Acts 8:2

Devout. Greek eulabes, “taking hold well,” and, by extension, “cautious,” “pious” (see on ch. 2:5). Ananias, who led Paul to baptism, is characterized by this adjective (ch. 22:21). Because persons inclined toward Judaism are described as “devout” (chs. 13:50; 17:4, 17), some have concluded that these men were proselytes. However, the Greek word translated “devout” in these references is not eulabes, but sebomenos. The suggestion has also been made that these “devout” were a group who honored the dead Stephen, without defending fully the truth he had presented when alive, even as Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathaea had done in the case of Christ after the crucifixion. This verse really forms a conclusion to chapter 7.

Carried. Rather, “buried,” since the word covers the whole interment ceremony.

Great lamentation. Compare on Gen. 23:2; Job 1:20; 2:12; Mark 5:38, 39. Considerable courage must have been required to perform the funeral rites for Stephen, who had fallen before the rage of the Sanhedrin. Indeed, anyone who had been stoned to death on a charge of blasphemy would ordinarily have no funeral honors. Public lamentation on the part of the “devout” may have been in the nature of a protest against those who had brought about Stephen’s death.