Then
the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?”
2 To
this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared
to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in
Harran. 3 ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and
go to the land I will show you.’[a]
4 “So
he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran. After the death of his
father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. 5 He
gave him no inheritance here, not even enough ground to set his foot on. But
God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land,
even though at that time Abraham had no child. 6 God spoke to
him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in
a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated. 7 But
I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they
will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’[b]8 Then
he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of
Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the
father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.
9 “Because
the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But
God was with him 10 and rescued him from all his troubles. He
gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of
Egypt. So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.
11 “Then
a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our
ancestors could not find food. 12 When Jacob heard that there
was grain in Egypt, he sent our forefathers on their first visit. 13 On
their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned
about Joseph’s family. 14 After this, Joseph sent for his
father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all. 15 Then
Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died. 16 Their
bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had
bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money.
17 “As
the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our
people in Egypt had greatly increased. 18 Then ‘a new king, to
whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.’[c]19 He
dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them
to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.
20 “At
that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child.[d] For three
months he was cared for by his family. 21 When he was placed outside,
Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. 22 Moses
was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and
action.
23 “When
Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. 24 He
saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and
avenged him by killing the Egyptian. 25 Moses thought that his
own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did
not. 26 The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were
fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do
you want to hurt each other?’
27 “But
the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made
you ruler and judge over us? 28 Are you thinking of killing me
as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’[e]29 When
Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had
two sons.
30 “After
forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning
bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31 When he saw this, he
was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord
say: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob.’[f] Moses
trembled with fear and did not dare to look.
33 “Then
the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are
standing is holy ground. 34 I have indeed seen the oppression
of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set
them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’[g]
35 “This
is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and
judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the
angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 He led them out of
Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty
years in the wilderness.
37 “This
is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like
me from your own people.’[h]38 He
was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount
Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us.
39 “But
our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their
hearts turned back to Egypt. 40 They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods
who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt—we
don’t know what has happened to him!’[i]41 That
was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices
to it and reveled in what their own hands had made. 42 But God
turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and
stars. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:
“‘Did
you bring me sacrifices and offerings
forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel? 43 You have taken up the tabernacle of Molek
and the star of your god Rephan,
the idols you made to worship.
Therefore I will send you into exile’[j] beyond
Babylon.
44 “Our
ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness.
It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. 45 After
receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when
they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in
the land until the time of David, 46 who enjoyed God’s favor
and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.[k]47 But
it was Solomon who built a house for him.
48 “However,
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 my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me?
says the Lord.
Or where will my resting place be? 50 Has not my hand made all these things?’[l]
51 “You
stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just
like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52 Was
there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those
who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and
murdered him— 53 you who have received the law that was given
through angels but have not obeyed it.”
54 When
the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their
teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked
up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of
God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man
standing at the right hand of God.”
57 At
this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all
rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to
stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man
named Saul.
59 While
they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then
he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”
When he had said this, he fell asleep.
