Study Desk

What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.

They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.

Then they secretly instigated some men to say, "We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God."

They stirred up the people as well as the elders and the scribes; then they suddenly confronted him, seized him, and brought him before the council.

They set up false witnesses who said, "This man never stops saying things against this holy place and the law;

And all who sat in the council looked intently at him, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

‘But I will judge the nation that they serve,' said God, ‘and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place.'

He dealt craftily with our race and forced our ancestors to abandon their infants so that they would die.

The next day he came to some of them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong each other?'

"It was this Moses whom they rejected when they said, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?' and whom God now sent as both ruler and liberator through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him; instead, they pushed him aside, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt,

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

Our ancestors in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors. And it was there until the time of David,

Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers.

When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen.

But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him.

Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.

And they listened eagerly to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic.

But when they believed Philip, who was proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.