In this account we learn who Stephen was, what he said, and how he died--all things that made a huge impression on Paul. That experience set the stage for Paul's commissioning by the risen Jesus to evangelize Hellenists (Acts 9). In Stephen: Paul and the Hellenist Israelites, John J. Pilch reflects on Stephen as a Hellenist Israelite, a collectivistic person, a "deacon" (the word does not appear in Acts), and one who true to his tradition communicates with the world of God in alternate states of consciousness. Paul has much in common with Stephen, so to know Stephen is to gain a better understanding of Paul.