Lived: Approximately 5 AD – 34 AD
While Stephen was serving meals to widows in Jerusalem, the Roman Empire was busy building roads that would eventually connect London to modern-day Istanbul. The emperor Tiberius ruled from the island of Capri, where he’d retreated from the political chaos of Rome.
Stephen was a Greek-speaking Jew, which meant he grew up navigating two worlds at once. He was chosen as one of seven men to handle the church’s food distribution—a job that required wisdom, trustworthiness, and the ability to solve problems without creating more of them (Acts 6:3).
The job description said “serve tables.” But Stephen’s influence went far beyond that. He performed miracles. He debated scholars. And when religious leaders accused him of blasphemy, he delivered a sermon that traced God’s work through centuries of Jewish history.
It was the last sermon anyone would let him preach. But the young man holding the coats of Stephen’s executioners—a zealot named Saul—would eventually pick up where Stephen left off.