CONTENIDO DEL CUADRO DE MANDO

Now at this time while the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint arose on the part of the Hellenistic Jews against the nature Hebrews, because their widowed were being overlooked in the daily serving of food. And the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said, “it is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.

But select from among you, brethren, seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task.

But we will devote ourselves to prayer, and to the ministry of the word. And the statement found approval with the whole congregation; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon,

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Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte from Antioch. And these they brought before the apostles; and after praying, they laid their hands on them.

And the word of God kept on spreading; and the numbers of the disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.

From the passage quoted above, the following doctrinal statements are obvious:

1. The widows were taken care of daily by the church.

2. The ministry of the word should be supreme

3. Others are to be selected to serve in other ministries

4. Such leaders must be of good reputations, full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.

Having identified these four doctrinal statements, one can now proceed to categorize them. A careful observation of these four would reveal that they are all on the third category of Christian practice and experience. None is theological or ethical.

The next step is to determine the level of the statements. All these statements as listed above are all on the secondary level. There is not direct command, and they are all implied from the practices of the early Church.

The next step is to identify what the intent of this passage is. Three things are immediately clear:

a. The church has to take social ministry within the church very serious; and

b. As the ministry of the church expands, other leaders have to be selected to help in the ministry. A multiple staff ministry is the only kind suitable for the church.

c. The ministry of the word must never be over shadowed by any other ministry no matter how important that ministry would be. And the ministry of word must also take other ministries (especially, social ministry) into cognizance.

So, as stated earlier, what the passage intends to each must become normative for the church today. The three intents listed above must be the rule for us toady. We must partake in social ministry, within and outside the church. We must learn to use as may ministers as possible in a local

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church and allow others to partake in variety of ministries; and ministry of the word must remain supreme but not at the expense of other ministries.

In his own analysis, Gooding (1994) relates this passage (Acts 6:1- 7) to the earlier passage, especially the healing of the cripple which he sees an intention to teach social ministry outside the church. This is his conclusion:

Both stories show the early Christians taking seriously their social responsibility, the one to the world around (as with the cripple) and the other to the members of the church (the daily distribution of food to the Christian widows). And both stories remind us of the all-important need to keep our social duties in their proper place and proportion, and never to allow them to usurp or eclipse the pre-eminent place and important of the preaching of the gospel and the teaching of the word of God.

After the identification of what the passage intends to teach, thus, what is normative for the contemporary church, one can now look at the historical precedents again to see which would be normative, repeatable or culturally conditioned.

The first of these is the daily service to the widows. This precedent, though is an aspect of social ministry it is not normative. One cannot but agree that it is culturally conditioned because as Smith (1972) notes:

The Jews had a great reputation for their welfare work with the poor and the widows. When the Jews became followers of Christ, they continued the practice to which they were accustomed.

Does this then mean that we can throw away this particular precedent? Not at all. We can adapt it to our own culture. In other words, we are not bound to feed widows daily in the church toady. In our own cultural and local context, we only need to device means by which we can meet their daily needs.

The second precedent is the instance of the twelve not to abandon the preaching and teaching of the word to ministry at the table. This should be normative. No minister must allow anything to distract his attention from the preaching and the teaching ministry. He must learn to delegate jobs to the learning saints who are eager to learn how to serve their Lord.

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The third precedent is the election of seven brethren to serve at the table. In this single point, three things are locked up: some men were elected; they were seven in number and just for the ministry of the table. In all these, only one is normative: the election of other brethren to serve in the house of the Lord. One could recollect the story of an elderly minister who refused to allow the church to elect women as deacons because according to him

“no woman was in the Acts 6 list!” Also these are churches who will never appoint any number below or above the number 7. One can say with all certainty that these practices are not normative and they may not be repeatable also as there is no other place in the New Testament where only seven people are appointed as „deacons‟.

The fourth historical precedence is the quality of the men appointed as leaders. They were of good reputation, full of faith and of the Holy Spirit.

You can say that while this list is not normative, when the church wanted to appoint Barnabas to go and lead the Antiochene Church, he was said to possess the same qualities too. These qualities also may not be at variance with those detailed in the analysis of 1 Timothy 3:8-10.

With all these, no one will likely disagree that the hermeneutical process of the book of Acts is a complex one!

4.0 Conclusion

In this unit you have learnt about the historical nature of the book of Acts.

You have seen that despite Luke‟s interest in the history of the early church he was selective in his choice of materials and subjective because he was part of the history.

You have also learnt that since the book of Acts is the volume two of the single work Luke-Acts, the purpose is the continuation of that of Luke. The book of Acts is concerned with the growth of Christianity geographically and racially. And the structure of the book suits the purpose. The issue of historical precedent was also explained. The resolution of the issue lies in the observation that the only things that could be binding on the church are those things that are normative.

5.0 Summary

The following are the major points you have learnt in this unit:

 Acts is the only historical book in the New Testament as it traces the development of the early church after Jesus‟ ascension.

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 Luke‟s use of material is selective.

 Luke‟s use of material is subjective since he was part of the history.

  The purpose of Acts is to trace the development of Christianity geographically and racially.

 Doctrinal statements in Acts can be classified as Christian theology, Christian history and Christian experience and practices

 There are also two levels of expression: the primary and the secondary.

 Normative commands are those that the narratives intend to teach.

 Christian experience and practice may not be repeatable except it is repeated elsewhere in the New Testament or it is in harmony with what is taught elsewhere.

Self-Assessment Exercise

1. What do you understand by historical precedence and how does it affect hermeneutics in Acts?

2. What are the steps to take in interpreting the book of Acts?

6.0 References/Further Readings

Adewale, Biyi (2006a). The Praxis of Biblical Interpretation. Oyo:

Multicrown Publishers.

Fee, G. D. and D. Stuart. (1993). How to Read the Bible for All its Worth.

London: Scripture Union Press.

Gooding, David (1994). True to the Faith. London: Hodder and Stoughton.

Guthrie, Donald (1970). New Testament Introduction. London: Tyndale.

Hunter, A. M. (1965). Introducing the New Testament. Philadelphia:

Westminster.

Smith, T. C. (1970). “Acts” in Broadman Bible Commentary, Vol. 10.

Nashville: Broadman Press.

Tenney, M. C. (1961). New Testament Survey. Leicester: Inter Varsity Press.

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UNIT 4: Interpreting The Epistles