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According to Acts of the Apostles, Stephen was arrested for preaching to the Jews, but made no attempt to defend himself or even talk about his Christian faith as later martyrs are said to have done. He merely began an elementary lecture on Jewish history, culminating in the insulting passage in verses 7:51-53. Here, Stephen, apparently a Jew himself, called Jews stiffnecked or obstinate, and compared their alleged lack of faith in the Holy Spirit to being uncircumcised. He told them that the early Hebrews had persecuted the prophets, and that his judges are betrayers and murderers who do not keep the law.

This was a speech so totally irrelevant to Stephen's predicament and so intentionally inflammatory that it could only have been written by Luke himself to set the scene for what was about to occur. While Stephen was thus lecturing the Jews in his own defence, he looked up and saw the heavens open and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. Stephen told the Jews what he alone could see, at which they cast him out of the city and stoned him as a blasphemer.

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Q: What is the meaning of Acts chapter 7 verses 51-53?
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