Introduction

Despite Luke's explicit reference to Stephen being ‘brought before the council’ (ἤγαγον εἰς τò συνέδριον) and to the activity of (false) μάρτυρες (6.12–14; 7.58), language which is clearly suggestive of a trial setting, the question has been raised whether Stephen's death, according to Acts, may not be better understood as the outcome of a lynching, rather than of a trial. Among the arguments which appear to support this interpretation are the absence of any formal verdict, the emphasis on the anger of Stephen's opponents as immediate precedent to his execution (7.54), the unlikelihood that the Sanhedrin had at the time the authority of capital punishment, and the fact that the Romans are not mentioned as taking any notice of the incident. Yet the overall picture seems to make best sense when understood as a legal trial, which due to the offensive words of the defendant and the escalating anger of his opponents soon succumbed to a more disorderly outburst of violence. With these qualifications, the story can be regarded as belonging to the Lukan trial narratives. As far as the scope of this ‘trial’ story is concerned, 6.12 and 7.57 seem to be the two limits; yet an adequate understanding of this section inevitably requires some consideration of the slightly larger literary unit, extending at least from the origins of the conflict in 6.9 to Stephen's death in 7.60.