f Stephen (Acts 7), the first recorded Christian martyr, is the longest speech in Acts. In Acts 6, Luke informs us that Stephen was an important member of the Jerusalem Church. He began preaching in Jerusalem and so incited some of his opponents, that they seized Stephen and brought him before the Council. Confronted by the Council, Stephen spoke at length about the history of Israel and the coming of Christ. He closed is speech with, "Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God." 7:56. After the speech, Stephen was stoned to death by an enraged mob.
A notable characteristic about Stephen's speech is that it is "not noticeably Lukan in character." Witherington, op. cit., page 265. Indeed, after studying the language and theology of Stephen's speech as compared with the rest of Luke's writings, "[m]ost scholars  rightly recognize Luke drawing on some sort of source here. Ibid. I. Howard Marshall agrees. He describes as a "certainty" that Luke used preexisting source material for Stephen's speech in Acts 7. Luke: Historian and Theologian, page 72. "[T]he speech of Stephen has by no means been fully assimilated to Lucan ideas but retains several individual characteristics." Ibid. For example, in Acts 7:46-49, Stephen's speech is critical of even the idea of the Temple. But in Luke 1:8-23; 24-53; Acts 3:1 and elsewhere, Luke seems to be more positive about it. "For Stephen the idea of a fixed structure for the worship of God was misguided from the beginning; for Luke the temple is the house of God throughout the twofold work until the moment when Paul is ejected from the sacred precincts." F.F. Bruce, The Acts of the Apostles, pages 38-39.
In sum, the longest speech in Acts displays remarkably unLukan characteristics which have lead the majority of New Testament scholars to the conclusion that Luke has based Acts 7 on a preexisting source. Just as with the Markan and Q material, Luke has relied on an already established tradition here.
2.     Peter's Speech to the Jews in Jerusalem
In Acts 3 and 4, Luke records that Peter gave speeches to the people of Jerusalem, and then to the Sanhedrin. Again, most scholars believe that Luke is relying on preexisting source material to reconstruct Peter's speech. Factors which support this position are 1) the grammatical awkwardness of several verses, 2) references to particular knowledge best explained by proximity to the speech, 3) the nonLukan christological terms, and 4) the eschatology of verse 20. Witherington, op. cit., page 165, fn. 2. Additionally, throughout Acts 3 and 4, but seldom elsewhere, Acts includes references to "servant Christology." Such Christology portrays Jesus as the suffering servant of God and humanity. It was through the position of servant that Jesus accomplished his redemptive work. This view stresses how far Jesus lowered Himself and His obedience by becoming a "suffering servant." For example, in Acts 3:18 "But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets, that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. " Notably, the suffering servant Jesus is also found in the First Epistle of Peter. Even if we assume that the letter was written by someone merely of the Petrine tradition, the similarities are probative. This is most clearly demonstrated in 1 Peter 2:22-25:
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin; no guile was found on his lips. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he trusted to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.
As Witherington states, "I therefore doubt that it is an accident that Peter is presented here, as in 1 Peter 2, as the first, and perhaps only truly major, Christian expositor of a 