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.
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Acts of the Apostles 7: CEB
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2011 Common English Bible. All rights reserved.
Acts 7
7
Stephen’s Sermon
1The high priest asked, “Are these accusations true?”
2Stephen replied, “My fellow Jews and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared # 7:2 The entire Hebrew family, and consequently the life of believers today, all began with a divine encounter as the God of glory appeared before Abraham. It is this same glory that calls people to faith in Christ. We, like Abraham, have been captured by the God of glory. See 2 Peter 1:3. to our ancestor Abraham while he was living in Iraq # 7:2 Or “Mesopotamia,” or “the land between two rivers” (Euphrates and Tigris). and before he moved to Haran # 7:2 This is the city to which Abraham migrated on his way to the promised land. Haran was also the son of Caleb who claimed a mountain. Haran means “mountain climber.” in Syria. 3God said to him, ‘Go! Leave behind your country and your relatives. Begin your journey and come to the land that I will show you.’ # 7:3 See Gen. 12:1.
4“So Abraham left southeastern Iraq # 7:4 Or “the land of Chaldeans.” and began his journey. He settled in Haran and stayed there until his father passed away. Then God had him move to the land of Israel with only a promise. 5Although God gave him no parcel of land he could call his own, not even a footprint, # 7:5 See Deut. 2:5. yet he promised Abraham that he and his descendants would one day have it all. And even though as yet Abraham had no child, 6God spoke with him and gave him this promise:
‘Your descendants will live in a foreign land with a people
who will make slaves of them
and oppress them for four hundred years. # 7:6 See Gen. 15:13–14; Ex. 2:22; 12:40.
7But I will judge the nation that enslaves them,
and your descendants will be set free
to return to this land to serve and worship me.’ # 7:7 See Ex. 3:12.
8“Then God entered into covenant with Abraham, which included the requirement of circumcision. So when he became the father of Isaac, he circumcised him eight days after his birth.
9“Isaac then became the father of Jacob, who was the father of our twelve patriarchs. Jacob’s sons became jealous of their brother Joseph and sold him to be a slave in Egypt. But God’s favor and blessing rested upon Joseph, and in time, 10God rescued him from all his oppression and granted him extraordinary favor before Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Pharaoh appointed him as the overseer of his nation and even of his own palace. # 7:10 See Gen. 41:37–44.
11“Then a devastating famine came over all of Egypt and Canaan, bringing great misery to the people, including our ancestors, who couldn’t find food. # 7:11 See Gen. 41:54; 42:5. 12But when Jacob learned that there was food in Egypt, he sent his sons, our ancestors, on their first trip to purchase grain for their family. 13On their second trip to Egypt, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers, # 7:13 See Gen. 45:1. and because of this, Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family and where he came from.
14“Joseph sent for his father, Jacob, and his entire family, a total of seventy-five people, to come and reside in Egypt. 15Eventually, Jacob died there, along with all of his sons, our forefathers. 16Their bones # 7:16 The Aramaic is “his [Jacob’s] bones,” while every Greek manuscript is “their bones.” Jacob was buried in Abraham’s tomb according to Gen. 50:1–14. Joseph was buried in a plot purchased in Shechem for one hundred pieces of silver (Gen. 33:18–20; Josh. 24:32). were later carried back to the promised land and buried in Shechem, in the tomb Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor.
17“The time drew near for God to fulfill the prophetic promise he had made to Abraham. Our Jewish people had increased greatly in number, multiplying many times over while in Egypt.
18“Another # 7:18 The Greek is “another of a different kind [or ‘character’].” king, who had forgotten how Joseph had made their nation great, arose to rule over Egypt. # 7:18 See Ex. 1:7–8. 19He was an abusive king who exploited our people with his smooth talk. With cruelty he forced our ancestors to give up their little boys as he committed infanticide! # 7:19 The Aramaic can also be translated “forced them to abort their children.”
