Acts 7 - Was Stephen filled with the holy spirit?

Stephen according to Luke was filled with the holy spirit when he was in front of the Sanhedrin. When asked to confirm if he blasphemed G-d, and talked against the the temple, Moses & Torah he starts a long narration about the historical events that happened to the people of Israel. If Stephen was filled with the holy spirit how did he get the facts from Torah so wrong? 

According to Jesus, his followers need not worry about what to say when challenged / arrested for the cause of the gospel as he said, the holy spirit will speak through them. 

Matthew 10:19 But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, 20 for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.

 

You can find many videos on Acts 7 and they explain what Stephen said but seem to ignore that there are issues in what Stephen calls as history. 

I have documented some of my findings after carefully reading both the New Testament and Torah to call out the issues. You decide for yourself if Stephen was filled with the spirit and spoke correctly or was not filled with the spirit and Luke made this up.

All Images are links to Google Images. Copyright violations not intended.

All Greek Text references are from NIV and Tanakh references are from Chabad.

This post is not intended to offend anyone's faith but for people who are Seeking THE Truth of THE ONE TRUE G-D of the universe to who we owe all our love, gratitude & devotion.

My encouragement to you to read at least the whole chapter of Tanakh in context to understand what G-d actually said.

G-d Bless and Seek THE Truth

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Issue #1

Stephen states that G-d appeared to Abram when he was still in Mesopotamia and before he came to Haran. Torah tells us that G-d appeared to Abram in Haran after Terah died. How do we know this?

1. Terah wanted to go to Cannan but stopped midway in Haran where he eventually died.[Genesis 11:31]
2. As per Genesis 11:26 Abram was Born in the land of Chaldeans when Terah was 60 years Old.
3. As per Genesis 11:31 Terah went from Ur in Chaldees to Haran and died when he was 205 years old.
4. This means that G-d appeared to Abram when he was in Haran.

Acts 7:2 To this he replied: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Harran. 3 ‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said, ‘and go to the land I will show you.’

Genesis 11:26 And Terah lived seventy years, and he begot Abram, Nahor, and Haran.

Genesis 11:31 And Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter in law, the wife of Abram his son, and they went forth with them from Ur of the Chaldees to go to the land of Canaan, and they came as far as Haran and settled there. 32 And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.

Genesis 12:1 And the Lord said to Abram, "Go forth from your land and from your birthplace and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you.

Genesis 12:4 And Abram went, as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him, and Abram was seventy five years old when he left Haran.

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Issue #2
Stephen states that 75 people came to Egypt when Torah says that 70 came to Egypt

1. Christian apologists claim that Luke was referring to the Septuagint.
2. First off Septuagint & Dead Sea Scrolls says 70.
3. Even if the Septuagint says 75 why does it give this wrong number and the Masoretic Text says 70

Acts 7:14 After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all.

Genesis 46:27 And Joseph's sons, who were born to him in Egypt, two souls; all the souls of the house of Jacob who came to Egypt were seventy.

Exodus 1:5 Now all those descended from Jacob were seventy souls, and Joseph, [who] was in Egypt. Deuteronomy 10:22 With seventy souls, Your forefathers descended to Egypt, and now the Lord, your God, has made you as the stars of heaven in abundance.

Issue #3
Stephen states that Jacob and his 12 sons's bodies was brought back from Egypt and buried in the tomb that Abraham bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem.

1. Only Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebeca & Jacob were buried in the tomb that Abraham bought.
2. Rachel is buried outside of Shechem.
3. Stephen states that Jacob and his sons were buried in the tomb that Abraham bought.
4. Stephen states that the burial tomb was in Shechem when actually it was in Hebron (Facing Mamre)
5. Abraham bought the tomb from Ephron the Hittite not from the sons of Hamor.
6. I think Stephen confuses with the Tomb that Abraham bought and the Patch of Land that Jacob bought. The later was not a burial cave but a land for Jacob to use. 

Acts 7:15 Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our ancestors died. 16 Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money.

Genesis 50:5 'My father adjured me, saying, "Behold, I am going to die. In my grave, which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me." So now, please let me go up and bury my father and return.' "

Genesis 50:13 And his sons carried him to the land of Canaan, and they buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, which field Abraham had bought for burial property from Ephron the Hittite before Mamre.

Genesis 23:17 And so the field of Ephron which was in Machpelah, facing Mamre, was established (as Abraham's possession). [This included] the field and the cave that was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, which were within its entire border around.

Genesis 23:19 And afterwards, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre, which is Hebron, in the land of Canaan. Genesis 33:19 And he bought the part of the field where he had pitched his tent from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for a hundred kesitas.

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Issue #4
Stephen’s language indicates that the new king knew about Joseph and how he saved Egypt from famine but did not care. Tanakh says that the new king knew nothing about Joseph.

