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Day 327: The Origin of the Diaconate
Agape Bible Study Acts 6
Chapter 6: The Succession of Prophetic Authority
Acts 6:1-7 ~ The Appointment of the Seven
The "Hellenists" are Greek culture Jews who probably only spoke Greek and not Aramaic, the common language of the Judeans during this time. Many, but not all of the Hellenists, were probably from Roman provinces outside Judea. There were a great number of widows in Jerusalem. It was the custom for Jews from the Diaspora to return to Jerusalem in their old age to die in the land of their ancestors. Unfortunately, they often left their surviving widows destitute. The Jewish-Christians who were disbursing the food were accused of favoring local Aramaic speaking widows over the Greek culture Jewish widows.
Acts 6:8-15 ~ Stephan is Accused and Arrested
The Holy Spirit has not only prepared Stephen for service to the community, but has given him the spiritual gifts of a prophet (Acts 6:5, 10; 7:55). He has the gift of wisdom and works "wonders and signs" with great power among the people. These are all the marks of a holy prophet of God (Acts 2:19, 22, 43; 4:16, 22, 30; 5:12).
| Jesus | Stephen | |
| His opponents could not withstand his wisdom | No one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day on did anyone dare to ask him any more questions (Mt 22:46). And they no longer dared to ask him anything (Lk 20:40). Also Mt 22:46; Mk 12:17; Lk 20:19, 26, 40 | ... but they could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke (Acts 6:10). |
| His enemies conspired against him to arrest him | For the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that if anyone knew where he was, he should inform them, so they might arrest him (Jn 11:57). Also Mt 26:3-4; Mk 14:1; Lk 22:2; Jn 11:47-53, 57 | They stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes, accosted him, seized him, and brought him before the Sanhedrin (Acts 6:12). |
| They brought forward false witnesses | The chief priests and the entire Sanhedrin kept trying to obtain false testimony against Jesus ... (Mt 26:59) Also Mt 26:59-62; Mk 14:56-57 | They presented false witnesses who testified ...(Acts 6:13). |
| The charge of blasphemy | He has blasphemed! What further need have we of witnesses: You have head now heard the blasphemy ... (Mt 26:65-66). Also Mt 26:65-66; Mk 14:56-57; 64 | Then they instigated some men to say, "We have heard him speaking blasphemous words against Moses and God" (Acts 6:11). |
| Michal E. Hunt Copyright 2013 | ||
Agape Bible Study Romans 9-10
Romans 9:1-5: The Divine Prerogatives of Israel
Note: All Old Testament quotations will be in bold type in the next 3 chapters.
In the first two verses of this passage Paul expresses his heart felt longing for the restoration of all his "brothers" who are the "firstborn" sons of the Old Covenant. There are Jews who have accused Paul of abandoning his people.
Romans 9:6-13: Yahweh's Election of Covenant Children in The Past
It is significant that, for the first time in this letter, Paul uses the designation "Israelites" to identify his kinsmen and not the term "Jews" as he has in Romans 1:16; 2:9, 10, 17, 28, 29; 3:1, 9, and 29. Paul will use the term "Israel/Israelites" 12 times in Romans 9-11.
Question: Today there is no differentiation between Jew and Israelite but was that true in ancient times? What is significant about Paul's use of the word "Israelites" in this passage? Hint: see Genesis 32:28; 35:10.
Answer: Every Jew is an Israelite but not every Israelite is a Jew. The word "Israel" is derived from Genesis 32:28: "'What is your name?' 'Jacob,' he replied. He said, 'No longer are you to be called Jacob, but Israel since you have shown your strength against God and men and have prevailed.'" I was in this encounter that God changed Jacob's name [Jacob is the grandson of Abraham] to "Israel." This significant name change, which indicated a change of destiny, is again affirmed in Genesis 35:10: "God said to him, 'Your name is Jacob, but from now on you will be called not Jacob but Israel.' Thus he came by the name Israel." Jacob's name change is followed by the promise in Genesis 35:11: "God said to him, 'I am El Shaddai. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation, indeed an assembly of nations, will descend from you, and kings will issue from your loins.'" This passage affirms the same worldwide blessing promised to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 and 22:18. In Genesis 36:31; 42:5; in 45:21; and 46:8-27 Israel's sons and their descendants come to be identified by his name.
