Acts 7
7
Stephen’s Sermon
1“Are these things true?” the high priest asked.
2“Brothers and fathers,” he replied, “listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,#Gn 11:31; 15:7; Ps 29:3; Ac 22:1; 1Co 2:8 3and said to him: Leave your country and relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.#7:3Gn 12:1#Gn 12:1
4“Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this land in which you are now living.#Gn 11:31; 12:4–5 5He didn’t give him an inheritance in it — not even a foot of ground — but he promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him,#Gn 12:7; 13:15; 15:18; 17:8; Gl 3:16; Heb 8:8–9 even though he was childless. 6God spoke in this way: His descendants would be strangers in a foreign country, and they would enslave and oppress them for four hundred years. 7I will judge the nation that they will serve as slaves, God said. After this, they will come out and worship me in this place.#7:6–7Gn 15:13–14#Gn 15:13–14; Ex 3:12; 12:40 8And so he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. After this, he fathered Isaac and circumcised#Gn 17:9–11; 21:2–4 him on the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.#Gn 25:26; 29:31; 30:5; 35:23
The Patriarchs in Egypt
9“The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt, but God was with him#Gn 37:11,28; 39:2,21; 45:4; Ps 105:17 10and rescued him out of all his troubles. He gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over his whole household.#Gn 41:37–43; 42:6; Ps 105:21 11Now a famine and great suffering came over all of Egypt and Canaan,#Gn 41:54; 42:5 and our ancestors could find no food. 12When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there the first time. 13The second time, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. 14Joseph invited his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five people in all,#Gn 45:1–4,9–10,16,27; 46:26–27; Ex 1:5; Dt 10:22 15and Jacob went down to Egypt. He and our ancestors died there,#Gn 46:5; 49:33; Ex 1:6 16were carried back to Shechem, and were placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.#Gn 23:16; 33:19; 50:13; Ex 13:19; Jos 24:32
Moses, a Rejected Savior
17“As the time was approaching to fulfill the promise that God had made to Abraham, the people flourished and multiplied in Egypt#Gn 15:13; Ex 1:7; Ps 105:24 18until a different king who did not know Joseph ruled over Egypt.#7:18 Other mss omit over Egypt 19He dealt deceitfully with our race and oppressed our ancestors by making them abandon their infants outside so that they wouldn’t survive.#Ex 1:8–10,22; Ps 105:25 20At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight. He was cared for in his father’s home for three months. 21When he was put outside, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted and raised him as her own son.#Ex 2:2–10; Heb 11:23 22So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his speech and actions.#1Kg 4:30; Is 19:11; Lk 24:19
23“When he was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. 24When he saw one of them being mistreated, he came to his rescue and avenged the oppressed man by striking down the Egyptian. 25He assumed his people would understand that God would give them deliverance through him, but they did not understand. 26The next day he showed up while they were fighting and tried to reconcile them peacefully, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you mistreating each other? ’ #Ex 2:11–14; Heb 11:24–26
27“But the one who was mistreating his neighbor pushed Moses aside, saying: Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us? 28Do you want to kill me, the same way you killed the Egyptian yesterday?#7:27–28Ex 2:14#Ex 2:14; Lk 12:14; Ac 7:35
29“When he heard this, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.#Ex 2:15,22; 18:3–4 30After forty years had passed, an angel#7:30 Other mss add of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. 31When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. As he was approaching to look at it, the voice of the Lord came: 32I am the God of your ancestors — the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.#7:32Ex 3:6,15#Ex 3:6; Mt 22:32; Mk 12:26; Lk 20:37 Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look.
