Acts 7
7
Stephen's Speech
1The high priest asked Stephen, “Are they telling the truth about you?”
2 #
Gn 12.1. Stephen answered:
Friends, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he had moved to Haran. 3God told him, “Leave your country and your relatives and go to a land that I will show you.” 4#Gn 11.31; Gn 12.4,5. Then Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran.
After his father died, Abraham came and settled in this land where you now live. 5#Gn 12.7; 13.15; 15.18; 17.8. God didn't give him any part of it, not even a square meter. But God did promise to give it to him and his family forever, even though Abraham didn't have any children. 6#Gn 15.13-15. God said Abraham's descendants would live for a while in a foreign land. There they would be slaves and would be mistreated 400 years. 7#Ex 3.12. But he also said, “I will punish the nation that makes them slaves. Then later they will come and worship me in this place.”
8 #
Gn 17.10-14;
Gn 21.2-4;
Gn 25.26;
Gn 29.31—35.18. God said to Abraham, “Every son in each family must be circumcised to show you have kept your agreement with me.” So when Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him. Later, Isaac circumcised his son Jacob, and Jacob circumcised his twelve sons. 9#Gn 37.11; Gn 37.28; Gn 39.2,3,21. These men were our ancestors.
Joseph was also one of our famous ancestors. His brothers were jealous of him and sold him as a slave to be taken to Egypt. But God was with him 10#Gn 41.39-41. and rescued him from all his troubles. God made him so wise that the Egyptian king Pharaoh thought highly of him. The king even made Joseph governor over Egypt and put him in charge of everything he owned.
11 #
Gn 42.1,2. Everywhere in Egypt and Canaan the grain crops failed. There was terrible suffering, and our ancestors could not find enough to eat. 12But when Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there for the first time. 13#Gn 45.1; Gn 45.16. It was on their second trip that Joseph told his brothers who he was, and the king learned about Joseph's family.
14 #
Gn 45.9,10,17,18; Gn 46.27 (LXX). Joseph sent for his father and his relatives. In all, there were 75 of them. 15#Gn 46.1-7; Gn 49.33. His father went to Egypt and died there, just as our ancestors did. 16#Gn 23.3-18; 33.19; 50.7-13; Js 24.32. Later their bodies were taken back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor.
17 #
Ex 1.7,8. Finally, the time came for God to do what he had promised Abraham. By then the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased. 18Another king was ruling Egypt, and he didn't know anything about Joseph. 19#Ex 1.10,11; Ex 1.22. He tricked our ancestors and was cruel to them. He even made them leave their babies outside, so they would die.
20 #
Ex 2.2. During this time Moses was born. He was a very beautiful child, and for three months his parents took care of him in their home. 21#Ex 2.3-10. Then when they were forced to leave him outside, the king's daughter found him and raised him as her own son. 22Moses was given the best education in Egypt. He was a strong man and a powerful speaker.
23 #
Ex 2.11-15. When Moses was 40 years old, he wanted to help the Israelites because they were his own people. 24One day he saw an Egyptian mistreating one of them. So he rescued the man and killed the Egyptian. 25Moses thought the rest of his people would realize God was going to use him to set them free. But they didn't understand.
26The next day Moses saw two of his own people fighting, and he tried to make them stop. He said, “Men, you are both Israelites. Why are you so cruel to each other?”
27But the man who had started the fight pushed Moses aside and asked, “Who made you our ruler and judge? 28Are you going to kill me, just as you killed that Egyptian yesterday?” 29#Ex 18.2-4. When Moses heard this, he ran away to live in the country of Midian. His two sons were born there.
30 #
Ex 3.1-10. Forty years later, an angel appeared to Moses from a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31Moses was surprised by what he saw. He went closer to get a better look, and the Lord said, 32“I am the God who was worshiped by your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” Moses started shaking all over and didn't dare to look at the bush.
33The Lord said to him, “Take off your sandals, because the place where you are standing is holy. 34With my own eyes I have seen the suffering of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groans and have come down to rescue them. Now I am sending you back to Egypt.”
