This was the formal call for Stephen to answer the charges. Barnes explains that "these things" means "the charge alleged against him of blasphemy against Moses and the temple," pointing to Acts 6:13-14. Gill words it the same way: "is it true what they say, that thou hast spoken blasphemous words against the temple." Matthew Henry hears in it the question put to any prisoner: "Guilty or not guilty?" He adds that it "carried a show of fairness, and yet seems to have been spoken with an air of haughtiness." The charges themselves came from witnesses Luke calls "false" (Acts 6:13).

Stephen answered at length, beginning, "Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken" (Acts 7:2). He did not answer point by point. Instead he retold Israel's story from Abraham through Joseph, Moses, the tabernacle, and Solomon's house (Acts 7:2-47), showing that "the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands" (Acts 7:48). He ended by turning the charge back on his judges: "ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye" (Acts 7:51). They were "cut to the heart," stoned him, and he died praying, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge" (Acts 7:54-60).

Stephen was not an apostle. He was one of seven men chosen to serve the church, "full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom" (Acts 6:3, 5). Men from several synagogues disputed with him but "were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake" (Acts 6:9-10). So they "suborned men" who claimed to have heard him speak "blasphemous words against Moses, and against God" (Acts 6:11), and set up false witnesses who said he claimed "this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place" (Acts 6:13-14). Barnes notes that the high priest "seems to have presided in the council" at this hearing.

Stephen's trial echoes the trial of Jesus. Then too false witnesses spoke of destroying the temple (Matthew 26:59-61), and the high priest pressed the accused to answer. Stephen's answer shows that God was never confined to one land or one building. He "appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia" (Acts 7:2), was with Joseph in Egypt (Acts 7:9), and met Moses in the wilderness, where the ground was "holy ground" (Acts 7:33).

The question "Are these things so?" receives its fullest answer at the end. While the council raged, Stephen "looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God" (Acts 7:55). The one condemned by men saw Jesus standing at God's right hand and committed his spirit to Him (Acts 7:59).