<p>7:2 <i>And he said: Brothers and fathers, listen<em>- </em></i>Stephen did not consider the Jews to be somehow not his brethren. This open approach to fellowship with the Jews, despite their misunderstandings and misbelief and aggression, is surely a challenge to all who insist on rigid lines of fellowship demarcation.</p><p><em>The God of glory- </em>See on 6:15<em>. </em>In his famous final speech, Stephen evidently had humming in his mind the theme of the glory of God. He begins by saying that &ldquo;The God of glory appeared&hellip;&rdquo;. God heard that speech, and read his mind. And responded in an appropriate way- for to give Stephen final strength to face death, God made His glory appear to Stephen (Acts 7:55). And so it can be for us- although it all depends what we have humming in our hearts. The context of Stephen's speech is his defence against the accusation that he was blaspheming the temple. The Jews considered that God's glory was uniquely located within that building; even though there is no evidence that the shekinah glory was visible at that time. Stephen's response is that God's glory was apparent to Abraham in Gentile Mesopotamia, outside even the limits of the land promised to Abraham. There is the implication in the language of 'appearance' that Abraham had some kind of a vision of the cherubim glory of Yahweh, although Genesis is silent about that.</p><p><em>Appeared to our father Abraham</em>- Stephen was not merely witnessing against these men. He was appealing for their repentance, and does so by building bridges over what was common ground- in this case, having Abraham as their common father. See on 7:19 <em>Our race... our fathers </em>and 7:26 <em>Gentlemen..</em>.</p><p><em>Before he dwelt in Haran</em>- See on :4.</p>