Ma'asei ha'Shlichim
(Acts of the Apostles)

Chapters 6 and 7 (Click here for chapter 8, or here for part of Chapter 15 known as Limudah)

Chapter 6

¹ And in those days, as the talmidim continued to grow, the gerim were complaining concerning the Nasareans* saying they were neglecting the widows from among the gerim concerning the sharing of the food.

² The twelve shalichim called a gathering of the talmidim and Ya'aqub said to them: "It is not appropriate that we should be neglecting the Word of God so as to serve at tables."

³ "You shall carefully examine from among the brethren and choose seven of these men from among you who have good witness* and are filled with the Spirit of YHWH and wisdom and I will appoint them over the gerim concerning this matter."

⁴ "And we will be steadfast in prayer and in serving the Word of God."

⁵ And this was a good word before all the people. After this they chose Stephan, a man who was strong with faith and Holy Spirit and Philip and Prochoros and Niqanor and Timon and Parmena and Niqolos who was a ger from Antioch.

⁶ These men stood before the shlichim and after they had prayed they placed their hands upon them.

⁷ And the Word of God spread and the number of talmidim continued to grow in Yerushalayim in a great manner, and many of the people from among the Judeans* became obedient to the faith.

⁸ Stephen was full of grace and gave glory to God and through him was brought about signs and miracles among all the people.

⁹ And it happened that some men from among the assembly of the Libertines and the Cyrenians and Alexandrians and Cilicia and from Asia began arguing with Stephen with false accusations concerning the Nasarean of Yeshua.

¹⁰ But they were not capable of standing against the wisdom of the Spirit Who spoke through him.

¹¹ Then they hired men and commanded them to say: "We have heard you speak with blasphemous words, words that are against Moshah and against God."

¹² And they were causing a great commotion among the people so that the Shammaites and their sofrim came and also took a stand against him within the assembly.

¹³ And sofrim staged false witnesses who were saying: "This man will not stop speaking of words that are contrary to Torah and against this holy place;"

¹⁴ "for we have heard him say that Yeshua the Nesari will destroy this place and will destroy our traditions given to us by Moshah."

¹⁵ And all those that were sitting in the assembly were staring at him and they saw his face as if it were like the face of an angel.

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1 Nasarean. Aramaic: "Nasraya". Heb. "nasri" (pl. "nesarim"), meaning "Nasrani"/"Essene", (branch, root/dedicated, keeper = i.e., "Keeper of the Way") See also 6:9 and Matthew 2:15

3 good witness. Meaning "with good reputations"

7 Judeans. Delitzsch reads: "kohanim"

Chapter 7

¹ The high priest asked Stephen if what was spoken against him were true;

² and he said: "Men, our brothers and fathers, hear this. The God of glory appeared to our father Avraham when he was residing beyond the rivers, in the time before he came to take up residence in Charan."

³ "And he said to him, 'Go out from your land and from among the children of your people and come into the land that I will show to you.'"*

⁴ "And then Avraham went out from the land of the Chaldeans and came to dwell in Charan and he was there and when his father died the Spirit* took his body and placed it in a grave in that place."*

⁵ "And he did not give him an inheritance, not even a single step of the foot, yet he did promise that he would give to him a possession and to his seed while he had no son."

⁶ "And God spoke with him saying (to him): 'Your seed will be a sojourner in a foreign land and he will be subject to it and they will treat him in wickedness for four-hundred years.'"

⁷ "'And the people will serve under bondage and I will judge them.' And God said: 'And after this time they will depart and serve me in this land.'"

⁸ "And He gave to him the covenant of milah* and then he became the father of Yischaq and he circumcised him on the eighth day and Yischaq became the father of Ya'aqub and Ya'aqub became the father of our twelve fathers."

⁹ "And our fathers were jealous of Yoseph and they sold him in Misrayim."

¹⁰ God was with him and He delivered Yoseph from oppression and He gave to him grace and exceeding wisdom before the face of Pharaoh the king of Misrayim. And Pharaoh appointed him as a ruler over Misrayim and over his own house."

¹¹ "And there was a famine and a great affliction in Misrayim and in the land of Canaan; and there was no food for our fathers to eat."

¹² "And after Ya'aqub heard that there was food in Misrayim he sent our fathers first;"

¹³ "and after they went the second time Yoseph made himself know to his brothers and it was made known to Pharaoh as to his family*."

¹⁴ "Then (he) sent for Yoseph and brought his father Ya'aqub and his entire family; and they were seventy-five souls in number."

¹⁵ "And Ya'aqub went down to Misrayim and died there, he and our fathers."

¹⁶ "And he was moved to Shechemah and was placed in a tomb that was purchased by Avraham with money from the b'nai Chamor."

¹⁷ "And when the time had arrived for that which had been promised by an oath by God to Avraham, the people began to grow greatly in Misrayim."

¹⁸ "And they continued to grow until another king rose up over Misrayim who did not know Yoseph."

¹⁹ "And he schemed against our people and acted wickedly against our fathers and demanded that the male children be cast out of and not permitted to live."

²⁰ "It was during this time that Mosheh was born and God found favour with him; and he was raised for three months in the house of his father."

²¹ "When he was cast out of the land to die his mother found him and gave him to the father of Pharaoh and she raised him as her own son."

²² "Mosheh was trained in the ways of the people of Misrayim, including his words and deeds."

²³ "And when he was forty years old God placed within his heart to visit his brethren, the b'nai Yisrael."

²⁴ "And he saw one of the sons of his tribe who had been wronged, being exceedingly abused, so he avenged his brother and passed for him judgement and he killed a man of Misrayim who brought wrong against him."

