The Early Church in Acts

The community into which Stephen is appointed is the Spirit-filled Jerusalem church of Acts 1–6: born at Pentecost, holding all things in common, led by Peter and the Twelve, growing so rapidly that the care of its poor outstrips the apostles’ capacity and forces the appointment of the Seven. This file sets that ecclesial ground — Pentecost and the first preaching, the common life, the apostolic leadership, and the growth that produces the administrative need Stephen is chosen to meet.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Protomartyr)

Pentecost and the First Preaching

The Church of Acts begins with the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost upon the gathered disciples — about a hundred and twenty (Acts 1:15) — in wind and tongues of fire (Acts 2:1–4). Peter, “standing with the eleven,” preaches the first apostolic sermon, proclaiming the crucified and risen Jesus as “both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:14, 36), and “about three thousand souls” are baptized that day (Acts 2:41). The infant community is thus from its first hour a community of the Spirit, of the word preached, and of baptism — and it grows: after the healing at the Beautiful Gate “the number of the men came to about five thousand” (Acts 4:4), and Luke repeats that “the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47; cf. 5:14; 6:1, 7). Stephen enters this story at a community already numbering thousands and still expanding (the apostolic foundation is treated in The Pentecost and the Jerusalem Church).

The Common Life

Luke twice pauses to describe the inner life of this community in summary passages that have shaped the Church’s self-understanding ever since. The first: “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship (koinōnia), to the breaking of bread and the prayers,” holding “all things in common,” selling possessions and distributing “to all, as any had need,” and “day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes” (Acts 2:42–47). The second: “the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common”; “there was not a needy person among them,” for those who owned lands or houses sold them and laid the proceeds “at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need” (Acts 4:32–35). This common purse and daily distribution to the needy is the precise context of the dispute of Acts 6:1: the diakonia — the “daily distribution” or “ministry” — to the widows is the charitable economy of the whole community, and its administration is what the apostles will hand to the Seven (Acts 6:1–4; Barrett, Acts, ICC, 1994, 1:160–168, 252–258).

The breaking of bread “in their homes” alongside the daily attendance at the Temple (Acts 2:46) shows a community still wholly within the life of Israel — worshipping in the Temple, keeping the hours of prayer (Acts 3:1) — while gathering also for the distinctively Christian eucharistic meal. This double belonging is the very thing that Stephen’s preaching and trial will bring to crisis: the question of how the new community of the risen Christ stands to the Temple and the Law of Moses (the ecclesial dimension is set out in Ecclesiology).

The Apostolic Leadership

The early chapters of Acts are dominated by Peter and the Twelve. It is Peter who preaches at Pentecost and at Solomon’s Portico, who answers the Sanhedrin, and who, with John, is sent to Samaria (Acts 2–5; 8:14). But Luke is careful to show the apostles acting as a college and the whole community participating in its decisions: Matthias is chosen by lot before the assembled hundred and twenty (Acts 1:15–26), and the Seven are chosen by “the full number of the disciples” and then set before the apostles, who pray and lay hands on them (Acts 6:2–6). The apostles define their own office in that scene as “prayer and the ministry of the word” (Acts 6:4), distinguishing it from the administration of the tables they delegate. This articulation — the apostolic ministry of word and prayer, served and supported by a subordinate ministry of practical care — is the structure within which Stephen is appointed and which the later Church will read as the seed of the ordained ministries (on which see Holy Orders and The Origin of the Diaconate).

The Growth That Produces the Need

Luke ties the appointment of the Seven explicitly to growth: “in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution” (Acts 6:1). The very success of the mission has produced an administrative strain: a community of thousands, of two language-groups, cannot be served by twelve men who must also preach. The Seven are the community’s answer, and the chapter closes by binding the solution back to growth: “And the word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7). It is into this expanding, two-tongued, Temple-frequenting, goods-sharing community that Stephen steps — and through his disputation and death that community will be driven, for the first time, beyond the walls of Jerusalem and beyond the bounds of Judaism (Acts 8:1–4).

The Threshold of Conflict

The early Church of Acts 1–6 is, on Luke’s telling, a community of remarkable unity and favor — “having favor with all the people” (Acts 2:47). Persecution to this point has fallen on the apostles alone and been survived: arrested, flogged, and released, they rejoice “that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name” (Acts 5:41). No one has yet died. The appointment of the Seven and the rise of Stephen mark the threshold at which this changes: the first death, the first scattering, the first mission beyond Judea. The foundations laid in these chapters — the Spirit, the word, the common life, the apostolic leadership, the growth — are the ground from which the protomartyr will rise, and against which the meaning of his witness must be read.

See Also

References

  • The Holy Bible — Acts 1:15–26; 2:1–47; 3:1; 4:4, 32–35; 5:14, 41; 6:1–7; 8:1–4. Cited by book chapter:verse.
  • John Chrysostom. Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles 4–14. Trans. in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series I, Vol. 11. (The common life and the appointment of the Seven.)
  • Barrett, C. K. A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles. Vol. 1. ICC. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1994. (Acts 1–6.)
  • Fitzmyer, Joseph A. The Acts of the Apostles. Anchor Bible 31. New York: Doubleday, 1998. (The summary passages and the common life.)