Acts 7 — TNTC

Stephen's discourse

7Verse 1Then the high priest said, “Can these things be so?”^{+Verse 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,^{Verse 3}and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come into a land that I will show you.’^{Verse 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;^{+Verse 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.^{+Verse 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.^{+Verse 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.’^{Verse 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.

Down to Egypt

^{Verse 9}“The patriarchs, being envious, sold Joseph into Egypt; yet God was with him^{Verse 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.^{Verse 11}And a famine came upon all the land of Egypt and Canaan, even a great affliction, and our fathers could not find food.^{Verse 12}But upon hearing that there was wheat in Egypt, Jacob first sent our fathers.^{Verse 13}On the second trip Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph's family was presented to Pharaoh.^{Verse 14}Joseph sent and summoned his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five souls.^{+Verse 15}So Jacob went down to Egypt; and he died, he and our fathers;^{Verse 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.⁺

Enter Moses

^{Verse 17}“Now as the time of the promise was approaching which God had sworn to Abraham, the people increased and were multiplied in Egypt,^{Verse 18}until a different⁺king arose who had not known Joseph.^{Verse 19}This man took advantage of our race and oppressed our fathers, making them expose their babies so that they would not stay alive.^{+Verse 20}At that time Moses was born, and was well pleasing to God; he was nurtured in his father's house for three months.^{Verse 21}When he was exposed, Pharaoh's daughter took him to herself and brought him up as her own son.^{Verse 22}So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians; he was mighty in words and deeds.^{Verse 23}Now when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel.^{+Verse 24}Well seeing one of them being wronged, he defended and avenged the one being oppressed, striking down the Egyptian.^{Verse 25}Now he supposed that his brothers understood that God was giving them deliverance by his hand,⁺but they did not understand.^{Verse 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?’^{Verse 27}But the one who was wronging his neighbor pushed Moses away, saying: ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?^{Verse 28}Do you want to kill me as you did the Egyptian yesterday?’^{Verse 29}Well Moses fled at that word, and became a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begot two sons.⁺

Moses commissioned

^{Verse 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.^{Verse 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:^{Verse 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.^{Verse 33}So the Lord said to him: ‘Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.^{Verse 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.’^{Verse 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.^{Verse 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.

Israel's rebellion

^{Verse 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.’^{+Verse 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;^{Verse 39}to whom our fathers did not want to be obedient; rather they rejected him and turned back in their heart to Egypt,^{Verse 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.’^{+Verse 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.^{Verse 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 animalsand sacrifices during forty years in the wilderness?^{Verse 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.’⁺

A dwelling for God

^{Verse 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;^{Verse 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;^{Verse 46}who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling for the God⁺of Jacob,^{Verse 47}but Solomon built Him a house.^{Verse 48}However, the Most High does not dwell in handmade sanctuaries, just as the prophet says:^{Verse 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?^{Verse 50}Did not my hand make all these things?’⁺

Stephen attacks

^{Verse 51}“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always oppose the Holy Spirit;⁺as your fathers did, so you do.^{Verse 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;^{+Verse 53}you who received the Law as ‘ordinances of angels’ and have not kept it!”

Stephen is martyred

^{Verse 54}Well as they heard these things their hearts were being sawed in half,⁺and they started gnashing their teeth at him.^{Verse 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,^{Verse 56}and said, “Wow! I see the heavens opened and the Son of the Man standing at God's right!”^{Verse 57}Yelling at the top of their voice⁺they covered their ears and rushed at him all at once,^{Verse 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.)^{Verse 59}Yes, they stoned Stephen as he called out and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”^{Verse 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.)