The Acts 7
7
Stephen’s Speech
1The high priest said to Stephen, “Are these things true?”
2Stephen answered, “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to Abraham, our ancestor. Abraham was in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran. 3God said to Abraham, ‘Leave your country and your relatives. Go to the land I will show you.’# Quotation from Genesis 12:1. 4So Abraham left the country of Chaldea and went to live in Haran. After Abraham’s father died, God sent him to this place where you now live. 5God did not give Abraham any of this land, not even a foot of it. But God promised that he would give him and his descendants this land. (This was before Abraham had any descendants.) 6This is what God said to him: ‘Your descendants will be strangers in a land they don’t own. The people there will make them slaves. And they will do cruel things to them for 400 years. 7But I will punish the nation where they are slaves. Then your descendants will leave that land. Then they will worship me in this place.’# Quotation from Genesis 15:13–14 and Exodus 3:12. 8God made an agreement with Abraham; the sign for this agreement was circumcision. And so when Abraham had his son Isaac, Abraham circumcised him when he was eight days old. Isaac also circumcised his son Jacob. And Jacob did the same for his sons, the 12 ancestors# Important ancestors of the Jews; the leaders of the 12 Jewish tribes. of our people.
9“These sons became jealous of Joseph. They sold him to be a slave in Egypt. But God was with him. 10Joseph had many troubles there, but God saved him from all those troubles. The king of Egypt liked Joseph and respected him because of the wisdom that God gave him. The king made him governor of Egypt. He put Joseph in charge of all the people in his palace.
11“Then all the land of Egypt and of Canaan became so dry that nothing would grow there. This made the people suffer very much. The sons could not find anything to eat. 12But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent his sons, our ancestors, there. This was their first trip to Egypt. 13Then they went there a second time. This time, Joseph told his brothers who he was. And the king learned about Joseph’s family. 14Then Joseph sent some men to invite Jacob, his father, to come to Egypt. He also invited all his relatives (75 persons altogether). 15So Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and his sons died. 16Later their bodies were moved to Shechem and put in a grave there. (It was the same grave that Abraham had bought in Shechem from the sons of Hamor for a sum of money.)
17“The number of people in Egypt grew large. There were more and more of our people there. (The promise that God made to Abraham was soon to come true.) 18Then a new king began to rule Egypt. He did not know who Joseph was. 19This king tricked our people and was cruel to our ancestors. He forced them to put their babies outside to die. 20This was the time when Moses was born. He was a fine child. For three months Moses was cared for in his father’s house. 21When they put Moses outside, the king’s daughter took him. She raised him as if he were her own son. 22The Egyptians taught Moses all the things they knew. He was a powerful man in the things he said and did.
23“When Moses was about 40 years old, he thought it would be good to visit his brothers, the people of Israel. 24Moses saw an Egyptian doing wrong to a Jew. So he defended the Jew and punished the Egyptian for hurting him. Moses killed the Egyptian. 25Moses thought that his fellow Jews would understand that God was using him to save them. But they did not understand. 26The next day, Moses saw two Jewish men fighting. He tried to make peace between them. He said, ‘Men, you are brothers! Why are you hurting each other?’ 27The man who was hurting the other man pushed Moses away. He said, ‘Who made you our ruler and judge? 28Are you going to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’# Quotation from Exodus 2:14. 29When Moses heard him say this, he left Egypt. He went to live in the land of Midian where he was a stranger. While Moses lived in Midian, he had two sons.
30“After 40 years Moses was in the desert near Mount Sinai. An angel appeared to him in the flames of a burning bush. 31When Moses saw this, he was amazed. He went near to look closer at it. Moses heard the Lord’s voice. 32The Lord said, ‘I am the God of your ancestors. I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’# Quotation from Exodus 3:6. Moses began to shake with fear and was afraid to look. 33The Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals. You are standing on holy ground. 34I have seen the troubles my people have suffered in Egypt. I have heard their cries. I have come down to save them. And now, Moses, I am sending you back to Egypt.’# Quotation from Exodus 3:5–10.
