Stephen’s speech before the council. His martyrdom.

¹ Then the high priest said, “Are these things so?”

² And Stephen said: “Noble brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he stayed in Haran.

³ And God said to him, ‘Depart from your country and from your kindred, and go into the land that I will show to you.’

⁴ Then he went away from the land of the Chaldeans, and he lived at Haran. And later, after his father was dead, God brought him into this land, in which you now dwell.

⁵ And he gave him no inheritance in it, not even the space of one step. But he promised to give it to him as a possession, and to his offspring after him, though he did not have a son.

⁶ Then God told him that his offspring would be a settler in a foreign land, and that they would subjugate them, and treat them badly, for four hundred years.

⁷ ‘And the nation whom they will serve, I will judge,’ said the Lord. ‘And after these things, they shall depart and shall serve me in this place.’

⁸ And he gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so he conceived Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac conceived Jacob, and Jacob, the twelve Patriarchs.

⁹ And the Patriarchs, being jealous, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him.

¹⁰ And he rescued him from all his tribulations. And he gave him grace and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. And he appointed him as governor over Egypt and over all his house.

¹¹ Then a famine occurred in all of Egypt and Canaan, and a great tribulation. And our fathers did not find food.¹

1. 7:11Famines are associated with both the first and second parts of the tribulation.(Conte)

¹² But when Jacob had heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers first.

¹³ And on the second occasion, Joseph was recognized by his brothers, and his ancestry was made manifest to Pharaoh.

¹⁴ Then Joseph sent for and brought his father Jacob, with all his kindred, seventy-five souls.

¹⁵ And Jacob descended into Egypt, and he passed away, and so did our fathers.

¹⁶ And they crossed over into Shechem, and they were placed in the sepulcher which Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor, the son of Shechem.

¹⁷ And when the time of the Promise that God had revealed to Abraham drew near, the people increased and were multiplied in Egypt,

¹⁸ even until another king, who did not know Joseph, rose up in Egypt.

¹⁹ This one, encompassing our kindred, afflicted our fathers, so that they would expose their infants, lest they be kept alive.

²⁰ In the same time, Moses was born. And he was in the grace of God, and he was nourished for three months in the house of his father.

²¹ Then, having been abandoned, the daughter of Pharaoh took him in, and she raised him as her own son.

²² And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. And he was mighty in his words and in his deeds.

²³ But when forty years of age were completed in him, it rose up in his heart that he should visit his brothers, the sons of Israel.

²⁴ And when he had seen a certain one suffering injury, he defended him. And striking the Egyptian, he wrought a retribution for him who was enduring the injury.

²⁵ Now he supposed that his brothers would understand that God would grant them salvation through his hand. But they did not understand it.

²⁶ So truly, on the following day, he appeared before those who were arguing, and he would have reconciled them in peace, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. So why would you harm one another?’

²⁷ But he who was causing the injury to his neighbor rejected him, saying: ‘Who has appointed you as leader and judge over us?

²⁸ Could it be that you want to kill me, in the same way that you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’

²⁹ Then, at this word, Moses fled. And he became a foreigner in the land of Midian, where he produced two sons.

³⁰ And when forty years were completed, there appeared to him, in the desert of Mount Sinai, an Angel, in a flame of fire in a bush.¹

1. 7:30Good Angels often have a role in miraculous signs and wonders, therefore, the assertion that a true miracle is something that is done by God alone is not correct. God often chooses to give true miracles through both the use of His power and through the use of His holy Angels.(Conte)

³¹ And upon seeing this, Moses was amazed at the sight. And as he drew near in order to gaze at it, the voice of the Lord came to him, saying:

³² ‘I am the God of your fathers: the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ And Moses, being made to tremble, did not dare to look.

³³ But the Lord said to him: ‘Loosen the shoes from your feet. For the place in which you stand is holy ground.

³⁴ Certainly, I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning. And so, I am coming down to free them. And now, go forth and I will send you into Egypt.’¹

1. 7:34The repetition of the verb intensified the meaning; it is not necessary to repeat the verb in the translation, but rather this intensification can be expressed in other ways.(Conte)

³⁵ This Moses, whom they rejected by saying, ‘Who has appointed you as leader and judge?’ is the one God sent to be leader and redeemer, by the hand of the Angel who appeared to him in the bush.

³⁶ This man led them out, accomplishing signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and at the Red Sea, and in the desert, for forty years.

³⁷ This is Moses, who said to the sons of Israel: ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own brothers. You shall listen to him.’

³⁸ This is he who was in the Church in the wilderness, with the Angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. It is he who received the words of life to give to us.¹

1. 7:38The assembly of the Israelites in the desert was a foreshadowing of the Catholic Christian Church, and was itself a kind of Church.(Conte)

³⁹ It is he whom our fathers were not willing to obey. Instead, they rejected him, and in their hearts they turned away toward Egypt,

⁴⁰ saying to Aaron: ‘Make gods for us, which may go before us. For this Moses, who led us away from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’

⁴¹ And so they fashioned a calf in those days, and they offered sacrifices to an idol, and they rejoiced in the works of their own hands.

⁴² Then God turned, and he handed them over, to subservience to the armies of heaven, just as it was written in the Book of the Prophets: ‘Did you not offer victims and sacrifices to me for forty years in the desert, O house of Israel?

⁴³ And yet you took up for yourselves the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your god Rephan, figures which you yourselves formed in order to adore them. And so I will carry you away, beyond Babylon.’

⁴⁴ The tabernacle of the testimony was with our fathers in the desert, just as God ordained for them, speaking to Moses, so that he would make it according to the form that he had seen.

⁴⁵ But our fathers, receiving it, also brought it, with Joshua, into the land of the Gentiles, whom God expelled before the face of our fathers, even until the days of David,¹

1. 7:45Jesus: That is Josue, so called in Greek.(Challoner)

⁴⁶ who found grace before God and who asked that he might obtain a tabernacle for the God of Jacob.

⁴⁷ But it was Solomon who built a house for him.

⁴⁸ Yet the Most High does not live in houses built by hands, just as he said through the prophet:¹

1. 7:48Dwells not in houses, etc: That is, so as to stand in need of earthly dwellings, or to be contained, or circumscribed by them. Though, otherwise by his immense divinity, he is in our houses; and every where else; and Christ in his humanity dwelt in houses; and is now on our altars.(Challoner)

⁴⁹ ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house would you build for me? says the Lord. And which is my resting place?

⁵⁰ Has not my hand made all these things?’

⁵¹ Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you ever resist the Holy Spirit. Just as your fathers did, so also do you do.

⁵² Which of the Prophets have your fathers not persecuted? And they killed those who foretold the advent of the Just One. And you have now become the betrayers and murderers of him.