Stephen’s Speech: Abraham
1 And the high priest said, “Are these things so?”
2 And Stephen said: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,
3 and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.’
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 land in which you are now living.
5 But he gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot’s length of ground. Yet he promised that he would give it to him as a possession, and to his descendants after him, even when he had no child.
6 And God spoke to this effect, that his descendants would be aliens in a foreign land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.
7 ‘And whatever nation to which they will be in bondage I myself will judge,’ said God, ‘and after that they will come out and serve me in this place.’
8 And he gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.
v.1: The high priest’s question is perfunctory: “Are these things so?” It is a standard judicial inquiry inviting the defendant to respond to the charges. Stephen’s response will be anything but standard. He answers not with a brief defense but with the longest speech in Acts — a sweeping retelling of Israel’s history from Abraham to Solomon that systematically dismantles the charges against him while turning the accusation back on his accusers.
ὁ θεὸς τῆς δόξης (ho theos tēs doxēs) — v.2: “The God of glory” — Stephen begins with God, not with the temple, and places God’s first appearance to Abraham in Mesopotamia, far from the Promised Land, far from any temple, far from Jerusalem. This is not an incidental detail; it is the thesis of the entire speech. God revealed himself to Abraham in pagan Mesopotamia. The implication is immediate: God is not confined to any place. He appeared to the father of the nation in a land that had no connection to the temple or to the Law.
v.5: Stephen emphasizes that Abraham received no inheritance in the land — “not even a foot’s length of ground.” Abraham had the promise but not the possession. He lived in the land as a stranger. The point is subtle but devastating: the greatest patriarch lived his entire life without a temple, without the Law (which came through Moses centuries later), and without even owning the land. If Abraham could be in right relationship with God under those conditions, then the temple and the land are not absolute prerequisites for God’s presence. Stephen is undermining his accusers’ assumptions from the very first verses.
v.8: The covenant of circumcision was given before the Law, before the temple, and before the nation of Israel existed as a political entity. Stephen is building a chronology that demonstrates how much of God’s decisive work with his people predates the institutions his accusers are trying to protect.
Stephen’s Speech: Joseph
9 “And the patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him,
10 and rescued him from 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 over all his household.
11 Now a famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction with it, and our fathers could find no food.
12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time.
13 On the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph’s family was made known to Pharaoh.
14 Then Joseph sent word and invited Jacob his father and all his relatives to come to him, seventy-five persons in all.
15 And Jacob went down to Egypt, and he died there, he and our fathers.
16 And they were carried back to Shechem and placed in the tomb which Abraham had purchased for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
ζηλώσαντες ... ἀπέδοντο (zēlōsantes ... apedonto) — v.9: “The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt” — this is the first statement of the pattern that will dominate Stephen’s entire speech: Israel rejects its own deliverers. The patriarchs — the revered ancestors of the nation — were jealous (ζηλόω, zēloō, the same word used of the Sadducees’ jealousy in 5:17) of the brother God had chosen, and they sold him. Joseph, the one God appointed to save the family, was rejected by the family he would save. Stephen is telling the Sanhedrin: this is what you have always done.
v.9: “Yet God was with him” (ἦν ὁ θεὸς μετ’ αὐτοῦ) — a critical phrase. God was with Joseph in Egypt, not in Canaan. God’s presence accompanied the rejected deliverer into a foreign land. Again, the temple does not feature. God is wherever his chosen servant is, even in Pharaoh’s Egypt.
v.14: Stephen gives the number of Jacob’s family as seventy-five, following the Septuagint text of Genesis 46:27 and Exodus 1:5. The Hebrew Masoretic text gives seventy (as does Genesis 46:27 in the Hebrew). The difference arises from whether certain grandsons and great-grandsons of Joseph born in Egypt are counted. Stephen is using the Greek Bible, which is consistent with his identity as a Hellenistic Jew.
v.16: This verse contains what appears to be a compressed conflation of two Old Testament burial traditions. Abraham purchased a burial cave at Machpelah near Hebron from Ephron the Hittite (Genesis 23:16–20), where Jacob was buried (Genesis 50:13). Jacob (not Abraham) purchased a plot of land near Shechem from the sons of Hamor (Genesis 33:19), where Joseph’s bones were later buried (Joshua 24:32). Stephen appears to combine these traditions, attributing the Shechem purchase to Abraham and placing the patriarchs’ burial there. This may reflect a variant Jewish tradition, or it may be a deliberate compression for rhetorical purposes — ancient speeches frequently simplified historical details. What matters for Stephen’s argument is not the exact purchase details but the location: Shechem, in what would later become Samaria, not Jerusalem.
