Acts 7:51
New International Version
“You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit!

New Living Translation
“You stubborn people! You are heathen at heart and deaf to the truth. Must you forever resist the Holy Spirit? That’s what your ancestors did, and so do you!

English Standard Version
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.

Berean Standard Bible
You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.

Berean Literal Bible
You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, also do you.

King James Bible
Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

New King James Version
You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.

New American Standard Bible
“You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.

NASB 1995
“You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.

NASB 1977
“You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.

Legacy Standard Bible
“You men—stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears—are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.

Amplified Bible
“You stiff-necked and stubborn people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are always actively resisting the Holy Spirit. You are doing just as your fathers did.

Christian Standard Bible
“You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your ancestors did, you do also.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit; as your ancestors did, so do you.

American Standard Version
Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do ye.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Oh, stiff necks, who are uncircumcised in their hearts and in their hearing, you always are opposing The Spirit of Holiness, as your fathers did, so do you!

Contemporary English Version
You stubborn and hardheaded people! You are always fighting against the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors did.

Douay-Rheims Bible
You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do you also.

English Revised Version
Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
"How stubborn can you be? How can you be so heartless and disobedient? You're just like your ancestors. They always opposed the Holy Spirit, and so do you!

Good News Translation
"How stubborn you are!" Stephen went on to say. "How heathen your hearts, how deaf you are to God's message! You are just like your ancestors: you too have always resisted the Holy Spirit!

International Standard Version
"You stubborn people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do.

Literal Standard Version
You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and in ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers—also you;

Majority Standard Bible
You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.

New American Bible
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always oppose the holy Spirit; you are just like your ancestors.

NET Bible
"You stubborn people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, like your ancestors did!

New Revised Standard Version
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do.

New Heart English Bible
"You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so you do.

Webster's Bible Translation
Ye stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do ye.

Weymouth New Testament
"O stiff-necked men, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you also are continually at strife with the Holy Spirit--just as your forefathers were.

World English Bible
“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do.

Young's Literal Translation
'Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and in ears! ye do always the Holy Spirit resist; as your fathers -- also ye;

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Stephen's Address to the Sanhedrin
50Has not My hand made all these things?’ 51You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did. 52Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—…

Cross References
Exodus 32:9
The LORD also said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.

Exodus 33:3
Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people; otherwise, I might destroy you on the way."

Exodus 33:5
For the LORD had said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites, 'You are a stiff-necked people. If I should go with you for a single moment, I would destroy you. Now take off your jewelry, and I will decide what to do with you.'"

Leviticus 26:41
and I acted with hostility toward them and brought them into the land of their enemies--and if their uncircumcised hearts will be humbled and they will make amends for their iniquity,

Numbers 27:14
for when the congregation contended in the Wilderness of Zin, both of you rebelled against My command to show My holiness in their sight regarding the waters." Those were the waters of Meribah in Kadesh, in the Wilderness of Zin.

2 Kings 17:14
But they would not listen, and they stiffened their necks like their fathers, who did not believe the LORD their God.

Isaiah 48:4
For I knew that you are stubborn; your neck is iron and your forehead is bronze.


Treasury of Scripture

You stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do you.

stiffnecked.

Exodus 32:9
And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

Exodus 33:3,5
Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way…

Exodus 34:9
And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us; for it is a stiffnecked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.

uncircumcised.

Leviticus 26:41
And that I also have walked contrary unto them, and have brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised hearts be humbled, and they then accept of the punishment of their iniquity:

Deuteronomy 10:16
Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.

Deuteronomy 30:6
And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.

resist.

Acts 6:10
And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.

Nehemiah 9:30
Yet many years didst thou forbear them, and testifiedst against them by thy spirit in thy prophets: yet would they not give ear: therefore gavest thou them into the hand of the people of the lands.

Isaiah 63:10
But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.

as.

Acts 7:9,27,35,39
And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him, …

Matthew 23:31-33
Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets…

Jump to Previous
Always Continually Ears Fathers Forefathers Ghost Hard Heart Hearts Holy Resist Resisting Shut Spirit Stiffnecked Stiff-Necked Strife Uncircumcised
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Always Continually Ears Fathers Forefathers Ghost Hard Heart Hearts Holy Resist Resisting Shut Spirit Stiffnecked Stiff-Necked Strife Uncircumcised
Acts 7
1. Stephen, permitted to answer to the accusation of blasphemy,
2. shows that Abraham worshipped God rightly, and how God chose the fathers,
20. before Moses was born, and before the tabernacle and temple were built;
37. that Moses himself witnessed of Christ;
44. and that all outward ceremonies were ordained to last but for a time;
51. reprehending their rebellion, and murdering of Christ, whom the prophets foretold.
54. Whereupon they stone Stephen to death,
59. who commends his soul to Jesus, and humbly prays for them.














