New Testament in a Year

Stephen’s Defense

7 And the high priest said, “Is it so concerning these things?” ² So he said, “Men—brothers and fathers—listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he^[a] was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran, ³ and said to him, ‘Go out from your land and from your relatives and come to the land that I will show you.’ ⁴ Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and^[b] settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, he caused him to move to this land in which you now live. ⁵ And he did not give him an inheritance in it—not even a footstep^[c]—and he promised to give it^[d] to him for his possession, and to his descendants after him, although he did not have^[e][f] a child. ⁶ But God spoke like this: ‘His descendants will be foreigners in a foreign land, and they will enslave them and mistreat them^[g] four hundred years, ⁷ and the nation that^[h] they will serve as slaves, I will judge,’ God said, ‘and after these things they will come out^[i] and will worship me in this place.’^{[j] 8} And he gave him the covenant of circumcision, and so he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaac did so with^[k] Jacob, and Jacob did so with^[l] the twelve patriarchs. ⁹ And the patriarchs, because they^[m] were jealous of Joseph, sold him^[n] into Egypt. And God was with him, ¹⁰ and rescued him from all his afflictions and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And he appointed him ruler over Egypt and all^[o] his household. ¹¹ And a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan and great affliction, and our fathers could not find food. ¹² So when^[p] Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. ¹³ And on the second visit^[q] Joseph was made known to his brothers, and the family of Joseph became known to Pharaoh. ¹⁴ So Joseph sent and^[r] summoned his father Jacob and all his^[s] relatives, seventy-five persons in all. ¹⁵ And Jacob went down to Egypt and died, he and our fathers. ¹⁶ And they were brought back to Shechem and buried in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

¹⁷ “But as the time of the promise that God had made to Abraham was drawing near, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt ¹⁸ until another king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. ¹⁹ This man deceitfully took advantage of our^[t] people and^[u] mistreated our ancestors, causing them to abandon their infants^[v] so that they would not be kept alive. ²⁰ At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful to God. He^[w] was brought up for three months in his^[x] father’s house, ²¹ and when^[y] he was abandoned, the daughter of Pharaoh took him up and brought him up as her own son.^[z]