The Jews, however, derive their name from Jacob/Israel's 4th son, Judah, Yehudah in Hebrew. Those who are descendants of Judah are not only Israelites, members of one of the 12 tribes of Israel, and also the nation if Israel, but also members of the tribe of Judah. After the children of Israel take possession of the Promised Land a united Israel is formed from the 12 tribes. Eventually a king is chosen to rule over all 12 tribes. King Saul, from the tribe of Benjamin, and later King David, a Judahite [from the tribe of Judah], will become kings of a United Kingdom of Israel. Under the leadership of King David and his son, Solomon, the nation of Israel will control the greatest amount of territory in the history of the nation of Israel [see Salvation History Study Lessons #15-16]. However, after only 120 years as the United Kingdom, the 10 northern tribes will rebel against Solomon's son Rehoboam, the Judahite king of Israel, and the result of the civil war will be that circa 930BC the 10 tribes withdraw to form the Northern Kingdom of Israel [first ruled by an Ephraimite king] while the tribes of Judah and Benjamin will form the Southern Kingdom of Judah, ruled by Judahite kings who are the descendants of King David [see the Salvation History Study Lesson # 17]. From that time forward, anyone from the Southern Kingdom of Judah will be known as a Judahite, or a "Jew". This is why Paul, a descendant of the tribe of Benjamin, identified himself as an Israelite and as a Jew [Acts 21:39; 22:3; and Philippians 3:5].
What is significant about the use of the word "Israelites" instead of "Jews" is that Paul is going to base his argument on God's faithfulness to the fulfillment of the covenant promises to all of Israel not just to those descendants of Judah or the remnant of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin who returned from the Babylonian exile.
Question: When did the nation of Israel cease to exist?
Answer: The Northern Kingdom, which continued to carry the name "Israel," was not ruled by a descendant of David but would be ruled by 9 succeeding families. The rulers and the people fell away from the worship of Yahweh as the One True God. In 722BC God brought judgment in the form of the fierce and merciless Assyrians who conquered the Northern Kingdom, took the people into exile, and imported 5 other tribes of people to repopulate the area which will from then on will be known as Samaria [name of the capital city of the Northern Kingdom; see 2 Kings 17:5-6, 24-34]. There is no record in Scripture of a return of the 10 tribes. Apparently only a faithful remnant returned to the Galilee. It was from among this faithful remnant of Israel that Jesus called His disciples [see John 1:47] and established His headquarters [Matthew 4:12-17; Isaiah 8:23]. The Galilee was the very site from which the Assyrian Army began the dismantling of Israel [1 Kings 15:27-29; see the Salvation History Study, Lesson #19]. Israel as a nation ceased to exist since 722BC until the United Nations established the nations of Israel for the Jews and Jordan for the Palestinians and Arabs in 1947. But there is no record of the 10 tribes. Jews across the earth continued from the time of the loss of Israel in 722BC to the present day to morn the 10 tribes of Israel that were dispersed and lost among the Gentile nations of the earth.
Romans 9: 14-24: God is not unjust-He is both faithful and just!
Now Paul will turn to the pattern of election as it is revealed in the Mosaic Covenant. He begins by asking another rhetorical question: What should we say then? That God is unjust?
Question: How does Paul answer his own question using Yahweh's exercise of mercy in the Old Testament quotation taken from Exodus 33:19 after the event of the Golden Calf and the subsequent rebellion that Moses is forced to put down violently, leading to the death of 3,000 people? Read Exodus 33: 1-23. What in this passage is an illustration concerning Yahweh's attributes? Is Yahweh always just? See Deuteronomy 32:4.
Answer: This passage illustrates the exercise of Yahweh's mercy, it is God's nature to be merciful. He shows mercy to His servant Moses. It is entirely God's choice to whom He exercises His divine mercy and this exercise of His divine mercy is not derived from or dependant upon any amount of willingness or achievement on the human side, it depends totally upon God as the one who exercises divine mercy. The exercise of His mercy is His choice but to be just is an attribute that defines God—He is always just. In the Hebrew text of Exodus 34:6 the three attributes of God are listed: hen = grace, rachum = mercy/compassion, and hesed = faithful covenant love: "Then Yahweh passed before him and called out, 'Yahweh, Yahweh, God of tenderness [grace] and compassion, slow to anger, rich in faithful love and constancy, maintaining his faithful love to thousands, forgiving fault, crime and sin..."
Question: Can you think of an example where God has exercised His divine mercy through the Catholic Church in which some, outside the Church, may criticize as unnecessary or superstitious?
