The Bible Study Podcast, episode 145. Today, the Bible Study podcast continues the study of Acts

with Chapter 8. Welcome to the Bible Study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen.

Last week, we dealt with the death of Stephen, and you may

remember that the end of the chapter and the death of Stephen ended with people stoning Stephen,

who was the first martyr in the church, and then also putting their cloaks at the feet of a man named

Saul, a young man named Saul.

And we should say, because I don't know if I mentioned it last week, that the word martyr

is the Greek word for witness.

It's not the word for to die or somebody who dies for their faith.

It's just that to die for your faith was the ultimate witness, and so that word took

on a new meaning because of the

early Christian martyrs. So chapter 8, the first verse almost acts like it should be in chapter 7,

but was chosen by those who put in the chapter headings to be here in a separate chapter,

and that is this, and Saul was there giving approval to his death,

and that is to the death of Stephen. And so chapter 8 continues from there. On that day, a great

persecution broke out against the church at Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered

throughout Judea and Samaria.

Godly men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him, but Saul began to destroy the church.

Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison.

And we're going to continue on in the story of Saul in a later chapter, but these first few verses give us a little glimpse into the one who will become the Apostle Paul, but who, by his own account in the letter to

the Corinthians, killed people for their faith in Christianity, or their faith in what is at this

time still called the way. But first we're

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