Stephen

Life and work

As the early Jerusalem church grew, a dispute arose between Greek-speaking and Hebrew-speaking believers over the daily distribution of food to widows. The apostles, wanting to stay focused on prayer and preaching, asked the community to choose seven men "full of the Spirit and wisdom" to oversee the task. Stephen, described as a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, was the first named of the seven chosen, and the apostles commissioned them by laying on hands (Acts 6:1-6).

Stephen's role quickly expanded beyond administration. Acts describes him as full of grace and power, performing great wonders and signs among the people. This provoked opposition from members of a synagogue of Hellenistic Jews, who argued with him but, unable to withstand "the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke," resorted to producing false witnesses who accused him of speaking blasphemy against Moses, the temple, and God, and had him dragged before the Sanhedrin (Acts 6:8-15). Even his accusers noticed his face looked "like the face of an angel" as he stood before the council.

Given the chance to answer the charges, Stephen delivered the longest speech in Acts — a sweeping retelling of Israelite history from Abraham through Joseph, Moses, and the wilderness tabernacle to Solomon's temple, arguing that God had never been confined to a building made by hands and that Israel's history was marked by repeated resistance to God's messengers. He turned the accusation back on the council, calling them "stiff-necked" people who, like their ancestors who killed the prophets, had now betrayed and murdered the Righteous One (Acts 7:1-53). Enraged, the council members ground their teeth at him — but Stephen, gazing into heaven, said he saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at God's right hand, a claim that pushed the crowd over the edge (Acts 7:54-56).

They dragged him out of the city and stoned him. As he died, Stephen echoed Jesus's own words from the cross, crying out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," and "Lord, do not hold this sin against them," before he died (Acts 7:57-60). Acts notes that the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul, who approved of his killing (Acts 7:58; 8:1) — the same Saul who would later become the apostle Paul after his own dramatic encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus. Stephen's death also triggered a wider persecution that scattered believers from Jerusalem, which Acts presents as the catalyst that spread the Christian message beyond the city (Acts 8:1-4).

Dating

The church's first martyr, stoned by an enraged crowd for his bold preaching (Acts 6-7). His death isn't given an exact year in Acts, but its narrative placement — shortly before Paul's conversion, traditionally c. AD 34-36 — puts it in the mid-30s AD.

Questions and debates

Stephen's speech and death directly implicate Saul of Tarsus, who held the coats of those stoning him and approved of the killing — a detail early Christian readers have long connected to Paul's later conversion and his own repeated references to having persecuted the church.

Extra-biblical evidence

Stephen appears in no surviving Roman or Jewish source outside Acts; as a figure executed by a local mob action rather than Roman authority, his death would not have been the kind of event contemporary historians like Josephus typically recorded.

Scripture references

• Acts 6:1-6 — Chosen as one of the seven
• Acts 6:8-15 — Accused before the Sanhedrin
• Acts 7:1-53 — Stephen's speech
• Acts 7:54-60 — His stoning and death
• Acts 8:1 — Saul's approval of the killing

Reflect

Stephen prayed for the people throwing the stones — who tests the limits of your forgiveness?