33“The Lord said to him: Take off the sandals from your feet, because the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. And now, come, I will send you to Egypt.#7:33–34Ex 3:5,7–8,10#Ex 3:5,7–8,10
35“This Moses, whom they rejected when they said, Who appointed you a ruler and a judge?#7:35Ex 2:14 — this one God sent as a ruler and a deliverer through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.#Ex 14:19; Nm 20:16 36This man led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt,#Ex 12:41; 33:1; Heb 8:9 at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.#Ex 14:21; 16:35; Nm 14:33; Ps 95:10; Ac 13:18
Israel’s Rebellion against God
37“This is the Moses who said to the Israelites: God#7:37 Other mss read The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.#7:37Dt 18:15#Dt 18:15; Ac 3:22 38He is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors.#Ex 19:17; Is 63:9; Ac 7:53 He received living oracles to give to us.#Dt 5:27; 32:47; Jn 1:17; Rm 3:2; Heb 4:12; 5:12; 1Pt 4:11 39Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him. Instead, they pushed him aside, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.#Ex 16:3; Nm 11:4; 14:3–4; Ezk 20:8,24 40They told Aaron: Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what’s happened to him.#7:40Ex 32:1,23#Ex 32:1,23 41They even made a calf in those days, offered sacrifice to the idol, and were celebrating what their hands had made.#Dt 9:16; Ps 106:19–20; Rv 9:20 42God turned away#Jos 24:20; Is 63:10 and gave them up to worship#Dt 4:19; 2Kg 21:3; Jr 19:13; Zph 1:5 the stars of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:
House of Israel, did you bring me offerings and sacrifices
for forty years in the wilderness?
43 You took up the tent of Moloch
and the star of your god Rephan,
the images that you made to worship.
So I will send you into exile beyond Babylon. # 7:42–43 Am 5:25–27 #
1Kg 11:7; Am 5:25–27; Ac 7:36
God’s Real Tabernacle
44“Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern he had seen.#Ex 25:8–9,40; 38:21; Heb 8:5 45Our ancestors in turn received it and with Joshua brought it in when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before them,#Jos 3:14; 18:1; 23:9; 24:18; Ps 44:2 until the days of David. 46He found favor in God’s sight and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God#7:46 Other mss read house of Jacob.#2Sm 7:1,8; 1Ch 22:7; Ps 89:19; 132:5 47It was Solomon, rather, who built him a house,#1Kg 6:1–2; 8:17–20; 2Ch 3:1 48but the Most High does not dwell in sanctuaries made with hands, as the prophet says:#1Kg 8:27; 2Ch 2:6
49 Heaven is my throne,
and the earth my footstool.
What sort of house will you build for me?
says the Lord,
or what will be my resting place?
50 Did not my hand make all these things? # 7:49–50 Is 66:1–2 #
Is 66:1–2; Mt 5:34–35
Resisting the Holy Spirit
51“You stiff-necked#Ex 32:9; Dt 10:16; Heb 3:13 people with uncircumcised hearts and ears!#Lv 26:41; Jr 4:4; 6:10; 9:26 You are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your ancestors did, you do also. 52Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute?#2Ch 36:16; Mt 5:12; 21:35; 23:31,37; 1Th 2:15 They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers#Ac 3:14; 5:28 you have now become. 53You received the law under the direction of angels#Ac 7:38; Gl 3:19; Heb 2:2 and yet have not kept it.”
The First Christian Martyr
54When they heard these things, they were enraged#7:54 Or were cut to the quick and gnashed their teeth at him. 55Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven. He saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.#Jn 12:41; Ac 6:5 56He said, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” #Mt 3:16; Jn 1:51
57They yelled at the top of their voices, covered their ears, and together rushed against him. 58They dragged him out of the city and began to stone#Lv 24:14–16; Dt 13:9; Heb 13:12 him. And the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.#Ac 8:1; 22:20 59While they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” #Ps 31:5; Lk 23:46; Ac 9:14 60He knelt down and cried out with a loud voice,#Mt 5:44; Lk 22:41; 23:34; Ac 9:40 “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” And after saying this, he fell asleep.#Jn 11:11; 1Co 11:30; 1Th 4:13–15
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Acts 7: CSB
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© 2017 Holman Bible Publishers
The Acts 7
7
1THEN the high priest said: Are these things so?
2Who said: Ye men, brethren, and fathers, hear. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charan.
3And said to him: Go forth out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.
4Then he went out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charan. And from thence, after his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein you now dwell.
5And he gave him no inheritance in it; no, not the pace of a foot: but he promised to give it him in possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.
6And God said to him: That his seed should sojourn in a strange country, and that they should bring them under bondage, and treat them evil four hundred years.
