Saint-Étienne December 26

Saint Étienne est un prédicateur juif du I^er century considered a posteriori like the first deacon (protodeacon) and the first martyr (protomartyr) of Christianity

Étienne apparaît au chapitre 6 des Actes, où il est présenté comme un Juif helléniste qui a reconnu en Jésus le Messie et été choisi avec six autres « hommes de bonne réputation, d’Esprit Saint et de sagesse » pour devenir les diacres chargés d’assister les apôtres au bénéfice de la communauté

According to the Acts of the Apostles, Stephen performed “wonders and wonderful signs among the people” (Acts 6:8). Erudite, he easily overcomes a debate that takes place at the Synagogue of the Freedmen, lieu de culte des descendants de Juifs réduits en esclavage et déportés par Pompée, puis libérés.

Before the Sanhedrin, Stephen was then confronted with witnesses who accused him of four blasphemies: against God, against Moses, against the Law and against the Temple of Jerusalem, a holy place. Stephen exonerates himself from these accusations by summarizing the history of Israel. He first presents a triple praise of God of glory ; he then praises Moses for his fervor, his miracles and for the quality of his access to God; he continues by praising the Law threefold, which comes from God, is transmitted by Moses and gives life; finally he praises the Temple, commissioned by God and built by Solomon (Acts 7:2-50).

Stephen is condemned to stoning for blasphemy not against the Temple, but against God, because he pronounces the divine Name, by definition unpronounceable in the Jewish religion in the following expression: "the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God ».

The trial and death of James, brother of Jesus, are close to those of Stephen: for one as for the other of these two martyrs, there is question of blasphemy, then of a trial in the Sanhedrin, then of 'a stoning. The stories of Acts of the Apostles could have been influenced by this event, unless the account of James' execution is modeled on that of the Acts of the Apostles. Commentators also highlight certain similarities between the story of Stephen's death and that of Jesus' death in the gospels, parallelisms "which do not arise from a fortuitous contact: the narrator conscientiously modeled Stephen's trial on that of of Jesus", according to the exegete and biblical scholar Daniel Marguerat.

But Stephen's speech, implementing rhetoric that had until then been difficult for the Sanhedrin to criticize, suddenly changed direction to violently attack the Sanhedrin assembly. Interrogated as men with “stiff necks”, “uncircumcised” in their hearts and ears, his judges fell on Stephen, dragged him outside the walls of Jerusalem and stoned him, an execution at which Paul witnessed as a witness. Acts records that Saul, later converted and become an apostle under the name Paul, kept the murderers' clothes and then approved of the murder.