Later text
Acts 7:22BSB
So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.
Intertextuality Pair
Echo
Later text
Acts 7:22BSB
So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.
Earlier text
1 Kings 4:30BSB
Solomon’s wisdom was greater than that of all the men of the East, greater than all the wisdom of Egypt.
Earlier text
"Please, Lord," Moses replied, "I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since You have spoken to Your servant, for I am slow of speech and tongue." And the LORD said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Or who makes the mute or the deaf, the sighted or the blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go! I will help you as you speak, and I will teach you what to say." But Moses replied, "Please, Lord, send someone else." Then the anger of the LORD burned against Moses, and He said, "Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well, and he is now on his way to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You are to speak to him and put the words in his mouth. I will help both of you to speak, and I will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you. He will be your spokesman, and it will be as if you were God to him.
Earlier text
1 Kings 4:30BSB
Solomon’s wisdom was greater than that of all the men of the East, greater than all the wisdom of Egypt.
Stephen credits Moses with being "educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and... powerful in speech and action" (Acts 7:22) — praise that, by echoing the language later used of Solomon's surpassing wisdom (1 Kings 4:30), ranks Moses among Israel's greatest. Yet Stephen's aim is not to exalt Moses' gifts but to heighten the tragedy of his rejection: even a deliverer trained in Egypt's highest learning, mighty in word and deed, was spurned by his own people (7:27). Human competence, however great, does not command the acceptance of hardened hearts. The greater than Solomon and greater than Moses would likewise come "powerful in word and deed before God and all the people" (Luke 24:19), and be rejected still — until God vindicated him by raising him from the dead.