Study Desk

But resistance arose from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and men from the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. They began to argue with Stephen,

Then they prompted some men to say, "We heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God."

So they stirred up the people and elders and scribes. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin.

They presented false witnesses who said, "This man never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law.

All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

God told him that his descendants would be foreigners in a strange land, and they would be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.

'But I will punish the nation that enslaves them,' God said, 'and afterward they will come forth and worship Me in this place.'

He exploited our people and oppressed our fathers, forcing them to abandon their infants so they would die.

This Moses, whom they had rejected with the words, 'Who made you ruler and judge?' is the one God sent to be their ruler and redeemer, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.

At that time they made a calf and offered a sacrifice to the idol, rejoicing in the works of their hands.

And our fathers who received it brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations God drove out before them. It remained until the time of David,

Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers-

On hearing this, the members of the Sanhedrin were enraged, and they gnashed their teeth at him.

At this they covered their ears, cried out in a loud voice, and rushed together at him.

They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

The crowds gave their undivided attention to Philip's message and the signs they saw him perform.

But when they believed Philip as he preached the gospel of the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.

When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.

Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.