司提凡的申辯

大祭司問:「這是真的嗎?」 司提凡說:「各位父老兄弟,請聽我說!我們的祖先亞伯拉罕還未遷到哈蘭之前,住在美索不達米亞,榮耀的上帝向他顯現,說, 『你要離開家鄉和親族,到我要指示你的地方去。』 亞伯拉罕就離開迦勒底人的地方,在哈蘭住了下來。他父親過世以後,上帝又領他到你們現在居住的這個地方。 當時在這片土地上,上帝沒有給他任何產業,他甚至連立足之地也沒有。但上帝應許要把這片土地賜給他和他的後裔作產業,儘管那時候亞伯拉罕還沒有兒子。 上帝又說,『你的子孫必流落異鄉,受奴役、被虐待四百年。 但我必懲罰奴役他們的國家,之後你的子孫要離開那裡,在這片土地上事奉我。』 上帝又賜下割禮作為祂與亞伯拉罕立約的憑據。亞伯拉罕在以撒出生後的第八天為他行割禮。照樣,以撒為他的兒子雅各行了割禮,雅各也為他的兒子——以色列十二位先祖行了割禮。[a]

「先祖們嫉妒自己的弟弟約瑟,把他賣到了埃及。但上帝一直與他同在, 10 救他脫離一切危難,又賜他過人的智慧,使他在埃及法老面前得到恩寵,官拜宰相治理全國,並管理王室。 11 後來,埃及和迦南全境遭遇饑荒,災情嚴重,我們的先祖們斷了糧。 12 雅各聽說埃及有糧,就派先祖們去那裡買糧,那是我們的先祖初次去埃及。 13 他們第二次去的時候,約瑟才和弟兄們相認,並且領他們拜見埃及王。 14 後來,約瑟派人去把父親雅各和全族七十五人都接到埃及。 15 從此以後,雅各和其他先祖們便定居埃及,直到去世。 16 後來他們的遺體被帶回示劍,安葬在亞伯拉罕買自哈抹子孫的墓地裡。

17 「上帝對亞伯拉罕所應許的日子快到的時侯,以色列人在埃及的人口已大大增加。 18 後來埃及有一位不認識約瑟的新王登基。 19 他用毒計苦害我們的同胞,虐待我們的祖先,強令他們把嬰孩拋棄,不讓嬰孩存活。 20 那時,摩西出生了,他長得俊美非凡。他的父母在家裡偷偷地撫養了他三個月, 21 最後不得已才丟棄他。法老的女兒救了他,收為養子。

22 「摩西學會了埃及人一切的學問,成為一個說話辦事很有能力的人。 23 他四十歲那年決定去探望自己的同胞以色列人。 24 他到了他們那裡,看見一個埃及人正在欺負以色列人,就打抱不平,殺了那個埃及人。 25 摩西以為同胞們會明白上帝要藉著他的手拯救他們,可是他們並不明白。 26 第二天,他看見兩個以色列人在打架,就上前勸解說,『大家都是同胞,為什麼互相毆打呢?』 27 不料那個欺負人的推開摩西說,『誰立你作我們的首領和審判官? 28 難道你要殺我,像昨天殺那個埃及人一樣嗎?』 29 摩西聽了這話,就逃到米甸寄居,在那裡成家,生了兩個兒子。

30 「過了四十年,在西奈山的曠野,上帝的天使在荊棘火焰中向摩西顯現。 31 摩西見狀很驚奇,正要上前看個究竟,就聽見主說, 32 『我是你祖先的上帝,是亞伯拉罕、以撒、雅各的上帝。』摩西戰戰兢兢,不敢觀看。 33 主又說,『脫下你腳上的鞋子,因為你所站的地方是聖地。 34 我已清楚看見我子民在埃及所受的苦難,也聽見了他們的哀歎,我下來要救他們。你來,我要派你回埃及。』

35 「百姓曾拒絕這位摩西,說,『誰立你作我們的首領和審判官?』上帝卻藉著在荊棘中顯現的天使親自差遣他,立他為首領和拯救者。 36 摩西帶領以色列人出埃及,過紅海,越曠野,四十年間行了許多神蹟奇事。 37 就是這位摩西曾對以色列人說,『上帝要在你們中間興起一位像我一樣的先知。』 38 這位摩西曾在曠野與以色列的會眾——我們的祖先在一起,又在西奈山上與向他傳信息的天使在一起,並且領受了生命之道傳給我們。

39 「可是我們的祖先不聽從他,甚至棄絕他,心裡對埃及戀戀不捨。 40 他們請求亞倫說,『為我們造一些神像來帶領我們吧!領我們離開埃及的那個摩西不知怎樣了。』 41 於是,他們造了一個牛犢像,向它獻祭,並為自己所做的事沾沾自喜。 42 因此,上帝轉臉不顧他們,任由他們祭拜日月星辰,正如先知書的記載,

『以色列家啊,
在曠野的四十年間,
你們向我獻過祭物和供品嗎?
43 你們抬著為自己所造的神像,
就是摩洛的帳篷和理番神明的星,
祭拜它們,
所以我要把你們趕到比巴比倫還遠的地方去。』

44 「我們的祖先在曠野的時候,一直帶著安放約櫃的聖幕,這聖幕是上帝吩咐摩西照他所看見的樣式造的。 45 後來我們的祖先承受了聖幕。上帝從我們祖先面前趕走外族人,使他們得到了應許之地。他們同約書亞把聖幕帶到那裡,一直到大衛的時代。 46 大衛蒙上帝悅納,祈求為雅各的上帝建造一座聖殿。 47 結果是他的兒子所羅門為上帝建成了聖殿。

