The New English Bible; 46; Acts ?-Acts 7:60

fb acts of the apostles chapter six the church moves oakland's during this period when disciples were growing in number that was disagreement between those of them who spoke greek and those who spoke the language of the jews the former party complained that there were those were being overlooked in the daily distribution so the twelve called the whole body of disciples together and said

it would be a grave mistake for us to neglect the word of god in order to wait a table they're four friends who go to seven man of good reputation from your number main floor of the spirit and the wisdom and we will point them to deal with these matters why we devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word this proposal approved acceptable to the whole body they elected stephen imam full of faith and of the holy spirit philip brokers night in our time and comments and nicholas of antioch a former convent to judaism these they presented to the apostles who prayed and lay their hands on them the word of god no spread more and more widely the number of disciples in jerusalem went on

increasing rapidly and very many of the priests and he and to the faith stephen who was full of grace and power began to work great medical some signs among the people but some members of the synagogue called the synagogue were freed man comprising savvy indians and alexandria and people from cilicia and asia came forward and argued with steven but could not hold their own against the inspired wisdom with which he spoke they then put up man who alleged that they had handed him a blasphemer statements against moses and against going they stared at the people and the elders and doctors of the law set upon him and seized him and brought him before the council they produce force witnesses who said this man is forever saying

things against this holy place and against their will for we have heard him say that jesus of nazareth will destroy this place and also the customs handed down to us by moses and laura was sitting in the council fix that eyes on him and his face appeared to them like the face of an angel then the high priest past is this soul and he said my brothers fathers of this nation listen to me the god of glory appeared to abrams our ancestor when he was in mesopotamia before he had settled in holland and said leave your country and your kids full and come away to a land that i will show you that upon us the land of the guardians and settled in harlem from their after his father's death god led him to migrate to this land where you know really and he gave them nothing in it to call it

or not one yard but promised to give it in position to him and his descendents after them though he was there and childless god spoke in the stems abrams descendant show live as aliens in a foreign land held in slavery and oppression for four hundred years and i would pass judgment said god on the nation who slaves they are and after their racial come out free and what should meet in this place even gave him the covenant of circumcision and so after isaac was born he circumcised among the eight the adviser got jacob and jacob the twelve patriarchs the patriarchs a lot of jealousy so joseph into slavery in egypt but god was with him and rescued him from all his struggles he also gave him a presence and prose of mind which saw commended him to pharaoh king of egypt that he

appointed him chief administrator for egypt and the horror of the royal household but salmon start more of egypt and came in and caused great hardship and our ancestors could find nothing to eat budget compared that there was food in egypt and said our fathers there this was their first visit on the second visit joseph was recognized by his brothers and his family connections were disclosed to fail so joseph sent an invitation to his father jacob and all his relatives seventy five persons altogether and jake you went down into egypt there he ended his days as also our forefathers did their remains were later removed to shift him and buried in the tomb which interim abroad unpaid for from the plan of mr acheson know as the time approached for

god to fulfill a promise he had made a game our nation in egypt grew and increased in numbers and legs another king who knew nothing of joseph ascended the throne of egypt he made a crafty attack on our race and grueling forced our ancestors to expose their children so that they should not survive at least during moses was born he was a fighting child and pleasing to go for three months he was missed in his father's hands and when he was exposed pharaoh's daughter herself adopted him and brought him up as her own son so moses was trained in all the wisdom of the egyptians a powerful speaker and a man of action he was approaching the age of forty when it occurred to him to look into the conditions of his fellow countrymen the israelites he saw one of them being ill treated so we went to his aid

and avenge the victim by striking down the egyptian he thought his fellow countryman would understand that god was offering than deliverance through him but they did not understand the next day he came upon two of them fighting and try to bring them to make up the core of my main you said your brother's why you know tweeting one another but the man who was up for pushed him away who set you up as a judge over us he said are you going to kill me like the egyptian you killed yesterday at this moses played the country and settled in media night territory their two sons were born to him after ff forty years of past an angel appeared to him in the flame of the burning bush in the desert near mount sinai moses was amazed at the site

but as he approached too closely the voice of the lord was headed i am the god of your fathers the board of the broom isaac and jacob moses was terrified and did not look then the lord said to him take off your shoes the place where you are standing is holy ground i have indeed seen how my people are all praised in egypt and have hair and that drones and i have come down with the rest of them up then let me send you to egypt this moses whom they had rejected with the words who made you wrote and judge this very man was commissioned as ruler and liberate it by god himself speaking through the angel who appeared to him and the bush it was moses' who led the moment working noted rosen signs

in egypt at the red sea and for forty years in the desert it was he again who said to the israelites' god will raise up a profit for you from among yourselves as erase me he was who when they were assembled there in the desert of vests with the angel who spoke to him on mount sinai and with our forefathers he received the living utterances of god to pass on to us what our forefathers would not accept his leadership they thrust him aside they wished themselves back in egypt and said to him because guards to go before us as for that moses who brought as out of egypt we do not know what has become of him that was when they made the brain cough and often sacrifice to the it do and held a feast in honor of the thing that hams have made but

god turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the hosts of heaven as it stands written in the book of the profits did you bring me victims and offerings those forty years in the desert euros of israel know you carried off the shrine of mock and this power of the garden refund the images which you had made for your admiration i will ban issue beyond babylon our forefathers had attempt of the testimony in the desert as god come i did when he told moses to make it after the pattern which she had seen our fathers of the next generation with joshua brought it with them when they dispossessed the nation's whom god and drove out before them and there it was until the time of david david found favor with god and asked to be allowed to provide a dwelling place where the god of jacob but

it was solomon who built him a house however the most high does not live in homes is made by man as the prophet says heaven is my throne and earth my foot stool what kind of gross when you build for me says the log where is my resting place about all these things on my own making host of your keaton still at heart and gave to the truth you are always fight against the least bit like fathers like saddens was that ever a profit from your fathers did not persecute a cute those who vote to overcoming of the righteous one and no you have betrayed and murder do you know who received the role as guards at joe's give it to you and he added

this testimony borrow and the ground that teeth with your eye but steven filled with the holy spirit and gazing in typically up to heaven so the glory of god and jesus is standing at god's right hand he said there is a rift in the sky i can see the seven men standing at god's right hand at least they gave a great shot and stopped their ears than they made one russia do and fellini amount of the city sits about stalling him the witnesses lay their coats at the feet of our young man named so so they store and stephen and as they did so we called out lord jesus receive my spirit then he fell on his knees and

cried aloud lord dude auto racing against them and we'll record he died and so was among those who approved of his mother the reading has concluded at the sixtieth us of the seventh chapter of the acts of the apostles is by