Acts 6:3

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 into seven separate congregations. The seven Archangels, the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit, the sacredness of the number seven, have each in their turn been suggested as giving the clue to the selection of this particular number; but no real ground for this choice of the number seven has ever been found: the reasons which determined the apostles here, are utterly unknown to us.

A far more interesting question, however, is suggested by this episode in the ‘Acts.' Have we here really the account of the institution of that third order in the Church called ‘deacons'?

It is remarkable that the word διάκονος , deacon, literally a ministering servant, never once occurs in the ‘Acts' as the title of these seven; the term is used four times in the New Testament as an official designation, once in the Epistle to the Philippians, and three times in the First Epistle to Timothy. Philip, for instance, one of the seven who is mentioned subsequently in the ‘Acts,' is called, not a deacon, but an evangelist. In the whole book of the ‘Acts' no direct mention is ever made of the office of deacon. The silence of this book on the point in question causes us at first to hesitate before we identify the solemn ordination of the seven with the foundation of the third great order of the Christian Church. On the other hand, the early Christian writers Ignatius, Irenæus, and Origen, consider that we have here the history of the institution of the diaconate. From Eusebius we learn that in his day the Church of Rome, whilst it had forty-six presbyters, had only seven deacons. Of course, this was in strict imitation of the first solemn ordination recounted in this sixth chapter of our book. Chrysostom takes a different view of their office, and speaks of their ordination as intended for a special purpose. But the general view of the Church from the earliest times has been, that in the setting apart of the seven, we have the primitive institution of the diaconate. These men were the formally-recognised assistants of the apostles; they were solemnly dedicated to their work, which, besides the superintendence of the Church's alms, included, as we shall see in the case of the two who subsequently appear in the history, the ministry of the word. Both Stephen and Philip, we know, were powerful and effective preachers; the first (Stephen), as an orator, was probably the most learned and eloquent in the apostolic age. To assert that these seven in any way occupied the position which ecclesiastical order, even so early as in the lifetime of St. Paul, has assigned to deacons, would be utterly to misstate the whole spirit of the story of the early Church. The seven occupied a place of far higher importance than that held by the deacons of after years, a position, in fact, as Chrysostom says, peculiar to themselves. Still, in this solemn setting apart by the apostles of an inferior order for the purpose of performing certain duties which interfered with the life and work of the elder officers of the Church, we must recognise the first planting of that lower order which, as the Church grew, gradually developed, and adapting itself to new and altered conditions before thirty years had elapsed, was formally termed the diaconate.

Of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom. The requirements to be possessed by the seven show what an important office the apostles deemed this subordinate ministry; they must not only be men of high honour, of acknowledged integrity of character, but they must be full of the Spirit, that is, distinguished for their enthusiasm in the cause, burning with holy zeal, and to their zeal they must add wisdom. Out of the number of believers in Jesus, who were now counted by thousands, it were no hard task to pick out men whose learning and knowledge equalled their zeal and fervour. It is a noticeable fact how in these early days those unlettered men whom the Lord in His wisdom had chosen, were guided, when His Church had become a power, in their first solemn choice of assistants, to look for men not only of stainless character and of burning zeal, but for those who, besides being good and earnest, possessed a reputation for knowledge and wisdom.