“Are these things so?” the high priest asked Stephen (Acts 7:1).[1] False witnesses had accused him of speaking against “this holy place and the law,” alleging that Jesus of Nazareth would destroy the temple and change the customs handed down by Moses (Acts 6:13–14). Stephen now stood before the Sanhedrin to answer these charges.[2]
Stephen’s trial marked the third occasion on which the fledgling Christian church bore witness before the Sanhedrin concerning its proclamation of Jesus Christ. Peter and John had previously appeared before the Council after healing the lame man at the temple and were ordered to stop preaching and ministering in Jesus’ name (Acts 4:1–22). Later, the Twelve were arrested for preaching Christ and performing signs and wonders at Solomon’s Portico. Although Gamaliel’s counsel spared them from execution, they were beaten and released. But the Apostles rejoiced for they had been counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of Jesus (Acts 5:17–42).
Stephen’s Response: Given the persistent hostility of the chief priests, temple authorities, Sadducees, and the Sanhedrin toward the followers of Christ, a guilty verdict against Stephen was likely a foregone conclusion. Nevertheless, rather than merely defending himself, Stephen seized the opportunity to turn the accusations back upon his accusers.
Stephen’s argument employs the rhetorical strategy of refutation — the systematic rebuttal of an opponent’s case. He presents a distinctly Christian interpretation of Israel’s history, focusing on Abraham (Acts 7:2–8), Joseph (Acts 7:9–16), Moses (Acts 7:17–43), and the tabernacle and temple (Acts 7:44–50).[3] His purpose is to demonstrate that the followers of Christ were the true heirs of Israel’s faith, remaining faithful to Yahweh and the Law of Moses. By contrast, the disciple argues that Christ’s opponents stood in continuity with their stiff-necked forefathers, who resisted God’s purposes, rejected Moses and His commandments, persecuted the prophets, and misunderstood the true significance of the temple in the worship of God.
God’s Call and Promise to Abraham: Stephen begins his refutation by recounting how God called the childless Abraham out of Mesopotamia, away from his kin, and brought him to the promised land, then known as Canaan. Although Abraham himself did not receive the land as an inheritance, God promised that his descendants would one day possess it. The Lord also revealed that Abraham’s offspring would first live as “sojourners in a land belonging to others, who would enslave and afflict them four hundred years.” Yet the Lord assured Abraham, “I will judge the nation that they serve… and after that they shall come out and worship me in this place” (Acts 7:2–7).
The Lord then gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision (Acts 7:8a; cf. Gen. 17:9-14). Circumcision served as the outward sign of God’s covenant.
God’s promise began to unfold. Abraham and Sarah had previously had a son, Ishmael, through her maidservant Hagar (Gen. 16:1ff). Yet, Yahweh insisted that Abraham and Sarah themselves would conceive the promised heir. Though Sarah laughed at the notion, God’s Word came to pass (Gen. 17:15-21; 18:9-15; 21:1-7): Abraham fathered Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day (Gen. 21:4). The Jews present in the court were well-versed in the Torah; they knew the child born to Sarah was a miracle, given that she was ‘advanced in years’ and well past the age of childbearing (Gen. 18:11).
In turn, Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob fathered the twelve patriarchs (Acts 7:8b): Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Joseph, and Benjamin (Gen. 35:22-26). God later renamed Jacob ‘Israel’ (Gen. 32:22-32), fulfilling His promise to make Abraham the father of a multitude of nations. Despite Abraham and Sarah’s struggle with barrenness, God’s Word never failed.
Joseph Brings Israel’s Descendants into Egypt: Stephen then points out the patriarchs, who were jealous of their younger brother Joseph, and sold him into Egypt. Yet the Lord was with Joseph, delivering him from all his afflictions and granting him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and over his entire household (Acts 7:9–10).
All those hearing Stephen would have recalled how Pharaoh was troubled by dreams that none of his advisers could interpret. At that point, the chief cupbearer remembered Joseph, whom he had met while they were imprisoned together. Joseph had been cast into prison after Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him because he refused her advances. Earlier still, Potiphar had purchased Joseph as a slave from the Ishmaelites, to whom his jealous brothers had sold him (Gen. 37:1-36; 39:1-43:57). Through this remarkable chain of events, God providentially transformed Joseph’s betrayal and suffering into the means by which He exalted him to rule over Egypt to preserve His covenant people.
