Speaking with someone and praying
to someone are two different types of speech act. Actually speaking with Jesus,
who is in heaven, puts communication on a different level. Where it is a
two-way audible communication, this does not happen in prayer.
Acts 7:55-56 in this unique
context, where the heavens open and Stephen makes a request to a standing
Jesus. In this “request” a speech act of prayer? Like RSV of Acts 7:59, some
Christadelphians go for “. . . he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit’
. . . “—however, the relevant Greek (epikaleo) is not specific enough to
fix unambiguously on ‘pray’. The Greek can be used for “calling upon [God]” (1
Pet 1:17), but it is also used when Paul later “appeals” to Caesar’s judgment (Acts
25:10, 11, 12, 21, 25). The speech act of appealing to Caesar in a framework of
seeking a legal judgment is obviously not a speech act of “prayer”. The
question therefore is this: what type of speech act is Stephen’s request? In an
earlier article, it was shown that while Saul was “standing” legally consenting
to Stephen’s death (Acts 22:20), Jesus’ own “standing” created a corresponding
Divine Council in which he shared a differently moment of judgment with
Stephen, vindicating his witness. It follows therefore that in this context
Stephen’s request to Jesus is an appeal and not an example of prayer.
As another example of speaking to
Jesus without praying, we might cite Acts 9:3ff, where the as yet unconverted, unbaptised
Saul has a heavenly encounter, a vision (Acts 26:19), which those with him did
not fully experience; they saw the light but did not hear the voice. IT was the
first of other promised appearances (Acts 18:9; 26:16) of Jesus to
Saul/Paul. Saul engages directly with the identified voice of Jesus, asks what
he should do, and follows the instructions Jesus gave him in the Hebrew tongue
(Acts 26:14). (John Adey, “Marginal Notes: Acts 7:55-56 ‘Speaking With’ and ‘Praying
To,’” Christadelphian EJournal of Biblical Interpretation [July 2009]: 173-74)
