Acts 6

Seven Chosen to Serve

Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. 2 And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 3 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men nof good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.

6:3

NA27 sees here a reference to Exod. 18:17–23, where Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro, counsels him to choose godly men from all the people to take over the simpler judicial cases and leave him free to attend to more serious business. The linguistic parallels are not strong (cf. episkeptomai [6:3] with skeptomai [Exod. 18:21]; kathistēmi [6:3; Exod. 18:21]; and the listing of appropriate qualities). The echoes suggest that a divinely approved pattern is being followed. The expression “full of the Spirit” is also used of the artisan Bezalel in Exod. 31:3; 35:31, but its source here is surely early church language.

4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 5 And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, ta proselyte of Antioch. 6 These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

6:6

The use of the laying on of hands to confer authority goes back to the appointment of Joshua (Num. 27:18, 23; cf. also the use of episkeptomai in this context [Num. 27:16]). The OT parallel confirms that this is the conferral of authority on persons who already possess the Spirit (6:3, 5), not a conferral of the Spirit (though in Deut. 34:9 it is said that Joshua had the spirit of wisdom “because Moses had laid his hands on him”).

7 And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith.

6:7

The verbs “grew” (auxanō) and “multiplied” (plēthynō) are used in Acts 7:17 with the single subject of the people of Israel in Egypt, using wording based on Exod. 1:7 (cf. 1:20). In Acts 12:24 the same phrase is used with reference to the word of God in connection with the growth and spread of the Christian mission (cf. 19:20, where ischyō is used rather than plēthynō). Here the two verbs are given separate subjects: “the word of God grew and the number of disciples multiplied,” and this indicates more clearly what Luke means in 12:24; 19:20. Thus there is some parallel between the growth of the people of God at the time of the exodus and the growth of the number of disciples at the time of the new exodus; the new factor in the latter case is the powerful effects of the preaching. The same entity apparently can be referred to both as the word and as the community, possibly because the people are the witnesses: “The community is the word as it testifies to the power and salvation of the God of Israel” (Pao 2000: 170 [see 167–71]). For the concept of the word as a powerful agent sent forth by God, see Ps. 147:15 (147:4 LXX); Hab. 3:5 LXX; Wis. 18:14–16 (Pao 2000: 177–79).

Stephen Is Seized

8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. 10 But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. 11 Then they secretly instigated men who said, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” 12 And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes, and they came upon him and seized him and brought him before the council, 13 and they set up false witnesses who said, “This man never ceases to speak words against this holy place and the law, 14 for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and will change the customs that Moses delivered to us.” 15 And gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face iwas like the face of an angel.

6:8–15

Brodie (1983) has argued that the OT account of the stoning of a good man, Naboth, as opposed to the legal texts and the accounts of the stoning of evil persons (Josh. 7:25; 1 Kings 12:18), has been used to provide the “underlying framework” of the story of Stephen’s trial and death, “almost like a skeleton which, having lost its former body, is fleshed out once more until it supports a new body” (Brodie 1983: 421). Brodie claims that the parallels go beyond what would be expected in two accounts of stonings, and that no general pattern for such stories exists. The stories are both somewhat repetitive and show some parallelism in structure: the hostility against the victim, the setting up of false witnesses who make a twofold accusation, the manipulation of the people, the bringing of the accused person before them, the testimony of the false witnesses, and finally the stoning itself. At the same time, there are considerable differences because these are significantly different incidents. The Naboth story is incidental to the account of the conflict between Ahab and Jezebel and Elijah, whereas Stephen is a main character in the history of the early church. It is best to conclude that Luke has seen the similarities in the stories and that the echoes between them are used to confirm the way in which the persecution of the godly has been characteristic of the Jews throughout their history, as Stephen himself attempts to show in his speech with respect to the ongoing persecution of the prophets right through to Jesus himself.