Study Desk

be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that through the name of Jesus the Anointed, the Nazarene, whom *you* crucified, but whom *God* has raised from among the dead-- through that name this man stands here before you in perfect health.

But Peter and John replied, "Judge whether it is right in God's sight to listen to you instead of listening to God.

The Court added further threats and then let them go, being quite unable to find any way of punishing them on account of the people, because all gave God the glory for the thing that had happened.

And they, upon hearing the story, all lifted up their voices to God and said, "O Sovereign Lord, it is Thou who didst make Heaven and earth and sea, and all that is in them,

While it remained unsold, was not the land your own? And when sold, was it not at your own disposal? How is it that you have cherished this design in your heart? It is not to men you have told this lie, but to God."

Peter and the other Apostles replied, "We must obey God rather than man.

The God of our forefathers has raised Jesus to life, whom you crucified and put to death.

God has exalted Him to His right hand as Chief Leader and as Saviour, to give Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins.

And we--and the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him--are witnesses as to these things."

But if it is really from God, you will be powerless to put them down--lest perhaps you find yourselves to be actually fighting against God."

Then they privately put forward men who declared, "We have heard him speak blasphemous things against Moses and against God."

The reply of Stephen was, "Sirs--brethren and fathers--listen to me. God Most Glorious appeared to our forefather Abraham when he was living in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,

"Thereupon he left Chaldaea and settled in Haran till after the death of his father, when God caused him to remove into this country where you now live.

And God declared that Abraham's posterity should for four hundred years make their home in a country not their own, and be reduced to slavery and be oppressed.

"`And the nation, whichever it is, that enslaves them, I will judge,' said God; `and afterwards they shall come out, and they shall worship Me in this place.'

"The Patriarchs were jealous of Joseph and sold him into slavery in Egypt. But God was with him

"But as the time drew near for the fulfilment of the promise which God had made to Abraham, the people became many times more numerous in Egypt,

He supposed his brethren to be aware that by him God was sending them deliverance; this, however, they did not understand.

"`I am the God of your forefathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.' "Quaking with fear Moses did not dare gaze.

"The Moses whom they rejected, asking him, `Who appointed you magistrate and judge?' --that same Moses we find God sending as a magistrate and a deliverer by the help of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.