20“Then Moses came on the scene—a child of divine beauty. # 7:20 Or “beautiful [well pleasing] in the eyes of God.” The Aramaic is “He was loved by God.” Ancient Hebrew scholars believed Moses may have had a shining of glory on his countenance when he was born, distinguishing him as a special servant of the Lord God. This shining face would later mark him as one who dwelt in the presence of the Lord (Ex. 34:29). Moses was a type or picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. No one was fairer than he; but no one was more extraordinary than our Lord. We learn from Ex. 6:20 that Moses’ father was Amram and his mother was Jochebed. Amram means “family of the lofty One” and Jochebed means “Yah makes great.” The sister of Moses was Miriam (the Hebrew name for Mary), which comes from the root word for “myrrh,” meaning “aromatic,” “fragrant,” or “bitter.” The name Moses means “rescued out of the water.” His parents hid him from Pharaoh as long as they could to spare his life. # 7:20 See Heb. 11:23. After three months they could conceal him no longer, 21so they had to abandon him to his fate. But God arranged that Pharaoh’s daughter would find him, take him home, and raise him as her own son. 22So Moses was fully trained in the royal courts and educated in the highest wisdom Egypt had to offer, until he arose as a powerful prince and an eloquent orator. # 7:22 Jewish tradition is that Pharaoh’s daughter had no child of her own and she herself was an only child. Moses stood in line to receive the throne of Egypt, the great world power. God was going to prepare a servant who would do his pleasure. All the education and culture of this world dynasty with its unlimited resources was placed before Moses. See Ps. 113:7–8.
23“When Moses turned forty, his heart was stirred for his people, the Israelites. 24One day he saw one of our people being violently mistreated, so he came to his rescue, and with his own hands Moses murdered the abusive Egyptian. 25Moses hoped that when the people realized how he had rescued one of their own, they would recognize him as their deliverer. How wrong he was! 26The next day he came upon two of our people engaged in a fist fight, and he tried to break it up by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers! Why would you want to hurt each other?’
27“But the perpetrator pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who do you think you are? Who appointed you to be our ruler and judge? 28Are you going to kill me like you did the Egyptian yesterday?’ # 7:28 See Ex. 2:14. Moses missed God’s timing. To know God’s will doesn’t mean you know God’s timing. God made Moses a ruler and a judge, but it took forty years to prepare him. Moses wanted the position forty years before he was ready. No one can make himself ruler and judge—only God has authority to set leaders in place. We cannot raise ourselves up with ministry responsibilities until God releases us. See also Prov. 8:16.
29“Shaken by this, Moses fled Egypt # 7:29 See Heb. 11:24–27. and lived as an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons. 30After forty years had passed, while he was in the desert near Mount Sinai, the Messenger of Yahweh # 7:30 As translated from the Aramaic. appeared to him in the midst of a flaming thorn bush. # 7:30 See Ex. 3:2. 31Moses was astonished and stunned by what he was seeing, so he drew closer to observe this marvel. Then the Lord Yahweh spoke to him out of the flames:
32‘I am the living God, # 7:32 As translated from the Aramaic. the God of your ancestors.
I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’
“Trembling in God’s presence and overwhelmed with awe, Moses didn’t even dare to look into the fire.
33“Out of the flames the Lord Yahweh said to him:
‘Take the sandals off your feet, # 7:33 Removing one’s shoes indicated the highest reverence. It is symbolic of removing earthly matters from our minds and hearts in readiness to accept spiritual realities.
for you are standing in the realm of holiness. # 7:33 Or “you are standing on ground that is set apart” (sacred).
34I have watched and seen how my people
have been mistreated # 7:34 The Aramaic is “I have seen their torment.” in Egypt.
I have heard their painful groaning,
and now I have come down to set them free.
So come to me, Moses,
for I am sending you to Egypt to represent me.’ # 7:34 See Ex. 3:6–10.
35“So God sent back to Egypt the man our people rejected and refused to recognize by saying, ‘Who appointed you to be our ruler and judge?’ God sent this man back to be their ruler and deliverer, commissioned with the power of the messenger who appeared to him in the flaming thorn bush. 36This man brought the people out from their Egyptian bondage with many astonishing wonders and miracle signs—miracles in Egypt, miracles at the Red Sea, and miracles during their forty-year journey through the wilderness. 37This is the same Moses who said to our ancestors, ‘The Lord God # 7:37 As translated from the Aramaic. will raise up one from among you who will be a prophet to you, like I have been. Listen to everything he will say!’ # 7:37 As translated from the Aramaic. See Deut. 18:15.
