Stephen Tells the Story
1The high priest asked, “Is this so?” 2Stephen replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran, 3and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come to the land I will show you.’ 4So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God moved him from there into this land where you now live. 5He gave him no inheritance in it, not one foot of ground, yet he promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him — and at the time he had no child. 6This is how God put it: his descendants would live as foreigners in a land not their own, and would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. 7‘But I will judge the nation that enslaves them,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out and worship me in this place.’ 8And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; Isaac was the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. 9The patriarchs, out of jealousy, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him 10and rescued him out of all his troubles. He gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh king of Egypt, who put him in charge of Egypt and of his whole household. 11Then famine and great hardship came over all Egypt and Canaan, and our ancestors could find nothing to eat. 12When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there a first time. 13On the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and his family became known to Pharaoh. 14Joseph then sent for his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five people in all. 15Jacob went down to Egypt, and there he died, and so did our ancestors. 16They were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
Moses in Egypt and in Midian
17As the time drew near for the promise God had made to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, 18until another king rose over Egypt who had never known Joseph. 19He dealt cunningly with our people and treated our ancestors cruelly, forcing them to abandon their newborn babies so they would not survive. 20At that time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight. For three months he was raised in his father’s house; 21and when he was abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up and raised him as her own son. 22Moses was trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in his words and in his deeds. 23When he reached the age of forty, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel. 24Seeing one of them wronged, he came to his defense and paid back the man who was crushing him, striking down the Egyptian. 25He thought his brothers would understand that God was giving them deliverance through his hand; but they did not understand. 26The next day he appeared to two of them who were fighting, and he tried to bring them back to peace: ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you wronging each other?’ 27But the man who was wronging his neighbor pushed him away: ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? 28Do you mean to kill me the way you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29At these words Moses fled, and he lived as a foreigner in the land of Midian, where he had two sons. 30Forty years later, in the desert near Mount Sinai, an angel appeared to him in the flame of a burning bush. 31Moses was amazed at the sight; and as he came closer to look, the voice of the Lord came: 32‘I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look. 33The Lord said to him, ‘Take the sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34I have seen, truly seen, the mistreatment of my people in Egypt; I have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them. Now come, I will send you to Egypt.’
The Man They Refused
35This Moses, whom they refused with the words ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ — this is the man God sent as ruler and redeemer, with the hand of the angel who had appeared to him in the bush. 36He led them out, doing wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and in the desert for forty years. 37This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.’ 38This is the man who was in the assembly in the desert, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our ancestors; he received living words to hand on to us. 39But our ancestors refused to obey him. They pushed him away and in their hearts turned back to Egypt, 40saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to go ahead of us. As for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we have no idea what has become of him.’ 41In those days they made a calf, offered a sacrifice to the idol, and celebrated the work of their own hands. 42So God turned away and handed them over to the worship of the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘House of Israel, was it to me that you brought victims and sacrifices for forty years in the desert? 43You took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images you made in order to worship them. So I will deport you beyond Babylon.’
The Tent and the House
44Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the desert, made as God directed when he spoke to Moses, following the pattern he had seen. 45Our ancestors received it in turn and brought it in with Joshua when they took possession of the nations that God drove out before them; and so it was until the days of David. 46David found favor with God and asked to provide a dwelling for the house of Jacob. 47But it was Solomon who built him a house. 48Yet the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says: 49‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is a footstool for my feet. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what place could ever be my rest? 50Did my own hand not make all these things?’
You Always Resist the Spirit
51You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; you are exactly like your ancestors. 52Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed the men who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have betrayed and murdered him — 53you who received the law as it was ordained by angels, and did not keep it.”
The Death of Stephen
54As they listened to this, they were enraged and ground their teeth at him. 55But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God’s right hand. 56“Look,” he said, “I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57At that they shouted at the top of their voices, covered their ears and rushed at him as one. 58They dragged him outside the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59As they stoned Stephen he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60Then he knelt down and cried aloud, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And with that he fell asleep.
