15931 M2 TS, collectors of alms, but
these officers would rather present a parallel to the tax-gatherers than to those who ministered to the poor (see “Deacon”’ in Hastings, B.D.). Whilst, however, these analogies in Jewish offices fail us, we stand on much higher ground if we may suppose that as our Lord’s choice of the Twelve was practically the choice of a number sacred in its associa- tions for every Israelite, so the number Seven may have been adopted from its sacredness in Jewish eyes, and thus side by side with the sacred Apostolic College there existed at this period another College, that of the Seven. What was the nature of the office? Was it the Diaconate in the modern sense of the term? But, as we have noted above, the Seven are never called Deacons, and therefore it has been thought that we have here a special office to meet a special need, and that the Seven were rather the prototypes of the later arch- deacons, or corresponded to the elders who are mentioned in xi. 30 and xiv. 23. On the other hand St. Luke,
3—4-
169
µένους ἑπτά, πλήρεις Πνεύματος 1 ᾿Αγίου καὶ σοφίας, οὓς καταστήσω- μεν ” ἐπὶ τῆς χρείας ταύτης * 4. ἡμεῖς δὲ τῇ προσευχῇ καὶ τῇ διακονίᾳ
1 αγιον om. NBC?D 137, 180 (Vulg. am. fu. lux), Syr. Harcl., Chrys.; so Tisch.,
W.H., R.V., Weiss, Wendt.
ὃκαταστησομεν ΝΑΒΟΡΕ, Bas., Chrys., Wendt, Weiss, W.H; καταστησωµεν
HP (d, e, Vulg.).
from the prominence given to the narra- tive, may fairly be regarded as view- ing the institution of the office as estab- lishing a new departure, and not as an isolated incident, and the emphasis is
.characteristic of an historian who was fond
of recording ‘“‘ beginnings” of movements. The earliest Church tradition speaks of
* Stephen and Nicolas as ordained to the
diaconate, Iren., Adv. Haer., i., 26; iv., 15, and the same writer speaks of Stephen as “the first deacon,” iii., 12; cf. also the testimony of St. Cyprian, Epist., 3, 3, and the fact that for cen-
‘turies the Roman Church continued to
restrict the number of deacons to seven (Cornelius, ap. Euseb. H. Ε., vi., 43). It is quite true that the first mention of διάκονοι in the N.T. (although both διακονία and διακονεῖν are used in the passage before us) is not found until
_Phil, 1. 1, but already a deaconess had ‘been mentioned in writing to the Church
at Rome (xvi. 1, where Phoebe is called διάκονος), in the Church at Philippi the office had evidently become established and familiar, and it isreasonableto assume
that the institution of the Seven at Jeru-
salem would have been well known to St. Paul and to others outside Palestine, ‘and that analogous wants might well lead to analogous institutions” (Hort, and to the same effect, Gore, The Church and its Ministry, p. 403). But if the Seven were thus the prototypes of the deacons, we must remember that as the former office though primarily ordained for helping the Apostles in distribution of alms and in works of mercy was by no means confined to such duties, but that from the very first the Seven were occupied in essentially spiritual work, so the later diaconate was engaged in something far different from mere charity organisation ; there were doubtless quali- fications demanded such as might be found in good business men of tact and discretion, but there were also moral and spiritual qualities which to a great extent were required of the διάκονοι no less than of the πρεσβύτεροι and ἐπίσκοποι: there was the holding the mystery of the faith απ a pure conscience, there was the
moral and spiritual courage which would enable the διάκονοι to gain even in the pursuit of their διακονία * great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus,” 1 Tim. iii. 13 (Moberly, Ministerial Priest- hood, p. 138 ff.); see also on the whole subject, Felten, Apostelgeschichte, p. 139 ff.; Zockler, Apostelgeschichte, p. 206 ff. ; Lightfoot, Philippians, ‘‘ Dissertation on the Christian Ministry,” and Real-En- cyclopadie fur protest. Theol, und Kirche (Hauck), “‘ Diakonen” (Heft 38, 1898). --σοφίας: practical wisdom, prudentia, cf. 1 Cor. vi. 5 (Blass, so Grimm) ; in ver. 10 the use of the word is different, but in both places σοφία is referred to the Spirit, “it is not simply spiritual men, but full of the Spirit and of wisdom . . . for what profits it that the dis- penser of alms speak not, if nevertheless he wastes all, or be harsh and easily pro- voked ?”’ Chrys., Hom., xiv.—ots κατα- στήσοµεν (on the reading whom ye, which was exhibited in some few editions of A.V., see Speaker’s Commentary, in loco): the appointment, the consecra- tion, and the qualifications for it, depend upon the Apostles—the verb implies at all events an exercise of authority if it has no technical force, cf. Titus i. 5. The same shade of meaning is found in classical writers and in the LXX in the use of the verb with the genitive, with ἐπί, sometimes with a dative, sometimes with an accusative: Gen. xxxix. 4, xli. 41, Exod. ii. 14, xviii. 21, Num. iii. το, Neh. xii. 44, Dan. ii. 48, 49, 1 Macc. vi. 14; of. its use in Luke xii. 14, 42, 44. The opposite is expressed by µεταστή- σασθαι ἀπὸ τῆς χρ., Polyb., iv., 87,9; 1 Macc. xi. 63 (Wendt).— xpetas: the word might mean need in the sense of neces- sity, Latin opus, want, 2 Chron. ii. 16, Wisdom xiii. 16, 1 Macc. iii. 28, or it might mean business, Latin negotium, officium. In the LXX it seems to be employed in both senses, as also in classical writers, but here both A. and R.V. render “‘ business ”’ (so in Polybius), cf. Judith xii. ro AB., r Macc. x. 37, xi. 63, xii. 45 (χρεία is found no less than eight times in 1 Macc., seven times in 2 Macc., once in 3 Macc.); see Wetstein