Stephen's Last Words

It important to be reminded that these religious leaders were well-schooled in the Hebrew Scriptures (our Old Testament). This historical overview is the same thing that we would teach to our children! Many of the men on this “council” would have had Genesis and Exodus memorized. So why then would Stephen preach it? Upon further review, it is clear that he was setting them up for the big clincher at the end…he used the phrase “our fathers” ten times to show them that he had the same heritage. This enabled them to track with him and listen to him until the end when he turned toward their crimes against God and accused them of betraying and murdering their Messiah and ultimately breaking the Law they prided themselves on keeping – they had established their own righteousness (Rom 10:3)!