Act 6:1, 9, 11:20 | Clarke | e4.org | CHAPTER VI. The Hellenistic Jews complain against the Hebrews, that their widows were neglected in the daily ministration , 1. To remedy the evil complained of, the apostles appoint seven deacons to superintend the temporal affairs of the Church , 2-6. The progress of the word of God in Jerusalem , 7. Stephen, one of the deacons, becomes very eminent, and confounds various Jews of the synagogues of the Libertines , &c., 8-10. They suborn false witnesses against him, to get him put to death , 11-14. He appears before the council with an angelic countenance , 15. NOTES ON CHAP. VI. Verse 1. A murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews ] Those who are here termed Grecians, ελληνισται, or Hellenists, were Jews who sojourned now at Jerusalem, but lived in countries where the Greek language was spoken, and probably in general knew no other. They are distinguished here from those called Hebrews , by which we are to understand native Jews , who spoke what was then termed the Hebrew language, a sort of Chaldaio-Syriac. It has been remarked that Greek words ending in ιστης imply inferiority . ελληνες, Hellenes , was distinguished from ελληνισται: the former implies pure Greeks, native Greeks, who spoke the Greek tongue in its purity; and the latter, Jews or others sojourning among the Greeks, but who spoke the Greek language according to the Hebrew idiom . Pythagoras divided his disciples into two classes; those who were capable of entering into the spirit and mystery of his doctrine he called πυθαγορειοι, Pythagoreans ; those who were of a different cast he termed πυθαγορισται, Pythagorists : the former were eminent and worthy of their master; the latter only so so . The same distinction is made between those called αττικοι and αττικισται, Attics and Atticists , the pure and less pure Greeks, as between those called ελληνες and ελληνισται, Hellenes and Hellenists, pure Greeks and Graecising Jews . See Jamblicus , De Vit. Pyth. cap. 18, and Schoettgen on this place. The cause of the murmuring mentioned here seems to have been this: When all the disciples had put their property into a common stock, it was intended that out of it each should have his quantum of supply. The foreign or Hellenistic Jews began to be jealous, that their widows were neglected in the daily ministration, that they either had not the proportion , or were not duly served; the Palestine Jews being partial to those of their own country. This shows that the community of goods could never have been designed to become general. Indeed, it was no ordinance of God; and, in any state of society, must be in general impracticable. The apostles, hearing of this murmuring, came to the resolution mentioned below.

‏ Acts 6:1

CHAPTER VI.

The Hellenistic Jews complain against the Hebrews, that their widows were neglected in the daily ministration, 1.

To remedy the evil complained of, the apostles appoint seven deacons to superintend the temporal affairs of the Church, 2-6.

The progress of the word of God in Jerusalem, 7.

Stephen, one of the deacons, becomes very eminent, and confounds various Jews of the synagogues of the Libertines, &c., 8-10.

They suborn false witnesses against him, to get him put to death, 11-14.

He appears before the council with an angelic countenance, 15.

NOTES ON CHAP. VI.

Verse 1. A murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews] Those who are here termed Grecians, ελληνισται, or Hellenists, were Jews who sojourned now at Jerusalem, but lived in countries where the Greek language was spoken, and probably in general knew no other. They are distinguished here from those called Hebrews, by which we are to understand native Jews, who spoke what was then termed the Hebrew language, a sort of Chaldaio-Syriac.

It has been remarked that Greek words ending in ιστης imply inferiority. ελληνες, Hellenes, was distinguished from ελληνισται: the former implies pure Greeks, native Greeks, who spoke the Greek tongue in its purity; and the latter, Jews or others sojourning among the Greeks, but who spoke the Greek language according to the Hebrew idiom. Pythagoras divided his disciples into two classes; those who were capable of entering into the spirit and mystery of his doctrine he called πυθαγορειοι, Pythagoreans; those who were of a different cast he termed πυθαγορισται, Pythagorists: the former were eminent and worthy of their master; the latter only so so. The same distinction is made between those called αττικοι and αττικισται, Attics and Atticists, the pure and less pure Greeks, as between those called ελληνες and ελληνισται, Hellenes and Hellenists, pure Greeks and Graecising Jews. See Jamblicus, De Vit. Pyth. cap. 18, and Schoettgen on this place.

The cause of the murmuring mentioned here seems to have been this: When all the disciples had put their property into a common stock, it was intended that out of it each should have his quantum of supply. The foreign or Hellenistic Jews began to be jealous, that their widows were neglected in the daily ministration, that they either had not the proportion, or were not duly served; the Palestine Jews being partial to those of their own country. This shows that the community of goods could never have been designed to become general. Indeed, it was no ordinance of God; and, in any state of society, must be in general impracticable. The apostles, hearing of this murmuring, came to the resolution mentioned below.

‏ Acts 6:9

Verse 9. The synagogue-of the Libertines, &c.] That Jews and proselytes from various countries had now come up to Jerusalem to bring offerings, and to attend the feast of pentecost, we have already seen, Ac 2:9-11. The persons mentioned here were foreign Jews, who appear to have had a synagogue peculiar to themselves at Jerusalem, in which they were accustomed to worship when they came to the public festivals.

