As a “house” the temple was conceived as a man-made
edifice in which God was confined: “This is his house—here and
nowhere else.” (John B. Polhill, Acts: An Exegetical and Theological Exposition
of Holy Scripture [The New American Commentary 26; Nashville: Broadman
Press, 1992], 203)
Are LDS Temples Condemned by Acts 7:48; 17:24?
