Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadJohn Bengel Commentary - Acts 6:3 - 6:3
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Act 6:3. Μαρτυρουμένους, testified of as to character) Against whom no suspicion of wrongful dealing militated, although there was no need of an oath, a giving of security, or written bond, etc. Comp. 2Ki 12:15; 2Ki 22:7. After the example given in Ananias, who was so severely punished in a case affecting his own property, no one would be so (very) ready to break faith in the case of the property of another.-ἑπτὰ, seven) These were appointed, not at the beginning, but after the apostles, and by the apostles. In the government of the Church, GOD has left many things to be settled according as the successive occasions (times) may require; but the Church ought to establish nothing without God. There had been about five thousand men; ch. Act 4:4; now, with the additions that were made in the meantime, such a number was made up, as that there should be a deacon apiece for the care of the several thousands [viz. seven.].-πλήρεις, full) It is no unimportant matter to dispense the property of the Church. Even in a quæstor (one in charge of the public revenues) and in a deacon, as such, there ought to be administrative and sanctifying gifts. [To wit, ecclesiastical goods are not to be regarded as a spoil, but are to be administered in a spiritual manner, and in such a way as those seven, or as even the apostles themselves, if they were still alive, would use them. God Himself will at some time require an account.-V. g.]-καταστήσομεν) The Indicative, as in 1Co 6:5; Eph 6:16,[44] etc.; Php 2:20.
[44] δυνήσεσθε, for ye may be able. Often, from the objective character of the Greek mind, that is stated positively in the Indic., which more strictly should be stated dependently in the Subjunctive. So in the Greek Testament, in the case of command, or exhortation, or assertion. Here the apostles, speaking authoritatively, use καταστήσομεν for καταστήσωμεν. The latter would have made their act too much dependent on the initiative act of the brethren.-E. and T.