The proposal pleased the entire group, so they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a Gentile convert to Judaism from Antioch.

大众都喜悦这话，就拣选了司提反，乃是大有信心、圣灵充满的人，又拣选腓利、伯罗哥罗、尼迦挪、提门、巴米拿，并进犹太教的安提阿人尼哥拉，

这话使全会众都喜悦，就拣选了司提反—他是一个满有信心和圣灵的人；他们又拣选了腓利、伯罗哥罗、尼迦挪、提门、巴米拿，并皈依犹太教的安提阿人尼哥拉，

这话使全会众都喜悦，就拣选了司提反—他是一个满有信心和圣灵的人；他们又拣选了腓利、伯罗哥罗、尼迦挪、提门、巴米拿，并皈依犹太教的安提阿人尼哥拉，

大家一致同意，便选出充满信心、被圣灵充满的司提凡，此外还有腓利、伯罗哥罗、尼迦挪、提门、巴米拿，以及曾信过犹太教、来自安提阿的外族人尼哥拉。

这个意见全会众都很满意，于是选出司提反，他是一位满有信心和圣灵的人，还有腓利、伯罗哥罗、尼加挪、提门、巴米拿，以及归信犹太教的安提阿人尼哥拉，

这话使全体会众都喜悦，于是选出了司提反——他是一个充满信仰和圣灵的人，还有腓利、普罗克罗、尼卡诺、提门、帕米纳，以及入犹太教的安提阿人尼古拉斯。

大眾都喜悅這話，就揀選了司提反，乃是大有信心、聖靈充滿的人，又揀選腓利、伯羅哥羅、尼迦挪、提門、巴米拿，並進猶太教的安提阿人尼哥拉，

這話使全會眾都喜悅，就揀選了司提反－他是一個滿有信心和聖靈的人；他們又揀選了腓利、伯羅哥羅、尼迦挪、提門、巴米拿，並皈依猶太教的安提阿人尼哥拉，

這話使全會眾都喜悅，就揀選了司提反－他是一個滿有信心和聖靈的人；他們又揀選了腓利、伯羅哥羅、尼迦挪、提門、巴米拿，並皈依猶太教的安提阿人尼哥拉，

大家一致同意，便選出充滿信心、被聖靈充滿的司提凡，此外還有腓利、伯羅哥羅、尼迦挪、提門、巴米拿，以及曾信過猶太教、來自安提阿的外族人尼哥拉。

這個意見全會眾都很滿意，於是選出司提反，他是一位滿有信心和聖靈的人，還有腓利、伯羅哥羅、尼加挪、提門、巴米拿，以及歸信猶太教的安提阿人尼哥拉，

這話使全羣的眾人都滿意，他們就揀選一個充滿着信心和聖靈的人司提反、以及腓利、伯羅哥羅、尼迦挪、提門、巴米拿，和歸依猶太教的安提阿人尼哥拉；

這話使全體會眾都喜悅，於是選出了司提反——他是一個充滿信仰和聖靈的人，還有腓利、普羅克羅、尼卡諾、提門、帕米納，以及入猶太教的安提阿人尼古拉斯。

眾悅其言、遂選司提反、乃充信與聖神者、及腓利、伯羅哥羅、尼迦挪、提門、巴米拿、並進教之安提阿人尼哥拉、

眾然其言、遂選士提反、其為人也篤信、感於聖神者也、又選腓力、伯羅哥羅、尼迦挪、提門、巴米拿、安提阿進教之尼哥拉、

眾悅其言、遂擇司提反、其為人也、篤信而充滿聖神者、又擇腓立、伯羅哥羅、尼加挪、提門、巴米拿、安提約人進猶太教之尼哥拉、

眾韙其言、遂選信德篤實、聖神充溢之司諦文、以及斐理伯、伯羅哥羅、尼迦挪、提門巴米拿與安提阿之歸化者尼各老、

This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.

This plan pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen. He was full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon and Parmenas were chosen too. The group also chose Nicolas from Antioch. He had accepted the Jewish faith.

And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch.

Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen( a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch( an earlier convert to the Jewish faith).

This proposal pleased the whole company. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a convert from Antioch.

The announcement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch.

