Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Acts 6:7

"And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith." — Acts 6:7 (ASV)

Luke concludes his first panel of material on the earliest days of the church in Jerusalem with this summary statement, which is very much in line with his thesis paragraph (2:42–47) and his summary paragraphs (4:32–35; 5:12–16) that head their respective units of material. His focus in this first panel has been on the advances of the Gospel and the responses of the people. Therefore he concludes by saying that “the word of God spread” and “the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly.” Before he leaves his first panel of material, however, Luke—almost, it seems, as an afterthought—inserts the comment that “a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.”

At first glance this is, to say the least, somewhat perplexing because, in view of 4:1ff. and 5:17ff., it seems extremely difficult to believe that priests in any numbers would have become Christians. Nevertheless, there were perhaps as many as eight thousand “ordinary” priests and ten thousand Levites, divided into twenty-four weekly courses, serving at the Jerusalem temple during the period of a year, whose social position was distinctly inferior to that of the high priestly families and whose piety in many cases could well have inclined them to an acceptance of the Christian message. Luke indicates that a great number of persons calling themselves priests became believers in Jesus and were numbered with the Christians in the Jerusalem church.

Panel 2—Critical Events in the Lives of Three Pivotal Figures (6:8–9:31) Luke now turns to three key events in the advance of the Gospel beyond its strictly Jewish confines: the martyrdom of Stephen, the early ministries of Philip, and the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. Luke’s presentation is largely biographical. This is the type of material that would have circulated widely among the dispossessed Hellenistic Christians, including Stephen’s argument before the Sanhedrin. Furthermore, Luke may have heard Philip and Paul speak together about these matters either during Paul’s stay for “a number of days” at Philip’s home in Caesarea (cf. 21:8–10) or during Paul’s imprisonment at Caesarea (cf. 25:27).

No doubt Stephen’s martyrdom was imprinted on Philip’s memory, and accounts of his defense had probably become the raison d’etre for the Hellenists’ continued ministry. Likewise, Philip must have made a lasting impression on Luke as an important figure in the advance of the Christian mission, just as he was an important person in the Christian community at Caesarea (cf. 8:40; 21:8–9). And Paul was of such immense significance for Luke’s narrative that an account of his conversion was inevitable—particularly because of its miraculous circumstances.

Just when the events of Luke’s second panel took place depends largely on the dates for Paul’s conversion and ministry. Since Stephen’s death occurred before the conversion of Saul of Tarsus (cf. 7:58; 8:1), and since Luke presents Philip’s ministries in Samaria and to the Ethiopian eunuch as following on the heels of the persecution that arose with Stephen’s martyrdom, the accounts of these two Hellenistic spokesmen are historically tied to the conversion of Saul. For the chronological issues associated with Paul, see the comments on 9:1–30 and other succeeding passages. As for this second panel, it is sufficient to say that the events Luke presents in it took place somewhere in the midthirties, possibly as early as A. D. 33 or as late as A. D. 37.