A severe famine struck Egypt and Canaan, and food became scarce. Jacob then found out there was grain in Egypt and sent his sons on their first visit. On their second visit, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharoah. Joseph then sent and summoned Jacob along with the rest of the family, “seventy-five” in all, to Egypt (Acts 7:11-14).[4]
God had providentially raised up Joseph to become a ruler in Egypt, and his exalted position enabled him to bring his family to settle in the region of Goshen as shepherds, where they were preserved from the famine that otherwise would have claimed their lives. Yet Joseph’s rise to power and Israel’s migration to Egypt were not mere coincidences of history. They unfolded in fulfillment of God’s word to Abraham that his descendants would sojourn in a foreign land before inheriting the land of promise. This word spoken by Joseph to his brothers after Jacob passed are sum things up well: “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Gen. 50:20).
Both Jacob and Joseph died in Egypt, though their remains were eventually interred in the land God promised them (Acts 7:15–16). In these two verses, Stephen telescopically condenses centuries of history and multiple distinct events. Jacob passed away in Egypt, and Joseph obtained Pharaoh’s permission to bury his father in the Promised Land (Gen. 47:28–50:14). Centuries later, following the Israelite exodus from Egypt and the forty years of wandering in the wilderness, Joshua finally brought the bones of Joseph to be buried in the Promised Land as well (Gen. 50:22–26; Exod. 13:19; Josh. 24:32).[5] Stephen thus anticipates Yahweh bringing back Abraham’s descendants to the promise land.
God’s plan and purpose for Abraham extended far beyond the one hundred seventy-five years of his earthly pilgrimage. The covenant promises given to Abraham continued to unfold through Isaac, Jacob, and the generations that eventually entered the Promised Land. Indeed, the blessings of that covenant now extend to all who belong to Christ, for through His redemptive work on the cross, believers have been adopted as sons and daughters of God and become heirs of the promises made to Abraham (Gal. 3:7–14). Taking this into consideration, God’s plans and purposes for our lives neither begin nor end with our earthly existence. They were established before the foundation of the world and continue to unfold according to His eternal purpose (Eph. 1:3-14).
Joseph endured betrayal at the hands of his brothers, temptation through Potiphar’s wife, false accusation, and imprisonment. Yet God sovereignly worked through each of these trials to bring Joseph before Pharaoh, who exalted him to become ruler over Egypt. From that position, Joseph was able to preserve countless lives during the famine, including those of his own family—the very descendants through whom God would fulfill His covenant promise to Abraham. Our lives, too, are often marked by sorrow and suffering. Yet God walks with His people through every trial, redeeming even our darkest experiences for His good purposes. Through affliction, He produces perseverance, proven character, and hope—virtues that could not be cultivated apart from suffering—and thereby prepares us for the glory that is to come (Rom. 5:1–5; 2 Cor. 4:16–17; Jas. 1:2–4).
God’s way of accomplishing His purposes stands in sharp contrast to the modern culture of instant gratification. We travel rapidly from place to place, communicate instantly across the globe, enjoy fast food, instant payments, and now receive information and analysis within seconds through artificial intelligence. Yet the Christian life offers no instant sanctification. God’s work of conforming us to the image of Christ is ordinarily gradual, unfolding through a lifelong relationship with Him and culminating in the glory of the age to come. His purposes are measured not in moments, but in eternity.
— WGN
Notes:
[1] All Scripture cited from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2025), Ac 7:1.
[2] Stephen’s defense turns out to be the longest speech in the Acts of the Apostles.
[3] Mikeal C. Parsons, Acts, Paideia Commentaries on The New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 90.
[4] Stephen states that Joseph summoned “seventy-five” members of his family to Egypt (Acts 7:14), whereas several Old Testament passages give the total as “seventy” (Gen. 46:27; Exod. 1:5; Deut. 10:22). This difference is best explained by the existence of textual variants among the ancient manuscripts available in Stephen’s day.
The reading “seventy” is found in the traditional Hebrew text preserved in the Masoretic Text (MT), as represented by medieval manuscripts such as the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex. It is likewise attested in the Samaritan Pentateuch, whose textual tradition predates the first century AD, as well as in Jubilees 44:33 and Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews 2.7.4 (§176).
Other ancient witnesses, however, preserve the reading “seventy-five.” Most notably, the Septuagint (LXX)—the Greek translation of the Old Testament produced between the third and first centuries BC—reads “seventy-five” in Genesis 46:27, and Exodus 1:5. Deuteronomy 10:22 also reads “seventy-five” in Codex Alexandrinus. The same reading is also found in the Dead Sea Scrolls manuscript 4QExodb (4Q14), demonstrating that this textual tradition was already in circulation before the time of Christ.
