Stephen’s Defense
1 Now thehigh priest asked [Stephen], “Are these charges true?”
2 And he answered, “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory [the Shekinah, the radiance of God] appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,
3 and He said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives,and come to the land thatIwill show you.’
4 Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died,Godsent him to this country in which you now live.
5 But He did not give him inheritable property, not even enough ground to take a step on, yet He promised that He would give it toHim as a possession,and to his descendants after him.
6 And this is, in effect, what God spoke [to him]: That hisdescendants would be aliens(strangers)in a foreign land,and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.
7 ‘AndIwill judge any nation to whom they will be in bondage,’ said God, ‘andafter that they will come out and serveMe[in worship]in this place.’
8 And God gave Abraham a covenant [a formal agreement to be strictly observed] of [which] circumcision [was the sign]; and so [under these circumstances] Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac [became the father] ofJacob, and Jacob [became the father] of thetwelve patriarchs.
9 “The [ten elder] patriarchs,overwhelmedwith jealousy, sold [their younger brother] Joseph into [slavery in] Egypt; but God was with him,
10 and He rescued him from all his suffering, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made Joseph governor over Egypt and over his entire household.
11 “Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great distress and our fathers could not find food [for their households and livestock].
12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fatherstherethe first time.
13 And on the secondvisitJoseph identified himself to his brothers, and Joseph’s familyandbackground were revealed to Pharaoh.
14 Then Joseph sent and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five persons in all.
15 And Jacob (Israel) went down into Egypt, andthere he died, as did our fathers;
16 and [from Egypt]their bodies were taken back to Shechem and placed in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
17 “But as the time [for the fulfillment] of the promise which God had made to Abraham was approaching, the [Hebrew] people increased and multiplied in Egypt,
18 until [the time when]there arose another king over egypt who did not know joseph[nor his history and the merit of his service to Egypt].
19 He shrewdly exploited our race and mistreated our fathers, forcing them to expose their [male] babies so that they would die.
20 It was at this [critical] time that Moses was born; and he was lovely in the sight of God, and for three months he was nourished in his father’s house.
21 Then when he was set outside [to die], Pharaoh’s daughter rescued himandclaimed him for herself, and cared for him as her own son.
22 So Moses was educated in all the wisdomandculture of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds.
23 But when he reached the age of forty, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel.
24 And when he saw one [of them] being treated unfairly, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by strikingandkilling the Egyptian.
25 He expected his countrymen to understand that God was granting them freedom through him [assuming that they would accept him], but they did not understand.
26 Then on the next day he suddenly appeared to two of them as they were fighting, and he tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong one another?’
27 But the man who was injuring his neighbor pushed Moses away, saying, ‘Who appointed you ruler and judge over us?
28 ~‘Do you intend to kill me as you killed theEgyptian yesterday?’
29 At this remark Moses fled and became an exile in the land ofMidian, where he fathered 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 was astonished at the sight; but as he went near to look more closely, the voice of the Lord came [to him, saying]:
32 ‘Iam theGod of your fathers,theGod ofAbraham and ofIsaac and ofJacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.
33 Then theLord said to him, ‘Remove the sandals from your feet,for the place where you are standing is holy ground[worthy of reverence and respect].
34 ~‘Ihave most certainly seen the oppression ofMy people inEgypt and have heard their groaning,andIhave come down to rescue them. Now come,andIwill send you toEgypt[as My messenger].’
35 “This Moses whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the very one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer, with the [protecting and helping] hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush.
36 This man led them out [of Egypt] after performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.
37 This is the Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you aProphetlike me from your countrymen.’
38 This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness together with the Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, andwho waswith our fathers; and he received living oracles [divine words that still live] to be handed down to you.
39 Our fathers were unwilling to be subject to him [and refused to listen to him]. They rejected him, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.
40 They said 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 has happened to him.’
41 In those days they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoicedandcelebrated over the works of their hands.
42 But God turned away [from them] and handed them over to serve thehost of heaven. As it is writtenandforever remains written in the book of the prophets, ‘It was not[really]toMe that you offered victims and sacrifices forforty years in the wilderness,was it, Ohouse ofIsrael?
43 ~‘You also took along the tabernacle(portable temple)ofMoloch and the star of the godRompha,the images which you made to worship;andIwill remove you beyondBabylon[carrying you away into exile].’
44 “Our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as God directed Moses to make it according to the pattern which he had seen.
45 Our fathers also brought it in [with them into the land] with Joshua when they dispossessed thenations whom God drove out before our fathers, [and so it remained here] until the time of David,
46 who found favor (grace, spiritual blessing) in the sight of God and asked that he might [be allowed to] find a dwelling place for theGod of Jacob.
47 But it was Solomon who built a house for Him.
48 However, the Most High [the One infinitely exalted above humanity] does not dwell inhousesmade by human hands; as the prophet [Isaiah] says,
49 ‘Heaven isMy throne,
And the earth is the footstool forMy feet;
What kind of house will you build forMe?’ says the Lord,
‘Or what place is there forMy rest?
50 ‘Was it notMy hand that made all these things?’
51 “You stiff-neckedandstubborn people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are always actively 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 proclaimed beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become;
53 you who received the law as ordainedanddelivered to you by angels, and yet you did not obey it!”
Stephen Put to Death
54 Now whenthey heard this [accusation and understood its implication], they were cut to the heart, and theybegangrinding their teeth [in rage] at him.
55 But he, being full of the Holy Spiritandled by Him, gazed into heaven and saw the glory [the great splendor and majesty] of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;
56 and he said, “Look! I see the heavens opened up [in welcome] andthe Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
57 But they shouted with loud voices, and covered their ears and together rushed at him [considering him guilty of blasphemy].
58 Then they drove him out of the city andbeganstoning him; and the witnesses placed their outer robes at the feet of a young man namedSaul.
59 They continued stoning Stephen as he called onthe Lordand said, “Lord Jesus, receiveandacceptandwelcome my spirit!”
60 Then falling on his knees [in worship], he cried out loudly, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them [do not charge them]!” When he had said this, he fell asleep [in death].