1And the high priest said, Are these things so? 2And he said, Brothers and fathers, listen: The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3and said to him, Go out from your land, and from your kindred, and come into the land which I shall show you. 4Then he came out of the land of the Chaldæans, and lived in Haran: and from there, when his father was dead, God moved him into this land, in which you now dwell: 5and he gave him no inheritance in it, no, not even enough to set his foot on: and he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child. 6And God spoke in this way, that his seed should sojourn in a foreign land, and that they should bring them into bondage, and mistreat them, four hundred years. 7And the nation to which they shall be in bondage I will judge, said God: and after that they shall come out, and serve me in this place. 8And he gave him the covenant of circumcision: and so Abraham fathered Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day; and Isaac fathered Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs. 9And the patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt: and God was with him, 10and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house. 11Now there came a famine over all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction: and our fathers found no food. 12But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers the first time. 13And on the second visit Joseph was made known to his brothers; and Joseph’s family became known to Pharaoh. 14And Joseph sent, and called to him Jacob his father, and all his kindred, seventy-five souls. 15And Jacob went down into Egypt; and he died, himself and our fathers; 16and they were carried over to Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver of the sons of Hamor in Shechem. 17But as the time of the promise drew near which God had granted to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, 18until there arose another king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 19He dealt craftily with our race, and mistreated our fathers, that they should cast out their babies so that they might not live. 20At this time Moses was born, and was exceedingly beautiful; and he was nourished three months in his father’s house: 21and when he was cast out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and nourished him as her own son. 22And Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians; and he was mighty in his words and works. 23But when he was nearly forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brothers the children of Israel. 24And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him who was oppressed, striking the Egyptian: 25and he supposed that his brothers understood that God by his hand was giving them deliverance; but they did not understand. 26And the following day he appeared to them as they fought, and would have reconciled them again, saying, Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong one another? 27But he who did his neighbor wrong pushed him away, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? 28Would you kill me, as you killed the Egyptian yesterday? 29And Moses fled at this saying, and became a sojourner in the land of Midian, where he fathered two sons. 30And when forty years were fulfilled, an angel appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sinai, in a flame of fire in a bush. 31And when Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to look, there came a voice of the Lord, 32I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob. And Moses trembled, and did not dare to look. 33And the Lord said to him, Take the shoes off your feet: for the place on which you stand is holy ground. 34I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and I have come down to deliver them: and now come, I will send you into Egypt. 35This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made you a ruler and a judge? him has God sent to be both a ruler and a deliverer with the hand of the angel that appeared to him in the bush. 36This man led them out, having done wonders and signs in Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years. 37This is that Moses, who said to the children of Israel, A prophet shall God raise up to you from among your brothers, like me. 38This is he 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 oracles to give to us: 39to whom our fathers would not be obedient, but pushed him away from them, and turned back in their hearts to Egypt, 40saying to Aaron, Make us gods who shall go before us: for as for this Moses, who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. 41And they made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands. 42But God turned, and gave them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, Did you offer to me slain beasts and sacrifices Forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 43And you took up the tabernacle of Moloch, And the star of the god Rephan, The figures which you made to bow down to them: And I will carry you away beyond Babylon. 44Our fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, even as he who spoke to Moses appointed, that he should make it according to the pattern that he had seen. 45Which also our fathers, in their turn, brought in with Joshua when they took possession of the nations, whom God drove out before the face of our fathers, until the days of David; 46who found favor in the sight of God, and asked to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47But Solomon built him a house. 48However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made with hands; as the prophet says, 49The heaven is my throne, And the earth the footstool of my feet: What manner of house will you build me? says Yehovah: Or what is the place of my rest? 50Did not my hand make all these things? 51You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit: as your fathers did, so do you. 52Which 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; 53you who received the Torah as it was ordained by angels, and did not keep it. 54Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed their teeth at him. 55But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Yeshua standing at the right hand of God, 56and said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God. 57But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed upon him with one accord; 58and they cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59And they stoned Stephen, calling upon the Lord, and saying, Lord Yeshua, receive my spirit. 60And he knelt down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.