(51) Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised . . .--The sudden change of tone from calm argument to vehement indignation cannot be thought of as spontaneous. The excitement of the Sanhedrin, perhaps of the listening crowd also, at this point, would seem to have become uncontrollable. The accused seemed to them to be repeating his offence with defiant boldness, and loud clamours took the place of whispered murmurs. Both the adjectives had been applied to the sins of the older Israel; "stiffnecked" in Exodus 33:3; Exodus 33:5; Exodus 34:9; "uncircumcised" in Jeremiah 6:10. The actual phrase "uncircumcised in heart" had been used by Ezekiel (Ezekiel 44:7) of "strangers." It was now applied to those who boasted of their exclusive privileges as Israelites, and it is scarcely possible for us to estimate the sharp incisiveness with which it, or its Aramaic equivalent, must have fallen on the ears of the Sanhedrin. It was to them all, and more than all, that "heretic" and "infidel" have been in the controversies of Christians. Here again, in St. Paul's "circumcision of the heart" (Romans 2:29), we have another echo from St. Stephen's speech. . . . Verse 51. - Stiff-necked; hard of neck, inflexible. The word σκληροτράχηλος only occurs here in the New Testament. But it answers in the LXX. to the Hebrew קְשֵׁה־עֹרֶף (hard of neck); see Exodus 33:3, 5, and elsewhere. In applying this expression to his hearers, Stephen was using the identical language of Moses when he conveyed God's rebuke to them. Considering that they professed to be standing on Moses' side against Stephen, this must have made his words doubly cutting to them. Uncircumcised in heart; ἀπερίτμητος only occurs here in the New Testament, but it is found in 2 Macc. 1:51 2Macc. 2:46; and in the LXX. of Exodus 12:48; Judges 14:3; 1 Samuel 17:26, and elsewhere for the Hebrew עֹרֵל. The word, in its application to his Jewish audience, contains a whole volume of rebuke. They prided themselves on their circumcision, they trusted in it as a sure ground of favor in the sight of God; but all the while they were on a level with the heathen whom they despised, and were to be reckoned among the uncircumcised whom they loathed. For they were without the true circumcision, that of the heart. Here again Stephen was teaching in the exact spirit and even words of Moses and the prophets. See Leviticus 26:41; Deuteronomy 10:16 (where Stephen's two reproaches occur together); Jeremiah 9:26; Ezekiel 44:7; and many other passages. Compare the teaching of St. Paul (Romans 2:28, 29; Philippians 3:2, 3; Colossians 2:11; and elsewhere).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
[You] stiff-necked [people]
Σκληροτράχηλοι (Sklērotrachēloi)
Adjective - Vocative Masculine Plural
Strong's 4644: Stiff-necked, stubborn, obstinate. From skleros and trachelos; hardnaped, i.e. obstinate.

[with]
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

uncircumcised
ἀπερίτμητοι (aperitmētoi)
Adjective - Vocative Masculine Plural
Strong's 564: Uncircumcised. Uncircumcised.

hearts
καρδίαις (kardiais)
Noun - Dative Feminine Plural
Strong's 2588: Prolonged from a primary kar; the heart, i.e. the thoughts or feelings; also the middle.

and
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

ears!
ὠσίν (ōsin)
Noun - Dative Neuter Plural
Strong's 3775: (a) the ear, (b) met: the faculty of perception. Apparently a primary word; the ear.

You
ὑμεῖς (hymeis)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Nominative 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

always
ἀεὶ (aei)
Adverb
Strong's 104: From an obsolete primary noun; 'ever, 'by qualification regularly; by implication, earnestly.

resist
ἀντιπίπτετε (antipiptete)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 496: To resist, oppose, fall against or upon. From anti and pipto; to oppose.

the
τῷ (tō)
Article - Dative Neuter Singular
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

Holy
Ἁγίῳ (Hagiō)
Adjective - Dative Neuter Singular
Strong's 40: Set apart by (or for) God, holy, sacred. From hagos; sacred.

Spirit,
Πνεύματι (Pneumati)
Noun - Dative Neuter Singular
Strong's 4151: Wind, breath, spirit.

just
καὶ (kai)
Conjunction
Strong's 2532: And, even, also, namely.

as
ὡς (hōs)
Adverb
Strong's 5613: Probably adverb of comparative from hos; which how, i.e. In that manner.

your
ὑμῶν (hymōn)
Personal / Possessive Pronoun - Genitive 2nd Person Plural
Strong's 4771: You. The person pronoun of the second person singular; thou.

fathers [did].
πατέρες (pateres)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3962: Father, (Heavenly) Father, ancestor, elder, senior. Apparently a primary word; a 'father'.


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