The Stoning of Stephen

Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia—who began to argue with Stephen. But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke.

 

Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.”

 

So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin.  They produced false witnesses, who testified, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law.  For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.”

 

All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?”

 

To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran.  ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’

 

“So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living.   He gave him no inheritance here, not even enough ground to set his foot on. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child.  God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated.  But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me in this place.’  Then he gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.

 

“Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt. So Pharaoh made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace.

 

“Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our ancestors could not find food.  When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our forefathers on their first visit.  On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family.  After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all.  Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died.  Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money.

 

“As the time drew near for God to fulfill his promise to Abraham, the number of our people in Egypt had greatly increased.  Then ‘a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.’  He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their newborn babies so that they would die.

 

“At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child.  For three months he was cared for by his family.  When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son.  Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.  “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites.  He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian.  Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.  The next day Moses came upon two Israelites who were fighting. He tried to reconcile them by saying, ‘Men, you are brothers; why do you want to hurt each other?’

 

“But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us?  Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’  When Moses heard this, he fled to Midian, where he settled as a foreigner and had two sons.

 

“After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai.  When he saw this, he was amazed at the sight. As he went over to get a closer look, he heard the Lord say:  ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.’  Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look.

 

“Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.  I have indeed seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to set them free. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’

 

“This is the same Moses they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ He was sent to be their ruler and deliverer by God himself, through the angel who appeared to him in the bush.  He led them out of Egypt and performed wonders and signs in Egypt, at the Red Sea and for forty years in the wilderness.

 

“This is the Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your own people.’  He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us.

 

“But our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.  They told Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who led us out of Egypt—we don’t know what has happened to him!’  That was the time they made an idol in the form of a calf. They brought sacrifices to it and reveled in what their own hands had made.  But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the sun, moon and stars. This agrees with what is written in the book of the prophets:

   

“‘Did you bring me sacrifices and offerings
   forty years in the wilderness, people of Israel? 

 You have taken up the tabernacle of Molek
   and the star of your god Rephan,
   the idols you made to worship.
Therefore I will send you into exile’ beyond Babylon.

 

“Our ancestors had the tabernacle of the covenant law with them in the wilderness. It had been made as God directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen.  After receiving the tabernacle, our ancestors under Joshua brought it with them when they took the land from the nations God drove out before them. It remained in the land until the time of David, who enjoyed God’s favor and asked that he might provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob.  But it was Solomon who built a house for him.

 

“However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:

 

“‘Heaven is my throne,
   and the earth is my footstool.
What kind of house will you build for me?
            says the Lord.
   Or where will my resting place be?
Has not my hand made all these things?’

 

“You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit!  Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him — you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”

When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him.  But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.  “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

 

At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.

While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”  Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.

And Saul approved of their killing him.

-Acts 6:8 - 8:1, NIV Translation



Studying mythology is a daunting task, particularly if we study it with the intent of determining its validity.  Obviously, none of us were there when the ancient stories took place, so how can we know for certain that they happened (or didn't happen)?  We cannot.  What we can do is determine how feasible they are.

My first approach to studying any story is to dismiss whether or not I think it could have occurred.  If we start with an inherent bias, then we are far more likely to cling to that original opinion, regardless of the evidence.  I try to approach every story, no matter how remarkable, with the idea that its accuracy is possible, period.  Apollo and his chariot?  Possible.  David and Goliath?  Possible.  It is only after study that I begin to solidify an opinion.

The next step is to determine any anachronisms or known false information.  This can often be tricky, and we have to always maintain the initial start point of possibility.  In this week's myth, however, we see a few reasonable details that place the story well within its context.  We know that the story is purported to take place in the early part of the first century, somewhere between 30 and 40 A.D.  At that point in time, the Sanhedrin (a ruling class of the Temple sect) were still around, the Temple was still in existence, and stoning was still a form of execution for blaspheming.  While none of these details proves the story, they do support its historicity.

This time was also, according to Roman documents and historians of that time period, the beginning of a great attempt to stamp out the movement of The Way (as it was called).  This attempted destruction began with the leading Jewish authorities at the time, until the movement spread and grew enough to alarm the Roman governments, at which point the Roman military got involved.  Placing this first story within the context of the 30's, then, fits within known history.

The next thing I look at is the work itself.  This story fits into a book commonly called Acts.  The author (assumed to be a physician named Luke) was meticulous in detail, and the book itself has often been used by historians to study first-century history.  Luke goes to great pains to name cities and regions, describe customs of various people groups, and give as much accurate detail as possible.  Most of his book, according to estimates, has been verified as accurate.  None of it has been verified as false.

Condensing this, then, we have a few observations:

1) The book within which this story takes place is deemed accurate by most historians.
2) The people involved in the story (Sanhedrin) are known to have existed.
3) The location of the story (The Temple and Jerusalem) is known to have existed.
4) The very events of the story (Execution of religious criminals by stoning) were commonplace during the time in which this story is supposed to have taken place.

Therefore, as a student of mythology, I can really only come to one conclusion.  While none of these things proves that The Stoning of Stephen took place, what we can reasonably assume is that the story itself probably happened.

Once we begin approaching all of mythology this way, we find the discipline far less frustrating.  We also find ourselves removing literary study from the ethereal realm of symbolism and archetypes, and bringing it down into a realistic and more approachable sphere.