Study Desk

But when they heard this, they became infuriated and nearly decided to execute them.

They followed his advice; and after calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then released them.

And every day, in the temple and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and preaching the good news of Jesus as the Christ.

The announcement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch.

And they brought these men before the apostles; and after praying, they laid their hands on them.

But they were unable to cope with his wisdom and the Spirit by whom he was speaking.

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

And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and they came up to him and dragged him away, and brought him before the Council.

They put forward false witnesses who said, "This man does not stop speaking against this holy place and the Law;

And all who were sitting in the Council stared at him, and they saw his face, which was like the face of an angel.

"But God spoke to this effect, that his DESCENDANTS WOULD BE STRANGERS IN A LAND THAT WAS NOT THEIRS, AND THEY WOULD ENSLAVE AND MISTREAT THEM FOR FOUR HUNDRED YEARS.

"'AND WHATEVER NATION TO WHICH THEY ARE ENSLAVED I MYSELF WILL JUDGE,' said God, 'AND AFTER THAT THEY WILL COME OUT AND SERVE ME IN THIS PLACE.'

"And they were brought back from there to Shechem and laid in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

"It was he who shrewdly took advantage of our nation and mistreated our fathers in order that they would abandon their infants in the Nile, so that they would not survive.

"And he thought that his brothers understood that God was granting them deliverance through him; but they did not understand.

"And on the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting each other, and he tried to reconcile them to peace, by saying, 'Men, you are brothers, why are you injuring each other?'

"This Moses whom they disowned, saying, 'WHO MADE YOU A RULER AND A JUDGE?' is the one whom God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush.

"Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him; on the contrary they rejected him and turned back to Egypt in their hearts,

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

"Our fathers in turn received it, and they also brought it in with Joshua upon dispossessing the nations that God drove out from our fathers, until the time of David.