Stephen’s Speech: Moses — Rejection and Calling
17 “But as the time of the promise was approaching which God had assured to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt,
18 until there arose another king over Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph.
19 It was he who took shrewd advantage of our race and mistreated our fathers, so that they would expose their infants and they would not survive.
20 At this time Moses was born; and he was beautiful in God’s sight. He was nurtured for three months in his father’s house.
21 And after he had been set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him away and nurtured him as her own son.
22 Moses was educated in all the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a man of power in words and deeds.
23 But when he was approaching the age of forty, it entered his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel.
24 And when he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he defended him and took vengeance for the oppressed by striking down the Egyptian.
25 And he supposed that his brothers understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, but they did not understand.
26 On the following day he appeared to them as they were fighting together, and he tried to reconcile them in peace, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you injure one another?’
27 But the one who was injuring his neighbor pushed him away, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and judge over us?
28 You do not mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday, do you?’
29 At this remark, Moses fled and became an alien in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.
vv.17–19: Stephen transitions to the Moses narrative, which will occupy the central and largest section of his speech (vv.17–43). This is strategic: the charges against him center on Moses and the Law. Stephen will demonstrate that he honors Moses more than his accusers do — and that Moses himself was rejected by the people he came to save.
ἀστεῖος τῷ θεῷ (asteios tō theō) — v.20: “Beautiful in God’s sight” — the phrase ἀστεῖος τῷ θεῷ literally means “beautiful/fair to God.” The Septuagint of Exodus 2:2 describes Moses as ἀστεῖος (“fine,” “beautiful”). Stephen elevates this: Moses was not merely physically attractive but divinely favored from birth. God had marked him out before he accomplished anything.
v.22: Stephen credits Moses with a comprehensive Egyptian education and describes him as “a man of power in words and deeds.” This detail is not found in the Pentateuch (Moses in Exodus 4:10 claims to be slow of speech) and likely reflects Jewish tradition, attested in Philo and Josephus, that Moses received training in Egyptian philosophy, mathematics, and military science. Stephen draws on Hellenistic Jewish traditions about Moses to build his portrait — again consistent with his identity as a Hellenistic Jew.
v.25: This is the theological heart of the Moses section: “He supposed that his brothers understood that God was granting them deliverance through him, but they did not understand.” Moses was the God-appointed deliverer, and his own people did not recognize him. The pattern from the Joseph narrative repeats and intensifies: God sends a savior; the people reject the savior. Stephen is building to the inevitable conclusion: you have done the same thing with Jesus.
vv.27–28: The Israelite’s response to Moses is the speech’s key refrain. “Who made you a ruler and judge over us?” (quoting Exodus 2:14). This question will echo through the rest of Stephen’s argument. Moses came to deliver his people and was pushed away. The people rejected their deliverer and questioned his authority. Stephen will quote this passage again in v.35 with devastating application: “This Moses whom they rejected ... is the one whom God sent as both ruler and deliverer.”
v.29: Moses flees to Midian — another foreign land where God will meet him. The burning bush (vv.30–34) will occur not in the Promised Land but in the wilderness of Sinai. Again, God acts outside the boundaries his accusers want to defend.
Stephen’s Speech: Moses — The Burning Bush
30 “And when forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning thorn bush.
31 When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight; and as he approached to look more closely, the voice of the Lord came to him:
32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.’ Moses shook with fear and would not dare to look.
33 But the Lord said to him, ‘Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.
34 I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them. Come now, and I will send you to Egypt.’
35 “This Moses whom they rejected, saying, ‘Who made you a ruler and a judge?’ — this man God sent as both ruler and deliverer, with the help of the angel who appeared to him in the thorn bush.
36 This man led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.
37 This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.’
38 This is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness together with the angel who was speaking to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers; and he received living oracles to pass on to you.
39 Our fathers were unwilling to be obedient to him, but repudiated him and turned back to Egypt in their hearts,
40 saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us; for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt — we do not know what happened to him.’
41 And they made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands.
42 But God turned away and delivered them over to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Was it to me that you offered slain animals and sacrifices for forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?
