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Stephen the Protomartyr

Stephen the Protomartyr

d. c. 34 CE · Jerusalem

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Stephen is remembered by Christians as the first martyr, or 'protomartyr'. According to Acts, the Greek-speaking ('Hellenist') believers in Jerusalem complained that their widows were being neglected in the daily food distribution. The community chose seven men to oversee it, and Stephen is named first among them (Acts 6:1-6). His Greek name (Stephanos, 'crown') fits the common view that he was a Greek-speaking Jew. Acts describes him as a powerful preacher who came into conflict with Greek-speaking Jews from one or more diaspora synagogues in Jerusalem. He was brought before the council on a charge of speaking against the Temple and the Law (Acts 6:8-14). Acts gives him a long speech retelling Israel's history (Acts 7). He was then taken out of the city and stoned, praying for his killers, while a young man named Saul, the future Paul, looked on with approval (Acts 7:54-8:1). Acts presents the persecution that followed as what scattered believers beyond Jerusalem (Acts 8:1; 11:19). Later tradition reports that his remains were found in the early fifth century.

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Stop 1 of 134Ministry and martyrdom

JerusalemירושליםJudea

What they did here

Stephen was one of the Seven appointed to oversee food distribution in the Jerusalem community (Acts 6:1-6). He was tried before the council, then taken outside the city and stoned (Acts 6:12-7:60). Paul later recalls standing by and guarding the cloaks of those who killed him (Acts 22:20). The exact site is unknown; later tradition fixed it north of the city.

Jerusalem in this era

Under Roman rule Jerusalem was, according to the Gospels, where Jesus was crucified and, in Christian belief, rose from the dead; Acts places Pentecost and the first Christian community, led by the apostles and later by James, there. The Romans destroyed the city in 70 CE.

About Jerusalem

Jerusalem, in the Judean hills, is a sacred city for Jews, Christians and Muslims. In the Hebrew Bible it is King David's capital and the site of Solomon's Temple; the First Temple was destroyed by Babylon in 586 BCE and the Second Temple, rebuilt from about 516 BCE, by Rome in 70 CE. Christians revere it as the place of Jesus's crucifixion and, in their faith, his resurrection; in Islamic tradition it is the destination of the Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey and the first direction of prayer, marked by the Dome of the Rock (691-92) and al-Aqsa Mosque. It was ruled in turn by Rome and Byzantium, by Muslim dynasties from 638, by Crusaders (1099-1187), Ayyubids, Mamluks and Ottomans (1517-1917), and by Britain. Divided between Israel and Jordan from 1948 to 1967, it has since been under Israeli control. Israel regards the city as its capital; Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state; most countries do not recognize sovereignty over the whole city.

In Jerusalem at the same time

Joseph, husband of Mary, Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, Mary, mother of Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth, Philip the Apostle

Across the traditions, in Jerusalem at the same time

See other sages who lived in Jerusalem→

In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Stephen the Protomartyr’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

Across the traditions

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Stephen the Protomartyr’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn from recorded birth and death years (reign years for rulers whose lives are undated); where only one end of a life is known, a span of about 70 years is assumed.

Works

No works attributed in the corpus yet.