1. The High Priest asked Stephen, “Is this true?”
2. Stephen answered, “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! Before our ancestor Abraham had gone to live in Haran, the God of glory appeared to him in Mesopotamia
3. and said to him, ‘Leave your family and country and go to the land that I will show you.’
4. And so he left his country and went to live in Haran. After Abraham's father died, God made him move to this land where you now live.
5. God did not then give Abraham any part of it as his own, not even a square metre of ground, but God promised to give it to him, and that it would belong to him and to his descendants. At the time God made this promise, Abraham had no children.
6. This is what God said to him: ‘Your descendants will live in a foreign country, where they will be slaves and will be badly treated for 400 years.
7. But I will pass judgement on the people that they will serve, and afterwards your descendants will come out of that country and will worship me in this place.’
8. Then God gave Abraham the ceremony of circumcision as a sign of the covenant. So Abraham circumcised Isaac a week after he was born; Isaac circumcised his son Jacob, and Jacob circumcised his twelve sons, the famous ancestors of our race.
9. “Jacob's sons became jealous of their brother Joseph and sold him to be a slave in Egypt. But God was with him
10. and brought him safely through all his troubles. When Joseph appeared before the king of Egypt, God gave him a pleasing manner and wisdom, and the king made Joseph governor over the country and the royal household.
11. Then there was a famine all over Egypt and Canaan, which caused much suffering. Our ancestors could not find any food,
12. and when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he sent his sons, our ancestors, on their first visit there.