All ¹  who were sitting in the council ²  looked intently at Stephen ³  and saw his face was like the face of an angel. ⁴ 

This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ¹  ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.’ ² 

He ¹  saw heaven ²  opened ³  and an object something like a large sheet ⁴  descending, ⁵  being let down to earth ⁶  by its four corners.

But we would like to hear from you what you think, for regarding this sect we know ¹  that people ²  everywhere speak against ³  it.”

Just ¹  as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of armies ²  had not left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have resembled Gomorrah.” ³ 

Do we not have the right to the company of a believing wife, like the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Cephas?

but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, ¹  by looking like other men, ²  and by sharing in human nature. ³ 

But you know his qualifications, that like a son working with his father, he served with me in advancing the gospel.

My aim is to know him, ¹  to experience the power of his resurrection, to share in his sufferings, ²  and to be like him in his death,

¹  although we could have imposed our weight as apostles of Christ; instead we became ²  little children ³  among you. Like a nursing mother caring for her own children,

But they will not go much further, ¹  for their foolishness will be obvious to everyone, just like it was with Jannes and Jambres. ² 

But in your case, dear friends, even though we speak like this, we are convinced of better things relating to salvation.

And see to it that no one becomes ¹  an immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. ² 

But he must ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed around by the wind.

But the rich person’s pride should be in his humiliation, because he will pass away like a wildflower in the meadow. ¹ 

For if someone merely listens to the message and does not live it out, he is like someone ¹  who gazes at his own face ²  in a mirror.

You ¹  do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like? ²  For you are a puff of smoke ³  that appears for a short time and then vanishes.

You know that from your empty way of life inherited from your ancestors you were ransomed – not by perishable things like silver or gold,

For you were going astray like sheep ¹  but now you have turned back to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

like Sarah who obeyed ¹  Abraham, calling him lord. You become her children ²  when you do what is good and have no fear in doing so. ³