Stephen’s Defense
1 The high priest said, “Are these things so?”
2 And he said, “Hear me, brethren and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,
3 and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives,and come into the land thatIwill show you.’
4 Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died,Godhad him move to this country in which you are now living.
5 But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, andyet,even when he had no child, He promised that He would give it to him as apossession,and to his descendants after him.
6 But God spoke to this effect, that hisdescendants would be aliens in a foreign land,and that they wouldbe enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.
7 ‘And whatever nation to which they will be in bondageI Myself will judge,’ said God, ‘andafter that they will come out andserveMein this place.’
8 And He gave him the covenant of circumcision; and soAbrahambecame the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaacbecame the father ofJacob, and Jacobofthe twelve patriarchs.
9 “The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt.YetGod was with him,
10 and rescued him from all his afflictions, and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made him governor over Egypt and all his household.
11 “Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great afflictionwith it,and our fathers could find no food.
12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fatherstherethe first time.
13 On the secondvisitJoseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family was disclosed to Pharaoh.
14 Then Joseph sentwordand invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five personsin all.
15 And Jacob went down to Egypt andtherehe and our fathers died.
16 From therethey were removed to Shechem and laid in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
17 “But as the time of the promise was approaching which God had assured to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt,
18 untilthere arose another king overEgypt who knew nothing aboutJoseph.
19 It was he who took shrewd advantage of our race and mistreated our fathers so that they would expose their infants and they would not survive.
20 It was at this time that Moses was born; and he was lovely in the sight of God, and he was nurtured three months in his father’s home.
21 And after he had been set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and nurtured him as her own son.
22 Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds.
23 But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his mind to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel.
24 And when he saw oneof thembeing treated unjustly, he defended him and took vengeance for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian.
25 And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, but they did not understand.
26 On the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting together, and he tried to reconcile them in peace, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren, why do you injure one another?’
27 But the one who was injuring his neighbor pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge overus?
28 You do not mean to kill me as you killed theEgyptian yesterday,do you?’
29 At this remark, Moses fled and became an alien in the land ofMidian, where he became the father of two sons.
30 “After forty years had passed,an angel appeared to him in the wilderness ofMountSinai,in the flame of a burning thorn bush.
31 When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he approached to lookmoreclosely, there came the voice of the Lord:
32 ‘Iam theGod of your fathers,theGod ofAbraham andIsaac andJacob.’ Moses shook with fear and would not venture to look.
33 But theLord said to him,’Takeoff the sandals from your feet,for the place on which you arestanding is holy ground.
34 Ihave certainly seen the oppression ofMy people inEgypt and have heard their groans,andIhave come down to rescue them;come now,andIwill send you toEgypt.’
35 “This Moses whom they disowned, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one whom God sentto beboth a ruler and a deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush.
36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.
37 This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘God will raise up for youa prophetlike me from your brethren.’
38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai, andwho waswith our fathers; and he received living oracles to pass on to you.
39 Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him, but repudiated him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt,
40 saying toAaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us;for thisMoses who led us out of the land ofEgypt-we do not know what happened to him.’
41 At that time they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.
42 But God turned away and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘It was not toMe that you offered victims and sacrificesforty years in the wilderness,was it, Ohouse ofIsrael?
43 You also took along the tabernacle ofMoloch and the star of the godRompha,the images which you made to worship. Ialso will remove you beyondBabylon.’
44 “Our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as He who spoke to Moses directedhimto make it according to the pattern which he had seen.
45 And having received it in their turn, our fathers brought it in with Joshua upon dispossessing the nations whom God drove out before our fathers, until the time of David.
46 Davidfound favor in God’s sight, and asked that he might find a dwelling place for theGod of Jacob.
47 But it was Solomon who built a house for Him.
48 However, the Most High does not dwell inhousesmade byhumanhands; as the prophet says:
49 ‘Heaven isMy throne,
And earth is the footstool ofMy feet;
What kind of house willyoubuild forMe?’ says the Lord,
‘Or what place is there forMy repose?
50 ‘Was it notMy hand which made all these things?’
51 “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.
52 Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become;
53 you who received the law as ordained by angels, andyetdid not keep it.”
Stephen Put to Death
54 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick, and theybegangnashing their teeth at him.
55 But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;
56 and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened up and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
57 But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one impulse.
58 When they had driven him out of the city, theybeganstoninghim;and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 They went on stoning Stephen as he called onthe Lordand said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”
60 Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Having said this, he fell asleep.
—https://d1b84921e69nmq.cloudfront.net/80/32k/ACT/7-740521646bcc2f6c7a990a2f0de6b9ec.mp3?version_id=100—