Acts 7:51–8:1

^51*“How stubborn you are!” Stephen went on to say. “How heathen your hearts, how deaf you are to God’s message! You are just like your ancestors: you too have always resisted the Holy Spirit! ⁵²Was there any prophet that your ancestors did not persecute? They killed God’s messengers, who long ago announced the coming of his righteous Servant. And now you have betrayed and murdered him. ⁵³You are the ones who received God’s law, that was handed down by angels—yet you have not obeyed it!”

The Stoning of Stephen

⁵⁴As the members of the Council listened to Stephen, they became furious and ground their teeth at him in anger. ⁵⁵But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw God’s glory and Jesus standing at the right-hand side of God. ⁵⁶“Look!” he said. “I see heaven opened and the Son of Man standing at the right-hand side of God!”

⁵⁷With a loud cry the members of the Council covered their ears with their hands. Then they all rushed at him at once, ⁵⁸threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses left their cloaks in the care of a young man named Saul. ⁵⁹They kept on stoning Stephen as he called out to the Lord, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” ⁶⁰He knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, “Lord! Do not remember this sin against them!” He said this and died.

8And Saul approved of his murder.