Stephen's Prophetic Speech and Luke's New Exile

Abstract: Many understand Stephen's speech in Acts 7 as having theological implications regarding unbelieving Jews and the Jerusalem temple. In this study, however, I reassess Stephen's speech through the lens of prophetic critique and argue that his speech, based on the Hebrew prophets, is not entirely negative. Before looking closely at Stephen's speech, I provide a brief overview of the prophetic critique in Luke-Acts as well as a discussion of its interpretation and appropriation. The prophetic heritage, in which Luke portrays Stephen, calls for repentance and warns of judgment, yet may still retain hope for restoration. Although Acts is often read as a story of new exodus for early Christianity, I suggest reading the narrative (of which Stephen's speech is a plausible microcosm) as anticipating a new exile . I believe readings of Acts that highlight exile, such as the one I suggest here, have the capacity to better hold Luke's tensions and conflicts that the early Jesus movement had with late Second Temple Judaism.