And the saying pleased the whole multitude. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch,

And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus a proselyte of Antioch;

The proposal pleased the whole company. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte from Antioch.

And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch:

These words pleased the whole multitude. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch;

because he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith, and a significant number of people were brought to the Lord.

Now Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.

On the next day we left and came to Caesarea, and entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him.

But carefully select from among you, brothers, seven men who are well- attested, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this necessary task.

Philip went down to the main city of Samaria and began proclaiming the Christ to them.The crowds were paying attention with one mind to what Philip said, as they heard and saw the miraculous signs he was performing.For unclean spirits, crying with loud shrieks, were coming out of many who were possessed, and many paralyzed and lame people were healed.So there was great joy in that city.Now in that city was a man named Simon, who had been practicing magic and amazing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great.All the people, from the least to the greatest, paid close attention to him, saying,“ This man is the power of God that is called‘ Great.’”And they paid close attention to him because he had amazed them for a long time with his magic.But when they believed Philip as he was proclaiming the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they began to be baptized, both men and women.Even Simon himself believed, and after he was baptized, he stayed close to Philip constantly, and when he saw the signs and great miracles that were occurring, he was amazed.Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them.These two went down and prayed for them so that they would receive the Holy Spirit.( For the Spirit had not yet come upon any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.)Then Peter and John placed their hands on the Samaritans, and they received the Holy Spirit.Now Simon, when he saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, offered them money,saying,“ Give me this power too, so that everyone I place my hands on may receive the Holy Spirit.”But Peter said to him,“ May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could acquire God’s gift with money!You have no share or part in this matter because your heart is not right before God!Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that he may perhaps forgive you for the intent of your heart.For I see that you are bitterly envious and in bondage to sin.”But Simon replied,“ You pray to the Lord for me so that nothing of what you have said may happen to me.”So after Peter and John had solemnly testified and spoken the word of the Lord, they started back to Jerusalem, proclaiming the good news to many Samaritan villages as they went.Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip,“ Get up and go south on the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.”( This is a desert road.)So he got up and went. There he met an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasury. He had come to Jerusalem to worship,and was returning home, sitting in his chariot, reading the prophet Isaiah.Then the Spirit said to Philip,“ Go over and join this chariot.”So Philip ran up to it and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. He asked him,“ Do you understand what you’re reading?”The man replied,“ How in the world can I, unless someone guides me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.Now the passage of scripture the man was reading was this:“ He was led like a sheep to slaughter, and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he did not open his mouth.In humiliation justice was taken from him. Who can describe his posterity? For his life was taken away from the earth.”Then the eunuch said to Philip,“ Please tell me, who is the prophet saying this about– himself or someone else?”So Philip started speaking, and beginning with this scripture proclaimed the good news about Jesus to him.Now as they were going along the road, they came to some water, and the eunuch said,“ Look, there is water! What is to stop me from being baptized?”

Yet they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit with which he spoke.

