Stephen: Indictment of our Founding Fathers

All who sat in the council, fastening their eyes on him, saw his face like it was the face of an angel.

ACTS 6:15 :: Hebrew Names Version (HNV)

Another Trial before Judah’s Ruling Fathers

7 Now the high priest said, “Are these things so?”

ἀρχιερεύς – archiereus 

Let’s be clear who Jerusalem’s fathers, in charge of these trials, are:

• A new trial now of Stephen
• Two previous hearings or trials of Peter and John
• And most controversial of all, their trial and crucifixion of Jesus, of whom these Jews now preach as risen from death!

Gospel of Luke 19:40 NASB20 – Describing Jesus’ opposition by the chief priests.

After Jesus, they next tried to discredit Peter and John

Arrested AND Released

And now, Stephen

Stephen, not one of the Twelve Disciples of Jesus, but a newly appointed disciple of the Disciples. A leading man among seven, overseeing multitudes of these ‘Christ’ followers in Jerusalem’s growing congregations – an overt challenge to the authority of its religious-political leaders responsible for their Roman ‘peace.’

How will Stephen defend Christ before Jerusalem’s political fathers?

Not betrayed, but like the Apostles falsely accused.

Acts of the Apostles 7: (and here, ACTS of Stephen)

Stephanos will reply to the Hebrew High Priest of the Sanhedrin in the common Hellenized Greek of Roman-occupied Jerusalem:

7:2 ὁ δὲ ἔφη ἄνδρες ἀδελφοὶ καὶ πατέρες ἀκούσατε ὁ θεὸς τῆς δόξης ὤφθη τῷ πατρὶ ἡμῶν Ἀβραὰμ ὄντι ἐν τῇ Μεσοποταμίᾳ πρὶν ἢ κατοικῆσαι αὐτὸν ἐν Χαρράν

“Hear me, brethren and fathers!

Stephen now begins his defense with their common history, recorded in Scripture and supposedly taught by Jerusalem’s fathers, shepherds of Judah, in their synagogues. He includes himself as their Jewish brothers, born to a line of their own patriarchs.

Abraham

The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, and He said to him,

4 Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. And from there, after his father died, God had him move to this country in which you are now living.

Here's Stephen's first point about the Patriarchs (ruling fathers):

“But God gave him no inheritance here, not even one square foot of land.

ACTS 7:5a NLT – Stephen’s defense to the fathers of Jerusalem trying him for following the Messiah Jesus

6 But God spoke to this effect, that his descendants would be strangers in a land that was not theirs, and they would enslave and mistreat them for four hundred years…

We know that Stephen is leading up to Moses leading them from Egypt (in ancient times).

.. and so Abraham fathered Isaac, and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob, the twelve patriarchs.

ACTS 7:8b NASB

Nothing too controversial in Steven's opening argument to these contemporary patriarchs of the Sanhedrin, right?

Ἰωσήφ – Joseph – יוֹסֵף

“The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him..

11 “Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers could find no food. But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. And on the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers..

Joseph's brothers, patriarchs of Israel DID NOT RECOGNIZR their rejected brother, whom these eleven fathers had  thought would be brought down by slavery.

14 After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all.

15 Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died. Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought..

Joseph saves Israel (Jacob) and its Patriarchs (his brothers, who finally had bowed down to Joseph)

Jerusalem's fathers (who sit in judgment of Stephen) continue to listen intently to the disciple of Jesus' Disciples they indicted for speaking against the Law. 
The innocence of an angel shines from his face as God-breathed words flow forth from his tongue.

Stephen reveals God’s Promise through Abraham

“But as the time of the promise which God had assured to Abraham was approaching, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt..

Acts 7:17 NASB – Stephen’s history of the Patriarchs of Israel

FOUR HUNDRED YEARS WILL ELAPSE (as we know) between this first part of Stephen's story about the blessings of the patriarchs and the second part of his history of slavery in Egypt.

.. until another king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph.

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To be continued...