One very powerful benefit provided by the New Testament is that it offers for us a proper interpretation of the old one. Because Christianity sees Christ as the fulfillment of the Hebrew religion, most Christian adherents understand that the New Testament writings reveal to us the divinity of Christ in the Hebrew scriptures. While that is quite an accomplishment, the Christian scriptures do more than that. They inform our understanding of Old Testament history – often by adding detail that isn’t present in the established Hebraic narrative. In the sermon he delivers just before he is murdered, the christian Martyr, Stephen, does both of those things (Acts 6:8 - Acts 7:60). He interprets for us the general Christian meaning of the Hebrew scriptures, while also giving us details that sharpen our understanding of specific events.
Stephen’s rendition of the killing of an Egyptian by Moses from the book of Exodus is emblematic of both of those New Testament interpretive benefits. The Old Testament’s book of Exodus describes how Moses sees an Egyptian mistreating a Hebrew man. Moses checks to make sure there are no official witnesses, then slays the Egyptian abuser and buries the body (Exodus 2:11-12). The next day Moses returns to the area and sees two Hebrew men fighting with one another. He asks the aggressor in that fight why he is striking his Hebrew brother. The man responds by pridefully asking Moses the question, “who made you a leader and a judge over us?” The man then asks, “do you intend to kill me like you killed the Egyptian?” An understandably frightened Moses, surmising that if this Hebrew man knows what he did, then surely Pharaoh also does, flees to the area of Midian (Exodus 2:13-15). Exodus never gives us a motivation for the decision by Moses to kill the Egyptian. We assume that he is doing it simply out of a love for his fellow Hebrew and anger toward an abusive Egyptian.
But Stephen tells us that Moses believed God had sent him to rescue the Hebrews from the tyranny of worldly Egypt (Acts 7:25). Of course, at this point, Moses had not yet experienced the voice of God in the burning Bush, and had not yet heard the command to lead the people out of Egypt (Exodus 3). Stephen’s detail gives us a window into the mind of Moses before his official calling. He had a belief in the Hebrew God even though he was raised in the wisdom of Egypt (Acts 7:22), and he had a vision for a united Hebraic brotherhood. Perhaps God was already working in him. Perhaps Moses acted too soon and perpetrated murder in his zeal.
Stephen goes on in his sermon to point out how Moses was one of many prophets rejected by the Hebrew people, which gives us a New Testament angle on the rejection of Jesus by the very people he came to save (Acts 7:35, Acts 7:51-53).
At this comparison, they became enraged and promptly stoned Stephen to death, confirming their anti-Christ spirit his sermon had so eloquently exposed (Acts 7:54-60).
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