38“Moses led the congregation in the wilderness # 7:38 Or “Moses is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness.” and he spoke face-to-face with the angel who spoke with him on the top of Mount Sinai. Along with our ancestors, he received the living oracles of God that were passed down to us. 39But our forefathers refused to obey. They pushed him away, and their hearts longed to return to Egypt.
40“While Moses was on the mountain, our forefathers said to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to lead us, because we don’t know what has become of this Moses who brought us out of Egypt.’ # 7:40 The Aramaic is “We don’t know who this Moses is.” See Ex. 32:1, 23.
41“So they made a god, an idol in the form of a bull calf. They offered sacrifices to it and celebrated with delight what their own hands had made. # 7:41 Or “They had a party in honor of what their own hands had made.”
42“When God saw what they had done, he turned away from them and handed them over to the worship of the stars of heaven, # 7:42 This was in violation of Deut. 4:19; 17:2–5. as recorded in the prophetic writings: # 7:42 See Amos 5:25–27.
‘People of Israel, you failed to worship me
when you offered animal sacrifices
for forty years in the wilderness.
43Instead you worshiped the god Moloch, # 7:43 This was the Canaanite god of the sun and sky.
and you carried his tabernacle, not mine.
You worshiped your star-god, Rephan. # 7:43 Or “Derphan,” or “Remphan.” This is the Assyrian deity also referred to as Saturn.
You made idols with your hands
and worshiped them instead of me.
So now I will cast you into exile beyond Babylon.’
44“God gave Moses the revelation of the pattern of the tabernacle of the testimony. By God’s command, he made it exactly according to the specifications given to him for our ancestors in the wilderness. 45The next generation received possession of it, and under Joshua’s # 7:45 In Aramaic-Hebrew, the spelling of Joshua and Jesus is the same: Yeshua. leadership they took possession of the land of the nations, which God drove out in front of them. The tabernacle was carried about until 46David found loving favor with God and prayed for a dwelling place for the God of Jacob, 47but it was Solomon who built him a house. # 7:47 See 2 Chron. 5.
48“However, the Most High God does not live in temples made by human hands, as the prophet said: # 7:48 See Isa. 66:1–2.
49‘Heaven is my throne room and the earth
is but a footstool for my feet.
How could you possibly build a house
that could contain me?’ says the Lord Yahweh.
‘And where could you find a place where I could live?
50Don’t you know that it is my hands
that have built my house, # 7:50 Or “all these things.” not yours?’
51“Why would you be so stubborn as to close your hearts and your ears to me? You are always opposing the Holy Spirit, just like your forefathers! 52Which prophet was not persecuted and murdered by your ancestors? Name just one! They killed them all—even the ones who prophesied long ago of the coming of the Righteous One! Now you follow in their steps and have become his betrayers and murderers. 53You have been given the law by the visitation # 7:53 As translated from the Aramaic. The Greek is “by angelic decrees.” of angels, but you have not obeyed it.”
Stephen Is Stoned to Death
54When they heard these things, they were overtaken with violent rage filling their souls, and they gnashed their teeth at him. 55But Stephen, overtaken with great faith, # 7:55 As translated from the Aramaic. was full of the Holy Spirit. He fixed his gaze into the heavenly realm and saw the glory and splendor of God—and Jesus, who stood up at the right hand of God.
56“Look!” Stephen said. “I can see the heavens opening and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God to welcome me home!” # 7:56 Jesus sits at the right hand of God, but when he saw Stephen give his last breath for the gospel, he stood to welcome his martyr into his eternal reward.
57His accusers covered their ears with their hands and screamed at the top of their lungs to drown out his voice. 58Then they pounced on him and threw him outside the city walls to stone him. His accusers, one by one, placed their outer garments at the feet of a young man named Saul of Tarsus. # 7:58 That is, Saul, who would be converted and become Paul the apostle. Stephen’s graduation was Paul’s initiation.
59As they hurled stone after stone at him, Stephen prayed, “Our Lord Jesus, accept my spirit into your presence.” 60He crumpled to his knees and shouted in a loud voice, “Our Lord, don’t hold this sin against them.” # 7:60 See Luke 23:34, 46. And then he died.
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