7And the nation which they shall serve will I judge, said the Lord; and after these things they shall go out, and shall serve me in this place.
8And he gave him the covenant of circumcision, and so he begot Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begot Jacob; and Jacob the twelve patriarchs.
9And the patriarchs, through envy, sold Joseph into Egypt; and God was with him,
10And delivered him out of all his tribulations: and he gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharao, the king of Egypt; and he appointed him governor over Egypt, and over all his house.
11Now there came a famine upon all Egypt and Chanaan, and great tribulation; and our fathers found no food.
12But when Jacob had heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent our fathers first:
13And at the second time, Joseph was known by his brethren, and his kindred was made known to Pharao.
14And Joseph sending, called thither Jacob, his father, and all his kindred, seventy-five souls.
15So Jacob went down into Egypt; and he died, and our fathers.
16And they were translated into Sichem, and were laid in the sepulchre, that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Hemor, the son of Sichem.
17And when the time of the promise drew near, which God had promised to Abraham, the people increased, and were multiplied in Egypt,
18Till another king arose in Egypt, who knew not Joseph.
19This same dealing craftily with our race, afflicted our fathers, that they should expose their children, to the end they might not be kept alive.
20At the same time was Moses born, and he was acceptable to God: who was nourished three months in his father's house.
21And when he was exposed, Pharao's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son.
22And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians; and he was mighty in his words and in his deeds.
23And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.
24And when he had seen one of them suffer wrong, he defended him; and striking the Egyptian, he avenged him who suffered the injury.
25And he thought that his brethren understood that God by his hand would save them; but they understood it not.
26And the day following, he shewed himself to them when they were at strife; and would have reconciled them in peace, saying: Men, ye are brethren; why hurt you one another?
27But he that did the injury to his neighbour thrust him away, saying: Who hath appointed thee prince and judge over us?
28What, wilt thou kill me, as thou didst yesterday kill the Egyptian?
29And Moses fled upon this word, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begot two sons.
30And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the desert of mount Sina, an angel in a flame of fire in a bush.
31And Moses seeing it, wondered at the sight. And as he drew near to view it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying:
32I am the God of thy fathers; the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses being terrified, durst not behold.
33And the Lord said to him: Loose the shoes from thy feet, for the place wherein thou standest, is holy ground.
34Seeing I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, and I will send thee into Egypt.
35This Moses, whom they refused, saying: Who hath appointed thee prince and judge? him God sent to be prince and redeemer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
36He brought them out, doing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the desert forty years.
37This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel: A prophet shall God raise up to you of your own brethren, as myself: him shall you hear.
38This is he that was in the church in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on mount Sina, and with our fathers; who received the words of life to give unto us.
39Whom our fathers would not obey; but thrust him away, and in their hearts turned back into Egypt,
40Saying to Aaron: Make us gods to go before us. For as for this Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him.
41And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
42And God turned, and gave them up to serve the host of heaven, as it is written in the books of the prophets: Did you offer victims and sacrifices to me for forty years, in the desert, O house of Israel?
43And you took unto you the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Rempham, figures which you made to adore them. And I will carry you away beyond Babylon.
44The tabernacle of the testimony was with our fathers in the desert, as God ordained for them, speaking to Moses, that he should make it according to the form which he had seen.
45Which also our fathers receiving, brought in with Jesus, into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David.
46Who found grace before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.
47But Solomon built him a house.
48Yet the most High dwelleth not in houses made by hands, as the prophet saith:
49Heaven is my throne, and the earth my footstool. What house will you build me? saith the Lord; or what is the place of my resting?
50Hath not my hand made all these things?
51You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do you also.
52Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them who foretold of the coming of the Just One; of whom you have been now the betrayers and murderers:
53Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
54Now hearing these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed with their teeth at him.
55But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looking up steadfastly to heaven, saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And he said: Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
56And they crying out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and with one accord ran violently upon him.
57And casting him forth without the city, they stoned him; and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man, whose name was Saul.
58And they stoned Stephen, invoking, and saying: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
59And falling on his knees, he cried with a loud voice, saying: Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep in the Lord. And Saul was consenting to his death.
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An historical text maintained by the British and Foreign Bible Society.