2026-05-03 Fifth Sunday of Easter
2026-05-03 Fifth Sunday of Easter Acts 6:1—7 Acts chapters 1 through 5 describe matters of the Holy Temple, whereas chapter 6 talks about the early Jewish converts. Jerusalem was a vibrant city with Jews from every nation under the sun. The native Aramaic-speaking Jews were probably the majority and the diaspora who had migrated from outside Judea and Samaria, referred to as Hellenistic Jews who spoke Greek, were a minority. There was a dispute involving the equal distribution of responsibility and honour between widows of the local “Hebrew” and the immigrant “Hellenists.” The Apostles ask the community to select seven immigrant Hellenist men to serve at table, while they themselves focused on spreading the Gospel. This passage therefore marks the unofficlal beginning of deaconship. All seven have Greek, not Hebrew, names: Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and one, Nicolaus from Antioch, who was a convert, a former polytheist who conver...