The life and work of St. Paul

.IASFO&A: HEBRAISM AND HELLENISM. 75
diverted them from more serious and important duties. They therefore bade
the meeting elect seven men of blameless character, high spiritual gifts, and
practical wisdom, to form what we should call a committee of management,
and relieve the Apostles from the burden, in order that they might dovote
their energies to prayer and pastoral work. The advice was followed, and
seven were presented to the Apostles as suitable persons. They were admitted
to the duties of their position with prayer and the laying on of hands, which
have been thenceforth naturally adopted in every ordination to the office of a
deacon. 1
The seven elected were Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timoa,
Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte of Antioch. The fact that every one of
them bears a Greek name has often been appealed to as a proof of the con-
ciliatoriness of the Apostles, aa though they had elected every one of thoir
committee from the very body which had found some reason to complain.
This, however, would have been hardly just. It would have been to fly into
au opposite extreme. The frequency with which the Jews of this time adopted
Greek names prevents us from drawing any conclusion as to their nationality.
But although we cannot be certain about the conjecture of Gieseler that three
of them were Hebrews, three of them Hellenists, and one a proselyte, it is only
natural to suppose that the choice of them from different sections of the
Church would be adopted as a matter of fairness and common sense. And the
fact that a Gentile like Nicolas should thus have been selected to fill an office
so honourable and so responsible is one of the many indications which mark
the gradual dawn of a new conception respecting the Kingdom of God.
Though two alone 2 of the seven are in any way known to us, yet this
(Jos. Antt. xii. 2, 3 : of. Tpair^'ratc, Matt. ixv. 27 ; rpair-^oj', Luke xix. 23), is clear from
* "
the context.
1 The seven officers were not, however, "deacons" in the modern sense of the word,
nor were they mere almoners. The only special title given to any one of them is
Evangelist (Acts xxi. 8). Alike their gifts and their functions are loftier than those
required for deacons in 1 Tim. iii. Deacons in the modern sense find their nearer
prototypes in the vturepoi and ctovtV/cot (Acts v. 5, 10 ; cf. Luke xxii. 26), and in the
ChazzanSm of the synagogue (Luke iv. 20). The seven, as St. Chrysostom observes,
rather had the duties of presbyters, and must be regarded as a body chosen only for a
special purpose re'wt eU TOVTO expoTo')jei]