35“This Moses was the same man the Jews said they did not want. They had said to him, ‘Who made you our ruler and judge?’# Quotation from Exodus 2:14. Moses is the same man God sent to be a ruler and savior, with the help of an angel. This was the angel Moses saw in the burning bush. 36So Moses led the people out of Egypt. He worked miracles and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and then in the desert for 40 years. 37This is the same Moses that said to the Jewish people: ‘God will give you a prophet like me. He will be one of your own people.’# Quotation from Deuteronomy 18:15. 38This is the same Moses who was with the gathering of the Jews in the desert. He was with the angel that spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and he was with our ancestors. He received commands from God that give life, and he gave those commands to us.
39“But our fathers did not want to obey Moses. They rejected him. They wanted to go back to Egypt again. 40They said to Aaron, ‘Moses led us out of Egypt. But we don’t know what has happened to him. So make us gods who will lead us.’# Quotation from Exodus 32:1. 41So the people made an idol that looked like a calf. Then they brought sacrifices to it. The people were proud of what they had made with their own hands! 42But God turned against them. He did not try to stop them from worshiping the sun, moon and stars. This is what is written in the book of the prophets: God says,
‘People of Israel, you did not bring me sacrifices and offerings
while you traveled in the desert for 40 years.
43But now you will have to carry with you
the tent to worship the false god Molech
and the idols of the star god Rephan that you made to worship.
This is because I will send you away beyond Babylon.’ Amos 5:25-27
44“The Holy Tent where God spoke to our fathers was with the Jews in the desert. God told Moses how to make this Tent. He made it like the plan God showed him. 45Later, Joshua led our fathers to capture the lands of the other nations. Our people went in, and God drove the other people out. When our people went into this new land, they took with them this same Tent. They received this Tent from their fathers and kept it until the time of David. 46God was very pleased with David. He asked God to let him build a house for him, the God of Jacob.# Some Greek copies read “the house of Jacob.” This means the people of Israel. 47But Solomon was the one who built the Temple.
48“But the Most High does not live in houses that men build with their hands. This is what the prophet says:
49‘Heaven is my throne.
The earth is my footstool.
So do you think you can build a house for me? says the Lord.
There is no place where I need to rest.
50Remember, I made all these things!’” Isaiah 66:1-2
51Stephen continued speaking: “You stubborn Jewish leaders! You have not given your hearts to God! You won’t listen to him! You are always against what the Holy Spirit is trying to tell you. Your ancestors were like this, and you are just like them! 52Your fathers tried to hurt every prophet who ever lived. Those prophets said long ago that the Righteous One would come. But your fathers killed them. And now you have turned against the Righteous One and killed him. 53You received the law of Moses, which God gave you through his angels. But you don’t obey it!”
Stephen Is Killed
54When the leaders heard Stephen saying all these things, they became very angry. They were so mad that they were grinding their teeth at Stephen. 55But Stephen was full of the Holy Spirit. He looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God. He saw Jesus standing at God’s right side. 56He said, “Look! I see heaven open. And I see the Son of Man standing at God’s right side!”
57Then they all shouted loudly. They covered their ears with their hands and all ran at Stephen. 58They took him out of the city and threw stones at him until he was dead. The men who told lies against Stephen left their coats with a young man named Saul. 59While they were throwing stones, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” 60He fell on his knees and cried in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” After Stephen said this, he died.
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Copyright © 2015 by Tommy Nelson™, a Division of Thomas Nelson, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
The Acts 7
7
1And the high priest said, Are these things then so? 2And he said, Brethren and fathers, hearken. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, 3and said to him, Go out of thy land and out of thy kindred, and come into the land which I will shew thee. 4Then going out of the land of the Chaldeans he dwelt in Charran, and thence, after his father died, he removed him into this land in which ye now dwell. 5And he did not give him an inheritance in it, not even what his foot could stand on; and promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when he had no child. 6And God spoke thus: His seed shall be a sojourner in a strange land, and they shall enslave them and evil entreat them four hundred years; 7and the nation to which they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God; and after these things they shall come forth and serve me in this place. 8And he gave to him the covenant of circumcision; and thus he begat Isaac and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs. 9And the patriarchs, envying Joseph, sold him away into Egypt. And God was with him, 10and delivered him out of all his tribulations, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he appointed him chief over Egypt and all his house. 11But a famine came upon all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great distress, and our fathers found no food. 12But Jacob, having heard of there being corn in Egypt, sent out our fathers first; 13and the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren, and the family of Joseph became known to Pharaoh. 14And Joseph sent and called down to him his father Jacob and all his kindred, seventy-five souls. 15And Jacob went down into Egypt and died, he and our fathers, 16and were carried over to Sychem and placed in the sepulchre which Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor the father of Sychem.
