Acts 7

And the high priest said, “Are these things so?”

And he said, “Men, brothers, and fathers, listen! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia before he lived in Haran,

and said to him, Get out of your land, and away from your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.

Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And when his father was dead, God removed him from there into this land in which you now live,

but he gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much land as to set his foot on. But he promised that he would give it to him as a possession, and to his seed after him, even though he had no child.

And God spoke this way: that his seed should be foreigners in a strange land (and that they would enslave them and mistreat them) 400 years.

‘And I will judge the nation in which they will serve as slaves,’ said God, ‘and after that they will come out, and serve me in this place.’

And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham fathered Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day, and Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob fathered the 12 patriarchs.

“And the patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt. And yet God was with him,

and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

Now there came a famine over all Egypt and Canaan, causing great hardship, and our fathers could find no food.

But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there a first time.

And on the second trip, Joseph made himself known to his brothers again, and Joseph’s race was revealed to Pharaoh.

And Joseph sent, and called to him Jacob his father, and all his relatives, 75 souls.

And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers,

and they were carried over to Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

But as the time of the promise that God had sworn to Abraham drew near, the People grew and multiplied in Egypt,

until there arose another king over Egypt who did not know Joseph.

He dealt craftily with our race, and mistreated our fathers, making them abandon their babies so they would die.

Moses was born at that time, and he was beautiful before God, and he was nourished three months in his father’s house.

And after he had been exposed, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up and brought him up as her own son.

And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was mighty in his words and works.

“But when he was fully 40 years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel.

And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him who was oppressed, smiting the Egyptian.

He assumed that his brothers understood that God was giving them deliverance by his hand, but they did not understand.

“And the day following he appeared to them as they fought, and was reconciling them to peace, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong one another?’

But the one who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?

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

And Moses fled at this saying, and became a foreigner in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons.

And when 40 years were fulfilled, an angel appeared to him in the desert of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.

And when Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight. And as he drew near to look more closely, a voice of the Lord came,

I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. And Moses trembled, and did not dare to look.

And the Lord said to him, ‘Loosen the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.

I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you into Egypt.’

“This Moses whom they refused, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge,’ him God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel that appeared to him in the bush.

This man led them out, having done wonders and signs in Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the desert 40 years.

This is that Moses, who said to the sons of Israel, A prophet like me God will raise up to you from among your brothers.

This is he who was with the assembly in the desert with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living words to give to us,

to whom our fathers would not be obedient, but rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt,

saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods to go before us; as for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’

And they made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.

But God turned, and gave them up to serve the army of heaven, as it is written in the scroll of the prophets, Did you offer to me slain animals and sacrifices 40 years in the desert, O house of Israel?

“Our fathers had the Tent of Testimony in the desert, made just as the One who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern that he had seen.

And having received it in their turn, our fathers brought it in with Joshua when they entered into the possession of the nations that God thrust out before the face of our fathers. It was that way until the days of David,

who found favor in the sight of God and asked to find a habitation for the God of Jacob.

But Solomon built him a house.

“But the Most High does not live in houses made with hands, as says the prophet,

“You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you.

Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become,

you who received the law as it was delivered by angels, and did not keep it.”

Now when they heard these things they were cut to the heart, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.

But he, being full of holy spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God,

and said, “Look! I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.”

But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears and with one accord rushed upon him.

And they threw him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their outer clothing at the feet of a young man named Saul.

And as they were stoning Stephen, he was calling on the Lord and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

And he knelt down, and cried with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.