The Jewish philosopher Philo likewise demonstrates familiarity with both textual traditions. In On the Migration of Abraham, he first speaks symbolically of “all the souls which came out of Jacob” as numbering “seventy-five.” Yet, in the same discussion, he notes that when Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, “he uses only the computation of seventy, having extirpated the number five, the number of the outward senses; for it is said, that ‘thy fathers went down to Egypt, being seventy souls’” (Migration 36.199–200). Philo’s use of both figures indicates that the traditions of “seventy” and “seventy-five” were both known within Second Temple Judaism. Stephen’s use of “seventy-five,” therefore, reflects a well-attested textual tradition rather than a historical error.
It should also be noted that the totals of “seventy” and “seventy-five” result from counting Jacob’s household according to different parameters. In the Masoretic Text, Genesis 46:27 states that Joseph had two sons born in Egypt, whereas the Septuagint includes an additional seven descendants, bringing the total to nine. Gleason Archer explains: “Apparently Manasseh and Ephraim had seven sons between them, not by the time of Jacob’s migration in 1876 B.C. (when they would hardly have been older than seven and five, respectively), but later on before Jacob actually died in Egypt after a seventeen-year sojourn there. Manasseh would have been twenty-five and Ephraim twenty-two by that date. If they married in their late teens, they might have produced seven children by them.” Archer concludes, “both totals are correct” ((Gleason L. Archer, New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties, Zondervan’s Understand the Bible Reference Series [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1982], 379). If this explanation is correct, the differing totals do not represent a contradiction but simply reflect two legitimate methods of reckoning Jacob’s household.
These textual variants neither obscure nor undermine Stephen’s account of Joseph bringing his family to Egypt in fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. Nor do they place any cardinal doctrine of the historic Christian faith in jeopardy. Rather, they reflect well-attested textual traditions and differing methods of reckoning the members of Jacob’s household. In either case, the essential historical narrative and the theological message remain unchanged.
[5] An apparent contraction appears with Stephen’s statement about Jacob being buried in the property at Shechem that Abraham purchased from Hamor (Acts 7:16) and the Genesis account, which indicates Abraham purchased property at Machpelah from Ephron the son of Zohar (Gen. 23:1-17). But Joshua testifies that Jacob purchased property at Shechem from the sons of Hamor (Josh. 24:32; cf. Gen. 33:19). Joseph’s bones were interred at Shechem (Josh. 24:32; cf. Ex. 13:19; Gen. 50:23-26) whereas Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah were buried at Machpelah (Genesis 23:19-20, 25:8-11, 35:27-39, 49:29-32; 50:12-13). Rachel was buried on the way to Ephrath, i.e., Bethlehem (Gen. 35:19-20; 48:7).
One plausible resolution is to posit that Abraham made an additional land purchase at Shechem. After migrating from Haran, Shechem was the first location where Abraham stopped in Canaan, and it was there that he built his first altar to Yahweh in the Promised Land (Gen. 12:6–7). It is suggested that Abraham may have acquired the tract of land associated with the Oak of Moreh, a tradition with which Stephen may have been familiar. Abraham later moved south, Isaac settled in Beersheba, and Jacob spent twenty-one years in Padan-Aram before eventually returning to Shechem. By that time, the inhabitants of the region either forgotten Abraham’s earlier purchase of the property or considered it forfeited due to the family’s prolonged absence. Consequently, Jacob paid to reacquire the plot from the sons of Hamor (Gen. 33:18–20) (Gleason L. Archer, New International Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties [Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1982], 380.)
Another, and more compelling, solution is to say that the two burial accounts have been telescoped into a single, concise statement. Stephen and his audience were well acquainted with the Scriptures, so a brief reference would have been sufficient to evoke the broader narrative. On this view, it would have been understood that the bodies of Jacob and Joseph were buried in different locations: Jacob in the cave of Machpelah, which Abraham purchased near Hebron, and Joseph in the plot at Shechem that Jacob had purchased from the sons of Hamor. Stephen’s abbreviated retelling thus assumes his audience’s familiarity with the details rather than attempting to recount them in full (Simon J. Kistemaker and William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary: Exposition of the Acts of the Apostles, vol. 17 [Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1953–2001], 249).
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