<p>7:52 <em>Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?</em>- Stephen here and in :51 speaks of &quot;your fathers&quot; whereas earlier in his address he spoke repeatedly of &quot;<em>our</em> fathers&quot; (Acts 7:2,11,12,15,19,38,39,44,45). But having tried to build that bridge between himself and his audience, by speaking of their common ancestry, he now makes the appeal for radical change- to disown what those fathers <em>did</em>. Saul, who was intently listening, was guilty of persecuting the Christians (Acts 22:4 s.w.). And the Lord continues Stephen's appeal to him by asking him on the Damascus road: &quot;Why do you persecute Me?&quot; (Acts 9:4,5 s.w.). Note that every prophet was persecuted- even if we don't read about (e.g. Jonah- although maybe it was Jewish persecution which disinclined him to preach to Gentiles).</p><p><em>And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One</em>- Peter had used the same word in Acts 3:28: &quot;The things which God foretold s.w. by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ should suffer, He thus fulfilled&quot;. Stephen may be taking this further in suggesting that the reason they killed such prophets was because the message of a suffering, dead Messiah was so deeply unacceptable to the Jews. Stephen is demonstrating that the Jews' implacable hatred of Jesus of Nazareth was therefore seamlessly in line with the attitude of an Israel whom God had rejected. The message of Christ crucified cannot be received dispassionately; it forces a reaction, either of humbled acceptance, or anger, even passive anger, but all the same anger- because the human conscience has been touched in a way nothing else can touch it. And that anger is directed at the one who brings the message, for he or she is the human face of Jesus to them. It is Luke alone who records how the Lord Jesus on the cross was &quot;the just one&quot; (Lk. 23:47 s.w.).</p><p><em>Of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers</em>- Judas the singular betrayer was an embodiment of all the Jewish opposition. I suggest this is the key to understanding how the 'satan' or adversary of Jewish opposition entered into Judas. I develop this theme further in 'The Jewish Satan' in <em>The Real Devil</em>. The Jews doubtless rationalized the Lord's death by feeling that the Romans had done it. But the early preachers repeatedly lay the blame for it upon the Jews; hence Stephen says that they had each one murdered their Messiah; for he speaks of &quot;murderers&quot; in the plural. This demonstrates that 'going along' with a seriously wrong position can be counted by God as actually performing the crime.</p>