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Act 6:2. Ἡμᾶς, that we) the apostles.-καταλείψαντας, having left) They were not able at once to attend to both: for which reason they sustain that function which is the more noble. It is dangerous to leave those duties which have been especially entrusted to us. This often happens whilst we are unconscious of it. The bishops have put far away from them this principle, since they have become so involved in worldly things, that spiritual things, excepting the solemn outward pageant, are almost entirely swallowed up in their princely function.-διακονεῖν τραπέζαις, to minister to tables) The phrase expresses the doing of something unworthy of their office. The antithesis is the ministry of the word, Act 6:4. What were the functions of the deacons in the primitive Church, is a subject of copious disquisition: but the matter may be comprised in a few words. It was the especial duty of the bishops, apostles, evangelists, etc., to preach the word of GOD; it was their secondary duty to have a kind of fatherly care (for the Church was, at the beginning, like a family) of the sustenance, particularly of the poor, of strangers, of widows, etc. But the deacons, of both sexes, were appointed strictly to have the same care of the sustenance of the brethren: and in that department they felt it necessary to bestow very much exertion on the church of Jerusalem; in other places, more or less care as circumstances suggested; whatever exertions they could make, after their principal duty was attended to, they devoted to the preaching of the word.