51 You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do you also. 52 Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them who foretold of the coming of the Just One; of whom you have been now the betrayers and murderers: 53 Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it. 54 Now hearing these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed with their teeth at him. 55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looking up steadfastly to heaven, saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. And he said: Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.
56 And they crying out with a loud voice, stopped their ears, and with one accord ran violently upon him. 57 And casting him forth without the city, they stoned him; and the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man, whose name was Saul. 58 And they stoned Stephen, invoking, and saying: Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. 59 And falling on his knees, he cried with a loud voice, saying: Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep in the Lord. And Saul was consenting to his death.
Acts of the Apostles 7: 51-59
The first of the glorious line of martyrs who have lain down their lives for Christ.
It is criminal how much gets trimmed out of this daily reading for St Stephen.
Understandably, Stephen’s very concise but well spoken history of the Jewish people is left out. However, inexplicably excised is Stephen’s observation of the Jews’ tendency to reject and slaughter their prophets. This omission makes it (intentionally?) unclear why the tribunal is already so angry, even before Stephen proclaims the vision of Jesus he sees in their presence.
As a lover of books, I have always hated abridged versions. It always inserts another cook in the kitchen.
I agree with the Bruised Optimist.
I posted this elsewhere on social media; it is equally incorrect politically.
Today is the Feast of Saint Stephen, the Proto-Martyr. The OT reading for Morning Prayer is the account of the stoning of Zechariah, son of the priest Jehoiada, by King Joash in 2nd Chronicles 24:15-22. When Zechariah’s father, Jehoiada, had died, Joash forsook the commandments of the Lord, abandoned worship in the Temple (which ironically Joash had previously repaired), and began serving false idols. Zechariah preached against that. Therefore, King Joash did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zechariah’s father, had shown him, but killed his son.
Verses 23 through 27 (see parallel in 2nd Kings 12:19-21) give the account of the death of Joash. Joash had been wounded in battle with Syria (Aram) and was lying injured on his bed. Conspirators came and killed him because of what he had done to Zechariah. Those who conspired against him were Zabad son of Shimeath the Ammonite, and Jehozabad son of Shimrith the Moabite. Note that a descendant of Ammon and a descendant of Moab are named among those who put an end to Joash. Ammon and Moab were the sons of Lot (nephew of Abraham) via an incestuous relationship with his two daughters after the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Historically, their descendants became enemies of the Israelites. Yet two among their descendants fulfilled Zechariah’s cry as he was being stoned, “May the Lord see and avenge!”
I found all this interesting. Sometimes God will use the enemies of His people to exact His revenge. As the reader knows from the account of the martyrdom of Saint Stephen in Acts 7:54-60, the Saint cried differently than Zechariah about the Jewish leaders who had ordered his death, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” However, God had different plans. In AD 70, Christ’s prediction of the destruction of the Temple was fulfilled by Roman General Titus who destroyed that Temple and all of Jerusalem. The Jewish leaders, mainly Sadducees who ran the apostate priesthood, all perished at the hands of their enemies, the Romans, just as Joash had perished at the hands of a descendant of Ammon and a descendant of Moab.