New Testament in a Year

Stephen Speaks in His Own Defense

7 Then the chief priest asked Stephen, “Is this true?”

² Stephen answered, “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. The God who reveals his glory appeared to our ancestor Abraham in Mesopotamia. This happened before Abraham lived in Haran. ³ God told him, ‘Leave your land and your relatives. Go to the land that I will show you.’

⁴ “Then Abraham left the country of Chaldea and lived in the city of Haran. After his father died, God made him move from there to this land where we now live.

⁵ “Yet, God didn’t give Abraham anything in this land to call his own, not even a place to rest his feet. But God promised to give this land to him and to his descendants, even though Abraham didn’t have a child. ⁶ God told Abraham that his descendants would be foreigners living in another country and that the people there would make them slaves and mistreat them for 400 years. ⁷ God also told him, ‘I will punish the people whom they will serve. After that, they will leave that country and worship me here.’

⁸ “God gave Abraham circumcision to confirm his promise.^[a] So when Abraham’s son Isaac was born, Abraham circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac did the same to his son Jacob, and Jacob did the same to his twelve sons (the ancestors of our tribes).

⁹ “Jacob’s sons were jealous of their brother Joseph. They sold him into slavery, and he was taken to Egypt. But God was with Joseph ¹⁰ and rescued him from all his suffering. When Joseph stood in the presence of Pharaoh (the king of Egypt), God gave Joseph divine favor ^[b] and wisdom so that he became ruler of Egypt and of Pharaoh’s whole palace. ¹¹ Then a famine throughout Egypt and Canaan brought a lot of suffering. Our ancestors couldn’t find any food. ¹² When Jacob heard that Egypt had food, he sent our ancestors there. That was their first trip. ¹³ On the second trip, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family. ¹⁴ Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his relatives, 75 people in all. ¹⁵ So Jacob went to Egypt, and he and our ancestors died there. ¹⁶ They were taken to Shechem for burial in the tomb that Abraham purchased in Shechem from Hamor’s sons.

¹⁷ “When the time that God had promised to Abraham had almost come, the number of our people in Egypt had grown very large. ¹⁸ Then a different king, who knew nothing about Joseph, began to rule in Egypt. ¹⁹ This king was shrewd in the way he took advantage of our people. He mistreated our ancestors. He made them abandon their newborn babies outdoors, where they would die.

²⁰ “At that time Moses was born, and he was a very beautiful child. His parents took care of him for three months. ²¹ When Moses was abandoned outdoors, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and raised him as her son.