Lectionary Calendar
Wednesday, August 6th, 2025
the Week of Proper 13 / Ordinary 18
Attention!
Tired of seeing ads while studying? Now you can enjoy an "Ads Free" version of the site for as little as 10¢ a day and support a great cause!
Click here to learn more!

Read the Bible

THE MESSAGE

Acts 6:8

Stephen, brimming with God's grace and energy, was doing wonderful things among the people, unmistakable signs that God was among them. But then some men from the meeting place whose membership was made up of freed slaves, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and some others from Cilicia and Asia, went up against him trying to argue him down. But they were no match for his wisdom and spirit when he spoke.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Jerusalem;   Miracles;   Power;   Stephen;   Thompson Chain Reference - Holy Spirit;   Miracles;   Power;   Stephen;   Weakness-Power;   Wonders;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Miracles;   Miracles Wrought through Servants of God;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Miracle;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Deacon;   Holy spirit;   Stephen;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Miracle;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Deacon;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Miracle;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Helps;   Nicanor;   Timothy, the First Epistle to;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Grace;   Miracles, Signs, Wonders;   Poor, Orphan, Widow;   Power;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Church Government;   Deacon;   Mark, Gospel According to;   Miracles;   Nicolas;   Stephen;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Acts of the Apostles (2);   Boyhood of Jesus;   Miracles;   Missions;   Paul;   Stephen;   Wonders;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Stephen;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Miracle;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Ste'phen,;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Deacon;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Church Government;   Deacon;   Grace;   Ministry;   Miracle;   Papyrus;   Stephen;   Text and Manuscripts of the New Testament;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Now Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.
King James Version (1611)
And Steuen full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.
King James Version
And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.
English Standard Version
And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people.
New American Standard Bible
And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.
New Century Version
Stephen was richly blessed by God who gave him the power to do great miracles and signs among the people.
Amplified Bible
Now Stephen, full of grace (divine blessing, favor) and power, was doing great wonders and signs (attesting miracles) among the people.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
And Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.
Legacy Standard Bible
And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people.
Berean Standard Bible
Now Stephen, who was full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.
Contemporary English Version
God gave Stephen the power to work great miracles and wonders among the people.
Complete Jewish Bible
Now Stephen, full of grace and power, performed great miracles and signs among the people.
Darby Translation
And Stephen, full of grace and power, wrought wonders and great signs among the people.
Easy-to-Read Version
Stephen received a great blessing. God gave him power to do great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Now Steuen full of faith & power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.
George Lamsa Translation
Now Stephen was full of grace and power and did great wonders and miracles among the people.
Good News Translation
Stephen, a man richly blessed by God and full of power, performed great miracles and wonders among the people.
Lexham English Bible
Now Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.
Literal Translation
And Stephen, full of faith and power, was doing wonders and great signs among the people.
American Standard Version
And Stephen, full of grace and power, wrought great wonders and signs among the people.
Bible in Basic English
And Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.
Hebrew Names Version
Stephen, full of faith and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people.
International Standard Version
Now Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people.
Etheridge Translation
But Estephanos was filled with grace and power, and wrought signs and miracles among the people.
Murdock Translation
And Stephen was full of grace and energy; and he wrought signs and prodigies among the people.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And Steuen full of fayth & power, dyd great wonders & miracles among the people.
English Revised Version
And Stephen, full of grace and power, wrought great wonders and signs among the people.
World English Bible
Stephen, full of faith and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people.
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.
Weymouth's New Testament
And Stephen, full of grace and power, performed great marvels and signs among the people.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And Steuen, ful of grace and of strengthe, made wondris and grete signes in the puple.
Update Bible Version
And Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.
Webster's Bible Translation
And Stephen, full of faith and power, performed great wonders and miracles among the people.
New English Translation
Now Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.
New King James Version
And Stephen, full of faith [fn] and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.
New Living Translation
Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people.
New Life Bible
Stephen was a man full of faith and power. He did many great things among the people.
New Revised Standard
Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Now, Stephen, full of favour and power, began to do great wonders and signs among the people.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And Stephen, full of grace and fortitude, did great wonders and signs among the people.
Revised Standard Version
And Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
And Steven full of faythe and power dyd great wondres and myracles amoge ye people.
Young's Literal Translation
And Stephen, full of faith and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people,
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Steuen full of faith and power, dyd wonders and greate tokens amonge the people.
Mace New Testament (1729)
Now Stephen full of grace and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.
Simplified Cowboy Version
Steve, a cowboy full of the grace of God and full of God's power, did amazing miracles for the people.

