Stoning of Stephen

[narrowway]

Can someone help me prove that Stephen was stoned in 34 A.D.?
I need some historical evidence of this for a Bible study I am doing.
Know of any good reference material?
Please help!
blessings!

 

[SonWorshipper]

What is proof? No one can agree on the death of the Savior so that seems to be in conflict with this proof of a specific date of 34 AD that you want.

Stephan was sentanced and stoned shortly after the resurection and Pentecost. Before Paul's conversion. But the proof of the year is tricky as the calendars differ on this in many camps.

Picking that date can mean he was stoned 1 year after Yeshua's crucifixion or 3-4, depending on when you set the crucifixion date. I prefer 30AD.

You might want to check out the works of Josephus to get a rough date from an outside the Bible resource.

 

[Islander]

I agree with Sonworshipper that don't know a precise year. We know it was around the AD 30's.

 

[Goldstein]

Stephen may have never existed, if so, his death is probably a revision of James the brother of Jesus's death.

As Hans-Joachim Schoeps had already surmised, the stoning of Stephen has in precisely the same way supplanted the stoning of James (actually a conflation of James' ultimate stoning at the command of Ananus and an earlier assault by Saul on the temple steps preserved as a separate incident in the Recognitions). The name Stephen has been borrowed from a Roman official beaten by Jewish insurgents whom Josephus depicts ambushing him outside the city walls. Why this name? Because of a pun: Stephen means "crown" and was suggested both by the "crown" of long hair worn by the Nazirite (which James was, according to early church writers) and by the crown of martyrdom. To Stephen has been transferred James' declaration of the Son of Man at the right hand of God in heaven, as well as James' "Christlike" prayer for his persecutors. (Eisenman might have noted, too, that the martyr's original identity as James the Just is signaled by Acts 7:52, "the Just, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become"!)

We read that a young man named Saul was playing coat checker for the executioners of Stephen and, his taste for blood whetted, immediately began to foment persecution in Jerusalem and Damascus. This has been drawn, again, from the lore of James as well as Josephus. The clothing motif was suggested by the final blow to James' head with a fuller's club, while just after his own account of James' death, Josephus tells of the rioting started by a Herodian named Saulus in Jerusalem! http://www.depts.drew.edu/jhc/rpeisman.html

 

[Goldstein]

Try visiting the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem where the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) ascended to heaven.

 

[Risen Tree]

Was he standing on his head when he ascended?

 

[ps139]

ahahahahaha!!

I normally dont bother posting laughter but this was was too funny

 

[TScott]

An interesting possibility has been advanced that the stoning of Stephen and the stoning of James, the brother of Jesus are actually the same event. In Acts the stoning of Stephen follows a riot that is started by a man named Saul (Saulos). In Antiquities, Josephus describes the stoning of James following a riot started by Saulus. The dates, of course don't match, the stoning of Stephen taking place in the late thirties to early forties and the stoning of James taking place in the sixties, but it wouldn't be so unbelievable that the dates could have been superimposed with one another by 20 years when one considers that the authors were both recounting events in the past and that the earliest manuscripts of either piece we have today was penned hundreds of years after the original.

 

[cbk]

The date will not be proven. Exactly right, without the date of the crucifixion, it would be impossible to derive the date of the stoning.

 

[Goldstein]

Been there. Doubt it happened.

Doubt Stephen existed.

 

[Goldstein]

An interesting possibility has been advanced that the stoning of Stephen and the stoning of James, the brother of Jesus are actually the same event. In Acts the stoning of Stephen follows a riot that is started by a man named Saul (Saulos). In Antiquities, Josephus describes the stoning of James following a riot started by Saulus. The dates, of course don't match, the stoning of Stephen taking place in the late thirties to early forties and the stoning of James taking place in the sixties, but it wouldn't be so unbelievable that the dates could have been superimposed with one another by 20 years when one considers that the authors were both recounting events in the past and that the earliest manuscripts of either piece we have today was penned hundreds of years after the original.

Acts seems to be a "based-on-a-true-story" book, only the stories that it's based on have nothing to do with the story Luke is trying to tell.

 

[crazyfingers]

St. Stephen

Saint Stephen with a rose
In and out of the garden he goes
Country garden in the wind and the rain
Wherever he goes the people all complain

Stephen prosper in his time
Well he may and he may decline
Did it matter, does it now
Stephen would answer if he only knew how

Wishing well with a golden bell
Bucket hanging clear to hell
Hell halfway twixt now and then
Stephen fill it up and lower down and lower down again

Lady finger, dipped in moonlight
Writing "What for?" across the morning sky
Sunlight splatters, dawn with answer
Darkness shrugs and bids the day goodbye

Speeding arrow, sharp and narrow
What a lot of fleeting matters you have spurned
Several seasons with their treasons
Wrap the babe in scarlet colors, call it your own

Did he doubt or did he try
Answers aplenty in the bye and bye
Talk about your plenty, talk about your ills
One man gathers what another man spills

Saint Stephen will remain
All he's lost he shall regain
Seashore walk by the suds and the foam
Been here so long, he's got to calling it home

Fortune comes a drawlin', calliope woman
Spinning that curious sense of your own
Can you answer? Yes I can
But what would be the answer to the answer-man

Source: Grateful Dead

 

[ps139]

crazy fingers, do you have an interpretation of that song. I love the song but frankly I have no idea what its about. Any thoughts would be most appreciated.

