Acts 7:39-60 ▼

39 To him our fathers were not willing to be obedient; but they rejected him, and turned back in their hearts to Egypt,

40 saying to Aaron: Make us gods that shall go be fore us; for, as for this Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has become of him.

41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.

42 But God turned and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: Your victims and your sacrifices did you offer to me for forty years in the wilderness, house of Israel?

43 Yes, you took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your God Remphan, images which you made to worship; and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

44 The tabernacle of the testimony was with our fathers in the wilderness, built as he who spoke to Moses commanded him to build it, according to the pattern which he had seen:

45 which our fathers, who were with Joshua, received by succession, and brought into the land possessed by the Gentiles, whom God continued to drive out from the face of our fathers till the days of David,

46 who found favor before God, and desired to find a dwelling-place for the God of Jacob.

47 But Solomon built him a house.

48 Yet the Most High dwells not in temples made with hands, as says the prophet:

49 Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What house will you build me? says the Lord; or what is the place of my rest?

50 Has not my hand made all these things?

51 You stiff-necked, and uncircumcised in heart and in ears, you do always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so also do you.

52 Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? They slew also those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you have now become the betrayers and murderers;

53 who received the law by the appointment of angels, and have not kept it.

54 "When they heard these things, they were enraged in their hearts, and gnashed upon him with their teeth.

55 But being full of the Holy Spirit, he looked earnestly up into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;

56 and he said: Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God.

57 And they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and, with one consent, rushed upon him,

58 and drove him out of the city, and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man called Saul.

59 And they stoned Stephen while he was calling on the Lord , and saying: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

60 And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice: Lord, let not this sin stand against them. And when he had said this, he fell asleep. And Saul was well pleased with his death.