King James Version · Under Rome
Acts 7
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Then said the , Are these things so? And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, ; The of appeared unto , when he was in , before he dwelt in Charran, And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee. Then came he out of the land of the , and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his was , he removed him into this land, wherein ye now . And he gave him none in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on: yet he promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to after him, when as yet he had no child. And spake on this , That should sojourn in a strange land; and that they should bring them into bondage, and entreat them evil four hundred years. And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge, said : and after that shall they come forth, and me in this place. And he gave him of : and so begat , and him the eighth day; and begat ; and begat the twelve patriarchs. And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold into : but was with him, And him out of all his afflictions, and gave him and in the sight of king of ; and he made him governor over and all his house. Now there came a dearth over all the land of and , and great affliction: and our fathers found no sustenance. But when heard that there was corn in , he sent out our fathers first. And at the second time was to his brethren; and ’s kindred was unto . Then sent , and called his to him, and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen . So went down into , and , he, and our fathers, And were carried over into Sychem, and laid in the that bought for a sum of money of the sons of Emmor of Sychem. But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which had to , the people grew and multiplied in , Till another king arose, which knew not . The same dealt subtilly with our kindred, and evil entreated our fathers, so that they cast out their young children, to the end they might not live. In which time was born, and was exceeding fair, and nourished up in his ’s house three months: And when he was cast out, ’s daughter took him up, and nourished him for her own son. And was learned in all the of the , and was mighty in words and in deeds. And when he was full forty years old, it came into to visit his brethren the . And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and him that was oppressed, and smote the : For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that by his hand would them: but they understood not. And the next day he shewed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another? But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us? 28Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the yesterday? Then fled at this saying, and was a in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons. And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in of mount Sina of in a in a bush. When saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, came unto him, Saying, I am the of thy fathers, the of , and the of , and the of . Then trembled, and durst not behold. Then said to him, Put off thy from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is ground. I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in , and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to them. And now come, I will send thee into . This whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of which appeared to him in the bush. He brought them out, after that he had shewed wonders and signs in the land of , and in , and in forty years. This is that , which said unto the , A shall your raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear. This is he, that was in in with which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us: To whom our fathers would not , but thrust him from them, and in their turned back again into , Saying unto , Make us gods to go before us: for as for this , which brought us out of the land of , we wot not what is become of him. And they made a calf in those days, and offered unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Then turned, and gave them up to ; as in the book of , O ye , have ye offered to me slain and by the space of forty years in ? Yea, ye took up the of , and the star of your Remphan, figures which ye made to them: and I will carry you away beyond . Our fathers had the of in , as he had appointed, speaking unto , that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen. Which also our fathers that came after brought in with into the possession of the , whom drave out before the of our fathers, unto the days of ; Who found before , and to find a for the of . But built him an house. Howbeit dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the , is my , and earth is : what house will ye build me? saith : or what is the place of ? Hath not my hand made all these things? Ye and in and ears, ye do always resist the Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and : Who have received by the disposition of , and have not kept it. When they heard these things, they were cut to , and they gnashed on him with their teeth. But he, being full of the Ghost, looked up stedfastly into , and saw the of , and standing on of , And said, Behold, I see opened, and standing on of . Then they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was . And they stoned , calling upon , and saying, , receive . And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, , lay not this to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · Under Rome, 63 BC to AD 100 ›
Judea as a client kingdom and then a province. Roads, garrisons, taxes, crucifixion, and a common Greek language that let a message travel the empire faster than any before it.
- Rome
- The republic tears itself apart in civil war and comes out as an empire under Augustus. What follows is two centuries of relative peace across the whole Mediterranean, enforced by legions and paid for by taxes, with safe roads and safe sea lanes. Every one of Paul's journeys depends on that.
- Judea
- Governed first through Herod the Great, a client king of enormous ability and enormous brutality who rebuilds the temple into one of the wonders of the ancient world, then directly by Roman prefects. Crucifixion is the standard penalty for sedition and is used often and publicly.
- The wider world
- Greek is spoken from Spain to Syria, which means a letter written in Corinth can be read in Rome without translation. Jewish communities already exist in most major cities, which is where the first Christian preaching lands. Mystery religions, imperial cult, and philosophy all compete in the same marketplace.
- Further afield
- The Han dynasty rules China and trades silk westward along routes that touch the Roman world at second hand. In Britain the Roman conquest begins within a decade of the crucifixion.