King James Bible Dictionary

STEP, verb intransitive [Gr., the foot. The sense is to set, as the foot, or move probably to open or part, to stretch or extend.]

1. To move the foot; to advance or recede by a movement of the foot or feet; as, to step forward, or to step backward.

2. To go; to walk a little distance; as, to step to one of the neighbors.

3. To walk gravely, slowly or resolutely.

Home the swain retreats, his flock before him stepping to the fold.

To step forth, to move or come forth.

To step aside, to walk to a little distance; to retire from company.

To step in or into,

1. To walk or advance into a place or state; or to advance suddenly in John 5:1.

2. To enter for a short time. I just stepped into the house for a moment.

3. To obtain possession without trouble; to enter upon suddenly; as, to step into an estate.

To step back, to move mentally; to carry the mind back.

They are stepping almost three thousand years back into the remotest antiquity.

STEP, verb transitive

1. To set, as the foot.

2. To fix the foot of a mast in the keel; to erect.

STEP, noun [G., to form a step or ledge.]

1. A pace; an advance or movement made by one removal of the foot.

2. One remove in ascending or descending; a stair.

The breadth of every single step or stair should be neer less than one foot.

3. The space passed by the foot in walking or running. The step of one foot is generally five feet; it may be more or less.

4. A small space or distance. Let us go to the gardens; it is but a step

5. The distance between the feet in walking or running.

6. Gradation; degree. We advance improvement step by step or by steps.

7. Progression; act of advancing.

To derive two or three general principles of motion from phenomena, and afterwards tell us how the properties and actions of all corporeal things follow from those manifest principles, could be a great step in philosophy.

8. Footstep; print or impression of the foot; track.

9. Gait; manner of walking. The approach of a man is often known by his step

10. Proceeding; measure; action.

The reputation of a man depends of the first steps he makes in the world.

11. The round of a ladder.

12. Steps in the plural, walk; passage.

Conduct my steps to find the fatal tree in this deep forest.

13. Pieces of timber in which the foot of a mast is fixed.

STEP-BROTHER, noun A brother-in-law, or by marriage.

STEP-CHILD, noun [step and child.[ A son-in-law or daughter-in-law, [a child deprived of its parent.]

STEP-DAME, noun A mother by marriage, [the mother of an orphan or one deprived.]

STEP-DAUGHTER, noun A daughter by marriage, [an orphan daughter.]

STEP-FATHER, noun A father-in-law; a father by marriage only; [the father of an orphan.]

Crown, a member of the church at Corinth, whose family were among those the apostle had baptized (1 Corinthians 1:16; 16:15, 17). He has been supposed by some to have been the "jailer of Philippi" (comp. Acts 16:33). The First Epistle to the Corinthians was written from Philippi some six years after the jailer's conversion, and he was with the apostle there at that time.

crown; crowned

A Christian in Corinth, whose household Paul baptized.
1 Corinthians 1:16; 1 Corinthians 16:15; 1 Corinthians 16:17

a Christian convert of Corinth whose household Paul baptized as the "first-fruits of Achaia." (1 Corinthians 1:16; 16:15) (A.D. 53.)

One of the seven deacons, who became a preacher of the gospel. He was the first Christian martyr. His personal character and history are recorded in Acts 6. "He fell asleep" with a prayer for his persecutors on his lips (7:60). Devout men carried him to his grave (8:2).

It was at the feet of the young Pharisee, Saul of Tarsus, that those who stoned him laid their clothes (comp. Deuteronomy 17:5-7) before they began their cruel work. The scene which Saul then witnessed and the words he heard appear to have made a deep and lasting impression on his mind (Acts 22:19, 20).

The speech of Stephen before the Jewish ruler is the first apology for the universalism of the gospel as a message to the Gentiles as well as the Jews. It is the longest speech contained in the Acts, a place of prominence being given to it as a defence.

same as Stephanas

A Christian martyr.

Appointed one of the committee of seven to oversee the daily ministration
Acts 6:3; Acts 6:5-6