43 You also took along the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of the god Rompha, the images which you made to worship. I will remove you beyond Babylon.’
vv.30–34: The burning bush encounter takes place in the wilderness of Sinai — not in the temple, not in Jerusalem, not even in the Promised Land. God declares the ground holy (“take off your sandals”) simply because he is present there. Holiness is a function of God’s presence, not geography. This is one of Stephen’s most subversive points: if desert ground becomes holy because God stands on it, then the temple has no monopoly on sacred space.
v.35: The rhetorical climax of the Moses section. Stephen uses the demonstrative pronoun τοῦτον (touton, “this one”) with emphatic force, repeated three times in vv.35–38: “This Moses ... this man ... this is the Moses ... this is the one.” The man the people rejected (“Who made you a ruler?”) is the very man God sent as ruler and deliverer. The one they pushed away is the one God raised up. The pattern is being hammered home relentlessly: rejection by the people, vindication by God.
προφήτην ὑμῖν ἀναστήσει ὁ θεὸς ... ὡς ἐμέ (prophētēn hymin anastēsei ho theos ... hōs eme) — v.37: “The prophet like me” — Stephen quotes Deuteronomy 18:15, the same passage Peter used in 3:22. Moses himself prophesied that God would raise up another prophet like him. Stephen’s implicit argument: if Moses pointed forward to another, then Moses himself is not the final word. The Law is not the destination; it points to something beyond itself. The accusation that Stephen disrespects Moses is refuted by Moses’s own words: Moses told you to expect someone after him.
λόγια ζῶντα (logia zōnta) — v.38: “Living oracles” — Stephen calls the Law “living oracles” (λόγια ζῶντα, logia zōnta). This is not the language of someone who despises the Law. Stephen honors the Torah as divine, living, and authoritative. His quarrel is not with the Law but with his audience’s relationship to it: they received living oracles and disobeyed them. The accusation of disrespecting Moses is being turned back on the accusers: it is you who have dishonored what Moses gave you.
vv.39–41: The golden calf incident (Exodus 32) is Stephen’s central exhibit. While Moses was on the mountain receiving God’s oracles, the people at the base were making an idol. They “turned back to Egypt in their hearts” — a devastating phrase. They didn’t physically return; they longed for what they had left behind. They preferred the slavery they knew to the freedom God was giving them. And their words about Moses (“we do not know what happened to him”) echo their earlier rejection: the deliverer is absent, so they abandon him. The pattern repeats.
vv.42–43: Stephen quotes Amos 5:25–27 to argue that Israel’s idolatry was not a single incident but a persistent pattern throughout the wilderness period. The quotation follows the Septuagint, which differs from the Hebrew text in some details (notably “Rompha” for the Hebrew “Kiyyun” or “Chiun,” and “beyond Babylon” for the Hebrew “beyond Damascus”). The point is devastating: even during the forty years in the wilderness, Israel was unfaithful. The golden calf was not an isolated failure; it was symptomatic. God’s people have a chronic problem with idolatry, and that problem did not disappear when they got the temple.
Stephen’s Speech: The Tabernacle and the Temple
44 “Our fathers had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as he who spoke to Moses directed him to make it according to the pattern which he had seen.
45 And our fathers who received it in their turn also brought it in with Joshua upon dispossessing the nations that God drove out before our fathers, until the time of David.
46 David found favor in God’s sight, and asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.
47 But it was Solomon who built a house for him.
48 However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says:
49 ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is the footstool of my feet. What kind of house will you build for me?’ says the Lord, ‘or what place is there for my rest?
50 Was it not my hand that made all these things?’
vv.44–45: Stephen now addresses the temple charge directly, and his strategy is brilliant. He begins with the tabernacle — the portable tent of worship that preceded the temple by centuries. The tabernacle was the divinely ordained place of worship during the wilderness and conquest periods. It was mobile, following the people wherever God led them. Stephen’s implicit argument: God’s preferred dwelling during the formative period of Israel’s history was a tent, not a building. Portability, not permanence, was the original design.
v.44: “According to the pattern which he had seen” — Stephen emphasizes that the tabernacle was divinely designed (Exodus 25:40). The tabernacle, not the temple, was the original God-given model for worship. The temple came later, built by human initiative.
vv.46–47: Stephen draws a subtle but critical distinction. David “asked that he might find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob” — a good desire. But God did not grant David’s request; it was Solomon who built the house. The language carefully separates David’s intention (which was favored) from Solomon’s execution. The next word — “however” (ἀλλά, alla, a strong adversative) — signals that Solomon’s temple, despite its magnificence, was not the final word on the matter.
