[8] Now Stephen, filled with grace and power, was working great wonders and signs among the people. [9] Certain members of the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen, Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and people from Cilicia and Asia, came forward and debated with Stephen, [10] but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke. [11] Then they instigated some men to say, "We have heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God." [12] They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, accosted him, seized him, and brought him before the Sanhedrin. [13] They presented false witnesses who testified, "This man never stops saying things against (this) holy place and the law. [14] For we have heard him claim that this Jesus the Nazorean will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us." [15] All those who sat in the Sanhedrin looked intently at him and saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
(CCC 584) Jesus went up to the Temple as the privileged place of encounter with God. For him, the Temple was the dwelling of his Father, a house of prayer, and he was angered that its outer court had become a place of commerce (Cf. Mt 21:13). He drove merchants out of it because of jealous love for his Father: "You shall not make my Father's house a house of trade. His disciples remembered that it was written, 'Zeal for your house will consume me'" (Jn 2:16-17; cf. Ps 69:10). After his Resurrection his apostles retained their reverence for the Temple (Cf. Acts 2:46; 3:1; 5:20, 21; etc). (CCC 585) On the threshold of his Passion Jesus announced the coming destruction of this splendid building, of which there would not remain "one stone upon another" (Cf. Mt 24:1-2). By doing so, he announced a sign of the last days, which were to begin with his own Passover (Cf. Mt 24:3; Lk 13:35). But this prophecy would be distorted in its telling by false witnesses during his interrogation at the high priest's house, and would be thrown back at him as an insult when he was nailed to the cross (Cf. Mk 14:57-58; Mt 27:39-40).
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