The End of Chapter 5:
The others accepted his advice. They called in the apostles and had them flogged. Then they ordered them never again to speak in the name of Jesus, and they let them go. The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus. And every day, in the Temple and from house to house, they continued to teach and preach this message: “Jesus is the Messiah.”
Acts 5:40-42
I would leave Chapter 5 intact. Robert Estienne set the chapter break between the 4th and 5th chapter in what is most probably the best place. Clearly Luke placed the Barnabas story and the Ananias and Sapphira story in juxtapostion to have one lead into the other. Making a chapter break between the two is not necessarily a problem as there has to be a chapter break somewhere. The flow between the accounts moves too quickly to break it naturally in any other place. I would keep all the fallout from what happened to Ananias and Sapphira together up to the end of Acts 5. And then I would add the first seven verses of Chapter 6 to the aftermath from the Ananias and Sapphira story. The first seven verses of the current Chapter 6 would become the closing segment to my Chapter 5.
But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers, saying that their widows were being discriminated against in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve called a meeting of all the believers. They said, “We apostles should spend our time teaching the word of God, not running a food program. And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility. Then we apostles can spend our time in prayer and teaching the word.” Everyone liked this idea, and they chose the following: Stephen (a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit), Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas of Antioch (an earlier convert to the Jewish faith). These seven were presented to the apostles, who prayed for them as they laid their hands on them. So God’s message continued to spread. The number of believers greatly increased in Jerusalem, and many of the Jewish priests were converted, too.
My new Chapter 6:1-7
Why would I do that? Simply because Luke often closes a segment of action with the summary statement of how the events that we have just witnessed lead to the more rapidly and extensive spread of the gospel. That is the reason why I would include Chapter 6:1-7 at the end of my chapter 5. So that Luke’s closing statement comes at the end of the chapter. Then my new chapter would start with Robert Estienne’s Chapter 6:8. Admittedly this is a pre-cursor to the following story of Stephen’s martyrdom. Luke introduces Stephen 6:8. So it is the natural place to begin the Stephen story and leaves the summary statement of the spread of the gospel to close chapter 5.
Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people. But one day some men from the Synagogue of Freed Slaves, as it was called, started to debate with him. They were Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and the province of Asia. None of them could stand against the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen spoke. So they persuaded some men to lie about Stephen, saying, “We heard him blaspheme Moses, and even God.” This roused the people, the elders, and the teachers of religious law. So they arrested Stephen and brought him before the high council. The lying witnesses said, “This man is always speaking against the holy Temple and against the law of Moses. We have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy the Temple and change the customs Moses handed down to us.” At this point everyone in the high council stared at Stephen, because his face became as bright as an angel’s.
Acts 6:8-15
Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these accusations true?” This was Stephen’s reply:
Acts 7:1-2
<< Stephen’s Speech>> (Acts 7:2-53)
The Reaction at the End of Stephen’s Speech
The Jewish leaders were infuriated by Stephen’s accusation, and they shook their fists at him in rage. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed steadily into heaven and saw the glory of God, and he saw Jesus standing in the place of honour at God’s right hand. And he told them, “Look, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing in the place of honour at God’s right hand!” Then they put their hands over their ears and began shouting. They rushed at him and dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. His accusers took off their coats and laid them at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they stoned him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” He fell to his knees, shouting, “Lord, don’t charge them with this sin!” And with that, he died.
Acts 7:54-60
Kev was the first to write to me about the idea of cutting off the chapter at 6:7 and starting the new chapter with verse 8. What the new ordering does of course, is leaves us with no chapter 6. We have taken the first seven verses of Estienne’s chapter 6 and assigned them to Chapter five to close that chapter. If you really must have a chapter 6 I would divide chapter 5 between verses 16 and 17.
- Act 5:16 Crowds came from the villages around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those possessed by evil spirits, and they were all healed.
- Act 5:17 The high priest and his officials, who were Sadducees, were filled with jealousy.
Again we would close our chapter 5 with Luke’s expansion of the church statement and then leave chapter 6 to be the chapter outlining the Council rage at what has happened and the series of court hearings and their handling of the apostles. The flow of Acts in these chapters is all about the expansion of the church in the context of increasing opposition. So it would give us more natural breaks and allow us to follow Luke’s pattern of giving us the action but closing each section with his statement about the growth of the church. Even if you are not happy with that because you don’t like to mess with the status quo, I think Luke would be happier. But remember, he made no attempt to divide all he wrote. Luke kept it all together. Robert Estienne was the one to divide it.
Do you notice some curious features of Chapter 6?
Now of course we are left with the short segment related to the choosing of the set of new leaders – of whom Stephen is one. Did you notice how Luke has advanced the story while at the same time introducing us to Stephen who is soon to be the star of the story?
Let me return to Estienne’s Chapter 6:1-7 and remind you of the questions I put to you a couple of Gems ago.
- Are there questions which come to mind related to the content of Chapter 6?
- Are there any elements which puzzle you?
That will be the focus of the next Gem. We will deal with that in one Gems and then begin the analysis of a very long chunk of scripture from the current Acts 6:8 – Acts 7:60. While it is a long section, it all hangs together. But for now, spend some time looking at Acts 6:1-7. We will look at that segment before we move on to the Stephen story. Of course that long section naturally breaks into the introduction of Stephen, the events surrounding him and his speech. It goes without saying that much like other parts of Acts, the speech is the most important part of it all. Sorry, I know some of you are more interested in the action but Luke gave us the looong speech for a reason. Why? And for some of you, how did Luke get this speech when he couldn’t interview Stephen? Food for thought. These are all good questions to spark our thinking to be more in tune with Luke’s.
In order to change we must be sick and tired of being sick and tired.
Anon
Many of life’s failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up.
Thomas Edison
Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.
Robert Brault
If we don’t believe there is more of God available our hunger stops.
Bill Johnson
The more you realise how deep the Word of God really is, the more you want to press in to find out all about it. It simply feeds your passion to know Him and His Word more.
Ian Vail