Acts of the Apostles 7
7
1The high priest asked, “Are these accusations true?”
2Stephen responded, “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran. 3God told him, ‘Leave your homeland and kin, and go to the land that I will show you.’#7.3 Gen 12:1 4So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After Abraham’s father died, God had him resettle in this land where you now live. 5God didn’t give him an inheritance here, not even a square foot of land. However, God did promise to give the land as his possession to him and to his descendants, even though Abraham had no child. 6God put it this way: “His descendants will be strangers in a land that belongs to others, who will enslave them and abuse them for four hundred years.”#7.6 Gen 15:13 7“And I will condemn the nation they serve as slaves, ”God said, “and afterward they will leave”#7.7 Gen 15:14 that land and serve me in this place. 8God gave him the covenant confirmed through circumcision. Accordingly, eight days after Isaac’s birth, Abraham circumcised him. Isaac did the same with Jacob, and Jacob with the twelve patriarchs.
9“Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him into slavery in Egypt. God was with him, however, 10and rescued him from all his troubles. The grace and wisdom he gave Joseph were recognized by Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over his whole palace. 11A famine came upon all Egypt and Canaan, and great hardship came with it. Our ancestors had nothing to eat. 12When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there for the first time. 13During their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family. 14Joseph sent for his father Jacob and all his relatives—seventy-five in all—and invited them to live with him. 15So Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died. 16Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had purchased for a certain sum of money from Hamor’s children, who lived in Shechem.
17“When it was time for God to keep the promise he made to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly expanded. 18But then “another king rose to power over Egypt who didn’t know anything about Joseph.”#7.18 Exod 1:8 19He exploited our people and abused our ancestors. He even forced them to abandon their newly born babies so they would die. 20That’s when Moses was born. He was highly favored by God, and for three months his parents cared for him in their home. 21After he was abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted and cared for him as though he were her own son. 22Moses learned everything Egyptian wisdom had to offer, and he was a man of powerful words and deeds.
23“When Moses was 40 years old, he decided to visit his family, the Israelites. 24He saw one of them being wronged so he came to his rescue and evened the score by killing the Egyptian. 25He expected his own kin to understand that God was using him to rescue them, but they didn’t. 26The next day he came upon some Israelites who were caught up in an argument. He tried to make peace between them by saying, ‘You are brothers! Why are you harming each other?’ 27The one who started the fight against his neighbor pushed Moses aside and said, “‘Who appointed you as our leader and judge?” 28“Are you planning to kill me like you killed that Egyptian yesterday?’”#7.28 Exod 2:14 29When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he lived as an immigrant and had two sons.
30“Forty years later, an angel appeared to Moses in the flame of a burning bush in the wilderness near Mount Sinai. 31Enthralled by the sight, Moses approached to get a closer look and he heard the Lord’s voice: 32‘“I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”’#7.32 Exod 3:6 Trembling with fear, Moses didn’t dare to investigate any further. 33The Lord continued, ‘“Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” 34“I have clearly seen the oppression my people have experienced in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning. I have come down to rescue them. Come! I am sending you to Egypt”.’#7.34 Exod 3:5, 7
35“This is the same Moses whom they rejected when they asked, ‘Who appointed you as our leader and judge?’ This is the Moses whom God sent as leader and deliverer. God did this with the help of the angel who appeared before him in the bush. 36This man led them out after he performed wonders and signs in Egypt at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness. 37This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘“God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.”’#7.37 Deut 18:15 38This is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness with our ancestors and with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai. He is the one who received life-giving words to give to us. 39He’s also the one whom our ancestors refused to obey. Instead, they pushed him aside and, in their thoughts and desires, returned to Egypt. 40They told Aaron, ‘“Make us gods that will lead us. As for this Moses who led us out of Egypt, we don’t know what’s happened to him!”’#7.40 Exod 32:1 41That’s when they made an idol in the shape of a calf, offered a sacrifice to it, and began to celebrate what they had made with their own hands. 42So God turned away from them and handed them over to worship the stars in the sky, just as it is written in the scroll of the Prophets:
“Did you bring sacrifices and offerings to me”
“for forty years in the wilderness, house of Israel?”
43“No! Instead, you took the tent of Moloch with you,”
“and the star of your god Rephan,”
“the images that you made in order to worship them.”
“Therefore, I will send you far away, farther than Babylon.”#7.43 Amos 5:25-27
44“The tent of testimony was with our ancestors in the wilderness. Moses built it just as he had been instructed by the one who spoke to him and according to the pattern he had seen. 45In time, when they had received the tent, our ancestors carried it with them when, under Joshua’s leadership, they took possession of the land from the nations whom God expelled. This tent remained in the land until the time of David. 46God approved of David, who asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.#7.46 Critical editions of the Gk New Testament read house of Jacob. 47But it was Solomon who actually built a house for God. 48However, the Most High doesn’t live in houses built 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 is my resting place?”
50“Didn’t I make all these things with my own hand?’”#7.50 Isa 66:1-2
51“You stubborn people! In your thoughts and hearing, you are like those who have had no part in God’s covenant! You continuously set yourself against the Holy Spirit, just like your ancestors did. 52Was there a single prophet your ancestors didn’t harass? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the righteous one, and you’ve betrayed and murdered him! 53You received the Law given by angels, but you haven’t kept it.”
54Once the council members heard these words, they were enraged and began to grind their teeth at Stephen. 55But Stephen, enabled by the Holy Spirit, stared into heaven and saw God’s majesty and Jesus standing at God’s right side. 56He exclaimed, “Look! I can see heaven on display and the Human One#7.56 Or Son of Man standing at God’s right side!” 57At this, they shrieked and covered their ears. Together, they charged at him, 58threw him out of the city, and began to stone him. The witnesses placed their coats in the care of a young man named Saul. 59As they battered him with stones, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, accept my life!” 60Falling to his knees, he shouted, “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them!” Then he died.
Currently Selected:
Acts of the Apostles 7: CEB
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
2011 Common English Bible. All rights reserved.
Acts 7
7
Stephen's Defense
1Then said the high priest, Are these things so? 2#Gen 12.1. And he said,
Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopota´mi-a, before he dwelt in Haran, 3and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee. 4#Gen 11.31; Gen 12.4. Then came he out of the land of the Chalde´ans, and dwelt in Haran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell. 5#Gen 12.7; 13.15; 15.18; 17.8. And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child. 6#Gen 15.13,14. And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years. 7And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God: and after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place. 8#Gen 17.10-14; Gen 21.2-4; Gen 25.26; Gen 29.31—35.18. And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
9 #
Gen 37.11;
Gen 37.28;
Gen 39.2,21. And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him, 10#Gen 41.39-41. and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house. 11#Gen 41.54-57. Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance. 12#Gen 42.1,2. But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. 13#Gen 45.1; Gen 45.16. And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph's kindred was made known unto Pharaoh. 14#Gen 45.9,10,17,18; Gen 46.27. Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls. 15#Gen 46.1-7; Gen 49.33. So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers, 16#Gen 23.3-16; 33.19; 50.7-13; Josh 24.32. and were carried over into Shechem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.#7.16 the father of Shechem. Some early manuscripts have in Shechem.
17 #
Exod 1.7,8. But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, 18till another king arose, which knew not Joseph. 19#Exod 1.10,11; Exod 1.22. The same dealt subtilely with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live. 20#Exod 2.2. In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his father's house three months: 21#Exod 2.3-10. and when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son. 22And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.
23 #
Exod 2.11-15. And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. 24And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian: 25for he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them; but they understood not. 26And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another? 27But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? 28Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday? 29#Exod 18.3,4. Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Mid´i-an, where he begat two sons.
30 #
Exod 3.1-10. And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Si´nai an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. 31When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him, 32saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold. 33Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground. 34I have seen, 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, I will send thee into Egypt.
35This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush. 36#Exod 7.3; Exod 14.21; Num 14.33. He brought them out, after that he had showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years. 37#Deut 18.15,18. This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear. 38#Exod 19.1—20.17; Deut 5.1-33. This is he, that was in the church#7.38 church or congregation. in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Si´nai, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us: 39to whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt, 40#Exod 32.1. saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. 41#Exod 32.2-6. And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. 42#Amos 5.25-27. Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets,
O ye house of Israel,
have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices
by the space of forty years in the wilderness?
43Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch,
and the star of your god Remphan,
figures which ye made to worship them:
and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.
44 #
Exod 25.9,40. Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen. 45#Josh 3.14-17. Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Joshua into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers, unto the days of David; 46#2 Sam 7.1-16; 1 Chr 17.1-14. who found favor before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. 47#1 Kgs 6.1-38; 2 Chr 3.1-17. But Solomon built him a house. 48Howbeit the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet,
49 #
Isa 66.1,2. Heaven is my throne,
and earth is my footstool:
what house will ye build me? saith the Lord:
or what is the place of my rest?
50Hath not my hand made all these things?
51 #
Isa 63.10. Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. 52Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: 53who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.
The Stoning of Stephen
54When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. 55But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, 56and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God. 57Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, 58and cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was Saul. 59And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. 60And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
Currently Selected:
:
Highlight
Share
Copy
Want to have your highlights saved across all your devices? Sign up or sign in
King James Version 1611, spelling, punctuation and text formatting modernized by ABS in 1962; typesetting © 2010 American Bible Society.