Stephen’s Defense

 The high priest said, “Are these things so?” ² And he said, “Hear me, brethren and fathers! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in ^[a]Haran, ³ and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’ ⁴ Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in ^[b]Haran. From there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living. ⁵ But He gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot of ground, and yet, even when he had no child, He promised that He would give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him. ⁶ But God spoke to this effect, that his descendants would be aliens in a foreign land, and that they would ^[c]be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. ⁷ ‘And whatever nation to which they will be in bondage I Myself will judge,’ said God, ‘and after that they will come out and ^[d]serve Me in this place.’ ⁸ And He gave him ^[e]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.

⁹ “The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him, ¹⁰ and rescued him from all his afflictions, and granted him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he made him governor over Egypt and all his household.

¹¹ “Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers ^[f]could find no food. ¹² But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. ¹³ On the second visit Joseph ^[g]made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family was disclosed to Pharaoh. ¹⁴ Then Joseph sent word and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five ^[h]persons in all. ¹⁵ And Jacob went down to Egypt and there he and our fathers died. ¹⁶ From there they were removed to ^[i]Shechem and laid in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of ^[j]Hamor in ^[k]Shechem.

¹⁷ “But as the time of the promise was approaching which God had assured to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt, ¹⁸ until there arose another king over Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph. ¹⁹ It was he who took shrewd advantage of our race and mistreated our fathers so that they would ^[l]expose their infants and they would not survive. ²⁰ It was at this time that Moses was born; and he was lovely ^[m]in the sight of God, and he was nurtured three months in his father’s home. ²¹ And after he had been set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter ^[n]took him away and nurtured him as her own son.