Acts 6:13

“And set up false witnesses, etc.] 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;…”

“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…”

“set: Act 6:11; Psa 27:12, Psa 35:11, Psa 56:5 Acts 6:14”