Laid at

Laid at (the feet). (Acts 4:35,37, 5:2, 7:58). In Acts 7, the people laid their possessions at the feet of Saul as they stoned Stephen. Saul (Paul) was a persecutor of the church, his feet being a symbol of his evil works. Their laying their clothes at Saul’s feet is a symbol of their trust in his evil intentions, as the laying of our possessions at the feet of the Apostles is about our trust in Christ’s intentions and fulfillments through the Prophetic Word. As Christ’s analog, the righteous feet are those of Stephen.

In this scene, Stephen recalled the prophetic history of Israel and their rejection of that prophetic revelation before his death. This is a fact overlooked by all expositors and doing so renders the sin which murdered him obliquely aligned to any that are transcendent and final. It is a sin of abuse, relegation, dismissal, apathy, and denial of messianic prophecy with respect to Jesus of Nazareth.

The early church sold their items and laid them at the feet of the Apostles (Acts 4:35), which is a gesture to signify belief in Christ and the conclusion of the oracles in Him. One need only note the content of Peter’s speech upon healing the lame man just prior to this event to know what their faith was responding to: Psalms 2:1–6 and 83:2–8. In verse 30, the prophesied healing miracles of the Messiah are mentioned. In verse 29, the preaching of the word is the recitation of the fulfilled prophecies of Christ by miraculous displays.