Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 6

And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied. Better, were being multiplied, indicating an almost daily increase. The length of the interval between this event and the previous chapter is left uncertain. The death of Stephen is fixed by most writers in A.D. 38.

The Grecians. The English version always carefully uses this word, and not Greeks, for the Hellenistæ, or Greek-speaking Jews. These were also known as the dispersion among the Gentiles (John 7:35), or generally as “the dispersion,” “the sojourners of the dispersion,” or those that were scattered abroad (James 1:1; 1 Peter 1:1).

Many of the converts of the Day of Pentecost must have belonged to this body; so, probably, did Barnabas and the others named in the note on Acts 4:37. Now they were becoming a prominent section of the Church, perhaps more numerous than the Hebrews, or Jews of Palestine.

As their name implies, they habitually spoke Greek and, as a rule, did not read the older Hebrew or speak the current Aramaic. They read the Septuagint (LXX.) version of the Old Testament. They were commonly more zealous for the sanctity of the holy places—with the zeal of pilgrims—than the Jews of Jerusalem itself, who had been familiar with them from infancy (Acts 21:27).

Because their widows were neglected. These words imply something like an organised administration of the common fund, widows and their children being the chief objects of relief. The rules found in 1 Timothy 5:3–16 were probably the growth of a more mature experience. Here, we have to imagine a clamorous crowd of applicants besieging the house where the Apostles held their meeting at the appointed times for giving relief, either in money or, as seems more probable, in kind.

The Twelve—singly or in groups—sat at the table and gave as they were able. This distribution was like the dole of alms at the gate of a convent. Under such circumstances, jealousies and complaints were all but inevitable.

The Twelve were all Galileans and were suspected of favouring the widows of Palestine rather than those of the Dispersion. This was the first sign that the new society was outgrowing its primitive organisation.

Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples.—The Apostles meet the crisis with singular tact and moderation. They do not resent the suspicion; they are not anxious to vindicate themselves against it. They remembered, it may be, the precedent presented by the life of Moses (Exodus 18:25), and they act, as he had acted, by delegating part of their authority to others. The collective action of the multitude is strikingly in harmony with the Greek ideas attached to the word Ecclesia, as the assembly in which every citizen might take his share. Representative government might come as a necessity of later times; at this point, every member of the congregation, every citizen of the new polity, was invited, as having a right to vote.

It is not reason.—Literally, It is not pleasing, as in Acts 12:3. The word implies that they had undertaken a burdensome duty, not for their own pleasure, because they liked it, but for the good of the community.

And serve tables.—The word was used for the “tables” of money-changers, as in Matthew 21:12, John 2:15, and was, therefore, equally appropriate whether we think of the relief as being given in money or in kind.

Seven men of honest report.—The number may have had its origin in the general reverence for the number Seven among the Jews. Possibly, however, the suggestion may have come from the Libertini, or Hellenists of Rome, where there was a distinct guild, or Collegium, known as the Septemviri Epulones, or Seven Stewards (Lucan. i. 602), whose business it was to arrange for the banquets held in honour of the gods, which were more or less analogous to the Christian agapē, on certain set days. (See Smith’s Dict. of Greek and Roman Antiquities, article "Epulones.") It is an interesting coincidence that they, too, had been appointed to relieve the Pontifices from a duty which they found too heavy. This view falls in with the inference as to the Roman origin of Stephen which will be found in the Notes on Acts 6:5.

Full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom.—The Apostles, it is clear, did not limit their thoughts of the Spirit’s working to prophecy and the gift of tongues. Wherever wisdom, love, and kindness were necessary, there was need of a supernatural grace, raising men above prejudice and passion. Of these qualities, no less than of the good report, the whole body of believers were to be, in the first instance, the judges, the Apostles reserving to themselves the right of final appointment, and therefore, if necessary, of a veto. It is significant that the word "wisdom" only appears in the Acts in connection with Stephen (here and in Acts 6:10, and in the report of his speech, Acts 7:10; Acts 7:22). We may, perhaps, think of James, the brother of the Lord, as led by what he now saw and heard to that prayerful seeking after wisdom which is so prominent in his Epistle (James 1:5; James 3:13–17).

