Read the passage and its setting
Acts 6:1–6:7, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
Acts 6:1–6:7
The community addresses a neglected distribution
The Main Point
Greek-speaking Jews report that their widows are neglected in the daily service; the twelve call the community to select seven qualified men, prayer and laying on of hands follow, and the word spreads.
What Is Happening Here?
Greek-speaking Jews report that their widows are neglected in the daily service; the twelve call the community to select seven qualified men, prayer and laying on of hands follow, and the word spreads.
What Came Before—and What Comes Next?
Acts 5:33–5:42 has just shown that The enraged council considers killing the apostles, but Gamaliel cites failed movements and urges caution; the apostles are beaten, rejoice at suffering dishonor, and keep teaching Jesus.
Acts 6:8–6:15 will show that Stephen performs signs and argues with diaspora synagogue members who cannot withstand his wisdom; opponents recruit false testimony, bring him before the council, and accuse him concerning temple and law.
Follow the Witness from Jerusalem to Rome
See why this section appears here and how the author's witness movement leads to its meaning.
Why Is This Passage Here?
Greek-speaking Jews report that their widows are neglected in the daily service; the twelve call the community to select seven qualified men, prayer and laying on of hands follow, and the word spreads. Its placement tests how Spirit-enabled witness moves from promise into public, communal, and contested life.
Follow the Scene or Speech
Greek-speaking Jews report that their widows are neglected in the daily service; the twelve call the community to select seven qualified men, prayer and laying on of hands follow, and the word spreads.
The unit distinguishes narrated event, participant speech, the narrator's framing, material uncertainty, and the ethical boundary: The solution does not demean material care, make one office model universal, silence complaints, or erase the widows whose neglect prompted reform.
What Is the Author Saying?
Why This Interpretation Fits
Unit movement
Greek-speaking Jews report that their widows are neglected in the daily service; the twelve call the community to select seven qualified men, prayer and laying on of hands follow, and the word spreads.
Narrator and speech control
The scene reports action, response, and consequence without making every action exemplary. Narrated sequence must be separated from a universal church or salvation rule.
Material limit
The conflict is an internal diaspora-language inequity, not a Jewish-versus-Gentile dispute; the seven are appointed to a concrete need, while later ministry exceeds a narrow job description.
Understand the Meaning and Its Boundaries
Clarify the words that matter and keep the conclusion no broader than the passage allows.
Words That Matter
ministration
See SBLGNT and STEP data for the exact inflected form · diakonia
The KJV term means service or distribution in the community, not a lesser spiritual task.
What the Passage Is Not Saying
Reading Acts 6:1–6:7 within Luke-Acts and the complete thought unit rules out this use:
The solution does not demean material care, make one office model universal, silence complaints, or erase the widows whose neglect prompted reform.
Context check: Greek-speaking Jews report that their widows are neglected in the daily service; the twelve call the community to select seven qualified men, prayer and laying on of hands follow, and the word spreads. The scene reports action, response, and consequence without making every action exemplary. Narrated sequence must be separated from a universal church or salvation rule.
What Remains True Today
Faithful witness preserves the unit's narrated sequence, speaker and narrator distinction, Jewish and Gentile identities, affected people, and material uncertainty. The solution does not demean material care, make one office model universal, silence complaints, or erase the widows whose neglect prompted reform.
Respond and Remember
Let the meaning shape life carefully, then practice explaining the section in context.
How This Should Shape Us
Why these applications follow
Greek-speaking Jews report that their widows are neglected in the daily service; the twelve call the community to select seven qualified men, prayer and laying on of hands follow, and the word spreads.
Greek-speaking Jews report that their widows are neglected in the daily service; the twelve call the community to select seven qualified men, prayer and laying on of hands follow, and the word spreads. The scene reports action, response, and consequence without making every action exemplary. Narrated sequence must be separated from a universal church or salvation rule.
Faithful witness preserves the unit's narrated sequence, speaker and narrator distinction, Jewish and Gentile identities, affected people, and material uncertainty. The solution does not demean material care, make one office model universal, silence complaints, or erase the widows whose neglect prompted reform.
