Stephen’s Address: The Call of Abraham
1 Then the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
2 And he said,“Brethren and fathers, listen: TheGod of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt inHaran,
3 and said to him,‘Get out of your country and from your relatives, and come to a land that I will show you.’
4 Thenhe came out of the land of the Chaldeans and dwelt in Haran. And from there, when his father wasdead, He moved him to this land in which you now dwell.
5 AndGodgave him no inheritance in it, not evenenoughto set his foot on. But even whenAbrahamhad no child,He promised to give it to him for a possession, and to his descendants after him.
6 But God spoke in this way:that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land, and that they would bring them intobondage and oppressthemfour hundred years.
7 ‘And the nation to whom they will be in bondage I willjudge,’ said God,‘and after that they shall come out and serve Me in this place.’
8 Then He gave him the covenant of circumcision;and soAbrahambegot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day;and IsaacbegotJacob, andJacobbegotthe twelve patriarchs.
The Patriarchs in Egypt
9 “And the patriarchs, becoming envious,sold Joseph into Egypt.But God was with him
10 and delivered him out of all his troubles,and gave him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
11 Now a famine and great trouble came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers found no sustenance.
12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.
13 And thesecondtimeJoseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to the Pharaoh.
14 Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob andall his relatives tohim,seventy-five people.
15 So Jacob went down to Egypt;and he died, he and our fathers.
16 Andthey were carried back to Shechem and laid inthe tomb that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor,thefatherof Shechem.
God Delivers Israel by Moses
17 “But whenthe time of the promise drew near which God had sworn to Abraham,the people grew and multiplied in Egypt
18 till another kingarose who did not know Joseph.
19 This man dealt treacherously with our people, and oppressed our forefathers,making them expose their babies, so that they might not live.
20 At this time Moses was born, andwas well pleasing to God; and he was brought up in his father’s house for three months.
21 Butwhen he was set out,Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and brought him up as her own son.
22 And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and wasmighty in words and deeds.
23 “Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.
24 And seeing one ofthemsuffer wrong, he defended and avenged him who was oppressed, and struck down the Egyptian.
25 For he supposed that his brethren would have understood that God would deliver them by his hand, but they did not understand.
26 And the next day he appeared totwoofthem as they were fighting, andtriedtoreconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brethren; why do you wrong one another?’
27 But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying,‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?
28 Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?’
29 Then, at this saying, Moses fled and became a dweller in the land of Midian, where hehad two sons.
30 “And when forty years had passed, an Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire in a bush, in the wilderness of Mount Sinai.
31 When Moses sawit,he marveled at the sight; and as he drew near to observe, the voice of the Lord came to him,
32 saying,‘Iamthe God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses trembled and dared not look.
33 ‘Then theLordsaid to him, “Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.
34 I have surelyseen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. And now come, I willsend you to Egypt.” ’
35 “This Moses whom they rejected, saying,‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ is the one God senttobea ruler and a delivererby the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush.
36 He brought them out, after he hadshown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt,and in the Red Sea,and in the wilderness forty years.
Israel Rebels Against God
37 “This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel,‘TheLordyour God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren.Him you shall hear.’
38 “This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness withthe Angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, andwithour fathers,the one who received the livingoracles to give to us,
39 whom our fatherswould not obey, but rejected. And in their hearts they turned back to Egypt,
40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to go before us;asforthis Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’
41 And they made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, andrejoiced in the works of their own hands.
42 ThenGod turned and gave them up to worshipthe host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the Prophets:
# ‘Did you offer Me slaughtered animals and sacrificesduringforty years in the wilderness,
O house of Israel?
43 You also took up the tabernacle of Moloch,
And the star of your god Remphan,
Images which you made to worship;
# AndI will carry you away beyond Babylon.’
God’s True Tabernacle
44 “Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as He appointed, instructing Mosesto make it according to the pattern that he had seen,
45 which our fathers, having received it in turn, also brought with Joshua into the land possessed by the Gentiles,whom God drove out before the face of our fathers until thedays of David,
46 who found favor before God andasked to find a dwelling for the God of Jacob.
47 But Solomon built Him a house.
48 “However,the Most High does not dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says:
49 ‘HeavenisMy throne,
And earthisMy footstool.
What house will you build for Me? says theLord,
Or whatisthe place of My rest?
50 Has My hand notmade all these things?’
Israel Resists the Holy Spirit
51 “Youstiff-necked anduncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathersdid,sodoyou.
52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming ofthe Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers,
53 who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not keptit.”
Stephen the Martyr
54 When they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him withtheirteeth.
55 But he,being full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw theglory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,
56 and said, “Look!I see the heavens opened and theSon of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
57 Then they cried out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and ran at him with one accord;
58 and they casthimout of the city and stonedhim.Andthe witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 And they stoned Stephen as he was calling onGodand saying, “Lord Jesus,receive my spirit.”
60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice,“Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.