35 #
Ex 2.14. This was the same Moses that the people rejected by saying, “Who made you our leader and judge?” God's angel had spoken to Moses from the bush. And God had even sent the angel to help Moses rescue the people and be their leader.
36 #
Ex 7.3,4;
Ex 14.21;
Nu 14.33. In Egypt and at the Red Sea#7.36 Red Sea: This name comes from the Bible of the early Christians, a translation made into Greek about 200 b.c. It refers to the body of water that the Israelites crossed and was one of the marshes or fresh water lakes near the eastern part of the Nile Delta, where they lived and where the towns of Exodus 13.17—14.9 were located. and in the desert, Moses rescued the people by working miracles and wonders for 40 years. 37#Dt 18.15,18. Moses is the one who told the people of Israel, “God will choose one of your people to be a prophet, just as he chose me.” 38#Ex 19.1—20.17; Dt 5.1-33. Moses brought our people together in the desert, and the angel spoke to him on Mount Sinai. There he was given these life-giving words to pass on to us. 39But our ancestors refused to obey Moses. They rejected him and wanted to go back to Egypt.
40 #
Ex 32.1. The people said to Aaron, “Make some gods to lead us! Moses led us out of Egypt, but we don't know what's happened to him now.” 41#Ex 32.2-6. Then they made an idol in the shape of a calf. They offered sacrifices to the idol and were pleased with what they had done.
42 # Am 5.25-27 (LXX). God turned his back on his people and left them. Then they worshiped the stars in the sky, just as it says in the Book of the Prophets, “People of Israel, you didn't offer sacrifices and offerings to me during those 40 years in the desert. 43Instead, you carried the tent where the god Molech is worshiped, and you took along the star of your god Rephan. You made those idols and worshiped them. So now I will have you carried off beyond Babylonia.”
44 #
Ex 25.9,40. The tent where our ancestors worshiped God was with them in the desert. This was the same tent that God had commanded Moses to make. And it was made like the model that Moses had seen. 45#Js 3.14-17. Later it was given to our ancestors, and they took it with them when they went with Joshua. They carried the tent along as they took over the land from those people that God had chased out for them. Our ancestors used this tent until the time of King David. 46#2 S 7.1-16; 1 Ch 17.1-14. He pleased God and asked him if he could build a house of worship for the people#7.46 people: Some manuscripts have “God.” of Israel. 47#1 K 6.1-38; 2 Ch 3.1-17. And it was finally King Solomon who built a house for God.#7.47 God: Or “the people.”
48But the Most High God doesn't live in houses made by humans. It is just as the prophet said, when he spoke for the Lord,
49 #
Is 66.1,2. “Heaven is my throne,
and the earth
is my footstool.
What kind of house
will you build for me?
In what place will I rest?
50I have made everything.”
51 #
Is 63.10. You stubborn and hardheaded people! You are always fighting against the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors did. 52Is there one prophet that your ancestors didn't mistreat? They killed the prophets who told about the coming of the One Who Obeys God.#7.52 One Who Obeys God: That is, Jesus. And now you have turned against him and killed him. 53Angels gave you God's Law, but you still don't obey it.
Stephen Is Stoned to Death
54When the council members heard Stephen's speech, they were angry and furious. 55#3 Macc 6.6. But Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit. He looked toward heaven, where he saw our glorious God and Jesus standing at his right side.#7.55 standing at his right side: The “right side” is the place of honor and power. “Standing” may mean that Jesus is welcoming Stephen (see verse 59). 56Then Stephen said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right side of God!”
57The council members shouted and covered their ears. At once they all attacked Stephen 58and dragged him out of the city. Then they started throwing stones at him. The men who had brought charges against him put their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.#7.58 Saul: Better known as Paul, who became a famous follower of Jesus.
59As Stephen was being stoned to death, he called out, “Lord Jesus, please welcome me!” 60He knelt down and shouted, “Lord, don't blame them for what they have done.” Then he died.
