Then said the high priest, Are these things so?
And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken!
The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia,
before he dwelt in Charon, and said unto him, Get thee out of thy country,
and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.
Then came he out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charon.
And from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land wherein ye
now dwell.
And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on.
Yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed
after him, when as yet he had no child.
And God spake on this wise, That his seed should sojourn in a strange land,
and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four
hundred years.
And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said God.
And after that shall they come forth, and serve me in this place.
And he gave him the covenant of circumcision.
And so Abraham begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day.
And Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat the twelve patriarchs.
And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt.
But God was with him, and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him
favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
And he made him governor over Egypt, and all his house.
Now there came a dearth over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction,
and our fathers found no sustenance.
But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent out our fathers first.
And at the second time, Joseph was made known to his brethren, and Joseph's
kindred was made known unto Pharaoh.
Then sent Joseph, and called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred,
threescore and fifteen souls.
So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he and our fathers, and were
carried over into Sycam, and laid in the sepulcher that Abraham bought for a sum of
money, of the sons of Emor the father of Sycam.
But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham,
the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, till another king arose, which knew not
Joseph.
The same dealt subtly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers,
so that they cast out their young children to the end they might not live.
In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his
father's house three months.
And when he was cast out, Pharaoh's daughter took him up, and nourished him
for her own son.
And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and
in deeds.
And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his
brethren, the children of Israel.
And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was
oppressed, and smote the Egyptian.
For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would
deliver them.
But they understood not.
And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set
them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren, why do ye wrong one to
another?
But he that did his neighbor wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler
and a judge over us?
Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?
Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Midian,
where he beget two sons.
And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of
Mount Sinai an angel of the Lord, in a flame of fire in a bush.
When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight, and as he drew near to behold it,
the voice of the Lord came unto him, saying, I am the God of thy fathers,
the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold.
Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet, for the place where
thou standest is holy ground.
I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have
heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them.
And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.
This Moses, whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge?
The same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which
appeared to him in the bush.
He brought them out.
After that he had showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea,
and in the wilderness forty years.
This is that Moses which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the
Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me.
Him shall ye hear.
This is he that was in the church in the wilderness, with the angel which spake to
him at the Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received the lively oracles
to give unto us, to whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them,
and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt, saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to
go before us, for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt,
we want not what is become of him.
And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol,
and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as it is
written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to
me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?
Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Ramphan,
figures which ye made to worship them, and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.
Our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness, as he had appointed,
speaking unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion that he had
seen.
Which also our fathers that came after brought in with Jesus into the possession
of the Gentiles, whom God drave out before the face of our fathers unto the days of
David, who found favor before God, and desired to find a tabernacle for the
God of Jacob.
But Solomon built him an house.
Howbeit, the Most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, as saith the
prophet, Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool.
What house will ye build me, saith the Lord?
Or what is the place of my rest?
Hath not my hand made all these things?
Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy
Ghost.
As your fathers did, so do ye.
Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted?
And they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the just one,
of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers.
Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept
it?
When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him
with their teeth.
But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven,
and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God,
and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing on the
right hand of God.
Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him
with one accord, and cast him out of the city, and stoned him.
And the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man's feet, whose name was
Saul.
And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.
And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their
charge.
And when he had said this, he fell asleep.