The Koine Bible

Then the high priest said, If these things are so?

But he said, Men brothers and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was in Mesopotamia before he lived in Harran,

And he said to him, Go out from your land and from your relatives, and come to the land that I will show you.

Then he went out from the land of the Chaldeans and lived in Haran. From there, after his father died, he moved him into this land where you now live,

And he did not give him an inheritance in it, not even a footstep, but he promised to give it to him as a possession along with his offspring after him, though he had no child.

And God spoke in this way that his offspring will be strangers in a foreign land, and they will be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years.

And the nation to whom they will be enslaved I will judge, God said, and after that they will come out and worship me in this place.

And he gave him the covenant of circumcision; and so he 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.

And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; and God was with him,

And he delivered him out of all his troubles, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh king of Egypt, and made him ruler over Egypt and over all his house.

A famine came over all Egypt and Canaan, and our ancestors did not find food.

Now when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there first.

And in the second [generation], Joseph was recognized by his brothers, and the family of Joseph became known to Pharaoh.

Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five persons in all.

And Jacob went down into Egypt. And he died there, and our ancestors,

And they were transferred to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham bought with a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

Now as the time of the promise that God had sworn to Abraham was approaching, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt,

Until another king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph.

This one, by cunning, harmed our race by ordering the fathers to throw their infants out so that they would not live.

At that time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in the sight of God; and he was cared for three months in his father’s house.

But when he was exposed, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up and raised him as her own son.

And Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in words and deeds.

But when he was about forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, the sons of Israel.

And seeing someone being wronged, he defended him and avenged the one being oppressed by striking down the Egyptian.

But he thought that his brothers understood that God was giving them salvation through his hand, but they did not understand.

On the next day he appeared to them while they were fighting and reconciled them to peace, saying, Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong each other?

But the one wronging his neighbor pushed him away, saying, Who made you ruler and judge over us?

Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?

But Moses fled at this word and became a resident alien in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons.

And when forty years were completed, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of Mount Sinai in a flame of fire from a bush.

But Moses, when he saw, was amazed at the vision. As he approached to understand, the voice of the Lord came to him.

I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But Moses became afraid and did not dare to look.

But the Lord said to him, Take off the sandal from your foot, for the place on which you stand is holy ground.

I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them. And now I am sending you to Egypt.

This Moses, whom they denied, saying, Who made you ruler and judge? God sent him as both ruler and deliverer with the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.

This one led them out, performing wonders and signs in the land of Egypt and in the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years.

This is the Moses who said to the sons of Israel, A prophet will God raise up for you from among your brothers like me.

This is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai and with our fathers, who received living words to give to us,

To whom our fathers were not willing to be obedient, but they rejected and turned back in their hearts to Egypt,

Saying to Aaron, Make for us gods who will go before us, for as for this Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.

And they made a calf and offered a sacrifice to the idol, and they rejoiced in the works of their hands.

But God turned and gave them over to serve the army of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: You did not offer me sacrifices and offerings for forty years in the wilderness, house of Israel?

And you took up the tent of Moloch and the star of the god Rephan, the images that you made to worship them. And I will send you away beyond Babylon.

The tent of the testimony was with our ancestors in the wilderness, just as the one speaking to Moses commanded to make it according to the pattern he had seen,

which our fathers also received, having taken possession with Joshua, when God drove out the nations from before our fathers until the days of David.

who found favor before God and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.

But Solomon built a house for him.

But the Most High does not dwell in handmade things, as the prophet says.

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 is the place of my rest?

Did not my hand make all these things?

Stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did, so do you.

Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the righteous one, of whom you have now become betrayers and murderers,

You who received the law as commands delivered by angels and did not keep it.

Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart and they gnashed their teeth at him.

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,

And he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.

They shouted with a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed together at him,

And having thrown him out of the city, they began to stone him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

And they were stoning Stephen while he was calling out and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.

And kneeling down, he cried out with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them; and having said this, he fell asleep.