Currently Selected:
Acts 7: CEVDCI
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Acts 7
7
Stephen’s Defense
1Now the #7:1 Probably Caiaphas. See 4:6.high priest asked [Stephen], “Are these charges true?”
2And he answered, “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory [the Shekinah, the radiance of God] appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, [Gen 11:31; 15:7; Ps 29:3] 3and He said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.’ [Gen 12:1] 4Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, God sent him to this country in which you now live. [Gen 11:31; 12:5; 15:7] 5But He did not give him inheritable property, not even enough ground to take a step on, yet He promised that He would give it to Him as a possession, and to his descendants after him. [Gen 12:7; 17:8; Deut 2:5] 6And this is, in effect, what God spoke [to him]: That his descendants would be aliens (strangers) in a foreign land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. 7‘And I will judge any nation to whom they will be in bondage,’ said God, ‘and after that they will come out and serve Me [in worship] in this place.’ [Gen 15:13, 14; Ex 3:12] 8And God gave Abraham a covenant [a formal agreement to be strictly observed] of [which] circumcision [was the sign]; and so [under these circumstances] Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac [became the father] of #7:8 Jacob’s name was changed to Israel (Gen 32:28).Jacob, and Jacob [became the father] of the #7:8 Ancestral fathers of the twelve tribes: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin.twelve patriarchs. [Gen 17:10-14; 21:2-4; 25:26; 29:31-35; 30:1-24; 35:16-26]
9“The [ten elder] patriarchs, overwhelmed with jealousy, sold [their younger brother] Joseph into [slavery in] Egypt; but God was with him, [Gen 37:11, 28; 45:4] 10and He rescued him from all his suffering, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made Joseph governor over Egypt and over his entire household. [Gen 39:2, 3, 21; 41:40-46; Ps 105:21]
11“Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great distress and our fathers could not find food [for their households and livestock]. [Gen 41:54, 55; 42:5] 12But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. [Gen 42:2] 13And on the second visit Joseph identified himself to his brothers, and Joseph’s family and background were revealed to Pharaoh. [Gen 45:1-4] 14Then Joseph sent and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five persons in all. [Gen 45:9, 10] 15And Jacob (Israel) went down into Egypt, and #7:15 Jacob was buried in Abraham’s tomb at Machpelah in Canaan.there he died, as did our fathers; [Gen 49:33] 16and [from Egypt] #7:16 Lit they, i.e. the bodies of Joseph and his brothers.their bodies were taken back to Shechem and placed in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem. [Gen 50:13; Josh 24:32]
17“But as the time [for the fulfillment] of the promise which God had made to Abraham was approaching, the [Hebrew] people increased and multiplied in Egypt, [Deut 10:22] 18until [the time when] there arose another king over egypt who did not know joseph [nor his history and the merit of his service to Egypt]. [Ex 1:7, 8] 19He shrewdly exploited our race and mistreated our fathers, forcing them to expose their [male] babies so that they would die. [Ex 1:7-11, 15-22] 20It was at this [critical] time that Moses was born; and he was lovely in the sight of God, and for three months he was nourished in his father’s house. [Ex 2:2] 21Then when he was set outside [to die], Pharaoh’s daughter rescued him and claimed him for herself, and cared for him as her own son. [Ex 2:5, 6, 10] 22So Moses was educated in all the wisdom and culture of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds. 23But when he reached the age of forty, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel. 24And when he saw one [of them] being treated unfairly, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking and killing the Egyptian. 25He expected his countrymen to understand that God was granting them freedom through him [assuming that they would accept him], but they did not understand. 26Then on the next day he suddenly appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and he tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong one another?’ 27But the man who was injuring his neighbor pushed Moses away, saying, ‘Who appointed you ruler and judge over us? 28Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29At this remark Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons. [Ex 2:11-15, 22; 18:3, 4]
30“After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount #7:30 Horeb is the range of mountains of which Sinai is a peak (Ex 3:1).Sinai, in the flame of a burning thorn bush. 31When Moses saw it, he was astonished at the sight; but as he went near to look more closely, the voice of the Lord came [to him, saying]: 32‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look. 33Then the Lord said to him, ‘Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground [worthy of reverence and respect]. 34I have most certainly seen the oppression of My people in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them. Now come, and I will send you to Egypt [as My messenger].’ [Ex 3:1-10]
