< Acts 7 >
1 Then the high priest said, “Can these things be so?”
2 So he said: “Men, brothers and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he resided in Haran,
3 and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come into a land that I will show you.’
4 Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and resided in Haran. From there, after his father died, God moved him to this land in which you now live;
5 yet He did not give him an inheritance in it, not even a footstep. He promised to give it to him for a possession, that is, to his seed after him, though he had no child.
6 Further, God spoke like this: that his offspring would be aliens in a foreign land—and that they would be enslaved and oppressed—four hundred years.
7 ‘I will judge the nation to which they will be in bondage,’ said God, ‘and after that they will come out and serve Me in this place.’
8 And He gave him a covenant of circumcision; and so he begot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac did the same to Jacob, and Jacob to the twelve patriarchs.
9 “The patriarchs, being envious, sold Joseph into Egypt; yet God was with him
10 and delivered him out of all his adversities, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
11 And a famine came upon all the land of Egypt and Canaan, even a great affliction, and our fathers could not find food.
12 But upon hearing that there was wheat in Egypt, Jacob first sent our fathers.
13 On the second trip Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph's family was presented to Pharaoh.
14 Joseph sent and summoned his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five souls.
15 So Jacob went down to Egypt; and he died, he and our fathers;
16 and they were transferred to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor of Shechem.
17 “Now as the time of the promise was approaching which God had sworn to Abraham, the people increased and were multiplied in Egypt,
18 until a different king arose who had not known Joseph.
19 This man took advantage of our race and oppressed our fathers, making them expose their babies so that they would not stay alive.
20 At that time Moses was born, and was well pleasing to God; he was nurtured in his father's house for three months.
21 When he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter took him to herself and brought him up as her own son.
22 So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians; he was mighty in words and deeds.
23 Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel.
24 Well seeing one of them being wronged, he defended and avenged the one being oppressed, striking down the Egyptian.
25 Now he supposed that his brothers understood that God was giving them deliverance by his hand, but they did not understand.
26 The next day he appeared to them as they were fighting and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong one another?’
27 But the one who was wronging his neighbor pushed Moses 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 Well Moses fled at that word, and became a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begot two sons.
30 “And when another forty years had passed, Angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.
31 Well upon seeing it Moses was amazed at the sight, but as he approached for a closer look the voice of the Lord came to him:
32 ‘I am the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.’ Moses started trembling and did not dare to look.
33 So the Lord said to him: ‘Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.
34 I have definitely seen the mistreatment of my people in Egypt, and have heard their groaning; and I have come down to deliver them. So now come, I will send you to Egypt.’
35 “This Moses whom they refused, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—God sent him as leader and deliverer by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush.
36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea, and for forty years in the wilderness.
37 “This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘The Lord our God will raise up to you a Prophet from among your brothers, like me.’
38 This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness, who was with the Angel who spoke with him on Mount Sinai and was with our fathers, who received living oracles to give to us;
39 to whom our fathers did not want to be obedient; rather they rejected him and turned back in their heart to Egypt,
40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods that will go before us; because this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt—we do not know what has become of him.’
41 Well they made a calf in those days and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and started rejoicing in the works of their hands.
42 But God turned away and gave them over to serve the army of the heaven, just as it is written in Book of the Prophets: ‘House of Israel, did you offer me slaughtered animals and sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness?
43 Actually you took along the tent of Moloch, and the star of your god, Rephan, the images that you made to worship; so I will relocate you beyond Babylon.’
44 “The tent of the testimony, according to the pattern that Moses had seen, just as the One speaking to him had commanded to make it, was with our fathers in the wilderness;
45 which, having received it in turn, our fathers with Joshua brought into the possession of the nations, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers, until the days of David;
46 who found favor before God and asked 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 handmade sanctuaries, just as the prophet says:
49 ‘Heaven is my throne, while the earth is a footstool for my feet. What kind of house will you build me,’ says the Lord, ‘or what place for my rest?
50 Did not my hand make all these things?’
51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always oppose the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so you do.
52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers;
53 you who received the Law as ‘ordinances of angels’ and have not kept it!”
54 Well as they heard these things their hearts were being sawed in half, and they started gnashing their teeth at him.
55 But he, being full of Holy Spirit and looking intently into the heaven, he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on God's right,
56 and said, “Wow! I see the heavens opened and the Son of the Man standing at God's right!”
57 Yelling at the top of their voice they covered their ears and rushed at him all at once,
58 and throwing him out of the city they stoned him! (The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.)
59 Yes, they stoned Stephen as he called out and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
60 Then kneeling down he called out at the top of his voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” And upon saying this he fell asleep. (Saul was in full agreement with his murder.)
