AD 34

Saint Stephen

Stephen is stoned outside Jerusalem, according to Acts

The witnesses took off their outer garments and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul — the future Paul, who Acts says approved the killing.

A quarrel about widows, then a hearing

AD 34 is a reconstruction, not a record: Acts gives no year and no calendar date, and scholarly estimates run from 31/32 to about 34 depending largely on the assumed date of Jesus's crucifixion.

Acts says Stephen was one of seven men chosen after Greek-speaking believers complained that their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution; the apostles prayed and laid hands on them. Acts calls them the Seven and never uses the word deacon.

Opponents then instigated accusations concerning Moses, the law and the Temple. Stephen was brought before the Sanhedrin and delivered a speech reading Israelite history as a pattern of rejecting God's messengers.

Cloaks at the feet of Saul

When Stephen declared that he saw Jesus standing at God's right hand, his hearers rushed him, drove him outside Jerusalem and stoned him. The witnesses placed their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.

Stephen prayed for his attackers before he died. Acts says Saul approved the killing — it does not say he threw stones.

No verdict, no sentence, no date

Acts describes a mob-like rush and a stoning, but records no formal Sanhedrin verdict, no Roman authorization and no named executioner. Acts 6–8 is the only narrative source for the death, and some modern scholarship challenges its historicity or its literary shaping.

December 26, the Western feast day, is not Stephen's known date of death; the New Catholic Encyclopedia calls that date unknown, and Byzantine traditions generally commemorate him on December 27.

What Acts does date is the reaction: devout men buried Stephen, and a severe persecution of the Jerusalem community began that same day, scattering believers into Judea and Samaria.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree; the research places it at ~0034.

What the sources leave uncertain

Acts supplies no year or calendar date. Scholarly reconstructions range from 31/32 to about 34 depending largely on the assumed date of Jesus' crucifixion.
Acts 6–8 is the only narrative source for Stephen's death. Some modern scholarship challenges the historicity or literary shaping of the account.
December 26 is a later Western feast date, not Stephen's known date of death; his death date is explicitly described as unknown in the New Catholic Encyclopedia.