Stephan was evidently a chosen instrument of God, endowed with exiraonlinary charisms, which he em- ployed for the blessing and abuse<l to the misery of souls. He was of im|ioHing physical stature, over six feet ill height, and possessed of rugged earnestness and intense determination. He was as shrewd as he was bolil. His early ministerial life was that of a hero. Kxtraordinary success and the unbounded adoration of his iM'ople excited his vanity, and opened the way to pin aiid immorality. In his later days he was, no doubt,
an abandoned hypocrite, who used his high position for the gratification of his tleshly lusts. See Stephan, l'redi(jttii, two sermons delivered in the Church of St. John, ill Dresden, on the day of commemorating the Keformation, and on the first Sunday in Advent, 1823 (Diirr, Dresden and Leipsic) ; id. l>er c/irisll. O'laiibe, sermons of the year 1824 (Dresden, 1825, 2 pts.); Po- scliel, Gldubfiisbekeimln. d. Geiiieindv zu ISt. Job. in Dres- den, etc. (1833); Stephan, Giiben Jiir Unsere Zeit (2d ed. Nuremb. 1834) ; Von Uckermaim, iSendsc/ir, an Prof. KriKj, etc. (Sondershausen, 1837) ; Delitzsch, Wis- seii.ir/iti/f, Kiitist, Jndetiihum (Grimma, 1838) ; Llitke- miiller, Lfhren u. Umtriebe d, StejthaniMi'n (Altenburg, 1838), violent; Exuktnten-Lieder (Bremen, 1838), five hynnis composed bj^ the emigrating colony of Stephan- ists, in which exaggerated adulation of the pastor, Ste- phan, is intermixed with devotional sentiment; Francke, Tico Sermons on £p/i. Hi, 14-ir, G, delivered in the royal chapel at Dresden, 1838; Steinert, Three Sermons on the Slephanisls (Dresden, 1838); Siebenhaar, Discotiises relaiimj to the Stephaimt Movement (Penig, 1839); Wil- denhain, ^4 Se7-7non (ibid. 1839); Pleissner, JJie kiirhl. Fiinuliker ini Muldenlhale (Altenburg, 1839), rational- istic ; Warner, Die neiiesi. sachs. A usivonderer muh Amerika (Leipsic, 1839), shallow, and not important; Schicksale V. Abentever d. , , . Stephanianer {DTes^\^;\^, 1839), based on reports from Giinther, a returned emi- grant Stephanist; Fischer, Das falsche Afartj/rerthvvi, etc. (Leipsic, 1839), the most complete presentation of the subject ; Yon Polenz, D. djfentl. Mernung v. d. Pastor Stephan (Dresden and Leipsic, 1840), the most important treatise for reaching a true estimate of Ste- phan; Yehse, D. Stephaii'sche Avuw. n. Amerika, etc. (Dresden, 1840), held by returned members of the Ste- phanist colony to be the most accurate statement of the facts as they occurred; Walther, Sermon delivered be- fore the Lutheran Congregation in St. Lotiis, Nov. 22, 1840 (ibid. 1841). Ccmip. also the acts of the Saxon Diet in regard to the case of Stephan, etc.; and see Guericke, JIandb. d. Kirchengesch. 3d ed. ii, 995, 1096 sq., 1100, and numerous articles in tlie periodicals of the time. — Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s. v.
Steph'anas (iTKpavag, a contraction for the collo- quial Lat. Stephanatiis, "crowned"), a disciple at Cor- inth whose household Paul baptized (1 Cor. i, 16), be- ing the first converted to Christianity in Achaia (xvi, 15). From the last of these texts it woiiki appear that Ste|dianas and his family, in the most exemjilary man- ner, " addicted themselves to the ministry of tlie saints," which some interpret of their having taken u])on them the office and duty of deacons; but which seems to ad- mit of a larger sense (without excluding this), namely, that all the members of this excellent family ministered to the wants and promitted the comfort of their fellow- Christians, whether strangers or countrymen. As "the household of Stephanas" is mentioned in both texts, it has been supposed that Steiihanas himself was dead when Paul wrote; but in ver. 17 it is said "1 am glad of the coming of Stephanas." — Kitto. He was present with the apostle at l<'phesus when he wrote his First Epistle to the C()rinthians (A.I). 54), hannggone thith- er either to consult him about matters of discipline con- nected with the Corinthian Church (Clirysost. JJom. 44), or on some charitable mission. — Smith.
Stephani, lIi;iNiurii, a Protestant divine of Ger- many, was born at (imiind, April 1, 1761. He studied at Krlangeii, and was made in 1794 niendjcr of consistory at Castel. In IKOH he was apjiointed superintendent of the Church and school at Augsburg; in 1818 dean and pastor at (jUnzenhausen, was suspended in 1836, and died in 18.')0 at (iorkau, in Silesia. He wrote, Ge- ibinken iiber F.ntstehung vnd Ausbihbing eines Nessias (Nuremt)erg, 1787): — Grvndriss der Staatserziehvngs- visstiischdft (Weissenfels, 1797): — Lehrbuch der Religion (1th ed. Nuremberg, 1819) : — Das allgemeine kanovische lieclU der protestantischen Kirche in Deulschland (Tii-
STEPHANISTS
1009
STEPHEN
bingen, 1825): — Die Offenharung Gottes durch die Ver- nunft (lis die einzi;/ (/eicisse iind vdlli;/ geniKjcnde (ibid. 1835): — Moses und Christus (Leips. 183(j): — Die Huupt- lehren des Rutionulisnius viid Mysticisvuis, etc. (ibid. 1837). See Reffensbun/er Conreisalion^i-Lerikon, s. v.; Zuchold, Bibl. Thevl. i'i, TiGS sq. ; Fiirst, Bill. Jud. iii, 385; Winer, llandbuch der t/ieol. Lilenittir, i, 2'.), 453, 581 ; ii, 12, 26, 73, 75. 197, 201, 233, 254, 320, 335, 354, 790. (B. P.)
Stephanists. See Stepiian.
Stephanos (Srl^avof), a Greek term for the nup- tial crutcn.
Stephauus. See Stephens.
Ste'phen (SrE^ai'oe, « crown), one of the first seven deacons, and the protomartyr, of the Christian Church. A.D. 29. (In the following account we chief- ly follow those found in the Dictionaries of Ivitto and Smith.)
St. Stephen's importance is stamped on the narrative by a reiteration of emphatic, almost superlative, phrases —"full of faith and of the Holy Ghost" (Acts vi, 5); "full of grace and power" (ver. 8); irresistible "spirit and wisdom" (ver. 10) ; " full of the Holy Ghost" (vii, 55). Of his ministrations among the poor we hear nothing. But he seems to have been an instance, such as is not uncommon in historv, of a new energy derived from a new sphere. He shot far ahead of his six com- panions, 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 men- tioned; but, from what follows, it is evident that he struck into a new vein of teaching, which eventually caused his martyrdom.