Various opinions have been entertained concerning the Libertines mentioned here: Bp. Pearce's view of the subject appears to me to be the most correct.

"It is commonly thought that by this name is meant the sons of such Jews as had been slaves, and obtained their freedom by the favour of their masters; but it is to be observed that with these Libertines the Cyrenians and Alexandrians are here joined, as having one and the same synagogue for their public worship. And it being known that the Cyrenians (Ac 2:10) lived in Libya, and the Alexandrians in the neighbourhood of it, it is most natural to look for the Libertines too in that part of the world. Accordingly we find Suidas, in his Lexicon, saying, upon the word λιβερτινοι, that it is ονοματουεθνους, the name of a people. And in Gest. Collationis Carthagine habitae inter Catholicos et Donatistas, published with Optatus's works, Paris, 1679, (No. 201, and p. 57,) we have these words: Victor episcopus Ecclesiae Catholicae LIBERTINENSIS dixit, Unitas est illic, publicam non latet conscientiam. Unity is there: all the world knows it. From these two passages it appears that there was in Libya a town or district called Libertina, whose inhabitants bore the name of λιβερτινοι, Libertines, when Christianity prevailed there. They had an episcopal see among them, and the above-mentioned Victor was their bishop at the council of Carthage, in the reign of the Emperor Honorius. And from hence it seems probable that the town or district, and the people, existed in the time of which Luke is here speaking. They were Jews, (no doubt,) and came up, as the Cyrenian and Alexandrian Jews did, to bring their offerings to Jerusalem, and to worship God in the temple there. Cunaeus, in his Rep. Hebr. ii. 23, says that the Jews who lived in Alexandria and Libya, and all other Jews who lived out of the Holy Land, except those of Babylon and its neighbourhood, were held in great contempt by the Jews who inhabited Jerusalem and Judea; partly on account of their quitting their proper country, and partly on account of their using the Greek language, and being quite ignorant of the other. For these reasons it seems probable that the Libertines, Cyrenians, and Alexendrians, had a separate synagogue; (as perhaps the Cilicians and those of Asia had;) the Jews of Jerusalem not suffering them to be present in their synagogues, or they not choosing to perform their public service in synagogues where a language was used which they did not understand."

It is supposed, also, that these synagogues had theological, if not philosophical, schools attached to them; and that it was the disciples or scholars of these schools who came forward to dispute with Stephen, and were enraged because they were confounded. For it is not an uncommon custom with those who have a bad cause, which can neither stand the test of Scripture nor reason, to endeavour to support it by physical when logical force has failed; and thus:-

"Prove their doctrine orthodox,

By apostolic blows and knocks."

In the reign of Queen Mary, when popery prevailed in this country, and the simplest women who had read the Bible were an overmatch for the greatest of the popish doctors; as they had neither Scripture nor reason to allege, they burned them alive, and thus terminated a controversy which they were unable to maintain. The same cause will ever produce the same effect: the Libertines, Cilicians, Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, pursued this course: Stephen confounded them by Scripture and reason, and they beat his brains out with stones! This was the most effectual way to silence a disputant whose wisdom they could not resist. In the same way were the Protestants treated, when by Scripture and reason they had shown the absurdity and wickedness of that anti-christian system which the fire and the sword were brought forth to establish. These persecutors professed great concern at first for the souls of those whom they variously tortured, and at last burned; but their tender mercies were cruel, and when they gave up the body to the flames, they most heartily consigned the soul to Satan. Scires � sanguine natos: their conduct proclaimed their genealogy.

‏ Acts 11:20

Verse 20. Men of-Cyrene] The metropolis of the Cyrenaica; a country of Africa, bounded on the east by Marmarica, on the west by the Regio Syrtica, on the north by the Mediterranean, and on the south by the Sahara. Cyrene is now called Cairoan. This city, according to Eusebius, was built in the 37th Olympiad, about 630 years before Christ. In consequence of a revolt of its inhabitants, it was destroyed by the Romans; but they afterwards rebuilt it. It was for a long time subject to the Arabs, but is now in the hands of the Turks.

Spake unto the Grecians] ελληνιστας, The Hellenists. Who these were, we have already seen Acts 6 and Ac 9:29, viz. Jews living in Greek cities and speaking the Greek language. But, instead of ελληνιστας, Grecians, ελληνας, Greeks, is the reading of AD*, Syriac, all the Arabic, Coptic, AEthiopic, Vulgate, some copies of the Itala, Eusebius, Chrysostom, Theophylact, and OEcumenius. On this evidence, Griesbach has admitted it into the text; and few critics entertain any doubt of the genuineness of the reading. This intimates that, besides preaching the Gospel to the Hellenistic Jews, some of them preached it to heathen Greeks; for, were we to adopt the common reading, it would be a sort of actum agere; for it is certain that the Hellenistic Jews had already received the Gospel. See Ac 6:1. And it is likely that these Cyprians and Cyrenians had heard of Peter's mission to Caesarea, and they followed his example by offering the Christian faith to the heathen. It is worthy of remark that the Jews generally called all nations of the world Greeks; as the Asiatics, to the present day, call all the nations of Europe Franks.