Acts 7
7
1Then the kohen gadol said, “Are these things so?”
2Stephen declared, “Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran.
3He said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come here to the land that I will show you.’
4Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God moved him to this land where you now live.
5He gave him no inheritance in it—not even a foothold—yet He promised ‘to give it to him as a possession to him and to his descendants after him,’ even though he had no child.
6“But God spoke in this way, that his ‘descendants would be foreigners in a land belonging to others, and they would enslave and mistreat them for four hundred years.
7But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they shall come out and serve Me in this place.’
8“Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. So he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and so Isaac with Jacob, and Jacob with the twelve patriarchs.
9The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him.
10He rescued him out of all his troubles and granted him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him governor over Egypt and all his household.
11“Famine and great suffering came over all Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers could find no food.
12But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time.
13On the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and his family became known to Pharaoh.
14So Joseph sent and called for Jacob and all his relatives—seventy-five persons.
15Jacob went down to Egypt and died, he and our fathers.
16They were carried to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
17“But as the time drew near for the promise God had sworn to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt—
18until ‘there arose another king over Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph.’
19Dealing with our people with cruel cunning, this king mistreated our fathers and forced them to abandon their infants so they would not survive.
20“At this time Moses was born—extraordinary before God. For three months he was nurtured in his father’s house.
21And when he was set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and raised him as her own son.
22Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in his words and deeds.
23“When he was approaching forty years of age, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, Bnei-Yisrael.
24When he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he went to the defense of the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian.
25He was assuming that his brothers understood that by his hand God was delivering them, but they did not understand.
26So on the next day he appeared to them as they were fighting. He tried to reconcile them in shalom, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong one another?’
27“But the one doing wrong to his neighbor pushed him away, saying, ‘Who appointed you ruler and judge over us?
28You don’t want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday, do you?’
29At this remark, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
30“When forty years had passed, an angel 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. But when he came up to look, there came the voice of Adonai:
32‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.’ “Moses trembled in fear and did not dare to look.
33But Adonai said to him, ‘Take the sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.
34I have surely seen the oppression of my people in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. Now come—let Me send you to Egypt.’
35“This Moses—whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who appointed you as ruler and judge?’—is the one whom God sent as both ruler and redeemer, by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.
36This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.
37This is the Moses who said to Bnei-Yisrael, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.’
38“This is the one who was in the community in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. He received living words to pass on to us.
39Our fathers did not want to be obedient to him, but shoved him aside. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt,
40saying to Aaron, ‘Make gods for us who will go before us. For this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt—we have no idea what has happened to him.’
41“And they made a calf in those days, offered a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.
42But God turned and gave them over to serve the host of heaven, just as it is written in the book of the Prophets: ‘It was not to Me that you brought sacrifices and offerings for forty years in the wilderness, was it, O House of Israel?
43You also took up the tent of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, the images you made to worship. And I will deport you beyond Babylon.’
44“Our fathers had the Tent of Witness in the wilderness—just as the One speaking to Moses had directed him to make it according to the design he had seen.
45Our fathers received it in turn and brought it in with Joshua when they took possession of the land of the nations that God drove out before our fathers. So it remained until the days of David,
46who found favor in God’s sight. He asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.
47But Solomon built a house for Him.
48However, Elyon does not dwell in man-made houses. As the prophet says,
49‘Heaven is My throne, and the earth is the footstool of My feet. What kind of house will you build for Me, says Adonai, or what is the place of My rest?
50Did not My Hand make all these things?’
51“O you stiff-necked people! You uncircumcised of heart and ears! You always resist the Ruach ha-Kodesh; just as your fathers did, you do as well.
52Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed the ones who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. Now you have become His betrayers and murderers—
53you who received the Torah by direction of angels and did not keep it!”
54When they heard these things, they became enraged and began gnashing their teeth at him.
55But Stephen, full of the Ruach ha-Kodesh, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God—and Yeshua standing at the right hand of God.
56And he said, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
57But they covered their ears; and crying out with a loud voice, they rushed at him with one impulse.
58Driving him out of the city, they began stoning him, and the witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59They went on stoning Stephen as he was calling out, “Lord Yeshua, receive my spirit!”
60Then he fell on his knees and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” After he said this, he died.
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Acts 7: TLV
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Copyright © 2014 - Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society
Acts 7
7
Stephen’s Discourses. 1Then the high priest asked, “Is this so?” 2#Gn 11:31; 12:1; Ps 29:3. And he replied,#Stephen’s speech represents Luke’s description of Christianity’s break from its Jewish matrix. Two motifs become prominent in the speech: (1) Israel’s reaction to God’s chosen leaders in the past reveals that the people have consistently rejected them; and (2) Israel has misunderstood God’s choice of the Jerusalem temple as the place where he is to be worshiped. “My brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia,#God…appeared to our father Abraham…in Mesopotamia: the first of a number of minor discrepancies between the data of the Old Testament and the data of Stephen’s discourse. According to Gn 12:1, God first spoke to Abraham in Haran. The main discrepancies are these: in Acts 7:16 it is said that Jacob was buried in Shechem, whereas Gn 50:13 says he was buried at Hebron; in the same verse it is said that the tomb was purchased by Abraham, but in Gn 33:19 and Jos 24:32 the purchase is attributed to Jacob himself. before he had settled in Haran, 3and said to him, ‘Go forth from your land and [from] your kinsfolk to the land that I will show you.’#Gn 12:1. 4So he went forth from the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, he made him migrate to this land where you now dwell.#Gn 12:5; 15:7. 5Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length, but he did promise to give it to him and his descendants as a possession, even though he was childless.#Gn 12:7; 13:15; 15:2; 16:1; Dt 2:5. 6And God spoke thus,#Gn 15:13–14. ‘His descendants shall be aliens in a land not their own, where they shall be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years; 7but I will bring judgment on the nation they serve,’ God said, ‘and after that they will come out and worship me in this place.’#Ex 3:12. 8Then he gave him the covenant of circumcision, and so he became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day, as Isaac did Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs.#Gn 17:10–14; 21:2–4.
