What is a summary of Acts chapter 7?

Answer 1

According to Acts of the Apostles, Stephen performed many miracles and converted many of the Jews, although nothing is known about him outside the Acts of the Apostles. After Stephen was arrested for preaching to the Jews, he was brought before the Sanhedrin and asked to explain himself.

Chapter 7 of Acts tells us his supposed defence, but portrays Stephen as making no attempt to defend himself or even talk about his Christian faith as later martyrs are said to have done. He merely began an elementary lecture on Jewish history, culminating in the insulting passage in verses 7:51-53. Here, Stephen, apparently a Jew himself, called Jews stiffnecked or obstinate, and compared their alleged lack of faith in the Holy Spirit to being uncircumcised. He told them that the early Hebrews had persecuted the prophets, and that his judges are betrayers and murderers who do not keep the law.

This was a speech so totally irrelevant to Stephen's predicament and so intentionally inflammatory that it could only have been written by Luke himself to set the scene for what was about to occur. While Stephen was thus lecturing the Jews in his own defence, he looked up and saw the heavens open and Jesus standing on the right hand of God (7:55). Stephen told the Jews what he alone could see, at which they cast him out of the city and stoned him as a blasphemer. Verse 58 says that a young man, Saul, looked after the clothes of those who stoned Stephen, although he did not participate.

Raymond E. Brown (An Introduction to the New Testament) finds the scene involving Stephen's trial and death to be truly significant because the death of Stephen in Acts matches so closely the death of Jesus in Luke's gospel, and says that we can never verify the existence and martyrdom of Stephen. Robert Eisenman also draws parallels between the trial, vision and execution of James to the trial, vision and stoning of Stephen in Acts. This suggests that the martyrdom of either James or Stephen is derivative and that the martyrdom did not really occur. It is suggested that the purpose of the trial of Stephen, in chapter 7 of Acts was to introduce Paul to the reader in his early years, before his conversion to Christianity, and portray him as a totally repugnant person who then instigated and led a harsh and cruel persecution of the Christians.

Answer 2

In Acts chapter 7, Stephen delivers a powerful speech before the Jewish council, outlining the history of God's dealings with the Israelites. He emphasizes that God's presence is not limited to the temple and rebukes his listeners for their resistance to the Holy Spirit. This enrages the council, leading to Stephen's martyrdom as the first Christian to be executed for his faith.