CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SIX
6:1 mong the Hellenists a grumbling arose against the Hebrews.
The cause of the grumbling was the fact that the Hebrews gave preferential treatment in the ministry to their own widows, inasmuch as they were more fully instructed, over the widows of the Hellenists.
6:2
Itis not proper for us to forsake the word of God and to serve at tables. Concerning this Arator wrote:! This passage shows that dishes of food of the mind are better for unlearned folk than huge banquets of food for the body.
6:3
Therefore, brothers, choose from among you seven men of good reputation. For this reason, the apostles or the successors of the apostles throughout all of the churches now decided upon seven deacons who would be of higher rank than the others, and who would stand closer around the altar, like the columns of the altar. Their being seven in number is not without some symbolism.
'* 6:8
Now Stephen, full of grace and courage. The Greek word Stephen means ''crowned"' in Latin.? 2* In a very beautiful way he anticipated by the portent in his name what he was about to experience in reality—abjectly stoned but crowned on high.> In Hebrew, however, his name means your norm.* Whose norm, if not that of the subse1. Arat., De act. ap. 1 (CSEL 72:46, 570/572).
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3. Aug., Ennar. in ps. 58, 1, 5 (CC 39:732, 5, 14/15).
4. Jer., De nom. Hebr. (CC 72:148, 8, MS. H).
Chapter Six quent martyrs, for whom, by being the first to suffer, he became the model of dying for Christ?
6:10
And they were not able to withstand the wisdom and the Spirit who was speaking. This is what the Lord himself tells his martyrs: For I will give you eloquence and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or contradict.> It was fitting that in the first martyr he should confirm what he deigned to promise to all those handed over [to martyrdom] for the sake of his name. ok, Je Ailes
NOTES TO CHAPTER SIX
1. 'Not without some symbolism': non sine aliquo... mysterio. See note 2 to ch. 1. The number seven was rich in significance. For example, both Augustine and Gregory present it as a number of perfection, or as the number of the universe— see Aug., De civ. dei 11, 31 (CC 48:350, 1-351, 23) and Gregory,
Moral. 1, 14, 18 (CC 143:33, 1/13). In one of his letters which Bede quotes elsewhere in his Commentary on Acts, Augustine takes the number seven as a figure of the universality of the church—Ep. 55, 5, 9 (CSEL 34:179, 21-180, 2).
2. In the Retr. on this verse (CC 121:130, 14/22), Bede offers a correction of this comment. He notes that his statement in the Commentary that Stephen means crowned was 'not far from the truth,' but he reflects, on the basis of his improved knowledge of Greek, that Stephen does not mean crowned (coronatus), but crown (corona), and that crowned would be ote¢avnddgoy, i.e.,
'bearing a crown.'
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