Acts 6

In those days the number of followers kept growing. The Greek-speaking Jews began to complain against the Hebrew-speaking Jews, because their widows were being passed over in the daily handing out of food.

1And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.

Note"Grecians" in 1611 did not mean Greeks. Both groups here are Jews who follow Jesus; what divides them is language and background. The "Grecians" grew up in Jewish families settled elsewhere around the Mediterranean, spoke Greek and read their scriptures in Greek; the "Hebrews" were native to Judea and spoke Aramaic or Hebrew. A widow without a husband or a grown son had almost no way to earn a living, so a daily handout of food or money was what kept her fed. "Ministration" is simply the practical work of distributing it.

2So the twelve apostles called the whole group of followers together and said, "It is not right for us to put aside the teaching of God's word in order to wait on tables.

2Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.

Note"It is not reason" is old English for "it is not reasonable" or "it is not fitting," not "there is no reason." "Serve tables" is a phrase that can point two ways in Greek: waiting on people at meal tables, or working at a money table, the way a banker or money changer did. Either way it means the hands-on administration of the fund rather than the teaching.

3So, brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be honest, and who are full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom. We will put them in charge of this work.

3Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.

Note"Honest report" means well spoken of. In 1611 "honest" carried the sense of honorable and respectable in the eyes of others, so the test is public reputation rather than truthfulness alone. "Holy Ghost" is not a spook: "ghost" was the ordinary English word for spirit, and this is the Holy Spirit.

4As for us, we will keep giving all our time to prayer and to the work of teaching the word."

4But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.

Note"Ministry" means service or work done for others; it does not refer to an office or a building. "The ministry of the word" is the labor of teaching and preaching.

5What they said pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, who was not born a Jew but had joined the Jewish faith.

5And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch:

NoteA "proselyte" was a non-Jew who had converted fully to Judaism, accepting circumcision and the law, as opposed to a sympathetic outsider who attended the synagogue without converting. Antioch was a large city in Syria with a substantial Jewish population. All seven of these names are Greek, which is worth noticing in a dispute that began over the Greek-speaking side of the community.

6They brought these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

6Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.

NoteLaying hands on someone was a recognized formal gesture, used when commissioning a person for a task, conferring a blessing, or publicly transferring responsibility. It made the appointment visible to everyone watching.

7So God's word spread further. The number of followers in Jerusalem grew very fast, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

7And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.

NoteThe priesthood was not a small circle. Several thousand priests were attached to the temple in Jerusalem, serving in rotating shifts, and most lived ordinary lives the rest of the year. A large number of them joining the movement is a note about scale within the temple establishment.

8Stephen, who was full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.

8And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.

NoteThe word the King James renders "miracles" is the Greek word for "signs," meaning acts that point to something beyond themselves rather than mere marvels. Also, the manuscripts differ here: some read "full of faith," others "full of grace."

9Then some men stood up to argue with Stephen. They belonged to the synagogue called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, and included Jews from Cyrene and Alexandria, and others from the provinces of Cilicia and Asia.

9Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.

Note"Libertines" does not mean people of loose morals. It renders a Latin term for freedmen: former slaves who had been released, or their descendants. Many Jews had been taken as prisoners to Rome and later freed, and such families kept their own synagogue. Cyrene was a city in North Africa, Alexandria the great Egyptian city with a large Jewish community, Cilicia a Roman province in the southeast of what is now Turkey, and "Asia" the Roman province on the western coast of the same peninsula, not the continent. The Greek is loose enough that this may describe one synagogue drawing all these groups or several synagogues acting together.

10But they could not stand up against the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.

10And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.

NoteGreek was written without capital letters, so the word here can mean the Holy Spirit or Stephen's own spirit, that is, the force of the man himself. Translators have to choose; the text does not. "Resist" here means withstand or hold their own against.

11So they secretly got some men to say, "We have heard him speak insulting words against Moses and against God."

11Then they suborned men, which said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses, and against God.

Note"Suborned" is a legal term: to secretly procure someone, usually by bribe or pressure, to give false testimony. "Blasphemous words" translates a word meaning slander or abusive speech; when aimed at God or at sacred things it was a capital charge under the law of Moses.

12They stirred up the people, the elders, and the teachers of the law. They came at Stephen, seized him, and brought him before the council.

12And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council,

Note"Scribes" were not copyists in this context but trained experts in the law, the men who interpreted and applied it. The "council" is the Sanhedrin, the supreme Jewish court in Jerusalem, some seventy members plus the high priest, which handled religious and legal cases of this weight.

13There they put forward false witnesses, who said, "This man never stops speaking insulting words against this holy place and against the law.

13And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:

Note"This holy place" means the temple in Jerusalem. "The law" means the law of Moses, the first five books of scripture together with the whole body of practice built on them.

14For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us."

14For we have heard him say, that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place, and shall change the customs which Moses delivered us.

Note"Delivered" in 1611 means handed on or passed down, as a tradition is passed from one generation to the next. It has nothing to do with rescue. The "customs" are the inherited practices of Jewish life: sacrifice, circumcision, sabbath, food laws, and the rest.

15Everyone sitting in the council stared at him, and they saw that his face looked like the face of an angel.

15And all that sat in the council, looking stedfastly on him, saw his face as it had been the face of an angel.

Note"Stedfastly" means fixedly or intently; everyone in the room turned and stared. Comparing a face to an angel's suggests a look that is lit up and unafraid, and readers of the Hebrew scriptures would hear an echo of Moses coming down from Sinai with his face shining, which is pointed given the charge just made against Stephen.