Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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The Seven Helpers
1 Some time later, as the number
of disciples kept growing, there
was a quarrel between the Greek-speaking
Jews and the native Jews.
The Greek-speaking Jews claimed
that their widows were being neglected
in the daily distribution of
funds.
2 So the twelve apostles called
the whole group of believers together
and said, “It is not right for us
to neglect the preaching of God's
word in order to handle finances.
3 So then, brothers, choose seven
men among you who are known to
be full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom,
and we will put them in charge
of this matter.
4 We ourselves, then,
will give our full time to prayer and
the work of preaching.”
5 The whole group was pleased
with the apostles' proposal, so they
chose Stephen, a man full of faith
and the Holy Spirit, and Philip,
Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas,
and Nicolaus, a Gentile from
Antioch who had earlier been converted
to Judaism.
6 The group presented
them to the apostles, who
prayed and placed their hands on
them.
7 And so the word of God continued
to spread. The number of disciples
in Jerusalem grew larger and
larger, and a great number of priests
accepted the faith.
The Arrest of Stephen
8 Stephen, a man richly blessed by
God and full of power, performed
great miracles and wonders among
the people.
9 But he was opposed by
some men who were members of the
synagogue of the Freedmen note (as it
was called), which had Jews from
Cyrene and Alexandria. They and
other Jews from the provinces of
Cilicia and Asia started arguing with
Stephen.
10 But the Spirit gave Stephen
such wisdom that when he
spoke, they could not refute him.
11 So they bribed some men to say,
“We heard him speaking against
Moses and against God!”
12 In this
way they stirred up the people, the
elders, and the teachers of the Law.
They seized Stephen and took him
before the Council.
13 Then they
brought in some men to tell lies
about him. “This man,” they said,
“is always talking against our sacred
Temple and the Law of Moses.
14 We
-- --
heard him say that this Jesus of
Nazareth will tear down the Temple
and change all the customs which
have come down to us from Moses!”
15 All those sitting in the Council
fixed their eyes on Stephen and saw
that his face looked like the face of
an angel.
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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