The above events happen right at the end of the chapter. Most of the passage is made up of Steven in front of the authorities having been falsely accused of blasphemy. What Steven then proceeds to do is to give an account of the history of the Jews from Abraham through to Solomon and on to His present day. Obviously this was paraphrased and incomplete but it does show a very interesting skill that I believe that we should be using more today.
Jesus spent much of his time teaching using stories (parables) to get across spiritual principles. Steven here sums up much of the history of the Jews in story form. Telling stories is a very simple way of getting our point across. Whether it is to illustrate a point, or to recount a Biblical event, telling a story that people can understand can me much more useful to the audience than simply reading from text.
Steven’s knowledge, and of course Jesus’ knowledge of scripture was such that they could accurately and effectively use this medium. I guess that’s the challenge. To know the Bible to a level that I can break it down and re-craft it into story form that while being easy to understand is also honoring of the truth.
DetailsRob Borley
June 23rd, 2005
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