Faith and power of
Acts 6:5; Acts 6:8-10

False charges against
Acts 6:11-15

Defense of
Acts 44:7

Stoned
Acts 7:54-60; Acts 8:1; Acts 22:20

Burial of
Acts 8:2

Gentle and forgiving spirit of
Acts 7:59-60

the first Christian martyr, was the chief of the seven (commonly called Deacons) appointed to rectify the complaints in the early Church of Jerusalem, made by the Hellenistic against the hebrew Christians. His Greek name indicates his own Hellenistic origin. His importance is stamped on the narrative by a reiteration of emphatic, almost superlative, phrases- "full of faith and of the Holy Ghost," (Acts 6:5) "full of grace and power," ibid. (Acts 6:8) irresistible "spirit and wisdom," ibid (Acts 6:10) "full of the Holy Ghost." (Acts 7:55) He shot far ahead of his six companions, and far above his particular office. First, he arrests attention by the "great wonders and miracles that he did." Then begins a series of disputations with the Hellenistic Jews of north Africa, Alexandria and Asia Minor, his companions in race and birthplace. The subject of these disputations is not expressly mentioned; but from what follows it is obvious that he struck into a new vein of teaching, which evidently caused his martyrdom. Down to this time the apostles and the early Christian community had clung in their worship, not merely to the holy land and the holy city but to the holy place of the temple. This local worship, with the Jewish customs belonging to it, Stephen denounced. So we must infer from the accusations brought against him confirmed as they are by the tenor of his defence. He was arrested at the instigation of the Hellenistic Jews, and brought before the Sanhedrin. His speech in his defence, and his execution by stoning outside the gates of Jerusalem, are related at length in Acts 7. The frame work in which his defence is cast is a summary of the history of the Jewish Church. In the facts which he selects from his history he is guided by two principles. The first is the endeavor to prove that, even in the previous Jewish history, the presence and favor of God had not been confined to the holy land or the temple of Jerusalem. The second principle of selection is based on the at tempt to show that there was a tendency from the earliest times toward the same ungrateful and narrow spirit that had appeared in this last stage of their political existence. It would seem that, just at the close of his argument, Stephen saw a change in the aspect of his judges, as if for the first time they had caught the drift of his meaning. He broke off from his calm address, and tumult suddenly upon them in an impassioned attack, which shows that he saw what was in store for him. As he spoke they showed by their faces that their hearts "were being sawn asunder," and they kept gnashing their set teeth against him; but still, though with difficultly, restraining themselves. He, in this last crisis of his fate, turned his face upward to the; open sky, and as he gazed the vault of heaven seemed to him to part asunder; and the divine Glory appeared through the rending of the earthly veil

the divine Presence, seated on a throne, and on the right hand the human form of Jesus. Stephen spoke as if to himself, describing the glorious vision; and in so doing, alone of all the speakers and writers in the New Testament except, only Christ himself, uses the expressive phrase "the Son of man." As his judges heard the words, they would listen no longer. They broke into, a loud yell; they clapped their hands to their ears; they flew as with one impulse upon him, and dragged him out of the city to the place of execution. Those who took the lead in the execution were the persons wile had taken upon themselves the responsibility of denouncing him. (17:7) comp. John 8:7 In this instance they were the witnesses who had reported or misreported the words of Stephen. They, according to the custom, stripped themselves; and one, of the prominent leaders in the transaction was deputed by custom to signify his assent to the act by taking the clothes into his custody and standing over them while the bloody work went on. The person was officiated on this occasion was a young man from Tarsus, the future apostle of the Gentiles. [PAUL] As the first volley of stones burst upon him, Stephen called upon the Master whose human form he had just seen in the heavens, and repeated almost the words with which he himself had given up his life on the cross, "O Lord Jesus receive my spirit." Another crash of stones brought him on his knees. One loud, piercing cry, answering to the shriek or yell with which his enemies had flown upon him, escaped his dying lips. Again clinging to the spirit of his Master's words, he cried "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge" and instantly sank upon the ground, and, in the touching language of the narrator who then uses for the first time the words afterward applied to the departure of all Christians, but here the more remarkable from the bloody scenes in the midst of which death took place, fell asleep . His mangled body was buried by the class of Hellenists and proselytes to which he belonged. The importance of Stephen's career may be briefly summed up under three heads-

1. He was the first great Christian ecclesiastic, "the Archdeacon," as he is called in the eastern Church.
2. He is the first martyr

   the protomartyr. To him the name "martyr" is first applied. (Acts 23:20)

3. He is the forerunner of St. Paul. He was the anticipator, as, had he lived, he would have been the propagator, of the new phase of Christianity of which St. Paul became the main support.

STEP-MOTHER, noun A mother by marriage only; a mother-in-law; [the mother of an orphan.]

STEP, STEPP noun In Russ, an uncultivated desert of large extent.

STEP, Sax. Steop, from stepan, to deprive, is prefixed to certain words to express a relation by marriage.

STEPPED, participle passive Set; placed; erected; fixed in the keel, as a mast.

STEPPING, participle present tense Moving, or advancing by a movement of the foot or feet; placing; fixing or erecting, as a mast.

STEPPING, noun The act of walking or running by steps.

STEPPING-STONE, noun A stone to raise the feet above the dirt and mud in walking.

STEP-SISTER, noun A sister-in-law, or by marriage, [an orphan sister.]

STEP-SON, noun A son-in-law, [an orphan son.]

[In the foregoing explication of step, I have followed Lye. The D. And G. Write stief, and the Swedes styf, before the name; a word which does not appear to be connected with any verb signifying to bereave, and the word is not without some difficulties. I have given the explanation which appears to be most probably correct. If the radical sense of step, a pace, is to part or open, the word coincides with Sax. Stepan, to deprive, and in the compounds above, step may imply removal or distance.]

STEP-STONE, noun A stone laid before a door as a stair to rise on in entering the house.