Acts 7

1The high priest asked, “Are these charges true?” 2Stephen replied, “Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran. 3God said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your kin, and come to the land that I will show you.’ 4So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father’s death, God moved him from there into this land where you now live. 5He gave him no share of it to inherit, not even ground enough for one step. But he promised to give it to him and to his descendants after him to hold as their own, while Abraham was still childless. 6This is what God said: his descendants would live as outsiders in a land that belonged to others, and its people would make them slaves and treat them harshly for 400 years. 7‘But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out and worship me in this place.’ 8God also gave him the covenant marked by circumcision. And so, when Isaac was born to Abraham, he circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac in turn had Jacob, and Jacob had the twelve patriarchs.

9The patriarchs envied Joseph and sold him off to Egypt. Yet God stood by him 10and delivered him from every hardship he met. He gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him governor over Egypt and over all his household. 11Then famine struck the whole of Egypt and Canaan, bringing great hardship, and our ancestors could find nothing to eat. 12When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our forefathers there on a first journey. 13On their second visit Joseph let his brothers know who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family. 14Joseph sent for his father Jacob and for all his relatives, seventy-five people in all, 15and Jacob went down to Egypt. There he died, and so did our forefathers. 16They were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor at Shechem.

17The time was coming close for the promise God had pledged to Abraham, and the people grew and multiplied in Egypt 18until another king rose to rule Egypt, a king who knew nothing of Joseph. 19He schemed against our people and treated our ancestors cruelly. He made them put their babies out to die. 20That was the time when Moses was born, and he was a beautiful child before God. For three months he was cared for in his father’s house. 21When he was put outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him in and raised him as her own son. 22Moses was schooled in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he had power in what he said and in what he did.

23As he reached the age of forty, he set his heart on visiting his own kin, the people of Israel. 24Seeing one of them being wronged, he stepped in to defend him. He struck down the Egyptian and so avenged the man who was being abused. 25He supposed his kin would grasp that God was bringing them salvation through his hand, but they did not grasp it. 26On the following day he came upon some of them as they fought, and he tried to bring them back to peace: ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you wronging each other?’ 27But the one who was abusing his neighbor thrust Moses away and said, ‘Who put you in charge as ruler and judge over us? 28Do you mean to kill me the way you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29At these words Moses fled, and he lived as a foreigner in the land of Midian, where he had two sons.

30When forty more years had gone by, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire within a bush. 31Moses was amazed when he saw this sight. As he went closer to look, the voice of the Lord came to him: 32‘I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses was seized with trembling and did not dare to look. 33The Lord said to him, ‘Take the sandals off your feet, because the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34I have seen, yes, seen the cruelty done to my people in Egypt. I have heard them groaning, and I have come down to rescue them. Come now: I will send you to Egypt.’

35This was the Moses they had pushed away with the words ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ God sent this very man to be both ruler and redeemer, with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36It was he who brought them out, working wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. 37This is the Moses who told the people of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people.’ 38He was there in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our ancestors, and he received living words to pass on to us. 39Yet our ancestors would not submit to him. They thrust him aside, and their hearts went back to Egypt. 40‘Make us gods to lead the way for us,’ they told Aaron. ‘This Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we have no idea what has become of him.’ 41Then it was that they fashioned a calf. They offered a sacrifice to the idol and held a celebration over the work of their hands. 42So God turned away and gave them over to worship the stars of the sky, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you bring me slaughtered animals and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness, house of Israel? 43You lifted up the tent of Moloch and the star of the god Rephan, the images you made in order to bow down to them. So I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’

44In the wilderness our ancestors had the tent of the testimony, made as he who spoke to Moses had directed, following the pattern Moses had seen. 45Our ancestors received it in their turn and brought it in with Joshua when they took possession of the lands of the nations, whom God drove out ahead of them. So it was until the days of David. 46God looked on David with favor, and David asked to be allowed to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47But it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48Yet the Most High does not make his home in buildings that hands have made, as the prophet says: 49‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is the footstool under my feet. What sort of house could you build for me, says the Lord, or what place could be my resting place? 50Was it not my hand that made all these things?’ 51How stubborn you are! Your hearts and ears are uncircumcised. You are forever fighting against the Holy Spirit, and you do what your ancestors did. 52Which one of the prophets escaped persecution by your ancestors? They killed those who told in advance of the coming of the Righteous One, and you have now become his betrayers and murderers. 53The law was given to you through angels, but you have not kept it.”

54Hearing these words, they seethed with fury and ground their teeth at Stephen. 55Filled with the Holy Spirit, Stephen fixed his gaze on heaven. He saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at God’s right hand. 56He said, “Look! I see the heavens opened wide, and the Son of Man standing at God’s right hand.” 57They let out a great shout, covered their ears, and rushed at him all together. 58They drove him out of the city and began to stone him. The witnesses put their cloaks down at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59As they stoned Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60Then he sank to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” With these words he fell asleep.