17But as the time of promise drew near which God had promised to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt, 18until another king over Egypt arose who did not know Joseph. 19He dealt subtilly with our race, and evil entreated the fathers, casting out their infants that they might not live. 20In which time Moses was born, and was exceedingly lovely, who was nourished three months in the house of his father. 21And when he was cast out, the daughter of Pharaoh took him up, and brought him up for herself to be for a son. 22And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and deeds. 23And when a period of forty years was fulfilled to him, it came into his heart to look upon his brethren, the sons of Israel; 24and seeing a certain one wronged, he defended him, and avenged him that was being oppressed, smiting the Egyptian. 25For he thought that his brethren would understand that God by his hand was giving them deliverance. But they understood not. 26And on the morrow he shewed himself to them as they were contending, and compelled them to peace, saying, Ye are brethren, why do ye wrong one another? 27But he that was wronging his neighbour thrust him away, saying, Who established thee ruler and judge over us? 28Dost thou wish to kill me as thou killedst the Egyptian yesterday? 29And Moses fled at this saying, and became a sojourner in the land of Madiam, where he begat two sons.
30And when forty years were fulfilled, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sinai, in a flame of fire of a bush. 31And Moses seeing it wondered at the vision; and as he went up to consider it, there was a voice of the Lord, 32I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. And Moses trembled, and durst not consider it. 33And the Lord said to him, Loose the sandal of thy feet, for the place on which thou standest is holy ground. 34I have surely seen the ill treatment of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groan, and have come down to take them out of it; and now, come, I will send thee to Egypt. 35This Moses, whom they refused, saying, Who made thee ruler and judge? him did God send to be a ruler and deliverer with the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36He led them out, having wrought wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years. 37This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, A prophet shall God raise up to you out of your brethren like me him shall ye hear. 38This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers; who received living oracles to give to us; 39to whom our fathers would not be subject, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt, 40saying to Aaron, Make us gods who shall go before us; for this Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has happened to him. 41And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
42But God turned and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, Have ye offered me victims and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 43Yea, ye took up the tent of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, the forms which ye made to do homage to them; and I will transport you beyond Babylon. 44Our fathers had the tent of the testimony in the wilderness, as he that spoke to Moses commanded to make it according to the model which he had seen; 45which also our fathers, receiving from their predecessors, brought in with Joshua when they entered into possession of the lands of the nations, whom God drove out from the face of our fathers, until the days of David; 46who found favour before God, and asked to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob; 47but Solomon built him a house. 48But the Most High dwells not in places made with hands; as says the prophet, 49The heaven is my throne and the earth the footstool of my feet: what house will ye build me? saith the Lord, or where is the place of my rest? 50has not my hand made all these things?
51O stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers, ye also. 52Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain those who announced beforehand concerning the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have now become deliverers up and murderers! 53who have received the law as ordained by the ministry of angels, and have not kept it.
54And hearing these things they were cut to the heart, and gnashed their teeth against him. 55But being full of the Holy Spirit, having fixed his eyes on heaven, he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, 56and said, Lo, I behold the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God. 57And they cried out with a loud voice, and held their ears, and rushed upon him with one accord; 58and having cast him out of the city, they stoned him. And the witnesses laid aside their clothes at the feet of a young man called Saul. 59And they stoned Stephen, praying, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. 60And kneeling down, he cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And having said this, he fell asleep.
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First published in 1890. This edition is maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.