Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Stephen tells the story

7 The high priest addressed Stephen.

“Are these things true?” he said.

² “My brothers and fathers,” replied Stephen, “please give me a hearing.

“The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he moved to live in Haran. ³ ‘Leave your land and your family,’ he said to him, ‘and go to the land which I will show you.’ ⁴ So he left the land of the Chaldeans and went to live in Haran. Then, from there, after his father’s death, God moved him on to this land in which you now live. ⁵ God didn’t give him an inheritance here, not even a place to stand up in. Instead, he promised (when Abraham still had no child) that he would give it as a possession to his seed after him. ⁶ This is what God said to him: that his seed would be strangers in a foreign land, that they would serve there as slaves, and that they would be afflicted for four hundred years. ⁷ But God said that he would judge the nation that had enslaved them, and that they would then come out and worship him ‘on this mountain.’ ⁸ And he gave them the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac, and he circumcised him on the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of the twelve patriarchs.