ὁ ὕψιστος οὐχ ἐν χειροποιήτοις κατοικεῖ (ho hypsistos ouch en cheiroioiētois katoikei) — v.48: “The Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands” — this is the theological climax of Stephen’s speech regarding the temple. The word χειροποίητος (cheiropoiētos, “made by hands”) is the word used in the Septuagint for idols. Stephen is not saying the temple is an idol, but the linguistic echo is provocative: a building made by hands shares a vocabulary with images made by hands. God cannot be contained by human construction, whether a golden calf or a golden temple. The statement would have struck the Sanhedrin like a physical blow.
vv.49–50: Stephen quotes Isaiah 66:1–2, where God himself questions the adequacy of any human-built dwelling: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is the footstool of my feet. What kind of house will you build for me?” The quotation is from the prophets — from Israel’s own Scripture. Stephen is not importing alien ideas; he is citing what the prophets already said. The temple was never supposed to be understood as God’s residence; even Solomon knew that at the temple’s dedication: “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built” (1 Kings 8:27). Stephen’s position is not heretical; it is prophetic.
Stephen’s Accusation
51 “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did.
52 Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become;
53 you who received the Law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.”
σκληροτράχηλοι καὶ ἀπερίτμητοι καρδίαις καὶ τοῖς ὠσίν (sklērotracheloi kai aperitmētoi kardiais kai tois ōsin) — v.51: The gloves come off. Stephen unleashes a torrent of prophetic accusation using Old Testament language. “Stiff-necked” (σκληροτράχηλοι) echoes Exodus 33:3, 5 and Deuteronomy 9:6, where God describes Israel as stubborn. “Uncircumcised in heart and ears” echoes Jeremiah 6:10 and 9:26 and Ezekiel 44:7 — the prophets’ charge that physical circumcision means nothing without inner transformation. Stephen, accused of attacking Moses, is using Moses’s own language. He, accused of speaking against the Law, is quoting the Law’s own prophets. Every word of the accusation comes from Israel’s own Scripture.
v.51: “You are always resisting the Holy Spirit” — the word “always” (ἀεί, aei) extends the accusation across all of history. This is not a single failure but a chronic pattern. Stephen’s speech has demonstrated it: they rejected Joseph, they rejected Moses (twice), they rejected the prophets, and now they have rejected Jesus. The resistance to the Spirit is the constant thread running through Israel’s history.
v.52: “Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute?” — the question is rhetorical and devastating. The answer is: none. Jewish tradition held that most of the prophets were martyred (cf. Matthew 23:37, Hebrews 11:37). The prophets “announced the coming of the Righteous One” (τοῦ δικαίου, tou dikaiou — a messianic title, cf. 3:14, 22:14) and were killed for it. Now the Righteous One has come, and the pattern has completed itself: “whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.” Stephen names them directly: betrayers (προδόται, prodotai) and murderers (φονεῖς, phoneis). The defense speech has become a prosecution.
v.53: The final line is the sharpest: you received the Law “as ordained by angels” — Stephen honors the Law’s divine origin — “and yet did not keep it.” The charge of disrespecting the Law is turned completely around: it is not Stephen who dishonors the Law; it is the Sanhedrin. They are the ones who claim the Law and violate it. They received the most precious gift in human history and broke it.
The Martyrdom of Stephen
54 Now when they heard this, they were cut to the quick and began gnashing their teeth at him.
55 But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;
56 and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
57 But they cried out with a loud voice, and covered their ears, and rushed at him with one impulse.
58 When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59 They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”
60 Then falling on his knees, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Having said this, he fell asleep.
v.54: The same reaction as 5:33 (διεπρίοντο, “sawn apart”) — murderous rage. “Gnashing their teeth” (ἔβρυχον τοὺς ὀδόντας, ebrychon tous odontas) is an image of animalistic fury. The Sanhedrin has lost all judicial composure. This is no longer a trial; it is a mob.
τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου ἑστῶτα ἐκ δεξιῶν τοῦ θεοῦ (ton huion tou anthrōpou hestōta ek dexiōn tou theou) — vv.55–56: “The Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” — this is the only time in the New Testament outside the Gospels that anyone other than Jesus uses the title “Son of Man.” And there is a critical detail: Jesus is standing (ἑστῶτα, hestōta), not sitting. Every other reference to Jesus at God’s right hand in the New Testament says he is seated (Psalm 110:1, Mark 16:19, Romans 8:34, Colossians 3:1, Hebrews 1:3). Jesus stands. The image is of a witness rising to testify on behalf of the defendant, or a king rising to receive a faithful servant. As Stephen is being judged by the earthly court, the heavenly court has rendered its own verdict: Stephen is vindicated, and Jesus himself stands to receive him.
