1The high priest asked Stephen, “Are they telling the truth about you?”
2Stephen answered:
Friends, listen to me. Our glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he had moved to Haran.
3God told him, “Leave your country and your relatives and go to a land that I will show you.”
4Then Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran.
After his father died, Abraham came and settled in this land where you now live.
5God didn't give him any part of it, not even a square metre. But God did promise to give it to him and his family for ever, even though Abraham didn't have any children.
8God said to Abraham, “Every son in each family must be circumcised to show that you have kept your agreement with me.” So when Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him. Later, Isaac circumcised his son Jacob, and Jacob circumcised his twelve sons. thought highly of him. Pharaoh even made Joseph governor over Egypt and put him in charge of everything he owned.
11Everywhere in Egypt and Canaan the grain crops failed. There was terrible suffering, and our ancestors could not find enough to eat.
14Joseph sent for his father and his relatives. In all, there were seventy-five of them.Stephen continued:
17Finally, the time came for God to do what he had promised Abraham. By then the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased.
20During this time Moses was born. He was a very beautiful child, and for three months his parents took care of him in their home.Stephen continued:
30Forty years later, an angel appeared to Moses from a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.
36In Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the desert, Moses rescued the people by performing miracles and wonders for forty years.
42God turned his back on his people and left them. Then they worshipped the stars in the sky, just as it says in the Book of the Prophets, “People of Israel, you didn't offer sacrifices and offerings to me during those forty years in the desert. of Israel.
48But the Most High God doesn't live in houses made by humans. It is just as the prophet said, when he spoke for the Lord,
49“Heaven is my throne,
and the earth
is my footstool.
What kind of house
will you build for me?
In what place will I rest?
50I have made everything.”
51You stubborn and hard-headed people! You are always fighting against the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors did. And now you have turned against him and killed him.
53Angels gave you God's Law, but you still don't obey it.
Stephen is stoned to death54When the council members heard Stephen's speech, they were angry and furious.
55But Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit. He looked towards heaven, where he saw our glorious God and Jesus standing at his right side.
56Then Stephen said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right side of God!”
57The council members shouted and covered their ears. At once they all attacked Stephen
58and dragged him out of the city. Then they started throwing stones at him. The men who had brought charges against him put their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59As Stephen was being stoned to death, he called out, “Lord Jesus, please welcome me!”
60He knelt down and shouted, “Lord, don't blame them for what they have done.” Then he died.
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