It is difficult to determine whether Luke intends for his readers to understand the stoning of Stephen to be the result of legal action on the part of the Jewish Council or whether it is to be taken as mob violence. The method of stoning is altogether different from the description of execution by stoning as described in the Mishnah, the Jewish source which tells how the Jews carried out this action. For this reason many understand the stoning here to be that of mob action rather than as a carrying out of the legal decision of the court. In cases demanding the capital offense, the Jewish court required the testimony of two witnesses. If a man were convicted, it was the duty of one of these witnesses to push him headfirst off a precipice and then roll a stone over him. If this did not kill him, then the second witness rolled another stone on him which was supposed to crush his chest. In the Mishnah there is nothing said of the witnesses taking off their outer garments, though the Mishnah does state if the criminal is a man then he must be unclothed before he is put to death. From reading Luke’s account one is of the opinion that Stephen was put to death by people throwing stones at him, and that the persons who threw the stone removed their outer garments so they would have better freedom in throwing the stones.

Though the Greek term literally means “threw out,” the action of the mob would suggest more “drive out forcibly.” There seems to be no suggestion that Stephen was literally thrown from a wall or over any cliff.

Stoned him is simply equivalent to “threw stones at him” or “killed him by means of throwing stones at him.” Is this particular verse, however, the rendering may need to be “were killing him” since they continued the process for some time, as noted in verse 59.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Acts of the Apostles. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1972. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .