Solomon did not make a mistake by building the temple. Solomon himself acknowledged that no human house could contain God (1 Kings 8:27, 1 Kings 8:30). The mistake comes in the Jewish leaders' thinking that God is confined to one place on earth, as if the temple renders God more manageable.1 They impose a false limit on the nature of God2 and fail to use it as a place for meeting with God.3 Stephen is thus criticizing how the temple is viewed, not blaspheming against God. (Implicit in his argument is that the temple finds fulfillment in Jesus Christ and the church, see John 2:19–22; Ephesians 2:19–22; 1 Peter 2:5; Revelation 21:22).4
47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him.