And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:

And they set false witnesses, saying, This man does not cease speaking words against the holy place and the law;

they set up also false witnesses, saying, 'This one doth not cease to speak evil sayings against this holy place and the law,

And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceases not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:

Here they brought forward false witnesses who declared, "This fellow is incessantly speaking against the Holy Place and the Law.

And they got false witnesses who said, This man is for ever saying things against this holy place and against the law:

And they set up false witnesses, who said: "This man does not cease to speak words against the holy place and the law.

There they produced witnesses who gave false evidence. "This man," they said, "is incessantly saying things against this Holy place and the Law;

And set up false witnesses - It has been made a question why these persons are called "false" witnesses, since it is supposed by many that they reported merely the "words" of Stephen. It may be replied that if they did report merely his "words"; if Stephen had actually said what they affirmed, yet they perverted his meaning. They accused him of "blasphemy"; that is, of calumnious and reproachful words against Moses and against God That Stephen had spoken in such a manner, or had designed to "reproach" Moses, there is no evidence. What was said in the mildest manner, and in the way of cool argument, might easily be perverted so as in "their view" to amount to blasphemy. But there is no evidence whatever that Stephen had ever used these words on any occasion, and it is altogether improbable that he ever did, for the following reasons:
(1) Jesus himself never affirmed that he would destroy that place. He uniformly taught that it would be done by the "Gentiles," Matt. 24. It is altogether improbable, therefore, that Stephen should declare any such thing.
(2) it is equally improbable that he taught that Jesus would abolish the special customs and rites of the Jews. It was long, and after much discussion, before the apostles themselves were convinced that they were to be changed, and when they were changed it was done gradually. See Acts 10:14, etc.; Acts 11:2, etc.; Acts 15:20; Acts 21:20, etc. The probability therefore is, that the whole testimony was "false," and was artfully invented to produce the utmost exasperation among the people, and yet was at the same time so plausible as to be easily believed. For on this point the Jews were particularly sensitive; and it is clear that they had some expectations that the Messiah would produce some such changes. Compare Matthew 26:61 with Daniel 9:26-27. The same charge was afterward brought against Paul, which he promptly denied. See Acts 25:8.
This holy place - The temple.
The law - The Law of Moses.

Against this holy place - The temple, that it shall be destroyed.
And the law - That it cannot give life, nor save from death. It is very likely that they had heard him speak words to this amount, which were all as true as the spirit from which they proceeded; but they gave them a very false colouring, as we see in the succeeding verse.

(10) And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:
(10) An example of frivolous objectors or false accusers, who gather false conclusions from things that are well uttered and spoken.

And set up false witnesses,.... Having hired them, they brought them and set them before the sanhedrim, to bear witness against Stephen:
which said, this man; meaning Stephen, who was now before the council, at whom they pointed, and whose name, through contempt, they would not mention:
ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place; either the city of Jerusalem, which is sometimes called the holy city, and which was foretold by the angel to Daniel, and by Christ, that it should be destroyed, and which Stephen might speak of; or rather the temple, so the Ethiopic version; in a part of which, or in a place contiguous to it, the sanhedrim might now be sitting:
and the law; the ceremonial law: the sense is, that Stephen was continually telling the people, that in a little time their temple would be destroyed, and an end be put to temple worship, and to all the rituals and ceremonies of the law of Moses; the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions leave out the word "blasphemous"; and so do the Alexandrian copy, and Beza's most ancient one; but as Beza observes, it is certain, or at least it is most likely, that it was not omitted by the false witnesses; though speaking against the temple and the law was sufficient to make good a charge of blasphemy.

Set up false witnesses. False, in that they perverted what he said, so as to give it a meaning not meant.
Against this holy place. The temple. He may have said that it would be destroyed (see Matthew 24:2).
And the law. He probably said what Paul so often said. See Galatians 3:24-25. The next verse shows the tenor of his preaching. He no doubt did preach the end of the Jewish dispensation and the reign of Christ, but he neither blasphemed Moses nor God.