OK, last Sabbath while studying Acts, we came across a LOT of good stuff for a number of blog entries. This blog I’ll mention something about the IDENTITY of the WIDOWS in Acts 6. Remember there was a controversy over the WIDOWS that involved who got taken care of and who was neglected. And taking care of widows was a LEGAL matter. It was mandated by the 5th Commandment in Moses. If anybody didn’t take care of their elderly parents, they were BAD. You can find this all over in the rabbis, both by inuendo and directly. But let me quote Paul on this to show it was a 2nd Temple phenomena (not some “church” thing). You can read all of it in 1 Timothy 5. Here’s some good shippets:
Honor widows who are widows indeed (1 Timothy 5:3) … But refuse to put younger widows on the list, for when they feel sensual desires in disregard of Christ, they want to get married … (1 Timothy 5:11) … But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Timothy 5:8)
And James:
Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress … (James 1:27)
Here’s the historical record found in Acts:
6 Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic against the Hebrews, because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving.
Now here’s the thing about that: In all the years I read that text, the many times I thought about what was going on, my bad ‘formal education’ kicked in and blinded me to what it was really saying. When I read “Hellenistic” I would think GREEK. And when I read “Hebrews: I would think JEWISH. OK, but the translation inserts two words to qualify the meaning of those two words. AFTER “Hellenistic” the translators inserted “Jews”, and they inserted “native” BEFORE “Hebrews”. But that doesn’t make sense IF you were taught that “Hellenistic” means GREEK.
I got my ideas on this from John Lightfoot’s commentary on Acts. I already knew about this concept, and have incorporated it into other areas of NT study, but never Acts 6. So thanks to Lightfoot, I’m becoming more factually consistent in my Bible interpretation! This guy comes up with some good stuff. Wish I could find it on the Internet to quote it in full for you to read it for yourself, but can’t. It’s a LONG read, and worth it. My POINT in sharing this is this: YOU WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND THE BIBLICAL TEXT UNTIL YOU UNDERSTAND THE LEGAL, CULTURAL AND POLITICAL ISSUES OF THE TIMES. When I say NEVER, I mean ABSOLUTELY NEVER! Now some people will balk at that, and others will whine and throw a tantrum. But let’s face it folks, THIS STUFF IS ABOUT 2000 YEARS OLD, and as they say, TIMES HAVE CHANGED. So you can’t expect to understand something that’s inherently FOREIGN TO YOU. That’s the fact of the matter.
Let’s take a quick example to illustrate what I mean. Let’s say you are a house wife for a living, or maybe you are a manager in some corporation, or you run your own store (shop) selling packaged food and gas and all the sort of stuff. You work with people, money, goods, etc., and your mind is oriented towards NON-SCIENTIFIC things. Now supposed you pick up a book that has page after page of COMPUTER PROGRAMS in it, and they’re in Cobol or Fortran. And you HAVE TO understand what’s in this book for some reason. At that point, do you even know what Cobol or Fortran are?! OK, so see what I mean? That’s a book FROM YOUR OWN TIMES. HOW MUCH MORE the NT text, which is 2000 years old?! So if you’re depressed or balking about your ignorance of Biblical history, law, politics, etc., just forget about your whining, and GET TO WORK! Soon enough you’ll start seeing LEGAL PATTERNS, CULTURAL NORMS and POLITICS that will serve you throughout your NT readings.
Now, to read what Lightfoot has to say about HELLENISTIC Jews vs. HEBREW natives in Acts 6, you have get to the Hendrickson published Volume #4, and read pages 55-63. Otherwise, go here for a lesser version of his work. Open VOLUME VIII, and start reading at pdf PAGE 110 (Lightfoot page 104). Note: I was going to post the Hendrickson version in this blog, but can’t find a digitized public domain licensed version of it on the Internet. So you’re going to have to get it yourself from a library set of the Hendrickson books. SORRY!
Suffice to say that Lightfoot gives a long discussion on the Hebrew language, and connects it to the native Jews vs. the diaspora Jews, vs. the non-Jews of the then western world. Then he goes on to discuss the WIDOWS, from which we can see that they were ALL “Hebrews” (not non-Jews in Jerusalem), except for one thing: There was a marked difference between them. As stated, some were natives of Israel and the others were from foreign countries (aka: “diaspora Jews”). The difference was CULTURAL, which was the basis of this POLITICAL controversy. It was CULTURAL probably due to the DIFFERENT “rabbinic” LAWS they followed and the language they spoke in the diaspora vs. in Jerusalem. To get some contrast, compare that with the Apostle Paul’s saying: JEW vs. GREEK. Paul was obviously referring to NON-JEWS when he used the word GREEK. But Luke (the author of Acts) ain’t Paul, and they were WORLDS APART. Remember that Acts is all about JEWS denying Jesus as Messiah, and JEWS not accepting Gentiles into their world. It wasn’t about GENTILES (except for them being INCIDENTAL to the subject: recalcitrant JEWS (or as the prophets say, “stiff necked and hard-hearted”).
Anyways, my best guess about this CONTROVERSY is, there was a bit of PREJUDICE going on between these two groups of Jews, most likely instigated by the Israeli Jews. No doubt it was DUE TO THE MONEY INVOLVED. Remember the ‘selling of land and laying the money at the apostles’ feet’? There were RICH PEOPLE involved. And what do RICH FOLK typically DO as a result of DONATING THEIR MONEY? They CONTROL people, things, social institutions, etc. That’s just the nature of the beast. And it was probably what happened here as well. The ‘culture’ of it probably was these Israeli Jews looking down their noses at the foreign Jews who were living in Israel during those days. I’m guessing they were feeling ‘high and mighty’ due to living so close to ‘the Source’ of all LAW and law ENFORCEMENT POWER (‘God’s presence’ in the Jerusalem Temple).
In any case, Lightfoot states the reasons well enough. The result was, the foreign Jewish WIDOWS were being cut out of the WELFARE distributions. So there’s the POLITICS of it. The Israeli Jews were CONTROLLING BASIC HUMAN NEEDS THROUGH CONTROL OF THE MONEY. So the group had to appoint REFEREES (technically, they’re called DEACONS) to mitigate the power struggle. And notice that they went to the “authorities” (apostles + 120) to settle the matter. An added historical tidbit is to read about the 120 in Lightfoot to see that this wasn’t just some oddball “church” thing, but rather was a social matter of great moment, being settled by the usual and customary means (an official LEGAL/POLITICAL council).
In conclusion, let’s make a mental note of the fact that when you see the word HELLENIST in the NT, its meaning is dependent upon it’s CONTEXT. So it may or may not refer to GREEKS (non-Jews). Instead, it most likely refers to DIASPORA JEWS. But you can almost guarantee if it’s being coined by Paul, it refers to NON-Jews. That’s all I have to say about it. See you in the next blog!
Reality Bible 