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TheRevelation of Stephen, orApocalypse of Stephen, is a text ofNew Testament apocrypha. It featuresSaint Stephen, one of theSeven Deacons to theTwelve Apostles.
The text describes a conflict at the very beginnings ofChristianity about the nature ofJesus ofNazareth. Stephen appears on the scene and recountsRevelation as a literal truth, to which the crowd declaresblasphemy, andCaiaphas has him arrested and beaten.
The text then has Stephen appear beforePontius Pilate, whom he tells to not speak, and orders him to recognize Jesus. The tale is set before Paul of Tarsus' conversion, and so it proceeds to describe how Paul persecutes Stephen by having him crucified. However, an angel rescues Stephen, so Saul/Paul has molten lead poured into his mouth and ears, and nails into his heart and feet, but an angel heals him again.
The next day, the text proclaims that Stephen was led out to be judged before the crowd, but instead Stephen recounts a supposed prophecy byNathan of Jesus's coming, which annoys the guards to the extent that they bind him and take him to the head of the guard. TheSanhedrin decide that Stephen should be stoned, butNicodemus andGamaliel (the Jewish scholar) try to defend him with their bodies, dying in the process.
After ten hours, Stephen eventually dies, and is buried in a silver coffin by Pilate, against Stephen's wishes. An angel moves the body to where Stephen wished to be buried, leaving Pilate shocked by the loss of the bodies. Pilate then receives a vision of Stephen and converts. Likewise, the memory of Stephen is said by the text to have made Paul convert.
Many scholars think that Pilate was a later addition to the text, with his involvement in the story looking somewhat clumsy, and the text being primarily an attempt to explain Paul's motives for conversion, but also his prior villainy. Furthermore, most scholars agree that Pontius Pilate was no longer the Prefect ofJudaea by the time of Stephen's martyrdom, having been recalled to Rome and replaced by acting prefectMarcellus.[1]
The Apocalypse of Stephen was not accepted in the Christian canon. The sixth centuryGelasian Decree rejects it as apocryphal.[2]
The full text ofRevelation of Stephen at Wikisource, summary byM. R. James in the 1924 bookThe Apocryphal New Testament | This article aboutNew Testament apocrypha is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |