Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Acts 7
Stephen’s Defense: Abraham and the Promise
The high priest asked, “Are these things true?” Stephen replied, “Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our ancestor Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and said to him, ‘Leave your land and your relatives and go to the land I will show you.’ Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God moved him from there into this land where you now live. Yet God gave him no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on, but promised to give it to him as a possession and to his offspring after him, even though Abraham had no child. God spoke in this way: ‘His offspring will live as foreigners in a land belonging to others. They will enslave and mistreat them for four hundred years. But I will judge the nation they serve,’ God said, ‘and after that they will come out and worship me in this place.’ Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
Joseph in Egypt
“The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt, but God was with him and rescued him from all his afflictions. God gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and his whole household. Then a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our ancestors could find no food. When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there for the first time. On their second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. Joseph sent for his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five people in all. Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died. They were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
Moses Is Born and Rejected
“As the time drew near for God to fulfill the promise he had made to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt until another king rose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. This king dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors, forcing them to abandon their infants so they would not survive. At that time Moses was born, and he was beautiful before God. He was cared for three months in his father’s house. When he was abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter took him in and raised him as her own son. Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds. When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers and sisters, the people of Israel. When he saw one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. He thought his people would understand that God was giving them deliverance through his hand, but they did not understand. The next day he came upon two Israelites fighting and tried to reconcile them: ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you harming each other?’ But the one harming his neighbor pushed Moses away and said, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us? Do you want to kill me the way you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ At this remark Moses fled and became a foreigner in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
God Sends Moses Back
“After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush. When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight. As he approached to look more closely, the Lord’s voice came: ‘I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses began trembling and did not dare to look. The Lord said to him, ‘Take the sandals off your feet, because the place where you are standing is holy ground. I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them. Now come—I will send you to Egypt.’ This Moses, whom they rejected when they said, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge?’—this is the one God sent as both ruler and redeemer through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. He led them out, performing wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years. This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you from among your brothers a prophet like me.’ This is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai and with our ancestors. He received living words to give to us.
Israel Turns Back in Heart
“But our ancestors refused to obey him. They pushed him away, and in their hearts they turned back to Egypt.
They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. We do not know what has happened to this Moses who led us out of Egypt.’
In those days they made a calf, offered sacrifice to the idol, and celebrated what their own hands had made.
So God turned away and gave them over to worship the army of heaven, just as it is written in the book of the prophets:
‘House of Israel, did you bring me slaughtered animals and sacrifices
during those forty years in the wilderness?
You carried the tent of Moloch
and the star of your god Rephan,
the images you made to worship.
So I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’
Tent, Temple, and the Most High
“Our ancestors had the tent of testimony in the wilderness, made according to the pattern God told Moses he had seen.
Our ancestors received it and brought it in with Joshua when they took possession of the land of the nations God drove out before them. It remained until the days of David,
who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.
But Solomon built a house for him.
Yet the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands, as the prophet says:
‘Heaven is my throne,
and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord.
Or what is the place of my rest?
Did not my hand make all these things?’
Stephen Confronts the Council
“You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit. You are doing just what your ancestors did. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered. You received the Law as delivered by angels but did not keep it.”
Stephen Is Killed
When they heard these things, they were enraged and ground their teeth at him. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently into heaven and saw God’s glory and Jesus standing at God’s right hand. He said, “Look—I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at God’s right hand.” They shouted loudly, covered their ears, and rushed at him together. They drove him out of the city and began stoning him. The witnesses laid their outer garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he fell to his knees and cried out loudly, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” After saying this, he fell asleep.