ae ΠΡΑΞΕΙΣ ΑΠΟΣΤΟΛΩΝ
of these three in an incident which he and St. Luke alone record, Mark xii. 42, 43, and the other time in a passage also peculiar to him and St. Luke (if we are justified in omitting Matt. xxiii. 14), viz., Mark xii. 40.
Ver. 2. προσκαλεσάμενοι δὲ of δώ- Sexa: whatever may have been the irrita- tion caused by the pride or neglect of the Hebrews, the Apostles recognised that there was ground for complaint, and thus showed not only their practical capacities, but also their freedom from any partiality. ot δώδ.: only here in Acts, but cf. 1 Cor. xv. 5, where St. Paul uses the title as if it were well and widely known, and required no explana- tion from him. It is found six times in St. Luke’s Gospel, and no less than ten in St. Mark’s. See also above i. 26, ii. I14.— τὸ πλῆθος = the whole Church, not the hundred-and-twenty, as J. Lightfoot. The expression is a general one, and need not imply that every single member of the Church obeyed the summons. For the word πλῆθος and the illustration of its use in religious com- munities on the papyri by Deissmann, see Ῥ. 73. The passage has been quoted in support of the democratic con- stitution of the Apostolic Church, but the whole context shows that the govern- ment really lay with the Apostles. The Church as a whole is under their direc- tion and counsel, and the Apostles alone determine what qualification those chosen should possess, the Apostles alone lay hands upon them after prayer: ‘The hand of man is laid upon the person, but the whole work is of God, and it is His hand which toucheth the head of the one ordained, if he be duly ordained ” (Chrys., Hom., xiv.). The dignity of the Apostles, and their authority as leaders of the Church and ordainers of the Seven, is fully recognised by Feine, but he con- siders that their position is so altered, and the organisation of the Church so much more developed, that another source and not the Jerusalem Quellen- schrift must be supposed; but if, as Feine allows, such passages as iv. 34, Υ. 2, belong to the Jerusalem source, it would appear that the authority of the Apostles in the passage before us was a very plain and natural development.— καταλείψαντας: on the formation of the first aorist see Blass, Grammatik, p. 43, and also Deissmann, Neue Bibelstudien,
18; Winer-Schmiedel, p. 109.— διακονεῖν τραπέζαις: there seems to be an intentional antithesis between these words and τῇ διακονίᾳ τοῦ λόγου in ver.
167
3. The Twelve do not object to the work of ministering, but only to the neglect of ministering to the higher sus- tenance for the sake of the lower (Hort, Ecclesia, p. 206); thus Bengel speaks of the expression as used with indignation, * Antitheton, ministerium verbi”. δια. κονία and διακονεῖν are used for ministra- tions to man, although more usually of man to God ; cf. Acts xix. 22, of service to St. Paul, διακονία, Acts xi. 29, xii. 25, of service to the brethren of Judza in the famine, Rom. xv. 25, 31, 2 Cor. viii. 4, 1x. I, 12, 13, of the Gentile collections for the same purpose, so too probably in Rom. xvi. 1 of the service rendered by Stephanas to travelling Christians, cf. Heb. vi. 10, and its use of the verb in the Gospels of ministering to our Lord’s earthly wants, Luke viii. 3, x. 40 (both noun and verb), John xii. 2; cf. also Luke xii. 37, xxii. 27, Matt. iv. 11, Luke iv. 39; see further on the use of the word in classical Greek, Hort, Ecclesia, Ῥ. 203. The word had a high dignity conferred upon it when, in contrast to the contemptuous associations which surrounded it for the most part in Greek society, Epictetus remarks that it is man’s true honour to be a διάκονος of God (Diss., iti., 22, 69 ; 24, 65; iv. 7, 203 cf. ill. 26, 28), and a dignity immeasurably higher still, when the Son of Man could speak of Himself as in Matt. xx. 28, Mark x. 45; cf. Luke xxii. 27. ‘‘ Every clergyman begins as a deacon. This is right. But he never ceases to be a deacon. The priest is a deacon still. The bishop is a deacon still. Christ came as a deacon, lived as a deacon, died as a deacon: μὴ διακονηθῆναι, ἀλλὰ διακονῆσαι ᾽ (Lightfoot, Ordination Sermons, Ῥ. 115). In the LXX the verb does not occur at all, but διάκονος is used four times in Esther i. 10, ii. 2, vi. 3, 5, of the king’s chamberlains and of the servants that ministered to him, and once in 4 Macc. ix. 17 ; διακονία is also found in two of the passages in Esther just quoted, vi. 3 and 5, where in A we read οἱ ἐκ τῆς διακονίας (BS διάκονοι), and once in 1 Macc. xi. 58, of the service of gold sent by Jonathan to Antiochus. What is meant by the expression here ? does it refer to distribution of money-or in kind? The word in itself might in- clude either, but if we were to limit διακονία to alms, yet the use of the word remarked upon above renders the service higher than that of ordinary relief: ‘‘ ministyation,” says St. Chrysostom (although he takes it of alms, Hom., xiv.), ‘extolling by this at once the doers and