²⁵ "And he had hoped that his brethren, the b'nai Yisrael, would understand that by his hand God would give to them deliverance*, but they did not understand."

²⁶ "And on another day he was seen by them while they were arguing with one another and he was encouraging them to reconcile saying to them: 'Men, you are brothers, and for what purpose do you wrong one another?'"

²⁷ "But he who was wronging his brother pushed him away from his face and said to him: 'Who has appointed you over us as ruler and judge?'"

²⁸ "What! Do you seek to kill me as you killed the Misri* yesterday?"

²⁹ "And Mosheh quickly left at this word and became a sojourner in the land of Mid'yan. And he had two sons."

³⁰ "And after Mosheh was there for forty years in the wilderness of Sinai, it happened that an angel of YHWH appeared in in a fire that burned in a bush."

³¹ "And Mosheh saw this and he was amazed at the vision and he as he began to draw near to see the bush on Sinai, YHWH said to him in a voice:"

³² "'I am the God of your fathers, the God of Avraham and of Yischaq and of Ya'aqub.' And Mosheh was frightened but did not stare at the bush."

³³ "And YHWH said to him: 'Remove your sandals from your feet, for the ground where you are standing is holy.'"

³⁴ "'I have observed the persecution of My people who are in Misrayim and their groaning and I have come down to bring them deliverance and now I will send you to Misrayim.'"

³⁵ "This is Mosheh whom they denied saying: 'Who has appointed you over us as ruler and judge?' This is the one God sent to be ruler and deliverer for them, for by the hands of an angel He appeared to him in a bush."

³⁶ "This is he who brought them out after he did signs and miracles and great deeds in the land of Misrayim and in Yam Suf* and in the wilderness for forty years."

³⁷ "This is Mosheh, the one who said to the b'nai Yisrael: 'A prophet will YHWH God raise up for you from among your brethren like me and you shall hear.'"

³⁸ "This is the one who was in the assembly in the wilderness* with the angel which spoke with them and with our forefathers on Har Sinai; he is the one who received the living words that he might give them to us."

³⁹ "And they, our forefathers, did not desire to obey him; rather, they left him and in their hearts they returned to Misrayim."

⁴⁰ "And they said to Aharon: 'Make for us deities to go before us because this Mosheh who brought us out from the land of Misrayim, we do not know what has happened to him.'"

⁴¹ "And they made for themselves a calf and they made sacrifices before the deity and they were rejoicing in the work of their hands."

⁴² "And God turned away from them and delivered them over to serve the hosts of the heavens*"

⁴³*

⁴⁴ "Behold! The mishkan* of the testimony of our fathers in the wilderness was as He commanded, He who spoke with Mosha concerning its construction in the likeness that He showed to him."

⁴⁵ "And this same mishkan, for a certainty, our forefathers brought with Yeshua into the land that God gave to them as an inheritance from the goyim, those he cast out from before them and it was carried (with them) until the days of David."

⁴⁶ "He who found mercy before (the face) of God and asked that he find a mishkan for the God of Ya'aqub."

⁴⁷ "And Shlomo constructed a house."

⁴⁸ "And El-yon* does not dwell in the work of the hands as the prophet said:

⁴⁹ 'Heaven is My throne and the earth is a footstool under My feet; what is the house that you construct for Me,' says YHWH, 'or what is the place of My rest?'"

⁵⁰ "'Behold! Has My hand not made all of these?'"

⁵¹ "Of stiff neck and without circumcision in their heart and in their hearing, you always stand against Ruach ha'Kodesh as did your forefathers."

⁵² "For which of the prophets have your forefathers not persecuted or murdered? Those (are the prophets) who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, He whom you delivered up to be killed."

⁵³ "You have received Torah by way of angels, yet you have not observed it!"

⁵⁴ And when they heard this they began to be filled with anger within themselves and they were gnashing their teeth against him.

⁵⁵ And while he was full of faith and Ruach ha'Kodesh, he stared into the heavens and saw the glory of God - Yeshua standing at the right hand of God*.

⁵⁶ And he said: "Behold! I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

⁵⁷ And they cried out in a loud voice and covered their ears and all of them ran towards him.

⁵⁸ They seized him and took him outside of the city and began to stone him; those who testified against him laid their garments at the feet of a certain young man who was called Shaul.

⁵⁹ And while they were stoning him, Stephen prayed and he said: "Maran Yeshua, receive my spirit."

⁶⁰ And after he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, he said: "Maran, do not hold this sin against them." And after he said this he lied down.

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3 See Bereshith 12:1

4 Spirit. Others "he"

4 See Bereshith 11:31

7 Judeans. Jews. Others "priests".

8 milah. circumcision

13 family. or "nationality"

25 deliverance. others "salvation." The Hebrew word is "teshuah"

28 Misri. Egyptian.

36 Yam Suf. Sea of Reeds.

38 assembly in the wilderness. Hebrew: "qahal bamidbar"

42,43 Other versions quote Amos 5:25-27. This passage is mentioned in a marginal note in the Hebrew Peshitta but the text is lacking in the main body of Ma'asei.

43 See note above for v.42

44 mishkan. Hebrew "tabernacle"

48 El-yon. The Most High (God).

54 right hand of God. Margin says "God the Father"; other versions with marginal note: "God our Father" (Alaha Abun)



Source Text for Ma'asei ha'Shlichim: Targum Yuyazdai by Mar Thoma Yaza X and Mar Yusef Yazdin Yaza XI, being the most complete, authoritative Aramaic text in the Ancient Apostolic Church of Jerusalem