We will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word (Acts 6:4).—Literally, We will persevere in . . . These formed the true work of the Apostles, as afterwards of the bishops or elders of the Church. “Prayer” includes the public worship of the Church in all its various developments, as well as private prayer and intercession; the “ministry of the word,” all forms of teaching.

It is to be noted that the men thus appointed are never called “deacons” in the New Testament. When they are referred to again it is as “the Seven” (Acts 21:8), as though they were a distinct and peculiar body.

Their functions were, of course, in some degree, analogous to those of the “deacons” of the Pastoral Epistles and the later organisation of the Church; but these, as we have seen, had their prototypes in the “young men,” as contrasted with “elders” (Acts 5:6; Acts 5:10); and the Seven were probably appointed, so to speak, as archdeacons, to superintend and guide them.

In some churches, as at Rome, the number of deacons was fixed at seven, in conformity with this precedent (so also at the Council of Neo-Cæsarea, Can. 14, A.D. 314). They were considered, when the bishop came to be distinguished from the elders, as acting more immediately under the direction of the former, helping him in the details of his office.

And they chose Stephen.—The seven who were chosen all have Greek names, and it is a natural, though not a necessary, inference, that they were all of the Hellenistic section of the Church, either because that section had a majority, or because the Hebrews generously voted for giving them special representatives of their own.

The order of names may represent the actual order of election, Stephen obtaining the largest number of votes, and so on. The position occupied by the new teacher is so prominent that we should welcome anything that threw light on his previous training.

Unhappily we cannot advance beyond the region of uncertain tradition, or, at best, of probable inference. The coincidences, however, which suggest that inference are not without interest.

1. The name of Stephanus was not a common one, and appears in few inscriptions. Like so many of the names in Romans 16:0, however, it is found in those of the Columbarium, or burial-place, of the household of the Empress Livia. The man bearing it is described as a goldsmith (Aurifaber), and as immunis—i.e., exempted from the religious obligations of his trade-guild. He is a freed-man or libertinus. Circumstances, such as the bequest by Herod the Great of his gold plate to Livia (Josephus, Ant. xvi. 5, § 1; xvii. 8, § 1), indicate an intimate connection between him and the Imperial Court, and make it probable that the goldsmith Stephanus was a Jew. The business was one in which then, as in later ages, Jews conspicuously excelled, and the exemption just mentioned may well have been, as it were, of the nature of a “conscience-clause” in his favour. The name is found also on a tablet in the museum of the Collegio Romano.

2. It is obvious that the strangers of Rome—the Jews from the capital of the empire—were likely to be among the most prominent of the Hellenists at Jerusalem. It was antecedently probable that the name of one of that body should stand first on the list.

3. When Stephen becomes conspicuous as a teacher, the synagogue which is the most prominent scene of his activity is that of the Libertines, who can be none other than the freed-men or emancipated Jews from Rome. (See Note on Acts 6:9.)

4. Jews from Rome were, we have seen, present on the Day of Pentecost, and some conspicuous converts from among them had been made before Stephen appears on the scene. (See Note on Acts 4:37.)

5. The very appointment of the Seven has, as we have seen, its origin in the customs of the trade-guilds of Rome, such as that to which the goldsmith Stephanus had belonged.

Taking all these facts together, there seems sufficient ground to believe that in the proto-martyr of the Church, whose teaching and whose prayers exercised so marvellous an influence in the history of the Church of Christ, we have one of the earliest representatives of Roman Christianity.

A tradition accepted by Epiphanius in the fourth century leads to another conclusion. Stephen and Philip were both, it was said, of the number of the Seventy who were sent shortly after the last Feast of Tabernacles in our Lord’s ministry into every city and village where He Himself would come. That mission, as has been said in the Note on Luke 10:1, was in its very form, symbolic of the admission of the Gentile nations to the kingdom of God; and it would seem from Luke 9:52; Luke 17:11, as if, at that time, Samaria had been the chief scene of our Lord’s ministry, and therefore of that of the Seventy.

