The future Saint Stephen, who was among…

After a dispute with the members of a synagogue of "Roman Freedmen," he is denounced for blasphemy against God and Moses (Acts 6:11) and speaking against the Temple and the Law.

Stephen is tried before the Sanhedrin around 34-35.

His defense is presented as accusing the Jews of persecuting the prophets who had spoken out against the sins of the nation: "Which one of the Prophets did your fathers not persecute, and they killed the ones who prophesied the coming of the Just One, of whom now, too, you have become betrayers and murderers." (7:52)

While on trial, he experiences a theophany in which he sees both God the Father and God the Son: "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God." (Acts 7:56)

This vision of Christ standing differs from other Scripture, which indicates Jesus sits at the right hand of God—perhaps inferring that Christ stood in honor of Stephen whose martyrdom was near.

He is condemned and stoned to death by an infuriated mob, which is encouraged by Saul of Tarsus, later to be known as Saint Paul the Apostle.

Paul, after his own conversion to Christianity, makes reference to witnessing Stephen's martyrdom in his writings.