 

[Godzman]

Doubt Stephen existed.

well there is no reason to doubt it, I mean it is up to people to not prove the existance of something, because if you can't prove it existed, there very well may be the possibility that it did.

another subject though.

I am not for probably in the mid 30's AD

 

[LittleLambofJesus]

Try visiting Stephen's Gate in Jerusalem where he was stoned...

Greetings. I am of the view the sames ones that stoned Stephen are also the ones shown in Revelation being stoned with Hailstones. Still working on this.

http://christianforums.com/showthread.php?t=7270970
Acts 1 and Revelation 11 Ascending in cloud

Acts 6:10 And not they were strong/iscuon <2480> (5707) to withstand to the wisdom and to the Spirit to which he talked.
Acts 7:1 And the high-priest said, Are these things so?
54 Now when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed upon him with their teeth.
59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon [the Lord], and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit

Reve 12:8 and not He is strong/iscusan <2480> (5656), neither Place found of Them still in the Heaven. [Matt 21:43/Reve 20:11]

Reve 6:16 And they are saying to the mountains and to the rocks: 'Be falling on us! and hide us! from Face of the One sitting upon the Throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb-kin" [Hosea 10:8/Luke 23:30]

 

[Dale]

Would Luke have known about Stephen's death as a martyr by stoning, if it occurred? Luke was a traveling companion of Paul and closely associated with Paul. If a young Saul/Paul witnessed the death of Stephen, Luke would certainly have heard about it.

For evidence of Luke's association with Paul:

"Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings."
--Colossians 4:14 NIV

"Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my fellow workers."
--Philemon 24

2 Timothy 4:11 opens, "Only Luke is with me."
Second Timothy was written as Paul was a prisoner in Rome awaiting execution by beheading. It looks like Luke was in place to take Paul's final confession, if he needed one.


I don't see any doubt that Luke had access to the best information he could possibly have had, next to being an eyewitness. Luke had no need to make up any stories on this subject.

In addition, the stoning of Stephen was part of the persecution the early Christians in Jerusalem. This persecution caused many Christians to flee to other places, other Jewish communities, in the Roman world. This, in turn, helped to spread Christianity, and we know that this spreading of Christianity did happen.

*
*

 

[Dale]

Harper's Bible Dictionary says, on the Gospel of Luke, "This Gospel, together with the Acts of the Apostles, originally formed a two-volume teatise . . ." which were only later separated.
Further, "Their original close connection, however, is proved by their similarity of vocabulary, style, and outlook, and by their common dedication to Theophilus (Luke 1:3; Acts 1:1)".


In short, the Acts of the Apostles was not an afterthought but was composed about the same time as the Gospel of Luke.

 

[LittleLambofJesus]

Would Luke have known about Stephen's death as a martyr by stoning, if it occurred? Luke was a traveling companion of Paul and closely associated with Paul. If a young Saul/Paul witnessed the death of Stephen, Luke would certainly have heard about it.

For evidence of Luke's association with Paul:
"Our dear friend Luke, the doctor, and Demas send greetings."
--Colossians 4:14 NIV

"Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. And so do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my fellow workers."
--Philemon 24
2 Timothy 4:11 opens, "Only Luke is with me."
Second Timothy was written as Paul was a prisoner in Rome awaiting execution by beheading. It looks like Luke was in place to take Paul's final confession, if he needed one.

I don't see any doubt that Luke had access to the best information he could possibly have had, next to being an eyewitness. Luke had no need to make up any stories on this subject.

In addition, the stoning of Stephen was part of the persecution the early Christians in Jerusalem. This persecution caused many Christians to flee to other places, other Jewish communities, in the Roman world. This, in turn, helped to spread Christianity, and we know that this spreading of Christianity did happen.
*

Just the opposite of Judaism it seems. I view those who stoned "stephen" as the ones in Revelation who were instigated by the Judean rulers. Thoughts?

Matthew 21:43 Therefore I am saying to ye, that shall be being taken-away from Ye the Kingdom of the God, and it shall be being given to a Nation doing the fruits of it.

Acts 6:10 And not they were strong/iscuon <2480> (5707) to withstand to the wisdom and to the Spirit to which he talked.

Reve 12:8 and not He is strong/iscusan <2480> (5656), neither Place found of Them still in the Heaven. [Matt 21:43/Reve 20:11]

 

[Dale]

LittleLambofJesus:
" I view those who stoned "stephen" as the ones in Revelation who were instigated by the Judean rulers. Thoughts?"

Are you referring to the two witnesses who are killed? And then rise?
I don't see any connection with Stephen.

 

[LittleLambofJesus]

bump