But Solomon built him an house.
Parallel translations
- WEB But Solomon built him a house.
- BSB But it was Solomon who built the house for Him.
- NKJV But Solomon built Him a house.
- NASB But it was Solomon who built a house for Him.
- NLT But it was Solomon who actually built it.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
It was Solomon, not David, who actually built the temple. The temple was a real gift, yet, as Stephen will say, it cannot contain God.
Overview
Stephen states simply that Solomon built the house for God (1 Kings 6). While the temple was God-ordained and glorious, Stephen is preparing to qualify any notion that God dwells there as if confined. The brevity here sharpens the contrast with the truth he states next.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- 1 Kgs 8:20And the LORD hath performed his word that he spake, and I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel.
- 1 Kgs 6:37–38In the fourth year was the foundation of the house of the LORD laid, in the month Zif:
- 2 Sam 7:13He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.
- 1 Chr 17:1Now it came to pass, as David sat in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, Lo, I dwell in an house of cedars, but the ark of the covenant of the LORD remaineth under curtains.
- 1 Kgs 7:13–51And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre.
- 2 Chr 2:1–4And Solomon determined to build an house for the name of the LORD, and an house for his kingdom.
- 2 Chr 3:1Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD at Jerusalem in mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David his father, in the place that David had prepared in the threshingfloor of Ornan the Jebusite.
- 1 Kgs 5:1And Hiram king of Tyre sent his servants unto Solomon; for he had heard that they had anointed him king in the room of his father: for Hiram was ever a lover of David.
- Zech 6:12–13And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD:
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Christ at the center
Acts is the risen Christ continuing his work by the Spirit through the church, as the apostles preach that there is salvation in no other name under heaven.
How Acts 7:47 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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