Stephen

Stephen is one of the seven men appointed in the Jerusalem assembly to carry out a ministry of service, and the first follower of Jesus whom Scripture records as put to death for his faith. The text says the apostles directed the disciples to select seven men of good report, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, and that these were set before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them (Acts 6:3, 6). Stephen is then described as full of faith and power, performing great wonders and signs among the people (Acts 6:8).

According to Acts, his opponents could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke (Acts 6:10). They set up false witnesses who accused him of speaking blasphemous words against the holy place and the law, and of claiming that Jesus of Nazareth would destroy the place and change the customs Moses delivered (Acts 6:13–14). The narrative itself calls these men false witnesses (Acts 6:13), so the reader is told both what the charge was and that it was brought falsely; how much of the reported saying corresponds to what Stephen actually taught is left unresolved in the text.

The account of his death is the longest death scene in Acts. Full of the Holy Spirit, he looked into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and said so aloud (Acts 7:55–56). They threw him out of the city and stoned him, the witnesses laying their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul (Acts 7:58). He prayed twice: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!” and, kneeling, “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them!” — after which he fell asleep (Acts 7:59–60). Acts 8:1 records Saul’s consent to his death and the great persecution that followed, scattering the assembly throughout Judea and Samaria except for the apostles. One way to read the scene is as a deliberate echo of Jesus’ own prayers from the cross (Luke 23:34, 46); interpreters have also long noticed the unusual detail that Jesus is seen standing, rather than seated, at God’s right hand (Acts 7:56).

Christian traditions differ in how they frame him. Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican calendars venerate him as the protomartyr, the first martyr, with commemorations on 26 December in the West and 27 December in the East. Some traditions read his speech before the council as a prophetic critique of temple-centered religion that prepares for the mission beyond Jerusalem, while others stress that the charge against him was formally false and treat the speech as a recital of Israel’s history addressed to Israel. Peace-church readers have emphasized his forgiving prayer as a pattern for non-retaliation, and many Protestant readers cite him chiefly as an example of a layman filled with the Spirit and wisdom rather than an office-holder. These are differences in emphasis and interpretation, not in the text itself, which presents him without comment on the later disputes.

AI-generated reference entry, grounded in the passages where this term appears — history and Scripture stated as such, interpretation labeled as interpretation. Not a substitute for the text itself.