Acts 7:1-53
Christian Standard Bible
Stephen’s Sermon
7 “Are these things true?” the high priest asked.
2 “Brothers and fathers,” he replied, “listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,(A) 3 and said to him: Leave your country and relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.[a](B)
4 “Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this land in which you are now living.(C) 5 He didn’t give him an inheritance in it—not even a foot of ground—but he promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him,(D) even though he was childless. 6 God spoke in this way: His descendants would be strangers in a foreign country, and they would enslave and oppress them for four hundred years. 7 I will judge the nation that they will serve as slaves, God said. After this, they will come out and worship me in this place.[b](E) 8 And so he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. After this, he fathered Isaac and circumcised(F) him on the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.(G)
The Patriarchs in Egypt
9 “The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt, but God was with him(H) 10 and rescued him out of all his troubles. He gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over his whole household.(I) 11 Now a famine and great suffering came over all of Egypt and Canaan,(J) and our ancestors could find no food. 12 When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there the first time. 13 The second time, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. 14 Joseph invited his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five people in all,(K) 15 and Jacob went down to Egypt. He and our ancestors died there,(L) 16 were carried back to Shechem, and were placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.(M)
Moses, a Rejected Savior
17 “As the time was approaching to fulfill the promise that God had made to Abraham, the people flourished and multiplied in Egypt(N) 18 until a different king who did not know Joseph ruled over Egypt.[c] 19 He dealt deceitfully with our race and oppressed our ancestors by making them abandon their infants outside so that they wouldn’t survive.(O) 20 At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in God’s sight. He was cared for in his father’s home for three months. 21 When he was put outside, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted and raised him as her own son.(P) 22 So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his speech and actions.(Q)
23 “When he was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. 24 When he saw one of them being mistreated, he came to his rescue and avenged the oppressed man by striking down the Egyptian. 25 He assumed his people would understand that God would give them deliverance through him, but they did not understand. 26 The next day he showed up while they were fighting and tried to reconcile them peacefully, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you mistreating each other?’ (R)
27 “But the one who was mistreating his neighbor pushed Moses aside, saying: Who appointed you a ruler and a judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me, the same way you killed the Egyptian yesterday?[d](S)
29 “When he heard this, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.(T) 30 After forty years had passed, an angel[e] appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. 31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. As he was approaching to look at it, the voice of the Lord came: 32 I am the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob.[f](U) Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look.
33 “The Lord said to him: Take off the sandals from your feet, because the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt; I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. And now, come, I will send you to Egypt.[g](V)
35 “This Moses, whom they rejected when they said, Who appointed you a ruler and a judge?[h]—this one God sent as a ruler and a deliverer through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.(W) 36 This man led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt,(X) at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.(Y)
Israel’s Rebellion against God
37 “This is the Moses who said to the Israelites: God[i] will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.[j](Z) 38 He is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors.(AA) He received living oracles to give to us.(AB) 39 Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him. Instead, they pushed him aside, and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.(AC) 40 They told Aaron: Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what’s happened to him.[k](AD) 41 They even made a calf in those days, offered sacrifice to the idol, and were celebrating what their hands had made.(AE) 42 God turned away(AF) and gave them up to worship(AG) the stars of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:
House of Israel, did you bring me offerings and sacrifices
for forty years in the wilderness?
43 You took up the tent of Moloch
and the star of your god Rephan,
the images that you made to worship.
So I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.[l](AH)
God’s Real Tabernacle
44 “Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern he had seen.(AI) 45 Our ancestors in turn received it and with Joshua brought it in when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before them,(AJ) until the days of David. 46 He found favor in God’s sight and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God[m] of Jacob.(AK) 47 It was Solomon, rather, who built him a house,(AL) 48 but the Most High does not dwell in sanctuaries made with hands, as the prophet says:(AM)
49 Heaven is my throne,
and the earth my footstool.
What sort of house will you build for me?
says the Lord,
or what will be my resting place?
50 Did not my hand make all these things?[n](AN)
Resisting the Holy Spirit
51 “You stiff-necked(AO) people with uncircumcised hearts and ears!(AP) You are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your ancestors did, you do also. 52 Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute?(AQ) They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers(AR) you have now become. 53 You received the law under the direction of angels(AS) and yet have not kept it.”
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Acts 7:1-53
International Standard Version
Stephen Defends Himself
7 Then the high priest asked, “Is this true?”
2 Stephen replied:
“Listen, brothers and fathers!
“The glorious God appeared to our ancestor Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia before he settled in Haran. 3 God[a] told him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives and go to the land I’ll show you.’[b] 4 So he left the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. Then after the death of his father, God had him move to this country where you now live. 5 God[c] gave him no property here,[d] not even a foot of land,[e] yet he promised to give it to him and to his descendants[f] after him as a permanent possession, even though he had no child.
6 “This is what God promised: His descendants would be strangers in a foreign country, and its people[g] would enslave them and oppress them for 400 years. 7 ‘But I will punish the nation they serve,’ said God, ‘and afterwards they will leave and worship me in this place.’[h]
8 Later, God[i] gave Abraham[j] the covenant of circumcision. Later, he fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. Then Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob fathered[k] the twelve patriarchs.
9 “Joseph’s brothers[l] became jealous of him and sold Joseph as a slave[m] in Egypt. However, God was with him 10 and rescued him from all his troubles. He granted him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler of Egypt and of his whole household.
11 “But a famine spread throughout Egypt and Canaan, and with it great suffering, and our ancestors couldn’t find any food. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors on their first trip. 13 On their second trip, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph introduced his family[n] to Pharaoh. 14 Then Joseph invited his father Jacob and all his relatives to come to him in Egypt[o]—75 persons in all. 15 So Jacob went down to Egypt. Then he and our ancestors died. 16 They were brought back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought at a high price[p] from Hamor’s descendants in Shechem.
