{"id":76841,"date":"2015-07-19T00:57:03","date_gmt":"2015-07-19T05:57:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aleteia.org\/?post_type=post&p=76841"},"modified":"2015-07-19T00:57:03","modified_gmt":"2015-07-19T05:57:03","slug":"who-was-stephen-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2015\/07\/who-was-stephen-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Who was Stephen?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Over at Christian Crier<\/a><\/strong>, at the Patheos Evangelical Channel, writer Jack Wellman has some thoughts that may be of interest to deacons:<\/p>\n

Stephen\u2019s name is derived from the Greek name \u201cSt\u00e9fanos\u201d and means \u201chonor,\u201d \u201cwreath\u201d or \u201ccrown\u201d and Stephen may have been the first Christian martyr in the church. Stephen was a deacon in the 1st century church who was stoned to death for preaching the gospel. He also gave one of the greatest historical and apologetic sermons ever given in the Bible when he stood before the council. This man left a great mark in the church and in church history\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2026When Stephen was stoned, those who were stoning him \u201claid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul\u201d so I have often wondered; was Saul, who later became Paul after his own conversion on the Damascus Road, a convert of Stephen? Did the stoning trouble Saul\u2019s conscience? Did this plant the seed that what he was doing was wrong? Paul must have been an eye witness to Stephen\u2019s testimony at the council and Saul must have heard those heart-piercing words \u201cLord, do not hold this sin against them\u201d which were very similar to Jesus\u2019 statement on the cross \u201cFather, forgive them for they know not what they are doing\u201d (Luke 23:34). We\u2019ll only know the answer to that question when we see Paul in the kingdom. In the meantime, Stephen\u2019s heroic defense of the faith is truly one of the most remarkable and bravest witnesses in the history of the church.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read more.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over at Christian Crier, at the Patheos Evangelical Channel, writer Jack Wellman has some thoughts that may be of interest to deacons: Stephen\u2019s name is derived from the Greek name \u201cSt\u00e9fanos\u201d and means \u201chonor,\u201d \u201cwreath\u201d or \u201ccrown\u201d and Stephen may have been the first Christian martyr in the church. Stephen was a deacon in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":76843,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-deacons","category-hanging-with-the-saints"],"yoast_head":"\nWho was Stephen?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Over at Christian Crier, at the Patheos Evangelical Channel, writer Jack Wellman has some thoughts that may be of interest to deacons: Stephen\u2019s name is\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2015\/07\/who-was-stephen-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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