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¹ Then said the high priest, Are these things so? And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken.² The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, being in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran, And said to him,³ Come out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into a land, which I will shew thee.⁴ And coming out of the land of the Chaldeans, he dwelt in Haran. And from thence, after his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.⁵ And he gave him no inheritance in it, no, not to set his foot on; yet he promised to give it him for a possession, even to his seed after him, when he had no child.⁶ And God spake thus: That his seed should sojourn in a strange land, (and they will inslave them and treat them evil) four hundred years.⁷ And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage, will I judge, saith God. And after that, they shall come forth, and serve me in this place.⁸ And he gave him the covenant of circumcision, and so he begat Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day, and Isaac Jacob, and Jacob the twelve patriarchs.⁹ And the patriachs moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt; but God was with him,¹⁰ And delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favour and wisdom in the sight of Pharoah king of Egypt, and he made him governor over Egypt, and all his house.¹¹ Now there came a famine over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers found no sustenance.¹² But Jacob hearing there was corn in Egypt, sent our fathers first.¹³ And the second time, Joseph was made known to his brethren, and Joseph's kindred was discovered to Pharoah.¹⁴ Then Joseph sending, called his father Jacob to him, and all his kindred, seventy-five souls.¹⁵ So Jacob went down into Egypt, and died, he and our fathers,¹⁶ And were carried over to Shechem, and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a sum of money, of Hamor, the father of Shechem.

¹⁷ And when the time of the promise which God had sworn to Abraham drew near, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, Till another king arose, who had not known Joseph.¹⁸ He dealing subtilely with our kindred,¹⁹ evil intreated our fathers, by causing their male infants to be exposed, that they might not live.²⁰ In which time Moses was born, and was exceeding beautiful, who was nursed three months in his father's house.²¹ And when he was exposed, Pharoah's daughter took him up, and brought him up for her own son.²² And Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.²³ But when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren, the children of Israel.²⁴ And seeing one wronged, he defended and avenged him that was oppressed, smiting the Egyptian.²⁵ For he supposed his brethren would have understood, that God would deliver them by his hand; but they understood it not.²⁶ And the next day, he shewed himself to them, as they were quarrelling, and would have persuaded them to peace, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren: why do ye wrong one another?²⁷ But he that wronged his neighbour thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?²⁸ Wilt thou kill me, as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?²⁹ And Moses fled at that saying, and was a sojourner in the land of Midian, where he begat two sons.

³⁰ And forty years being expired, the angel of the Lord appeared to him, in the wilderness, in a flame of fire in a bush.³¹ And Moses seeing it, wondered at the sight. But as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came to him, I am the God of thy fathers,³² the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses trembled, and durst not behold.³³ Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet; for the place where thou standest is holy ground.³⁴ I have surely seen the evil treatment of my people which is in Egypt, and have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come; I will send thee into Egypt.³⁵ This Moses, whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a prince and a judge, the same did God send, to be a ruler and a deliverer, by the hand of the Angel, who appeared to him in the bush.³⁶ He brought them out, doing wonders and signs, in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.³⁷ This is that Moses who said to the children of Israel, The Lord your God will raise you up, out of your brethren, a prophet like me: him shall ye hear.³⁸ This is he that was in the church in the wilderness, with the Angel who spake to him in mount Sinai, and with our fathers; who received the living oracles to give to us:³⁹ Whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back into Egypt,⁴⁰ Saying to Aaron, Make us gods to go before us; for this Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him.⁴¹ And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.

⁴² And God turned and gave them up, to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, Have ye offered victims and sacrifices to me, for forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel?⁴³ Yea, ye took up the shrine of Molock, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.⁴⁴ Our fathers had the tabernacle of the testimony in the wilderness, as he had appointed who spake to Moses, to make it according to the model which he had seen:⁴⁵ Which also our fathers having received, brought in with Joshua into the possession of the Gentiles, whom God drove out from the face of our fathers, till the days of David:⁴⁶ Who found favour with God, and petitioned to find an habitation for the God of Jacob.⁴⁷ But Solomon built him an house.⁴⁸ Yet the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands, as saith the prophet, Heaven is my throne, and earth my footstool.⁴⁹ What house will ye build me, saith the Lord: or What is the place of my rest?⁵⁰ Hath not my hand made all these things? Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye always resist the Holy Ghost:

⁵¹ as your fathers, so do ye.⁵² Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them that shewed before of the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: Who have received the law by the administration of angels,⁵³ and have not kept it.

⁵⁴ And hearing these things, they were cut to the heart, and gnashed their teeth upon him.⁵⁵ But he being full of the Holy Ghost, looking up stedfastly to heaven, saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right-hand of God:⁵⁶ And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right-hand of God.⁵⁷ Then they cried with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed upon him with one accord,⁵⁸ And casting him out of the city, stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man, whose name was Saul.⁵⁹ And they stoned Stephen, invoking and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.⁶⁰ And kneeling down, he cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And having said this, he fell asleep: And Saul was consenting to his death.