Acts:6-7
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Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number ,
the Hellenists murmured against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution .
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And the twelve summoned the body of the disciples and said , "
It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables .
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Therefore ,
brethren ,
pick out from among you seven men of good repute ,
full of the Spirit and of wisdom ,
whom we may appoint to this duty .
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But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word ."
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And what they said pleased the whole multitude ,
and they chose Stephen ,
a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit ,
and Philip ,
and Proch '
orus ,
and Nica '
nor ,
and Ti '
mon ,
and Par '
menas ,
and Nicola '
us ,
a proselyte of Antioch .
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These they set before the apostles ,
and they prayed and laid their hands upon them .
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And the word of God increased ;
and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem ,
and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith .
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And Stephen ,
full of grace and power ,
did great wonders and signs among the people .
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Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (
as it was called ),
and of the Cyre '
nians ,
and of the Alexandrians ,
and of those from Cili '
cia and Asia ,
arose and disputed with Stephen .
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But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke .
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Then they secretly instigated men ,
who said , "
We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God ."
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And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes ,
and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council ,
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and set up false witnesses who said , "
This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law ;
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for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place ,
and will change the customs which Moses delivered to us ."
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And gazing at him ,
all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel .
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And the high priest said , "
Is this so ?"
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And Stephen said : "
Brethren and fathers ,
hear me .
The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham ,
when he was in Mesopota '
mia ,
before he lived in Haran ,
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and said to him , `
Depart from your land and from your kindred and go into the land which I will show you .'
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Then he departed from the land of the Chalde '
ans ,
and lived in Haran .
And after his father died ,
God removed him from there into this land in which you are now living ;
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yet he gave him no inheritance in it ,
not even a foot '
s length ,
but promised to give it to him in possession and to his posterity after him ,
though he had no child .
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And God spoke to this effect ,
that his posterity would be aliens in a land belonging to others ,
who would enslave them and ill-treat them four hundred years .
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But I will judge the nation which they serve ,'
said God , `
and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place .'
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And he gave him the covenant of circumcision .
And so Abraham became the father of Isaac ,
and circumcised him on the eighth day ;
and Isaac became the father of Jacob ,
and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs .
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And the patriarchs ,
jealous of Joseph ,
sold him into Egypt ;
but God was with him ,
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and rescued him out of all his afflictions ,
and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh ,
king of Egypt ,
who made him governor over Egypt and over all his household .
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Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan ,
and great affliction ,
and our fathers could find no food .
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But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt ,
he sent forth our fathers the first time .
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And at the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers ,
and Joseph '
s family became known to Pharaoh .
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And Joseph sent and called to him Jacob his father and all his kindred ,
seventy-five souls ;
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and Jacob went down into Egypt .
And he died ,
himself and our fathers ,
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and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem .
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But as the time of the promise drew near ,
which God had granted to Abraham ,
the people grew and multiplied in Egypt
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till there arose over Egypt another king who had not known Joseph .
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He dealt craftily with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants ,
that they might not be kept alive .
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At this time Moses was born ,
and was beautiful before God .
And he was brought up for three months in his father '
s house ;
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and when he was exposed ,
Pharaoh '
s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son .
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And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians ,
and he was mighty in his words and deeds .
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When he was forty years old ,
it came into his heart to visit his brethren ,
the sons of Israel .
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And seeing one of them being wronged ,
he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking the Egyptian .
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He supposed that his brethren understood that God was giving them deliverance by his hand ,
but they did not understand .
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And on the following day he appeared to them as they were quarreling and would have reconciled them ,
saying , `
Men ,
you are brethren ,
why do you wrong each other ?'
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But the man who was wronging his neighbor thrust him aside ,
saying , `
Who made you a ruler and a judge over us ?
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Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday ?'
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At this retort Moses fled ,
and became an exile in the land of Mid '
ian ,
where he became the father of two sons .
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Now when forty years had passed ,
an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai ,
in a flame of fire in a bush .
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When Moses saw it he wondered at the sight ;
and as he drew near to look ,
the voice of the Lord came ,
* `
I am the God of your fathers ,
the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob .'
And Moses trembled and did not dare to look .
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And the Lord said to him , `
Take off the shoes from your feet ,
for the place where you are standing is holy ground .
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I have surely seen the ill-treatment of my people that are in Egypt and heard their groaning ,
and I have come down to deliver them .
And now come ,
I will send you to Egypt .'
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This Moses whom they refused ,
saying , `
Who made you a ruler and a judge ?'
God sent as both ruler and deliverer by the hand of the angel that appeared to him in the bush .
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He led them out ,
having performed wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red Sea ,
and in the wilderness for forty years .
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This is the Moses who said to the Israelites , `
God will raise up for you a prophet from your brethren as he raised me up .'
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This is he who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai ,
and with our fathers ;
and he received living oracles to give to us .
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Our fathers refused to obey him ,
but thrust him aside ,
and in their hearts they turned to Egypt ,
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saying to Aaron , `
Make for us gods to go before us ;
as for this Moses who led us out from the land of Egypt ,
we do not know what has become of him .'
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And they made a calf in those days ,
and offered a sacrifice to the idol and rejoiced in the works of their hands .
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But God turned and gave them over to worship the host of heaven ,
as it is written in the book of the prophets : `
Did you offer to me slain beasts and sacrifices ,
forty years in the wilderness ,
O house of Israel ?
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And you took up the tent of Moloch ,
and the star of the god Rephan ,
the figures which you made to worship ;
and I will remove you beyond Babylon .'
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Our fathers had the tent of witness in the wilderness ,
even as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it ,
according to the pattern that he had seen .
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Our fathers in turn brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations which God thrust out before our fathers .
So it was until the days of David ,
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who found favor in the sight of God and asked leave to find a habitation for the God of Jacob .
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But it was Solomon who built a house for him .
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Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made with hands ;
as the prophet says ,
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Heaven is my throne ,
and earth my footstool .
What house will you build for me ,
says the Lord ,
or what is the place of my rest ?
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Did not my hand make all these things ?'
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You stiff-necked people ,
uncircumcised in heart and ears ,
you always resist the Holy Spirit .
As your fathers did ,
so do you .
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Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute ?
And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One ,
whom you have now betrayed and murdered ,
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you who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it ."
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Now when they heard these things they were enraged ,
and they ground their teeth against him .
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But he ,
full of the Holy Spirit ,
gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God ,
and Jesus standing at the right hand of God ;
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and he said , "
Behold ,
I see the heavens opened ,
and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God ."
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But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together upon him .
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Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him ;
and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul .
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And as they were stoning Stephen ,
he prayed , "
Lord Jesus ,
receive my spirit ."
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And he knelt down and cried with a loud voice , "
Lord ,
do not hold this sin against them ."
And when he had said this ,
he fell asleep .
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And Saul was consenting to his death .
And on that day a great persecution arose against the church in Jerusalem ;
and they were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Sama '
ria ,
except the apostles .
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