Stephen’s Trial and Murder

Ethnic tension played a decisive role in the trial and death of Stephen, the church’s first martyr. While other members of the early church had been brought before the Jewish Council (Acts 6:12; 4:1–23), it was Stephen, likely a Hellenist, who first died for his faith.

Hellenists — Greek-speaking Jews born outside of Palestine — were among the first people attracted by the gospel. Treated as second-class citizens by native-born Jews, many found acceptance in the early church. It could be that as the new faith threatened to further alienate Hellenistic Jews from the full-blooded majority, some Hellenists (6:9) gained a motive to try to discredit the Christian movement.

Their opposition focused on Stephen, a dynamic, emerging leader who enjoyed in the church a prominence that would have been denied to him in the Jewish community. His trial and murder (ch. 7) showed that the Hellenists willingly sacrificed one of their own to demonstrate loyalty to the ruling system.

The strategy worked. Stephen’s death precipitated intense persecution of the early Christians, sanctioned by the council and led by a new young leader, Saul of Tarsus (8:1–3; 9:1, 2).

Taken from The Modern Life Study Bible