In a mission of such a nature, it was not unlikely that Hellenistic Jews should be more or less prominent, and the assumption of some previous connection with Samaria gives an adequate explanation both of Philip’s choice of that region as the scene of his work as an Evangelist (Acts 8:5) and of the general tendency of St. Stephen’s speech; perhaps also of one of the real or apparent inaccuracies which criticism has noted as a proof of ignorance either in the speaker or the writer. (See Note on Acts 7:16.)

Admitting the comparative lateness of the tradition mentioned by Epiphanius, it was still antecedently probable that men, who had been brought into prominence by their Lord’s special choice, would not be passed over in such an election as that now before us; and if, as suggested in the Note on Luke 10:1, the Seventy were the representatives of the Prophets of the New Testament, then it was natural that men should turn to them when they wanted to find men full of the Holy Ghost and of wisdom.

Philip.—The coincidence of name with that of the Apostle and with two of Herod’s sons indicates that the name was as common as that of Stephen was rare. Of his previous history we know nothing, except the tradition that he also had belonged to the Seventy. His long-continued residence at Cæsarea just suggests the probability of an earlier connection with that city. The fact that he had four grown-up daughters when St. Paul came to Cæsarea makes it probable that he was married at the time of his appointment.

Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas.—Of these four nothing is known, nor are there any materials even for probable conjecture. The name of Nicanor was memorable as that of the great enemy of Judah, who died in battle fighting against Judas Maccabæus. It appears, later on, as borne by a Jewish friend of Titus and Josephus (Wars, v. 6, § 2). That of Timon had been made conspicuous by the philosopher of Phlius and the misanthrope of Athens.

Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch.—Next to the first two names on the list, the last is that to which greatest interest attaches.

1. It is the first appearance in the history of the Christian Church of the city which was afterwards to be the mother-church of the Gentiles. (On Antioch and its position, see Note on Acts 11:19.) Here it will be enough to note that there was a large Jewish population there, and that Herod had gained the favour of the city by building a splendid colonnade along the whole length of its chief street.

2. The name had been made memorable by Nicolaus of Damascus, who wrote a long and elaborate history of his own times, and pleaded for the Jews before Augustus and Agrippa (Josephus, Ant. xii. 3, § 2; xvi. 2, § 3; 9, § 4).

   He appeared at Rome again as counsel for Archelaus, and was for many years the confidential friend and adviser of Herod the Great (Josephus, Ant. xvii. 9, § 6; 11, § 3).

   Finding, as we do, an adopted son of Herod’s at Antioch (Acts 13:1), and a proselyte of that city bearing the name of his chosen companion, there seems some ground for assuming a link connecting the three together.

3. In any case Nicolas is memorable as the first person not of the race of Abraham named as admitted to full membership in the Church. He may have sacrificed to Apollo, or taken part in the licentious festivals of the grove of Daphne. The word “proselyte” is taken in its full sense, as including the acceptance of circumcision and the ceremonial law. He was, in technical language, a proselyte of Righteousness, not of the Gate. Had it been otherwise, his conversion would have anticipated the lesson taught afterwards by that of Cornelius.

4. The name of Nicolas has been identified by an early tradition as the founder of the sect of the Nicolaitanes condemned in Revelation 2:6. He, it was said, taught men “to misuse the flesh” (Clement of Alexandria, Strom, iii. 4, p. 187; Eusebius, Hist. iii. 29). Some contended that he meant by this that it was to be subdued by a rigorous asceticism: others, that he held it to be a proof of spiritual progress to yield to sensuous impulses, and yet remain pure. The traditions are not of much value, and another interpretation of the name of the sect is now very generally adopted ; but the fall of one of the Seven into the error of overstrained rigour, or a reaction from it, is not in itself inconceivable.

In the New Testament we never come across his name again.