v.57: “They covered their ears” — the claim to see God’s glory and the Son of Man in heaven was, from the Sanhedrin’s perspective, the ultimate blasphemy. By covering their ears, they refuse to hear any more. The irony is excruciating: Stephen has just accused them of being “uncircumcised in ears” (v.51), and they prove his point by physically closing their ears. They will not listen. They have never listened. This is what Stephen’s entire speech was about.
v.58: The stoning is technically illegal under Roman law — the Sanhedrin did not have the authority to execute (John 18:31), which is why they needed Pilate to crucify Jesus. Stephen’s death appears to be a lynching rather than a formal execution, though some scholars argue it took place during a period of weak Roman oversight. The witnesses who stone Stephen lay their robes at the feet of “a young man named Saul” — Luke’s understated introduction of the figure who will dominate the second half of Acts. Saul does not throw stones; he guards the coats of those who do, indicating at minimum official approval and possibly a supervisory role. Paul will later describe himself as “in agreement with putting him to death” (8:1) and “casting my vote against them” (26:10).
vv.59–60: Stephen’s dying words mirror Jesus’s dying words with extraordinary precision. “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” echoes Jesus’s “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46). “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” echoes Jesus’s “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Stephen dies praying to Jesus in the same way Jesus died praying to the Father. The first Christian martyr dies as a copy of his master — forgiving his killers with his last breath.
ἐκοιμήθη (ekoimēthē) — v.60: “He fell asleep” — the verb κοιμάω (koimaō) means “to fall asleep,” and it is the early Christian euphemism for death in faith. The word is gentle, domestic, peaceful. Stones are crashing into Stephen’s body, and Luke describes it as falling asleep. The contrast between the violence of the scene and the tenderness of the word is the final statement of Stephen’s victory: what the mob does to his body is brutal, but what happens to Stephen is rest. He has seen Jesus standing to receive him. He sleeps.
General Notes on the Chapter
Stephen’s speech is the theological turning point of Acts. Everything before it takes place within Jerusalem, within the temple, within Judaism. Everything after it will move outward. The speech provides the theological rationale for the geographic expansion that follows: if God has never been confined to one place, one building, or one nation — as Stephen demonstrates from Israel’s own history — then the gospel cannot be confined either. The scattering of the church after Stephen’s death (8:1–4) is the narrative consequence of the theology Stephen articulates.
The speech has a clear rhetorical structure built around a single repeating pattern: God acts, Israel rejects, God vindicates. Abraham is called — in Mesopotamia, not in the Promised Land. Joseph is sent — and rejected by his brothers. Moses is raised up — and rejected twice: first in Egypt (“Who made you a ruler?”) and then at Sinai (the golden calf). The prophets are sent — and killed. Finally, the Righteous One comes — and is betrayed and murdered. The pattern is relentless: at every stage of Israel’s history, the people have rejected the one God sent to save them. Stephen’s conclusion is inescapable: the Sanhedrin stands in a tradition not of faithfulness but of rebellion.
The theology of sacred space in Stephen’s speech is revolutionary. God appeared to Abraham in Mesopotamia (v.2), was with Joseph in Egypt (v.9), spoke to Moses at a burning bush in the Sinai wilderness (vv.30–34), gave the Law on a mountain (v.38), traveled with Israel in a portable tent (vv.44–45), and declared through Isaiah that heaven is his throne and earth his footstool (vv.49–50). At no point in this history did God require a permanent building. The temple, Stephen implies, was a human project that risked becoming an idol — an attempt to contain the uncontainable God in a structure made by hands. Stephen does not say the temple was wrong; he says it was never meant to be final, and it must not be absolutized.
Stephen’s death is the first martyrdom in Christian history. The word “martyr” (μάρτυς, martys) originally meant “witness,” and Stephen’s death is the moment where witness and death become permanently linked. He testifies to what he has seen — the risen Jesus standing at God’s right hand — and dies for the testimony. The early church understood martyrdom not as defeat but as the ultimate form of witness: the testimony that cannot be retracted because the witness has sealed it with his blood. Stephen’s name means “crown” (στέφανος), and tradition has always seen in his death the crown of the first Christian victor.
The introduction of Saul (v.58) is one of Luke’s most consequential narrative decisions. In a single clause — “the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul” — Luke plants the figure who will transform everything. Saul stands at the edge of this scene, watching, approving, holding coats. Within a few chapters he will be the one preaching. The connection between Stephen’s death and Saul’s conversion is never explicitly stated by Luke, but it hovers over the narrative: Augustine later wrote that “if Stephen had not prayed, the Church would not have had Paul.” The prayer “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” may have been answered in the conversion of the man who stood watching.