Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/175

 *siness; while we continue to give our time up wholly to prayer and the ministry of the word." This wise plan pleased all parties, and the church proceeded to elect the proper persons for the charge. To soothe the feelings of the Hellenists, the whole seven were chosen from their number, as the names (which are all Greek) fully show. This makes it probable that there were already persons appointed from among the Hebrews, who had administered these charities from the beginning, and whose partial management of these matters had given offense to those whom they slighted. The seven Hellenists now chosen to this office, were Stephen, resplendent in spiritual and intellectual endowments; Philip, also highly distinguished afterwards by his successful preaching; Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas, a proselyte of Antioch; by which last circumstance, (as well as by the case of Barnabas,) is shown the fact that some Hellenist converts, from a distance, had settled at Jerusalem, and permanently joined the followers of Christ. These seven being formally elected by the church, were brought in before the apostles, for approval and confirmation. And after they had prayed, they laid their hands on them, in token of imparting to them the blessing and the power of that divine influence which had inspired its previous possessors to deeds so energetic and triumphant. The efficiency of this prayer and benediction, in calling down divine grace on the heads thus touched by the hands of the apostles, was afterwards most remarkably demonstrated in the case of two of the seven, and in the case of the first of them, almost immediately.

Greeks.—The original word here is not [Greek: Hellênes], (Hellenes,) but [Greek: Hellênistoi], (Hellenistoi,) which means not Grecians, but Grecizers; that is, those who imitated Grecian language or customs.

Genuine Hebrews.—By these are meant those who used the Hebrew language still in their synagogues, as the only sacred tongue, and looked with much scorn on the Hellenists, that is, those foreign Jews, who, from birth or residence in other lands, had learned the Greek as their sole language in common life, and were thus obliged to use the Greek translation, in order to understand the scriptures. This matter will have a fuller discussion in another place. Lightfoot has brought a most amazing quantity of learned and valuable illustration of this difference, from Talmudic literature. (Hor. Heb. et Talm. in Act. vi. 1.)

CHRIST'S FIRST MARTYR.

Stephen, after thus being set apart for the service of the church, though faithfully discharging the peculiar duties to which he was called, did not confine his labors to the mere administration of the public charities. The word of God had now so spread, under the ministry of the apostles, that the number of the disciples in Jerusalem was greatly enlarged, and that not merely from the