Acts 7:1-16

Stephen’s Defense Before the Council

7:1 Then the high priest said, “Are these things true?” ¹  7:2 So he replied, ²  “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our forefather ³  Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran, 7:3 and said to him, ‘Go out from your country and from your relatives, and come to the land I will show you.’ ⁴  7:4 Then he went out from the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God ⁵  made him move ⁶  to this country where you now live. 7:5 He ⁷  did not give any of it to him for an inheritance, ⁸  not even a foot of ground, ⁹  yet God ¹⁰  promised to give it to him as his possession, and to his descendants after him, ¹¹  even though Abraham ¹²  as yet had no child. 7:6 But God spoke as follows: ‘Your ¹³  descendants will be foreigners ¹⁴  in a foreign country, whose citizens will enslave them and mistreat them for four hundred years. ¹⁵  7:7 But I will punish ¹⁶  the nation they serve as slaves,’ said God, ‘and after these things they will come out of there ¹⁷  and worship ¹⁸  me in this place.’ ¹⁹  7:8 Then God ²⁰  gave Abraham ²¹  the covenant ²²  of circumcision, and so he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him when he was eight days old, ²³  and Isaac became the father of ²⁴  Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. ²⁵  7:9 The ²⁶  patriarchs, because they were jealous of Joseph, sold ²⁷  him into Egypt. But ²⁸  God was with him, 7:10 and rescued him from all his troubles, and granted him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made ²⁹  him ruler over Egypt and over all his household. 7:11 Then a famine occurred throughout ³⁰  Egypt and Canaan, causing ³¹  great suffering, and our ³²  ancestors ³³  could not find food. 7:12 So when Jacob heard that there was grain ³⁴  in Egypt, he sent our ancestors ³⁵  there ³⁶  the first time. 7:13 On their second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers again, and Joseph’s family ³⁷  became known to Pharaoh. 7:14 So Joseph sent a message ³⁸  and invited ³⁹  his father Jacob and all his relatives to come, seventy-five people ⁴⁰  in all. 7:15 So Jacob went down to Egypt and died there, ⁴¹  along with our ancestors, ⁴²  7:16 and their bones ⁴³  were later moved to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a certain sum of money ⁴⁴  from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

[7:1]  ¹ tn Grk “If it is so concerning these things” (see BDAG 422 s.v. ἔχω 10.a for this use).

[7:2]  ² tn Grk “said.”

[7:2]  ³ tn Or “ancestor”; Grk “father.”

[7:3]  ⁴ sn A quotation from Gen 12:1.

[7:4]  ⁵ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:4]  ⁶ tn The translation “made him move” for the verb μετοικίζω (metoikizw) is given by L&N 85.83. The verb has the idea of “resettling” someone (BDAG 643 s.v.); see v. 43, where it reappears.

[7:5]  ⁷ tn Grk “And he.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[7:5]  ⁸ tn Grk “He did not give him an inheritance in it.” This could be understood to mean that God did not give something else to Abraham as an inheritance while he was living there. The point of the text is that God did not give any of the land to him as an inheritance, and the translation makes this clear.

[7:5]  ⁹ tn Grk “a step of a foot” (cf. Deut 2:5).

[7:5]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:5]  ¹¹ sn An allusion to Gen 12:7; 13:15; 15:2, 18; 17:8; 24:7; 48:4. On the theological importance of the promise and to his descendants after him, see Rom 4 and Gal 3.

[7:5]  ¹² tn Grk “he”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:6]  ¹³ tn Grk “that his”; the discourse switches from indirect to direct with the following verbs. For consistency the entire quotation is treated as second person direct discourse in the translation.

[7:6]  ¹⁴ tn Or “will be strangers,” that is, one who lives as a noncitizen of a foreign country.

[7:6]  ¹⁵ sn A quotation from Gen 15:13. Exod 12:40 specifies the sojourn as 430 years.

[7:7]  ¹⁶ tn BDAG 568 s.v. κρίνω 5.b.α states, “Oft. the emphasis is unmistakably laid upon that which follows the Divine Judge’s verdict, upon the condemnation or punishment: condemn, punish …Ac 7:7 (Gen 15:14).”

[7:7]  ¹⁷ tn The words “of there” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

[7:7]  ¹⁸ tn Or “and serve,” but with religious/cultic overtones (BDAG 587 s.v. λατρεύω).

[7:7]  ¹⁹ sn An allusion to Exod 3:12.

[7:8]  ²⁰ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:8]  ²¹ tn Grk “him”; the referent (Abraham) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[7:8]  ²² sn God gave…the covenant. Note how the covenant of promise came before Abraham’s entry into the land and before the building of the temple.

[7:8]  ²³ tn Grk “circumcised him on the eighth day,” but many modern readers will not understand that this procedure was done on the eighth day after birth. The temporal clause “when he was eight days old” conveys this idea more clearly. See Gen 17:11-12.

[7:8]  ²⁴ tn The words “became the father of” are not in the Greek text due to an ellipsis, but must be supplied for the English translation. The ellipsis picks up the verb from the previous clause describing how Abraham fathered Isaac.

[7:8]  ²⁵ sn The twelve patriarchs refers to the twelve sons of Jacob, the famous ancestors of the Jewish race (see Gen 35:23-26).

[7:9]  ²⁶ tn Grk “And the.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[7:9]  ²⁷ tn The meaning “sell” for the middle voice of ἀποδίδωμι (apodidwmi) is given by BDAG 110 s.v. 5.a. See Gen 37:12-36, esp. v. 28.

[7:9]  ²⁸ tn Though the Greek term here is καί (kai), in context this remark is clearly contrastive: Despite the malicious act, God was present and protected Joseph.

[7:10]  ²⁹ tn Or “appointed.” See Gen 41:41-43.

[7:11]  ³⁰ tn Grk “came upon all Egypt.”

[7:11]  ³¹ tn Grk “and,” but logically causal.

[7:11]  ³² sn Our. Stephen spoke of “our” ancestors (Grk “fathers”) in an inclusive sense throughout the speech until his rebuke in v. 51, where the nation does what “your” ancestors did, at which point an exclusive pronoun is used. This serves to emphasize the rebuke.

[7:11]  ³³ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[7:12]  ³⁴ tn Or possibly “food,” since in a number of extrabiblical contexts the phrase σιτία καὶ ποτά (sitia kai pota) means “food and drink,” where solid food is contrasted with liquid nourishment (L&N 3.42).

[7:12]  ³⁵ tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[7:12]  ³⁶ tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the modern English reader.

[7:13]  ³⁷ tn BDAG 194 s.v. γένος 2. gives “family, relatives” here; another alternative is “race” (see v. 19).

[7:14]  ³⁸ tn The words “a message” are not in the Greek text, but are implied.

[7:14]  ³⁹ tn Or “Joseph had his father summoned” (BDAG 121 s.v. ἀποστέλλω 2.b).

[7:14]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “souls” (here an idiom for the whole person).

[7:15]  ⁴¹ tn The word “there” is not in the Greek text. Direct objects were often omitted in Greek when clear from the context, but must be supplied for the modern English reader.

[7:15]  ⁴² tn Or “forefathers”; Grk “fathers.”

[7:16]  ⁴³ tn “and they.”

[7:16]  ⁴⁴ sn See Gen 49:29-32.