Thomson(i)
1 Then the chief priest said, Are these things so?
2 Upon which he said, Men, brethren and fathers hearken. The God of the glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,
3 and said to him, Depart from this country of thine, and from thy kindred, and come to the land which I will shew thee.
4 Thereupon he went from the land of the Chaldees, and dwelt in Charran; and thence after his father died, God removed him to this land in which you now dwell,
5 but gave him no inheritance in it; not even a foot of land. He indeed promised that he would give it to him for a possession, even to his seed after him, though he then had no child.
6 And God spake thus; That his seed should sojourn in a strange land and be enslaved and afflicted: four hundred years:
7 and the nation which they shall serve I will judge, said God, and after that they shall come out and serve me in this place.
8 Then he gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham begat Isaak, and circumcised him on the eighth day, and Isaak begat Jacob; and Jacob, the twelve patriarchs.
9 And the patriarchs, being moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him,
10 and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharao king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt, and all his household.
11 And there came a famine over all the land of Egypt and Chanaan. It was indeed a great affliction and our fathers found no sustenance.
12 So when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent our fathers the first time;
13 and on their second going down Joseph made himself known to his brothers; and Joseph's kindred was made known to Pharao.
14 Then Joseph sent for his father Jacob and all his kindred, amounting to threescore and fifteen souls.
15 So Jacob went down to Egypt and died, he and our fathers,
16 and were conveyed to Sychem, and deposited in the sepulchre which Abraham bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmer the Sychemite.
17 And as the time approached for accomplishing the promise which God had made with an oath to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt,
18 until another king arose, who knew not Joseph.
19 This king, mischievously politic against our family, ill treated our fathers, causing their children to be ex posed that they might not be preserved alive.
20 At this time Moses was born, who was exceeding beautiful, and was nursed up three months in his father's house.
21 Being then exposed, Pharao's daughter took him up and had him nursed for her own son.
22 So Moses was instructed in all the wisdom .of the Egyptians, and became mighty in council and in actions.
23 And when he was forty years old it came into his mind to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.
24 And seeing one of them injured, he defended him and avenged the injury by killing the Egyptian.
25 Now he supposed that his brethren would understand that by his hand God was about to give them deliverance. But they understood not,
26 and on the next day when he shewed himself to them who were quarrelling and persuaded them to peace, saying, Men, you are brethren, Why do ye injure one another?
27 He who was doing his neighbour the injury thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a chief and a judge over us?
28 Dost thou mean to kill me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?
29 At this speech Moses fled and became a sojourner in the land of Madiam, where he became the father of two sons.
30 And when forty years were completed, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in the wilderness at mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush,
31 which when Moses saw, he was astonished at the vision. And as he was going near to view it, there came a voice of the Lord to him,
32 "I am the God of thy fathers; the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaak, and the God of Jacob." Upon which Moses trembled and durst not view it.
33 Then the Lord said to him, Loose the sandals from thy feet, for the place where thou standest is holy ground.
34 I have indeed seen the affliction of my people in Egypt, and have heard their groaning and am come down to deliver them. Now therefore come, I will send thee to Egypt.
35 This Moses whom they rejected, saying, Who made thee a chief and a judge? this very person God sent as a chief and a deliverer by the hand of an angel who appeared to him in the bush
36 This person brought them out by performing wonders and signs in Egypt and at the Red sea, and in the wilderness, forty years.
37 This is the very Moses who said to the children of Israel, The Lord your God will raise up for you, from among your brethren, a prophet like me, to him you are to hearken.
38 This is the person who was in the congregation in the wilderness, with the angel who spake to him at mount Sinai, and with our fathers; who received living oracles to give to us;
39 to whom our fathers would not be obedient, but rejected him, when with their hearts they turned towards Egypt,
40 saying to Aaron, Make gods for us to go before us; for as for this Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what is become of him.
41 So they made a calf in those days and brought a sacrifice for the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
42 Therefore God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven. As it is written in the book of the Prophets, "Have you, O house of Israel, offered to me burnt offerings and sacrifices, forty years in the wilderness?
43 You have indeed taken up the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of your God Remphan; those types which you have made to worship them; therefore I will transport you beyond Babylon.
44 The tabernacle of the testimony was among our fathers in the wilderness, as he who spoke to Moses had ordered it to be made according to the pattern which he had seen.
45 This tabernacle, which our fathers with Joshua received and brought into the territory of the nations which God drove out from before our fathers, continued till the days of David;
46 who found favour in the sight of God, and made it his petition to find a habitation for the God of Jacob.
47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him.
48 But the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands. As the prophet saith,
49 "The heaven is my throne, and the earth, my footstool. What sort of a house will you build for me? saith the Lord. And of what sort shall be the place of my rest?
50 Did not my hands make all these things?"
51 O stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears Ye do always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do ye.
52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? Indeed they have slain them who prophesied concerning the coming of that Righteous one, of whom you have now become the betrayers and murderers:
53 you who have received the law through ranks of angels, but have not kept it.
54 At hearing this they were cut to the heart and gnashed their teeth at him.
55 But he being full of a holy spirit, having his eyes fixed towards heaven, beheld the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God:
56 whereupon he said, Behold! I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God.
57 At which they screamed aloud, and stopped their ears and rushed upon him with one accord.
58 And having driven him out of the city they stoned him. And the witnesses laid their mantles at the feet of a young man named Saul,
59 and stoned Stephen, invoking and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
60 Then he kneeled down and cried out with a loud voice, O! Lord, charge not this sin to their account; and having said this he fell asleep.
8 1 Now Saul continued to express satisfaction at his death: and there was at that time a great persecution against the congregation which was at Jerusalem; and all, except the apostles, were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria.
2 While devout men were carrying Stephen to the grave and making great lamentation for him,