17 “Now as the time approached for the fulfillment of the promise that God had made to Abraham, the people’s population increased a great deal in Egypt. 18 Eventually, a different king who had not known Joseph became ruler of Egypt.[q] 19 By shrewdly scheming against our people, he oppressed our ancestors and forced them to abandon their infants to the elements, so that they wouldn’t live.
20 “At this time Moses was born. He was beautiful in the sight of God, and for three months he was cared for in his father’s house. 21 When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. 22 So Moses learned all the wisdom of the Egyptians and became a great man, both in words and in deeds.
23 “When he was 40 years old, he decided[r] to visit his brothers, the descendants of Israel. 24 When he saw one of them being mistreated, he defended him[s] and avenged the man who was being mistreated by killing the Egyptian. 25 He supposed that his brothers would understand that God was using him to rescue them, but they didn’t understand. 26 The next day, he presented himself to some of them while they were fighting and tried to reconcile them. He said, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why should you be hurting another?’
27 “But the man who was harming his neighbor pushed Moses[t] away and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? 28 You don’t want to kill me like you killed the Egyptian yesterday, do you?’[u] 29 Because of this, Moses fled and lived as a foreigner in the land of Midian. There he had two sons.
30 “After 40 years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31 When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and when he approached the bush[v] to look at it, the voice of the Lord said,[w] 32 ‘I am the God of your ancestors—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’[x] Moses became terrified and didn’t dare to look. 33 Then the Lord told him, ‘Remove your sandals from your feet, because the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have surely seen the oppression of my people in Egypt, I’ve heard their groans, and I’ve come down to rescue them. Now come, I’ll send you to Egypt.’[y]
35 “This same Moses—whom they rejected by saying, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’[z]—was the man whom God sent to be both their ruler and deliverer with the help of the angel who had appeared to him in the bush. 36 It was he who led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for 40 years. 37 It was this Moses who told the Israelis, ‘God will raise up a prophet for you from among your own brothers, just as he did[aa] me.’[ab] 38 This Moses[ac] is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and to our ancestors. He received living truths to give to us,[ad] 39 but our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and wished to return to Egypt. 40 They told Aaron, ‘Make gods for us who will lead us. This Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt—we don’t know what happened to him!’[ae]
41 “At that time they even made a calf to be their idol, offered a sacrifice to it, and delighted in what they had made with their hands. 42 So God turned away from them and gave them over to worship the heavenly bodies. As it is written in the book of the Prophets:
‘O house of Israel,
you didn’t offer me slaughtered animals and
sacrifices those 40 years in the wilderness, did you?
43 You even took along the tent of Moloch,
the star of your god Rephan,
and the images you made in order to worship them.
So I will take you into exile as far as Babylon.’[af]
44 “Our ancestors had the Tent of Testimony[ag] in the wilderness constructed,[ah] just as the one who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern he had seen. 45 Our ancestors brought it here with Joshua when they replaced the nations that God drove out in front of our ancestors, and it was here until the time of David. 46 He found favor with God and asked to design a dwelling for the house[ai] of Jacob, 47 but it was Solomon who built a house for him. 48 However, the Most High does not live in buildings made by human[aj] hands. As the prophet says,
49 “‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house can you build for me,’ declares the Lord,[ak]
“or what place is there in which I can rest?
50 It was my hand that made all these things, wasn’t it?’”[al]
51 “You stubborn people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. 52 Which of the prophets did your ancestors fail to persecute? They killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. 53 You received the Law as ordained by angels, and yet you haven’t obeyed it!”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Acts 7:3 Lit. He
- Acts 7:3 Cf. Gen 12:1
- Acts 7:5 Lit. He
- Acts 7:5 Lit. in it
- Acts 7:5 I.e. about half of a single stride, or about 1.5 feet
- Acts 7:5 Lit. seed
- Acts 7:6 Lit. they
- Acts 7:7 Cf. Gen 15:13-14; Exod 3:12
- Acts 7:8 Lit. he
- Acts 7:8 Lit. him
- Acts 7:8 The Gk. lacks fathered
- Acts 7:9 Lit. The patriarchs
- Acts 7:9 The Gk. lacks as a slave
- Acts 7:13 Lit. Joseph’s family became known
- Acts 7:14 The Gk. lacks in Egypt
- Acts 7:16 Lit. Abraham for a sum of money
- Acts 7:18 Other mss. lack of Egypt
- Acts 7:23 Lit. old, his heart was moved
- Acts 7:24 The Gk. lacks him
- Acts 7:27 Lit. him
- Acts 7:28 Cf. Exod 2:14
- Acts 7:31 The Gk. lacks the bush
- Acts 7:31 Lit. came
- Acts 7:32 Cf. Exod 3:6
- Acts 7:34 Cf. Exod 3:4-10
- Acts 7:35 Cf. Exod 2:14
- Acts 7:37 The Gk. lacks he did
- Acts 7:37 Cf. Deut 18:15
- Acts 7:38 Lit. one
- Acts 7:38 Other mss. read to you
- Acts 7:40 Cf. Exod 32:1, 23
- Acts 7:43 Cf. Amos 5:25-27
- Acts 7:44 I.e. the tent containing the Ark of the Covenant
- Acts 7:44 The Gk. lacks constructed
- Acts 7:46 Other mss. read God
- Acts 7:48 The Gk. lacks human
- Acts 7:49 MT source citation reads Lord
- Acts 7:50 Cf. Isa 66:1-2
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