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Acts 7 is the seventh chapter of the Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It records the address of Stephen before the Sanhedrin and his execution outside Jerusalem, and introduces Saul (who later became Paul the Apostle) as 'a young man'. The book containing this chapter is anonymous, but early Christian tradition uniformly affirmed that Luke composed this book as well as the Gospel of Luke.
Contents
Text
The original text is written in Koine Greek and is divided into 60 verses. Some most ancient manuscripts containing this chapter are:
Structure
This chapter can be grouped:
Verse 59
The Pulpit Commentary notes Stephen's words in Acts 7:59 as a 'striking acknowledgment of the divinity of Christ: only he who gave the spirit could receive it back again':
And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”Verse 60
Alexander MacLaren noted that this verse contains 'the only narrative in the New Testament of a Christian martyrdom or death':
Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.