Acts 6:8-7:6

English Standard Version

Stephen Is Seized

⁸ And Stephen, full of grace and ^(A)power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. ⁹ Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. ¹⁰ But ^(B)they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. ¹¹ Then ^(C)they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” ¹² And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, ¹³ and they ^(D)set up false ^(E)witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against ^(F)this holy place and the law, ¹⁴ for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth ^(G)will destroy this place and will ^(H)change ^(I)the customs that Moses delivered to us.” ¹⁵ And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face ^(J)was like the face of an angel.

Stephen's Speech

7 And the high priest said, “Are these things so?” ² And Stephen said:

^(K)“Brothers and fathers, hear me. ^(L)The God ^(M)of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, ^(N)before he lived in Haran, ³ and said to him, ^(O)‘Go out from your land and from your kindred and go into the land that I will show you.’ ^4 (P)Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. And ^(Q)after his father died, ^(R)God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living. ⁵ Yet he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length, but promised ^(S)to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, ^(T)though he had no child. ⁶ And God spoke to this effect—that ^(U)his offspring would ^(V)be sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave them and afflict them ^(W)four hundred years.