9“And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into slavery in Egypt; but God was with him#Gn 37:11, 28; 39:2, 3, 21, 23. 10and rescued him from all his afflictions. He granted him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, who put him in charge of Egypt and [of] his entire household.#Gn 41:37–43; Ps 105:21; Wis 10:13–14. 11Then a famine and great affliction struck all Egypt and Canaan, and our ancestors could find no food;#Gn 41:54–57; 42:5. 12but when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there a first time.#Gn 42:1–2. 13The second time, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh.#Gn 45:3–4, 16. 14Then Joseph sent for his father Jacob, inviting him and his whole clan, seventy-five persons;#Gn 45:9–11, 18–19; 46:27; Ex 1:5 LXX; Dt 10:22. 15and Jacob went down to Egypt. And he and our ancestors died#Gn 46:5–6; 49:33. 16and were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor at Shechem.#Gn 23:3–20; 33:19; 49:29–30; 50:13; Jos 24:32.
17“When the time drew near for the fulfillment of the promise that God pledged to Abraham, the people had increased and become very numerous in Egypt,#Ex 1:7. 18until another king who knew nothing of Joseph came to power [in Egypt].#Ex 1:8. 19He dealt shrewdly with our people and oppressed [our] ancestors by forcing them to expose their infants, that they might not survive. 20At this time Moses was born, and he was extremely beautiful. For three months he was nursed in his father’s house;#Ex 2:2; Heb 11:23. 21but when he was exposed, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.#Ex 2:3–10. 22Moses was educated [in] all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds.
23#Ex 2:11–12. “When he was forty years old, he decided to visit his kinsfolk, the Israelites. 24When he saw one of them treated unjustly, he defended and avenged the oppressed man by striking down the Egyptian. 25He assumed [his] kinsfolk would understand that God was offering them deliverance through him, but they did not understand. 26#Ex 2:13–14. The next day he appeared to them as they were fighting and tried to reconcile them peacefully, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you harming one another?’ 27Then the one who was harming his neighbor pushed him aside, saying, ‘Who appointed you ruler and judge over us? 28Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29Moses fled when he heard this and settled as an alien in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.#Ex 2:15, 21–22; 18:3–4.
30#Ex 3:2–3. “Forty years later, an angel appeared to him in the desert near Mount Sinai in the flame of a burning bush. 31When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and as he drew near to look at it, the voice of the Lord came, 32‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.’ Then Moses, trembling, did not dare to look at it. 33But the Lord said to him, ‘Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. 34I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them. Come now, I will send you to Egypt.’ 35This Moses, whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who appointed you ruler and judge?’ God sent as [both] ruler and deliverer, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.#Ex 2:14. 36This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the desert for forty years.#Ex 7:3, 10; 14:21; Nm 14:33. 37It was this Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you, from among your own kinsfolk, a prophet like me.’#Dt 18:15; Acts 3:22. 38It was he who, in the assembly in the desert, was with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our ancestors, and he received living utterances to hand on to us.#Ex 19:3; 20:1–17; Dt 5:4–22; 6:4–25.
39“Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him; instead, they pushed him aside and in their hearts turned back to Egypt,#Nm 14:3. 40saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will be our leaders. As for that Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’#Ex 32:1, 23. 41#Ex 32:4–6. So they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifice to the idol, and reveled in the works of their hands. 42Then God turned and handed them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:#Am 5:25–27.
‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
for forty years in the desert, O house of Israel?#Jer 7:18; 8:2; 19:13.
43No, you took up the tent of Moloch
and the star of [your] god Rephan,
the images that you made to worship.
So I shall take you into exile beyond Babylon.’
44Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the desert just as the One who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern he had seen.#Ex 25:9, 40. 45Our ancestors who inherited it brought it with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out from before our ancestors, up to the time of David,#Jos 3:14–17; 18:1; 2 Sm 7:5–7. 46who found favor in the sight of God and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob.#2 Sm 7:1–2; 1 Kgs 8:17; Ps 132:1–5. 47But Solomon built a house for him.#1 Kgs 6:1; 1 Chr 17:12. 48Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:#17:24.
49‘The heavens are my throne,
the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house can you build for me?
says the Lord,
or what is to be my resting place?#Is 66:1–2.
50Did not my hand make all these things?’
Conclusion. 51“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always oppose the holy Spirit; you are just like your ancestors. 52Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They put to death those who foretold the coming of the righteous one, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.#2 Chr 36:16; Mt 23:31, 34. 53You received the law as transmitted by angels, but you did not observe it.”#Gal 3:19; Heb 2:2.
Stephen’s Martyrdom. 54When they heard this, they were infuriated, and they ground their teeth at him. 55#Mt 26:64; Mk 14:62; Lk 22:69; Acts 2:34. But he, filled with the holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,#He…saw…Jesus standing at the right hand of God: Stephen affirms to the Sanhedrin that the prophecy Jesus made before them has been fulfilled (Mk 14:62). 56and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57But they cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears,#Covered their ears: Stephen’s declaration, like that of Jesus, is a scandal to the court, which regards it as blasphemy. and rushed upon him together. 58They threw him out of the city, and began to stone him. The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.#22:20. 59As they were stoning Stephen,#Ps 31:6; Lk 23:46. he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”#Compare Lk 23:34, 46. 60Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them”; and when he said this, he fell asleep.#Mt 27:46, 50; Mk 15:34; Lk 23:46.
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