48 「其實至高的上帝並不住人造的殿,祂曾藉著先知說, 49 『天是我的寶座,地是我的腳凳,你們要為我造怎樣的殿宇?哪裡可作我的安歇之處? 50 這一切不都是我親手創造的嗎?』

51 「你們這些頑固不化、耳不聽心不悔的人[b],經常抗拒聖靈,所作所為和你們的祖先如出一轍! 52 哪一位先知沒有被你們祖先迫害?那些預言義者——彌賽亞要來的人也被你們的祖先殺害。如今你們竟出賣了那位公義者,殺害了祂! 53 你們接受了上帝藉天使所傳的律法,竟不遵守!」

司提凡殉道

54 眾人聽了這番話,怒火中燒,咬牙切齒。 55 司提凡卻被聖靈充滿,定睛望天,看見上帝的榮耀和站在上帝右邊的耶穌。 56 司提凡說:「看啊!我看見天開了,人子站在上帝的右邊。」

57 眾人大喊大叫,捂著耳朵,蜂擁而上, 58 把司提凡拉到城外,用石頭打他。指控他的人把他們的衣服交給一個名叫掃羅的青年看管。 59 在亂石擊打之下,司提凡呼求說:「主耶穌啊,接收我的靈魂吧!」然後跪下高聲說: 60 「主啊,不要追究他們的罪!」說完後,就斷氣了。

Footnotes

  1. 7·8 第八節後半部分或譯「以撒生雅各,雅各生以色列十二位先祖。」
  2. 7·51 耳不聽心不悔的人」希臘文是「心與耳未受割禮的人」。

The high priest said, “Are these things so?”

He said, “Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, ‘Get out of your land and away from your relatives, and come into a land which I will show you.’(A) Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans and lived in Haran. From there, when his father was dead, God moved him into this land where you are now living. He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his offspring after him, when he still had no child. God spoke in this way: that his offspring would live as aliens in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. ‘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.’(B) He gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

“The patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt. God was with him 10 and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He made him governor over Egypt and all his house. 11 Now a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction. Our fathers found no food. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers the first time. 13 On the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family was revealed to Pharaoh. 14 Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his relatives, seventy-five souls. 15 Jacob went down into Egypt and he died, himself and our fathers; 16 and they were brought back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver from the children of Hamor of Shechem.

17 “But as the time of the promise came close which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, 18 until there arose a different king who didn’t know Joseph. 19 The same took advantage of our race and mistreated our fathers, and forced them to abandon their babies, so that they wouldn’t stay alive. 20 At that time Moses was born, and was exceedingly handsome to God. He was nourished three months in his father’s house. 21 When he was abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up and reared him as her own son. 22 Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was mighty in his words and works. 23 But when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers,[a] the children of Israel. 24 Seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him and avenged him who was oppressed, striking the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers understood that God, by his hand, was giving them deliverance; but they didn’t understand.

26 “The day following, he appeared to them as they fought, and urged them to be at peace again, saying, ‘Sirs, you are brothers. Why do you wrong one another?’ 27 But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’(C) 29 Moses fled at this saying, and became a stranger in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

30 “When forty years were fulfilled, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight. As he came close to see, the voice of the Lord came to him, 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’(D) Moses trembled and dared not look. 33 The Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you stand is holy ground. 34 I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning. I have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you into Egypt.’(E)

35 “This Moses whom they refused, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’—God has sent him as both a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 This man led them out, having worked wonders and signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. 37 This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord our God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me.’[b](F) 38 This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living revelations to give to us, 39 to whom our fathers wouldn’t be obedient, but rejected him and turned back in their hearts to Egypt, 40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.’(G) 41 They made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands. 42 But God turned away and gave them up to serve the army of the sky,[c] as it is written in the book of the prophets,

‘Did you offer to me slain animals and sacrifices
    forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
43 You took up the tabernacle of Moloch,
    the star of your god Rephan,
the figures which you made to worship,
    so I will carry you away(H) beyond Babylon.’

44 “Our fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern that he had seen; 45 which also our fathers, in their turn, brought in with Joshua when they entered into the possession of the nations whom God drove out before the face of our fathers to the days of David, 46 who found favor in the sight of God, and asked to find a habitation for the God of Jacob. 47 But Solomon built him a house. 48 However, the Most High doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says,

49 ‘heaven is my throne,
    and the earth a footstool for my feet.
What kind of house will you build me?’ says the Lord.
    ‘Or what is the place of my rest?
50 Didn’t my hand make all these things?’(I)

51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do. 52 Which of the prophets didn’t your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers. 53 You received the law as it was ordained by angels, and didn’t keep it!”

54 Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth. 55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, 56 and said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears, then rushed at him with one accord. 58 They threw him out of the city and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 They stoned Stephen as he called out, saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” 60 He kneeled down and cried with a loud voice, “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them!” When he had said this, he fell asleep.

Footnotes

  1. 7:23 The word for “brothers” here and where the context allows may be also correctly translated “brothers and sisters” or “siblings.”
  2. 7:37 TR adds “You shall listen to him.”
  3. 7:42 This idiom could also be translated “host of heaven”, or “angelic beings”, or “heavenly bodies.”