Acts

Stephen’s Speech

So the high priest asked him:

“Is it true?”

He answered:

“Brothers and fathers, listen to me.

The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he traveled to Haran.

He said to him:

Leave your land and your relatives

and go to the land which I will show you.

So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God caused him to move to the land where you now live.

And there, he did not give him anything that was his own, not even the smallest piece of land to set his foot on; but promised to give it to him in possession, along with his descendants, even though he had no children.

Then God said:

‘Your descendants will live in a foreign land. They will be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.

But I will call the nation they serve as slaves to account for it. They will come out and worship me in this place.’

He made a covenant of circumcision with him. So, at the birth of his son Isaac, Abraham circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac did the same for Jacob, and Jacob, to the twelve patriarchs.

The patriarchs envied Joseph, so they sold him into Egypt. But God was with him.

He rescued him from all his troubles, granted him wisdom, and made him favorable to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, who appointed him governor over Egypt and his entire household.

Then there was a famine in Egypt and Canaan; it was a time of great hardship, and our ancestors had nothing to eat.

When they heard that there was wheat in Egypt, Jacob sent our ancestors there on their first visit.

On the second visit, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family.

Joseph instructed that his father, Jacob, be brought to him, along with his entire family of seventy-five people.

Jacob then went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died.

They were later transferred to Shechem and buried in the tomb Abraham had bought with silver from the sons of Hamor at Shechem.

As the time of the promise drew near, which God had made to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt

until another king who did not know Joseph came to power.

Dealing cunningly with our race, he forced our ancestors to abandon their newborn infants and let them die.

Personality of Moses

At that time, Moses was born, and God looked kindly upon him. For three months, he was nurtured in his father’s home;

and when they abandoned him, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and raised him as her own son.

So, Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was powerful in word and deed.

And when he was forty years old, he wanted to visit his own people, the Israelites.

When he saw one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and killed the Egyptian.

He believed his kinsfolk would realize that God was sending him as a liberator, but they did not understand.

The next day, he came upon them as they were fighting and tried to mediate, saying, ‘You are brothers, why are you hurting each other?’

At that moment, the one who was injuring his companion rebuffed him, saying, ‘Who made you our leader and judge?

Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’

When Moses heard this, he fled and settled as a stranger in the land of Midian, where he had two sons.

After forty years, an angel appeared to him in the desert of Mount Sinai in the flame of a burning bush.

Moses was astonished at the vision. And as he approached to look at it, he heard the voice of the Lord:

‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses was filled with fear and did not dare look at it.

But the Lord said to him: ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you stand is holy ground.

I have seen the suffering of my people in Egypt and heard them crying out, and I have come down to save them. Now, get up! I am sending you to Egypt.’

This Moses, whom they rejected, asking: ‘Who appointed you leader and judge?’ God sent him as a leader and liberator, with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

He led them out, performing signs and wonders in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the desert for forty years.

This Moses is the one who said to the Israelites: ‘God will give you a prophet like me, from among your own people.’

This is the one who, in the assembly in the desert, became the mediator between the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and our ancestors; and he received the words of life, to pass them on to us.

But our ancestors refused to obey; they rejected him and turned their hearts to Egypt, telling Aaron:

‘Give us gods to lead us, since we do not know what has happened to that Moses, who brought us out of Egypt.’

So, in those days, they made a calf, offered sacrifices to their idol, and rejoiced in the work of their hands.

Thus, God departed from them and allowed them to worship the stars of heaven, as it is written in the Book of the Prophets: ‘People of Israel, did you offer me burnt offerings and sacrifices for forty years in the desert?

No, you carried the tent of Moloch and the star of the god Rehan instead; images you made to worship; for this, I will banish you farther than Babylon.’

The Temple44Our ancestors had the Tent of Meeting in the desert because God directed Moses to build it following the pattern he had seen.

Our ancestors received it and brought it under Joshua’s command into the lands of the pagans they conquered and whom God had expelled before them. They kept it until the days of David,

who found favor with God and asked him to let him build a house for the God of Jacob.

However, it was Solomon who built that temple.

In truth, the Most High does not inhabit houses built by human hands, as the Prophet states:

‘Heaven is my throne

and earth is my footstool.

What house will you build for me, says the Lord,

How could you give me a dwelling place?

Was it not I who made all these things?’

Final Invective

But you are a stubborn people. You have hardened your hearts and closed your ears. You have always resisted the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors did.

Was there a prophet whom your ancestors did not persecute? They killed those who announced the coming of the Just One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered;

you who received the law through the angels but did not keep it.

Death of Stephen

When they heard this reproach, they became furious and gnashed their teeth at Stephen.

But he, full of the Holy Spirit, fixed his eyes on heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus at God’s right hand;

so he declared:

“I see the heavens open and the Son of Man at the right hand of God.”

But they shouted, covered their ears with their hands, and rushed at him.

They took him out of the city and stoned him.

The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.

As they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, saying:

“Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

Then he knelt down and said loudly:

“Lord, do not hold this sin against them.”

After saying this, he died.