BIBLICAL STEPHEN

The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, and said to him, Get out of your country, and from your kindred, and come into the land which I will show you. Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Haran: and from there, when his father was dead, he moved into this land, where you now live. And he gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when he still had no child. And God said that his seed should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and treat them wickedly four hundred years. And the nation to whom they will be in enslaved, will I judge, said God: and after that they'll come out, and serve me in this place. And He gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs. And the patriarchs, in jealousy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him, and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house. Now there came a famine over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no food. But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first. And at the second time Joseph was made known to his brethren; and Joseph's kindred was made known to Pharaoh. Then Joseph sent, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen (75) souls. So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he, and our fathers, and were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor the father of Sychem. But when the time of the promise drew near, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, 'till another king arose, who didn't know Joseph. He dealt wickedly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers. The Egyptians killed all the newborn Hebrew males to stop Israel from growing. In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and raised up in his father's house three months: and when he was cast out (for fear that he couldn't be hidden any longer), Pharaoh's daughter found him, and raised him for her own son. And Moses was taught in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds. And when he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel. And seeing one of them suffer wrongly, he defended him, and killed the Egyptian who afflicted him. He thought his brethren would have understood how God, by His hand would deliver them: but they didn't understand. And the next day he saw two Hebrews argue, and wanted them to reconcile, saying, Sirs, you're brethren; why do you do wrong to one another? But the one doing wrong pushed him away, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Will you kill me, like you did the Egyptian yesterday? Hearing this, Moses fled, , and was a stranger in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons. And when forty years had passed, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sinai an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he came near to see it, the voice of the LORD came to him, saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and dared not to look. Then the Lord said to him, Take off your shoes from your feet: for the place where you stand is holy ground. I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send you into Egypt. This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge? that same Moses, God sent to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush. He brought them out, after he had showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years. This is that Moses, which said to the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear. This is Moses, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spoke to him in the mount Sinai, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles (living messages) to give to us: To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts longed for Egypt, saying to Aaron, Make us gods to lead us: as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what's become of him. And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon. Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed, speaking to Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen. Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers, to the days of David; who found favor before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the God of Jacob. But Solomon built him an house. However, the most High dwells not in temples made with hands; as said the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me? said the Lord: or what is the place of my rest? Hath not my hand made all these things? You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets haven't your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom you have been now the betrayers and murderers: who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it.