Stephen’s Defence: The Sanhedrin Question Stephen
1. Then the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
2. And he said, “Brothers and fathers, hear: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran.
3. And He said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kindred, and come into the land which I shall show you.’
4. Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran, and after his father died, God removed him from there into this land in which you now dwell.
5. And He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot to set his foot, yet He promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his seed after him, though he had no child.
6. And God spoke thus: ‘His seed shall sojourn in a foreign land, and they shall enslave them, and afflict them four hundred years.
7. And the nation to whom they shall be in servitude, I will judge,’ said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and serve Me in this place.’
8. And He gave him the covenant of circumcision, and so Abraham fathered Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs.
Joseph and the Israelites in Egypt
9. And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt, but God was with him
10. and rescued him from all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and all his house.
11. Then there came a famine over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food.
12. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers first.
13. And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph’s kindred became known to Pharaoh.
14. Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his kindred, seventy-five souls.
15. And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers.
16. And they were carried over into Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
God’s Promise and the Exodus
17. But as the time of the promise approached, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt,
18. until there arose over Egypt another king who knew not Joseph.
19. This one dealt craftily with our kindred and afflicted our fathers, so that they cast out their infants, to the intent that they might not live.
20. In which time Moses was born, and was well pleasing to God, and he was nourished three months by his parents.
21. And when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.
22. And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.
23. And when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.
24. And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him who suffered wrong, smiting the Egyptian.
25. For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God by his hand was giving them deliverance; but they did not understand.
26. And on the next day he showed himself to them as they fought, and he would have reconciled them in peace, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?’
27. But he who did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us?
28. Will you kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’
29. Then Moses fled, and became a sojourner in the land of Midian, where he had two sons.
God Calls Moses at the Burning Bush
30. And when forty years had passed, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.
31. When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight. And as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came to him,
32. saying, ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and dared not behold.
33. Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.
34. I have seen, I have seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you into Egypt.’
Israel Rejects Moses
35. This Moses, whom they refused, saying, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ God sent as both ruler and deliverer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
36. He brought them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
37. This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord your God will raise up a prophet for you from your brethren, like me.’
38. This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living oracles to give to us.
Israel Rejects God’s Messengers
39. But our fathers would not obey, but thrust him away, and in their hearts turned back into Egypt,
40. saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to go before us; for as for this Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’
41. And they made a calf in those days and offered a sacrifice to the idol, rejoicing in the works of their own hands.
42. But God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘Did you offer Me slain beasts and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?’
43. You took up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Remphan, the images which you made to worship; and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.
Stephen’s Accusation of the Leaders
44. Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as God appointed, speaking to Moses to make it according to the pattern he had seen.
45. Which also our fathers, having received, brought in with Joshua into the possession of the nations whom God drove out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David.
46. Who found favour before God, and asked to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.
47. But Solomon built Him a house.
48. Yet the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says,
49. ‘Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. What house will you build Me, says the Lord, or what is the place of My rest?
50. Did not My hand make all these things?’
51. You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.
52. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Just One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers.
53. You who received the law by the disposition of angels, and did not keep it.
Stephen’s Martyrdom
54. Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
55. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.
56. And he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.’
57. Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord.
58. And they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.
59. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon the Lord, and saying, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’
60. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not charge them with this sin.’ And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
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