Contextual Overview

8Stephen, brimming with God's grace and energy, was doing wonderful things among the people, unmistakable signs that God was among them. But then some men from the meeting place whose membership was made up of freed slaves, Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and some others from Cilicia and Asia, went up against him trying to argue him down. But they were no match for his wisdom and spirit when he spoke. 11 So in secret they bribed men to lie: "We heard him cursing Moses and God." 12That stirred up the people, the religious leaders, and religion scholars. They grabbed Stephen and took him before the High Council. They put forward their bribed witnesses to testify: "This man talks nonstop against this Holy Place and God's Law. We even heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth would tear this place down and throw out all the customs Moses gave us." 15 As all those who sat on the High Council looked at Stephen, they found they couldn't take their eyes off him—his face was like the face of an angel!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

full: Acts 6:3, Acts 6:5, Acts 6:10, Acts 6:15, Acts 7:55, Ephesians 4:11, 1 Timothy 3:13

did: Acts 2:17, Acts 2:18, Acts 4:29, Acts 4:30, Acts 8:6

Reciprocal: Acts 1:8 - ye shall Acts 2:4 - filled Acts 11:24 - full 2 Timothy 1:7 - but

Cross-References

Genesis 6:17
"I'm going to bring a flood on the Earth that will destroy everything alive under Heaven. Total destruction.
Psalms 145:20
God sticks by all who love him, but it's all over for those who don't.
Proverbs 12:2
A good person basks in the delight of God , and he wants nothing to do with devious schemers.
Jeremiah 31:2
This is the way God put it: "They found grace out in the desert, these people who survived the killing. Israel, out looking for a place to rest, met God out looking for them!" God told them, "I've never quit loving you and never will. Expect love, love, and more love! And so now I'll start over with you and build you up again, dear virgin Israel. You'll resume your singing, grabbing tambourines and joining the dance. You'll go back to your old work of planting vineyards on the Samaritan hillsides, And sit back and enjoy the fruit— oh, how you'll enjoy those harvests! The time's coming when watchmen will call out from the hilltops of Ephraim: ‘On your feet! Let's go to Zion, go to meet our God !'"
Romans 4:4
If you're a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don't call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it's something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift.
Romans 11:6
The Loyal Minority Does this mean, then, that God is so fed up with Israel that he'll have nothing more to do with them? Hardly. Remember that I, the one writing these things, am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham out of the tribe of Benjamin. You can't get much more Semitic than that! So we're not talking about repudiation. God has been too long involved with Israel, has too much invested, to simply wash his hands of them. Do you remember that time Elijah was agonizing over this same Israel and cried out in prayer? God, they murdered your prophets, They trashed your altars; I'm the only one left and now they're after me! And do you remember God's answer? I still have seven thousand who haven't quit, Seven thousand who are loyal to the finish. It's the same today. There's a fiercely loyal minority still—not many, perhaps, but probably more than you think. They're holding on, not because of what they think they're going to get out of it, but because they're convinced of God's grace and purpose in choosing them. If they were only thinking of their own immediate self-interest, they would have left long ago.
1 Corinthians 15:10
But because God was so gracious, so very generous, here I am. And I'm not about to let his grace go to waste. Haven't I worked hard trying to do more than any of the others? Even then, my work didn't amount to all that much. It was God giving me the work to do, God giving me the energy to do it. So whether you heard it from me or from those others, it's all the same: We spoke God's truth and you entrusted your lives.
Titus 2:11
God's readiness to give and forgive is now public. Salvation's available for everyone! We're being shown how to turn our backs on a godless, indulgent life, and how to take on a God-filled, God-honoring life. This new life is starting right now, and is whetting our appetites for the glorious day when our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, appears. He offered himself as a sacrifice to free us from a dark, rebellious life into this good, pure life, making us a people he can be proud of, energetic in goodness.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Stephen, full of faith and power,.... The historian proceeds to give a narrative of Stephen particularly, the first of the seven deacons; of his faith and miracles, of his elocution and wisdom, of his courage and intrepidity, of his constancy, and of his suffering martyrdom. He is said to be full of faith, as before, Acts 6:5 the Alexandrian copy, and four of Beza's copies read, "full of grace"; and so do the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions; the Ethiopic version reads, "full of the grace of God": he had an uncommon share of it; it was exceeding abundant in him; he had a sufficiency of it for the service and sufferings he was called to: and he was full of power to preach the Gospel, and teach it the people, which he did with authority; to defend it, and oppose the adversaries of it; to bear reproach and indignities for it, and even death itself; and to do miraculous works for the confirmation of it, as follows:

did great wonders and miracles among the people; openly before them, such as speaking with divers tongues, healing diseases, casting out devils, &c.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And Stephen - The remarkable death of this first Christian martyr, which soon occurred, gave occasion to the sacred writer to give a detailed account of his character, and of the causes which led to his death. Hitherto the opposition of the Jews had been confined to threats and imprisonment; but it was now to burst forth with furious rage and madness, that could be satisfied only with blood. This was the first in a series of persecutions against Christians which filled the church with blood, and which closed the lives of thousands, perhaps a million, in the great work of establishing the gospel on the earth.

Full of faith - Full of “confidence” in God, or trusting entirely to his promises. See the notes on Mark 16:16.

And power - The power which was evinced in working miracles.

Wonders - This is one of the words commonly used in the New Testament to denote miracles.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Acts 6:8. Stephen, full of faith and power — Instead of πιστεως, faith, χαριτος, grace, is the reading of ABD, several others, the Syriac of Erpen, the Coptic, Armenian, Vulgate, and some of the fathers. This reading Griesbach has admitted into the text. Some MSS. join both readings. Stephen was full of faith-gave unlimited credence to the promises of his Lord; he was full of grace-receiving the fulfilment of those promises, he enjoyed much of the unction of the Divine Spirit, and much of the favour of his God; and, in consequence, he was full of power, δυναμεως, of the Divine energy by which he was enabled to work great wonders and miracles among the people.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile