Acts 6:1. IN THOSE DAYS, WHEN THE NUMBER OF THE DISCIPLES WAS MULTIPLIED. The literal rendering _was multiplying_ is more forcible; while the apostles after their liberation went on with their high mission, every day the number of believers continued to increase in spite of the second arrest of the... [ Continue Reading ]
_The First Dissension in the Church leads to the Appointment of the Seven Deacons,_ 1-7. There is something very sad in the brief statement contained in the opening verses of this sixth chapter. It tells us that the curtain had fallen on the first act of the Church's history. Hitherto, during the Ma... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 6:2. THEN THE TWELVE CALLED THE MULTITUDE OF THE DISCIPLES. In the first instance, the apostles appear themselves to have attended to the distribution of the alms which were brought to them, and laid at their feet; but as the Church rapidly increased, duties more important occupied them, and th... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 6:3. LOOK YE OUT AMONG YOU SEVEN MEN. The special number ‘seven' has been made the object of much curious inquiry; some have suggested that there were now seven thousand believers in Jerusalem, and that one almoner was appointed for each thousand; others, that the Church in the city was divided... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 6:5. THEY CHOSE STEPHEN, A MAN FALL OF FAITH. ‘See,' says Chrysostom, writing of St. Stephen, ‘a certain one even among the seven was foremost, and gained the chief prize; for although all shared in the ordination alike, yet this one drew upon himself greater grace (than the others).' St. Steph... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 6:6. WHEN THEY HAD PRAYED, THEY LAID THEIR HANDS ON THEM. The hand of ‘him who ordains is laid on the head of him who is to be ordained, but the effect of the act is from God' (Chrysostom). The earliest mention of ‘laying on of hands' occurs in Genesis 48:10. It is there connected with blessing... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 6:7. AND THE WORD OF GOD INCREASED; AND THE NUMBER OF THE DISCIPLES MULTIPLIED IN JERUSALEM GREATLY. The dissensions caused by the growing jealousy between the Foreign and the Hebrew-speaking Jews were at all events for the time composed, and the Church within and without continued to prosper,... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Acts of St. Stephen, Acts 6:8 to Acts 8:2_. Acts 6:8. AND STEPHEN. One of the new men just chosen as assistants to the Twelve at once attracted public attention. His fearlessness, his splendid oratory, his intense faith, the great wonders and signs done in the power of this faith, threw into t... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 6:9. THEN THERE AROSE. The more accurate translation is, ‘But there arose.' The connection of thought is, the teaching and work of Stephen struck a new chord in the heart of the people. Many who had been deaf before, like the priests, were now constrained to listen. A new tide of success appare... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 6:10. AND THEY WERE NOT ABLE TO RESIST THE WISDOM. In the disputation the doctors of those great synagogues just mentioned, were fairly beaten in argument by the divinely-inspired wisdom of Stephen, who met them on their own ground, showing how marvellously the allusions and promises contained... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 6:11. THEN THEY SUBORNED MEN, WHICH SAID. That is, they secretly instructed, having concerted together what should be said. BLASPHEMOUS WORDS. According to the law of Moses, blasphemy consisted in contempt of Moses and his institutions, and was a capital offence (see Deuteronomy 13:6; Deutero... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 6:12. AND THEY STIRRED UP THE PEOPLE. It was above all things necessary for the enemies of these Nazarenes to have public opinion on their side. We have seen how popular favour on a former occasion (chap. Acts 5:26) had protected the apostles. The people were now won over to the side of the per... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 6:13. AND SET UP FALSE WITNESSES. These words have created some difficulty. In what sense were these witnesses ‘false'? At first sight Stephen seems to have used in his arguments words not very dissimilar from those which he was charged with uttering. But these witnesses, even perhaps quoting b... [ Continue Reading ]
Acts 6:15. SAW HIS FACE AS IT HAD BEEN THE FACE OF AN ANGEL. And the whole of that great council turned their earnest and excited gaze from the accusers to the accused, to see how the follower of the Crucified would look, charged with so grave a charge, now brought face to face with the rulers of hi... [ Continue Reading ]