Then the high priest said,“ Are these things true?”So he replied,“ Brothers and fathers, listen to me. The God of glory appeared to our forefather Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Haran,and said to him,‘ Go out from your country and from your relatives, and come to the land I will show you.’Then he went out from the country of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God made him move to this country where you now live.He did not give any of it to him for an inheritance, not even a foot of ground, yet God promised to give it to him as his possession, and to his descendants after him, even though Abraham as yet had no child.But God spoke as follows:‘ Your descendants will be foreigners in a foreign country, whose citizens will enslave them and mistreat them for four hundred years.But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ said God,‘ and after these things they will come out of there and worship me in this place.’Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and so he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him when he was eight days old, and Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs.The patriarchs, because they were jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt. But God was with him,and rescued him from all his troubles, and granted him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.Then a famine occurred throughout Egypt and Canaan, causing great suffering, and our ancestors could not find food.So when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our ancestors there the first time.On their second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers again, and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh.So Joseph sent a message and invited his father Jacob and all his relatives to come, seventy- five people in all.So Jacob went down to Egypt and died there, along with our ancestors,and their bones were later moved to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a certain sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.“ But as the time drew near for God to fulfill the promise he had declared to Abraham, the people increased greatly in number in Egypt,until another king who did not know about Joseph ruled over Egypt.This was the one who exploited our people and was cruel to our ancestors, forcing them to abandon their infants so they would die.At that time Moses was born, and he was beautiful to God. For three months he was brought up in his father’s house,and when he had been abandoned, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son.So Moses was trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds.But when he was about forty years old, it entered his mind to visit his fellow countrymen the Israelites.When he saw one of them being hurt unfairly, Moses came to his defense and avenged the person who was mistreated by striking down the Egyptian.He thought his own people would understand that God was delivering them through him, but they did not understand.The next day Moses saw two men fighting, and tried to make peace between them, saying,‘ Men, you are brothers; why are you hurting one another?’But the man who was unfairly hurting his neighbor pushed Moses aside, saying,‘ Who made you a ruler and judge over us?You don’t want to kill me the way you killed the Egyptian yesterday, do you?’When the man said this, Moses fled and became a foreigner in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.“ After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to him in the desert of Mount Sinai, in the flame of a burning bush.When Moses saw it, he was amazed at the sight, and when he approached to investigate, there came the voice of the Lord,‘ I am the God of your forefathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses began to tremble and did not dare to look more closely.But the Lord said to him,‘ Take the sandals off your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.I have certainly seen the suffering of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to rescue them. Now come, I will send you to Egypt.’This same Moses they had rejected, saying,‘ Who made you a ruler and judge?’ God sent as both ruler and deliverer through the hand of the angel who appeared to him in the bush.This man led them out, performing wonders and miraculous signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and in the wilderness for forty years.This is the Moses who said to the Israelites,‘ God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.’This is the man who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him at Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors, and he received living oracles to give to you.Our ancestors were unwilling to obey him, but pushed him aside and turned back to Egypt in their hearts,saying to Aaron,‘ Make us gods who will go in front of us, for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt– we do not know what has happened to him!’At that time they made an idol in the form of a calf, brought a sacrifice to the idol, and began rejoicing in the works of their hands.But God turned away from them and gave them over to worship the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets:‘ It was not to me that you offered slain animals and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, was it, house of Israel?But you took along the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of the god Rephan, the images you made to worship, but I will deport you beyond Babylon.’Our ancestors had the tabernacle of testimony in the wilderness, just as God who spoke to Moses ordered him to make it according to the design he had seen.Our ancestors received possession of it and brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations that God drove out before our ancestors, until the time of David.He found favor with God and asked that he could find a dwelling place for the house of Jacob.But Solomon built a house for him.Yet the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands, as the prophet says,‘ Heaven is my throne, and earth is the footstool for my feet. What kind of house will you build for me, says the Lord, or what is my resting place?Did my hand not make all these things?’“ You stubborn people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit, like your ancestors did!Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold long ago the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become!You received the law by decrees given by angels, but you did not obey it.”When they heard these things, they became furious and ground their teeth at him.But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently toward heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.“ Look!” he said.“ I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”But they covered their ears, shouting out with a loud voice, and rushed at him with one intent.When they had driven him out of the city, they began to stone him, and the witnesses laid their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.They continued to stone Stephen while he prayed,“ Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”Then he fell to his knees and cried out with a loud voice,“ Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” When he had said this, he died.And Saul agreed completely with killing him. Now on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were forced to scatter throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria.Some devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him.

Now there were these prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius the Cyrenian, Manaen( a close friend of Herod the tetrarch from childhood) and Saul.

Now those who had been scattered because of the persecution that took place over Stephen went as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus, and Antioch, speaking the message to no one but Jews.

Like apples of gold in settings of silver, so is a word skillfully spoken.Like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover to the ear of the one who listens.

A gentle response turns away anger, but a harsh word stirs up wrath.

A person has joy in giving an appropriate answer, and a word at the right time– how good it is!

This advice made sense to Pharaoh and all his officials.

“ Woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You cross land and sea to make one convert, and when you get one, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves!

Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to send men chosen from among them, Judas called Barsabbas and Silas, leaders among the brothers, to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas.

In the same way, there are also some among you who follow the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

But you do have this going for you: You hate what the Nicolaitans practice– practices I also hate.

But I am full of the courage that the LORD’s Spirit gives, and have a strong commitment to justice. This enables me to confront Jacob with its rebellion, and Israel with its sin.