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When they heard this, they entered into the temple about daybreak, and taught. But the high priest came, and those who were with him, and called the council together, and all the senate of the children of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.

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But the officers who came didn’t find them in the prison. They returned and reported,

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“We found the prison shut and locked, and the guards standing before the doors, but when we opened them, we found no one inside!”

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Now when the high priest, the captain of the temple, and the chief priests heard these words, they were very perplexed about them and what might become of this.

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One came and told them, “Behold, the men whom you put in prison are in the temple, standing and teaching the people.”

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Then the captain went with the officers, and brought them without violence, for they were afraid that the people might stone them.

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When they had brought them, they set them before the council. The high priest questioned them,

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saying, “Didn’t we strictly command you not to teach in this name? Behold, you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and intend to bring this man’s blood on us.”

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But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.

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The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed, hanging him on a tree.

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God exalted him with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, to give repentance to Israel, and remission of sins.

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We are His witnesses of these things; and so also is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

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But they, when they heard this, were cut to the heart, and determined to kill them.

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But one stood up in the council, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, honored by all the people, and commanded to put the apostles out for a little while.

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He said to them, “You men of Israel, be careful concerning these men, what you are about to do.

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For before these days Theudas rose up, making himself out to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were dispersed, and came to nothing.

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After this man, Judas of Galilee rose up in the days of the enrollment, and drew away some people after him. He also perished, and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered abroad.

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Now I tell you, withdraw from these men, and leave them alone. For if this counsel or this work is of men, it will be overthrown.

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But if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow it, and you would be found even to be fighting against God!”

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They agreed with him. Summoning the apostles, they beat them and commanded them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

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They therefore departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for Jesus’ name.

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Every day, in the temple and at home, they never stopped teaching and preaching Jesus, the Christ.

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Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, a complaint arose from the Hellenists against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily service.

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The twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not appropriate for us to forsake the word of God and serve tables.

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Therefore select from among you, brothers, seven men of good report, full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.

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But we will continue steadfastly in prayer and in the ministry of the word.”

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These words pleased the whole multitude. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch;

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whom they set before the apostles. When they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.

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The word of God increased and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly. A great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.

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Stephen, full of faith and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people.

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But some of those who were of the synagogue called “The Libertines,” and of the Cyrenians, of the Alexandrians, and of those of Cilicia and Asia arose, disputing with Stephen.

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They weren’t able to withstand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.

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Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.”

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They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, and came against him and seized him, and brought him in to the council,

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and set up false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking blasphemous words against this holy place and the law.

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For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place, and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us.”

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All who sat in the council, fastening their eyes on him, saw his face like it was the face of an angel.

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The high priest said, “Are these things so?”

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He said, “Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

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and said to him, ‘Get out of your land, and from your relatives, and come into a land which I will show you.’

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Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and lived in Haran. From there, when his father was dead, God moved him into this land, where you are now living.

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He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when he still had no child.

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God spoke in this way: that his seed would live as aliens in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.

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I will judge the nation to which they will be in bondage,’ said God, ‘and after that will they come out, and serve me in this place.’

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He gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

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“The patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt. God was with him,

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and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He made him governor over Egypt and all his house.

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Now a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction. Our fathers found no food.

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But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers the first time.

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On the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph’s race was revealed to Pharaoh.

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Joseph sent, and summoned Jacob, his father, and all his relatives, seventy-five souls.

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Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, himself and our fathers,

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and they were brought back to Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver from the children of Hamor of Shechem.

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“But as the time of the promise came close which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,

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until there arose a different king, who didn’t know Joseph.

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The same took advantage of our race, and mistreated our fathers, and forced them to throw out their babies, so that they wouldn’t stay alive.

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At that time Moses was born, and was exceedingly handsome. He was nourished three months in his father’s house.

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When he was thrown out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and reared him as her own son.

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Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He was mighty in his words and works.

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But when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the children of Israel.

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Seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him who was oppressed, striking the Egyptian.

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He supposed that his brothers understood that God, by his hand, was giving them deliverance; but they didn’t understand.

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“The day following, he appeared to them as they fought, and urged them to be at peace again, saying, ‘Sirs, you are brothers. Why do you wrong one another?’

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But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge over us?

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Do you want to kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’

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Moses fled at this saying, and became a stranger in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.

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“When forty years were fulfilled, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush.

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When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight. As he came close to see, a voice of the Lord came to him,

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I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ Moses trembled, and dared not look.

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The Lord said to him, ‘Take your sandals off of your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.

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I have surely seen the affliction of my people that is in Egypt, and have heard their groaning. I have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you into Egypt.’

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“This Moses, whom they refused, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’–God has sent him as both a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

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This man led them out, having worked wonders and signs in Egypt, in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.

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This is that Moses, who said to the children of Israel, ‘The Lord our God will raise up a prophet for you from among your brothers, like me.’

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This is he who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel that spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received living oracles to give to us,

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to whom our fathers wouldn’t be obedient, but rejected him, and turned back in their hearts to Egypt,

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saying to Aaron, ‘Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.’

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They made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.

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But God turned, and gave them up to serve the army of the sky, as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘Did you offer to me slain animals and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?

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You took up the tabernacle of Moloch, the star of your god Rephan, the figures which you made to worship. I will carry you away beyond Babylon.’

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“Our fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to make it according to the pattern that he had seen;

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which also our fathers, in their turn, brought in with Joshua when they entered into the possession of the nations, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers, to the days of David,

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who found favor in the sight of God, and asked to find a habitation for the God of Jacob.

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But Solomon built him a house.

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However, the Most High doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands, as the prophet says,

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heaven is my throne, and the earth a footstool for my feet. What kind of house will you build me?’ says the Lord; ‘or what is the place of my rest?

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Didn’t my hand make all these things?’

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“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do.

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Which of the prophets didn’t your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers.

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You received the law as it was ordained by angels, and didn’t keep it!”

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Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed at him with their teeth.

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But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,

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and said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”

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But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed at him with one accord.

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They threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

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They stoned Stephen as he called out, saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”

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He kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them!” When he had said this, he fell asleep.

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Saul was consenting to his death. A great persecution arose against the assembly which was in Jerusalem in that day. They were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except for the apostles.

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Devout men buried Stephen, and lamented greatly over him.

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But Saul ravaged the assembly, entering into every house, and dragged both men and women off to prison.