Acts 6 -- in a strange land

Imagine being an American and a party in Sweden. The people around you speak flawless English, an English that is noteworthy for its lack of identifying regional accents. They graciously include you in the festivities. But, when they think you're not listening, among themselves they lapse back into their own foreign, unintelligible language. They don't mean to exclude you -- but it takes an effort on their part to include you, and it's easier to revert to their mother tongue at those moments when you're not "in the loop."

In the first chapter of this verse, we encounter the split that later threatened to destroy the early church. We meet the Grekçe konuşan Yahudiler -- "Greek-speaking Jews." These were the guests, the folks from other countries whose native language was the lingua franca[1] of that half of the Roman world. They were swept up in the excitement surrounding the birth of the church on Pentecost -- but they were starting to overstay their welcome.

Act 6:1 İsa'nın öğrencilerinin sayıca çoğaldığı o günlerde, Grekçe konuşan Yahudiler, günlük yardım dağıtımında kendi dullarına gereken ilginin gösterilmediğini ileri sürerek İbranice konuşan Yahudiler'den yakınmaya başladılar.
Act 6:2 Bunun üzerine Onikiler, bütün öğrencileri bir araya toplayıp şöyle dediler: "Tanrı'nın sözünü yayma işini bırakıp maddi işlerle uğraşmamız doğru olmaz.
Act 6:3 Bu nedenle, kardeşler, aranızdan Ruh'la ve bilgelikle dolu, yedi saygın kişi seçin. Onları bu iş için görevlendirelim.
Act 6:4 Biz ise kendimizi duaya ve Tanrı sözünü yaymaya adayalım."
Act 6:5 Bu öneri bütün topluluğu hoşnut etti. Böylece, iman ve Kutsal Ruh'la dolu biri olan İstefanos'un yanısıra Filipus, Prohoros, Nikanor, Timon, Parmenas ve Yahudiliğe dönen Antakyalı Nikolas'ı seçip elçilerin önüne çıkardılar. Elçiler de dua edip ellerini onların üzerine koydular.

In those days, it was a "no-brainer" for a godly community to take care of widows. The İbranice konuşan Yahudiler (Hebrew-speaking Jews) probably did not intend to neglect the widows from out of town -- but there were communication breakdowns. Perhaps, some of these needy ladies simply did not "get the message" when a charitable distribution was announced.

The inspired solution was to select "deacons," people who used church resources to help out the destitute members of the community. Every one of them was -- a Greek-speaking Jew. Many years later, we see the tide turning, and the Greek-speaking Christians providing aid to a desperate, isolated, and harassed community of Jewish-cultured Christians.