Acts 7:18 Then ‘a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.’[c]

Exodus 1:8 A new king arose over Egypt, who did not know about Joseph.

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Issue #5
Stephen's language about throwing out the babies is not accurate. Also he seems to indicate all babies were to be killed while Torah states that only the male babies were to be killed. I also don't see the details correctly being told.

1. According to the Torah, the new king asks the midwifes to kill every male child not all new born.
2. When these midwifes did not do that Pharaoh commands that all male child be thrown into the Nile.

Acts 7:19 He dealt treacherously with our people and oppressed our ancestors by forcing them to throw out their new born babies so that they would die. Exodus 1:16 And he said, "When you deliver the Hebrew women, and you see on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall put him to death, but if it is a daughter, she may live."

Exodus 1:22 And Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, "Every son who is born you shall cast into the Nile, and every daughter you shall allow to live."

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Issue #6
Stephen states certain facts about Moses that do not align with the Torah. Specifically he says that Moses was cared for and brought up by Pharaoh's daughter, he was powerful in speech and action. Some issues I see are as below

1. Unlike how Stephen states it, Moses was put into a basket covered with pitch and put into the Nile river.
2. Pharaoh's daughter picks him up from there and does not bring him up herself but Miriam gets Moses’s mother as the nursing maid and she brings him up for her.
3. Only when he grows up and does not need any nursing does Moses’s mother take him to Pharaoh's daughter and from then on Moses is adopted by her.
4. Stephen states that Moses was powerful in speech and action while Torah declares that Moses had a speech impediment and was very reluctant to take up the role of being the messenger of G-d to bring Israel out of Egypt.

Acts 7:20 “At that time Moses was born, and he was no ordinary child.[d] For three months he was cared for by his family. 21 When he was placed outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. 22 Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action.

Exodus 2:3 [When] she could no longer hide him, she took [for] him a reed basket, smeared it with clay and pitch, placed the child into it, and put [it] into the marsh at the Nile's edge. Exodus 2:10 The child grew up, and she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter, and he became like her son. She named him Moses, and she said, "For I drew him from the water."

Exodus 4:10 Moses said to the Lord, "I beseech You, O Lord. I am not a man of words, neither from yesterday nor from the day before yesterday, nor from the time You have spoken to Your servant, for I am heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue."

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Issues #7
How did Stephen get to understand that Moses thought he was the redeemer of Israel from Exodus 2? All this verse is stating that he saw a fellow Jew being hurt and wanted to save him.

1. It seems like he is drawing a parallel with Jesus and how Pharisees did not accept him as the messiah the first time and probably how they will accept him so he comes the second time. 
2. Only when G-d appears to Moses in the bush does he get the task of redeeming Israel.
3. If you see Acts 7:25 Stephen seems to say that Moses was born to rescue Israel when in reality, he was given the task to rescue Israel when he was 80 years old in the land of Midian.
4. Is Stephen in Acts 7:25 implying that like Moses, Jesus also thought he was the messiah and G-d anointed him to save the world? 

Acts 7:23 “When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his own people, the Israelites. 24 He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. 25 Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not.

Exodus 2:11 Now it came to pass in those days that Moses grew up and went out to his brothers and looked at their burdens, and he saw an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man of his brothers. 12 He turned this way and that way, and he saw that there was no man; so he struck the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.

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Issue #8
Stephen states that an angel came and met Moses on Mount Sanai and gave him the Torah when Torah clearly states that G-d came in the thick cloud and gave the Torah to Moses.

1. if you read Exodus 19:9 you will see that it is not an angel but G-d's Glory that came down onto Mount Sanai.
2. Scientists have now found a matter called "dark matter" that exists in the universe. 
3. 3200 years ago G-d revealed his glory to Israel on mount Saini in the thickness of the cloud.

Acts 7:38 He was in the assembly in the wilderness, with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our ancestors; and he received living words to pass on to us.

Exodus 19:9 And the Lord said to Moses, "Behold, I am coming to you in the thickness of the cloud, in order that the people hear when I speak to you, and they will also believe in you forever." And Moses relayed the words of the people to the Lord.

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Issue #9

Capital punishment by Sanhedrin was abolished during the 1st century.

1. Jesus was crucified by the Romans as the Jews did not have the rights to punish him under capital punishment which would be to stone him to death.
2. Luke states that the Sanhedrin was involved but they had no rights to execute any one under capital punishment.
3. So could this whole event been made up?

Acts 7:57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.

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Issue #10
Was Stephen filled with the holy spirit or did Luke make this up?

1. Jesus assured his disciples of similar situations but that they should not worry as the holy spirit will do all the talking
2. Holy spirit will not make mistakes
3. So you decide if Stephen was not filled with the spirit or Luke made this all up.

Matthew 10:19 But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say, 20 for it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.