person
Stephen
Στέφανος
Stephen, one of the seven deacons chosen by the early church, was full of faith and the Holy Spirit, performed miracles, and became the first Christian martyr after his powerful testimony before the Sanhedrin.
- verses
- 7
- first named
- Acts 6:5
- last named
- Acts 22:20
- period
- the New Testament
- role
- Man
Description
Who was Stephen?
Stephen was one of the seven men chosen by the early church in Jerusalem to serve as deacons, responsible for the daily distribution of food to widows (Act.6.1-6). He is described as being full of faith, wisdom, and the Holy Spirit (Act.6.5, 8).
As Stephen continued to perform wonders and signs among the people, he faced opposition from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen, who disputed with him (Act.6.9). However, they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke (Act.6.10).
Consequently, they brought false charges against Stephen, accusing him of blasphemy against Moses and God (Act.6.11-14). When brought before the Sanhedrin (the Jewish high court), Stephen's face was said to have appeared like the face of an angel (Act.6.15).
In his defense, Stephen delivered a powerful speech recounting Israel's history and their rejection of God's prophets, culminating in their rejection of Jesus as the Righteous One (Act.7.1-53). He accused his hearers of resisting the Holy Spirit and persecuting the prophets, just as their fathers had done (Act.7.51-52).
Enraged by his words, the members of the Sanhedrin gnashed their teeth at Stephen, but he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God (Act.7.54-55). When he declared this vision, they dragged him out of the city and stoned him to death, with a young man named Saul (later known as Paul) guarding the garments of those who carried out the execution (Act.7.56-60).
As he was being stoned, Stephen called out to the Lord Jesus to receive his spirit and, echoing Jesus' words on the cross, asked God not to hold this sin against his persecutors (Act.7.59-60). Devout men buried Stephen and lamented deeply over him (Act.8.2).
Stephen's martyrdom marked a significant turning point in the early church, as it sparked a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem, leading to the dispersion of believers throughout Judea and Samaria (Act.8.1, 11:19). This dispersion ultimately led to the spread of the gospel beyond Jerusalem, fulfilling Jesus' command to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth (Act.1.8).
Relations
Direct connections
Every entity the graph places in a stated relation with this one, grouped by the kind of link. Each relation is authored once and its inverse derived, so both ends always agree. Rows marked “registry” come from the identity spine rather than from a verse, and a row marked “which bearer is the source’s decision” is one where the name could have meant more than one person. The last group is not a relation at all — it counts the events two entities stand in together.
The 10 best-attested of 15 are drawn. All 15 are listed below.
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Where this happens
A person is placed by the events they take part in, and an event has to clear three things to place them: it must say where it happened, that place must be one the gazetteer can put a coordinate on, and the verse must report it rather than foretell, command or ask it. Nothing anchored here clears all three. Where the text names a setting no gazetteer surveys — a vineyard, a palace, a plot of ground — it is left off rather than guessed at; where a place is named only in a prophecy, the map does not draw what was said to be coming as though it had happened; and a place reached only through a relation is not inherited, because standing beside somebody is not being somewhere.
No verse Atlas has read as a report puts this person anywhere.
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Where to read it
Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — 7, across 1 book.
Onward
Where this page goes
Not the direct relations above — these are one hop further out, ranked so that a rare shared connection outweighs a common one. Descriptions by STEPBible TIPNR.
Where they appear
Chapter by chapter
Atlas's reading of each chapter this person appears in, in canonical order. One line per chapter, and each leads to the whole of it.
- Acts 6Stephen was chosen among the seven, then performed great wonders and signs, disputed with his opponents, and stood before the Sanhedrin with a face like the face of an angel.
- Acts 7Stephen answered the high priest, rebuked the Sanhedrin, saw heaven open, and prayed while they stoned him.
- Acts 8Stephen is buried by God-fearing men, while deep mourning follows his death.
- Acts 22Stephen is remembered as the witness whose blood was shed while Paul approved and watched over the garments of his killers.
Sources