# How were the Jews able to murder Stephen?



## Tirian (Aug 11, 2015)

I was struck the other night by the ease and speed by which Stephen was put to death after his trial before the High Priest. How were the Jews able to kill him without Roman intervention - had not the death penalty been removed from Judaic justice by the Romsns long before then?

Was Roman governance that weak outside the city walls?


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## RamistThomist (Aug 11, 2015)

The Mob.


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## Bill The Baptist (Aug 11, 2015)

Because God is sovereign. After Stephen was stoned, a great persecution began and the Christians were forced to disperse far and wide resulting in the gospel being proclaimed far and wide. Stephen was killed in order to fulfill the plan of God.


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## py3ak (Aug 11, 2015)

F.F. Bruce suggests that at the end of Pilate's tenure, with his patron Sejanus no longer able to advocate for him in Rome, his position was too precarious to allow him to complain too strongly about the Jewish leaders. Since they could cause trouble for him if he caused any for them, he likely overlooked something that in any case couldn't be reversed.


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## bookslover (Aug 12, 2015)

From John R. W. Stott's 1990 commentary on Acts: _Since the Romans had taken away the Jews' right of capital punishment, it seems that Stephen's stoning was more a mob lynching than an official execution. Yet, it had a small semblance of justice since, according to the law, the first to begin stoning the condemned person must be "the witnesses," which means his accusers, whether, in Stephen's case, these were the false witnesses of 6.13 or Sanhedrin members._ (p. 142)


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## JimmyH (Aug 12, 2015)

When I began reading the Gospels I was disturbed by the account of our Lord's arrest. In Matthew 26:51-52 we read that one of the disciples drew his sword and cuts off the ear of the high priest's servant. We are not told who the swordsman is, nor are we given an account of why the assailant is not taken into custody along with Jesus. 

In Mark 14:47 the disciple cutting the ear off is mentioned with even less information. It is only in Luke 22:50-51 that we learn that Jesus immediately healed the servant which would account for the assailant not being called to account.

In John 18:10-11 the swordsman is identified as Peter, the victim as Malchus. So reading the Gospel history it is apparent that the writers did not give a detailed account of every incident. As John says in the 4th Gospel, John 21:24-25, if everything that our Lord performed were written, it would take so many books they would cover the earth.

I'm postulating that if those who killed Stephen may have been brought to trial by the Roman authorities and Luke didn't see fit to mention it. Just a remote possibility.


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