35“This Moses whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the very one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer, with the [protecting and helping] hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush. [Ex 2:14] 36This man led them out [of Egypt] after performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. [Ex 7:3; 14:21; Num 14:33] 37This is the Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you a Prophet #7:37 Or as He raised up me.like me from your countrymen.’ [Deut 18:15, 18] 38This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and who was with our fathers; and he received living oracles [divine words that still live] to be handed down to you. [Ex 19] 39Our fathers were unwilling to be subject to him [and refused to listen to him]. They rejected him, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. [Num 14:3, 4] 40They said to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us; for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’ [Ex 32:1, 23] 41In those days they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced and celebrated over the works of their hands. [Ex 32:4, 6] 42But God turned away [from them] and handed them over to serve the #7:42 A mythological group of gods represented by the heavenly bodies and constellations.host of heaven. As it is written and forever remains written in the book of the prophets, ‘It was not [really] to Me that you offered victims and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness, was it, O house of Israel? [Jer 19:13] 43You also took along the tabernacle (portable temple) of Moloch and the star of the god Rompha, the images which you made to worship; and I will remove you beyond Babylon [carrying you away into exile].’ [Amos 5:25-27]
44“Our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as God directed Moses to make it according to the pattern which he had seen. [Ex 25:9-40] 45Our fathers also brought it in [with them into the land] with Joshua when they dispossessed the #7:45 Or Gentiles.nations whom God drove out before our fathers, [and so it remained here] until the time of David, [Deut 32:49; Josh 3:14-17] 46who found favor (grace, spiritual blessing) in the sight of God and asked that he might [be allowed to] find a dwelling place for the #7:46 The earliest mss read house instead of “God”; the Septuagint reads God.God of Jacob. [2 Sam 7:8-16; Ps 132:1-5] 47But it was Solomon who built a house for Him. [1 Kin 6] 48However, the Most High [the One infinitely exalted above humanity] does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet [Isaiah] says, [1 Kin 8:27]
49‘Heaven is My throne,
And the earth is the footstool for My feet;
What kind of house will you build for Me?’ says the Lord,
‘Or what place is there for My rest?
50‘Was it not My hand that made all these things?’ [Is 66:1, 2]
51“You stiff-necked and stubborn people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are always actively resisting the Holy Spirit. You are doing just as your fathers did. [Ex 33:3, 5; Num 27:14; Is 63:10; Jer 6:10; 9:26] 52Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who proclaimed beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become; 53you who received the law as ordained and delivered to you by angels, and yet you did not obey it!”
Stephen Put to Death
54Now when #7:54 This would include the members of the Council (Sanhedrin, Jewish High Court) and those witnessing the proceedings.they heard this [accusation and understood its implication], they were cut to the heart, and they began grinding their teeth [in rage] at him. 55But he, being full of the Holy Spirit and led by Him, gazed into heaven and saw the glory [the great splendor and majesty] of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; 56and he said, “Look! I see the heavens opened up [in welcome] and #7:56 The vision acknowledged Stephen’s right standing with God.the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” 57But they shouted with loud voices, and covered their ears and together rushed at him [considering him guilty of blasphemy]. 58Then they drove him out of the city and began stoning him; and the witnesses placed their outer robes at the feet of a young man named #7:58 At this time Saul (later known as the apostle Paul) was an active and devoted Pharisee.Saul. [Acts 22:20] 59They continued stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive and accept and welcome my spirit!” 60Then falling on his knees [in worship], he cried out loudly, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them [do not charge them]!” When he had said this, he fell asleep [in death].
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
Amplified® Bible
Copyright © 2015 by
The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631
All rights reserved. http://www.lockman.org