Appointing Over This Business

Believe it or not, Acts 6 is a controversial text. Dr. Richard Longenecker describes the controversy this way:

Historically, this verse is not only one of the most important in Acts, it is also one of the most complicated and most discussed verses in the entire book. (Gaebelein, 1982, p. 327)

One of the questions which has created so much of the attention surround this passage is whether or not Acts 6 is describing the diaconal office. For example, Gordon Fee, a solid, conservative Biblical scholar, rejects the notion that Acts 6 has anything to do with the diaconate. The main reason for this is that throughout the book of Acts, “the seven” referenced here are never called deacons. In fact, they are referred to as simply, “the seven” (cf. Acts 21:8). Another objection is that when the history of the seven men selected in Acts 6 is examined (most notably Stephen and Philip), they seem more like evangelists than deacons (cf. Acts 21:8). Thus, if we assert that these seven were deacons, we must modify our understanding of the qualifications of the diaconate to include evangelism.