59, 60. calling upon God and saying, Lord Jesus, &c.--An unhappy
supplement of our translators is the word "God" here; as if, while
addressing the Son, he was really calling upon the Father. The sense is
perfectly clear without any supplement at all--"calling upon [invoking]
and saying, Lord Jesus"; Christ being the Person directly invoked and
addressed by name (compare
Ac 9:14).
Even GROTIUS, DE
WETTE, MEYER, &c., admit this,
adding several other examples of direct prayer to Christ; and
PLINY, in his well-known letter to the Emperor
Trajan (A.D. 110 or 111), says it was part of the
regular Christian service to sing, in alternate strains, a hymn to
Christ as God.
Lord Jesus, receive my spirit--In presenting to Jesus the identical
prayer which He Himself had on the cross offered to His Father, Stephen
renders to his glorified Lord absolute divine worship, in the most
sublime form, and at the most solemn moment of his life. In this
commitment of his spirit to Jesus, Paul afterwards followed his
footsteps with a calm, exultant confidence that with Him it was safe for
eternity
(2Ti 1:12).
JFB.
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