Answer: There are many possible answers, but one might be the observance of Divine Mercy Sunday, the first Sunday after Easter in which the Church has pronounced through God's Mercy that His grace is poured out in abundance upon covenant believers who observe the requirements of this special day. Whether you agree or not with this special dispensation is not according to human understanding but these special graces are solely in the hands of God and His prerogative to dispense mercy through His Church.
The chosen people of the New Covenant: the Jews and Gentiles He has called into covenant, who exercising their own free will, have responded to that call. The people of the Christian community are vessels of mercy, prepared before hand by the Divine Potter to be filled with glory. It is this community made up of the faithful remnant of Jews and newly formed Gentiles vessels, that is the realization in salvation history of God's eternally divine plan that human beings were meant to share in the reflection of the glory of the risen Savior, Christ Jesus. The mixing of the community formed of Jews and Gentiles is not an accident or an adjustment of God's divine plan but is the fulfillment of the original design conceived in the mind of God before time began and which is being fulfilled in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This union is the undoing of the broken vessels of the Tower of Babel when the family of humanity was scattered. Now the Universal Church of Jesus Christ will reunite that family with the Jews leading the way and taking their Gentile brothers with them. Also see CCC# 63; 781; 1539.
Romans 9:25-33: Fulfillment of Old Testament Prophecies
In verses 25-26 Paul quotes from Hosea 2:23 and 1:10/2:1 [translations record these verses differently]; the complete passage reads: "I shall tell those who were not my people, 'You are my people,' and I shall take pity on those on whom I had no pity. 26 And in this very place where they were told, 'You are not my people,' they will be told that they are 'children of the living God.' This passage recalls Yahweh's promise to Abraham in Genesis 22:17 and reaffirmed to Jacob in Genesis 32:13.
Question: How was this prophecy fulfilled and who are the ones told they were not Yahweh's people who become "Children of the Living God?"
Answer: Through the forefathers of Israel and their descendants who light the way to the One True God, the Gentiles, who were not the chosen people of God become through the power of the Holy Spirit in the life of Christ in baptism, "Children of the living God." See CCC#s 294; 422; 762; 1213; 1265; 1709.
Significantly Paul in making this connection to the inclusion of the Gentiles now quotes Isaiah 10:22-23: "Israel, though your people are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return...the Lord Yahweh Sabaoth will enforce the destruction now decreed." [Note: the translation is slightly different because Paul is continually quoting from the Greek Septuagint translation]. In this passage Paul is introducing the theme of "the faithful remnant" of the Covenant people. Throughout the history of the Covenant people there has always been a division between those who fell from faith and the faithful remnant who persevered in faith and obedience, sometimes that remnant was very small.
Some examples of the falling away of the covenant people can be found in:
- Sin of the Golden calf [Deuteronomy chapter 32:7-10, 25-29]
- Korah's rebellion [Numbers 16:1-3, 20-35]
- Rebellion on the Plains of Moab [Numbers 25:1-13]
Examples of the preservation of the "Faithful Remnant" can be found in:
- Northern Kingdom's defection and the preservation of the Southern Kingdom until 587/6BD [1 Kings 12:20-31]
- Return from Babylonian exile [Ezra 2:64-68] Note: when the Israelites came out of Egypt there were 603,550 fighting men not counting women and children [Numbers 1:2-3; 2:32]
- The orthodox Old Covenant faithful who came to accept Jesus the Messiah [Acts 21:20]. In Romans 11:5 Paul identifies this faithful remnant: "In the same way, then, in our own time, there is a remnant, set aside by grace." This remnant was prophesized in Isaiah 37:30-32: "And this will be a sign for you: This year will be eaten the self-sown grain, next year what sprouts in the fallow; but in the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit above; for a remnant will issue from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion." In the third year of His ministry Jesus offered up His life for the salvation of the world. A faithful remnant of Israel arose out of Jerusalem in that third year—a faithful remnant of the Old Covenant—and on Pentecost Sunday from the Upper Room on the slopes of Mt. Zion they issued forth to establish the New Covenant Kingdom and to spread the Gospel of salvation to the ends of the world.
Question: What part will the "faithful remnant" play in the formation of the New Covenant Kingdom of Heaven on earth?
Answer: They will be the foundation upon which the New Covenant Church, the New Israel will be built. Beginning with the authority given them by Jesus Christ, the Apostles will build, guided by Simon the Rock/Peter, the foundation Jesus alluded to in Matthew 7:24-5 & 16:28; also see CCC# 75; 857.
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