praising God and having the good will of all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number every day those who were being saved.

While the man was hanging on to Peter and John, all the people, completely astounded, ran together to them in the covered walkway called Solomon’s Portico.

While Peter and John were speaking to the people, the priests and the commander of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them,

But to keep this matter from spreading any further among the people, let us warn them to speak no more to anyone in this name.”

who said by the Holy Spirit through your servant David our forefather, ‘Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot foolish things?

Now many miraculous signs and wonders came about among the people through the hands of the apostles. By common consent they were all meeting together in Solomon’s Portico.

Then the commander of the temple guard went with the officers and brought the apostles without the use of force (for they were afraid of being stoned by the people).

But a Pharisee whose name was Gamaliel, a teacher of the law who was respected by all the people, stood up in the council and ordered the men to be put outside for a short time.

They incited the people, the elders, and the experts in the law; then they approached Stephen, seized him, and brought him before the council.

“But as the time drew near for God to fulfill the promise he had declared to Abraham, the people increased greatly in number in Egypt,

He was a devout, God-fearing man, as was all his household; he did many acts of charity for the people and prayed to God regularly.

He commanded us to preach to the people and to warn them that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.

When he had seized him, he put him in prison, handing him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him. Herod planned to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

and for many days he appeared to those who had accompanied him from Galilee to Jerusalem. These are now his witnesses to the people.

because I am with you, and no one will assault you to harm you, because I have many people in this city.”

Paul replied, “I did not realize, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, ‘You must not speak evil about a ruler of your people.’”

that the Christ was to suffer and be the first to rise from the dead, to proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.”

“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”

But about Israel he says, “All day long I held out my hands to this disobedient and stubborn people!”

So I ask, God has not rejected his people, has he? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.