What accountable response follows?
First identify the verse role and speaker within Acts 6:1–6:7; then state the contextual meaning—Greek-speaking Jews report that their widows are neglected in the daily service; the twelve call the community to select seven qualified men, prayer and laying on of hands follow, and the word spreads. Preserve the proportionate truth that witness remains accountable to context, evidence, and affected people; finally apply this safeguard: The solution does not demean material care, make one office model universal, silence complaints, or erase the widows whose neglect prompted reform.
A Concrete Example
When Acts 6:1–6:7 is cited today, name the speaker, authority, people affected, evidence, and uncertainty before proposing an analogy; then test the proposed action against this boundary: The solution does not demean material care, make one office model universal, silence complaints, or erase the widows whose neglect prompted reform.
Teach It Back
Explain Acts 6:1–6:7 in your own words, naming its movement, speaker or narrator role, one source-controlled detail, one uncertainty, one affected person, and one conclusion the passage does not authorize.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
Go Deeper
The main explanation above stands on its own. Open these optional sections for fuller language, history, disagreements, and source locations.
Read it sentence by sentenceEach line inside the larger movement
Narrative or speech movement
Greek-speaking Jews report that their widows are neglected in the daily service; the twelve call the community to select seven qualified men, prayer and laying on of hands follow, and the word spreads.
Interpretive control
The scene reports action, response, and consequence without making every action exemplary. Narrated sequence must be separated from a universal church or salvation rule.
Ethical boundary
The solution does not demean material care, make one office model universal, silence complaints, or erase the widows whose neglect prompted reform.
Original-language wording and grammarTechnical detail appears only where it helps
ministration
The KJV term means service or distribution in the community, not a lesser spiritual task.
How certain? probableWhat the first readers would have understoodRelevant history and culture
Setting and recoverable limits
The conflict is an internal diaspora-language inequity, not a Jewish-versus-Gentile dispute; the seven are appointed to a concrete need, while later ministry exceeds a narrow job description. Geography, chronology, social practice, Roman procedure, and institutional reconstruction are claimed only to the degree supported by the cited sources.
How certain? probableWhy translations sometimes differMaterial translation choices
Pinned KJV and Greek control
The pinned KJV remains the displayed text. SBLGNT, STEP morphology, and the NET notes were checked for Acts 6:1–6:7; older KJV wording is explained only where it materially affects understanding.
How certain? strongEarlier Scripture and inherited backgroundSupported quotations, allusions, and inherited ideas
Israel's Scriptures and Jewish setting
Acts continues Israel's scriptural story through Jewish witnesses, synagogues, temple worship, Torah practice, diaspora communities, and contested interpretations. Greek-speaking Jews report that their widows are neglected in the daily service; the twelve call the community to select seven qualified men, prayer and laying on of hands follow, and the word spreads.
How certain? strongHow this connects with the rest of ScriptureThe passage's own meaning remains primary
Luke-Acts and responsible canonical reading
Luke's first volume is the immediate literary horizon. Later canonical connections must preserve Acts 6:1–6:7's own sequence, Jewish setting, speakers, and unresolved questions.
How certain? strongTextual variantsManuscript differences only when they affect meaning
The inspected SBLGNT, NET notes, and where relevant Codex Bezae do not expose a variant that changes this unit's central movement; The conflict is an internal diaspora-language inequity, not a Jewish-versus-Gentile dispute; the seven are appointed to a concrete need, while later ministry exceeds a narrow job description.
Where careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Which judgment needs visible uncertainty?
Best judgment: The conflict is an internal diaspora-language inequity, not a Jewish-versus-Gentile dispute; the seven are appointed to a concrete need, while later ministry exceeds a narrow job description.
How certain? probableTheology that emerges from this passageConclusions drawn after reading the complete section
Theological contribution
Acts joins divine initiative, the Spirit, human witness, communal discernment, and accountable action in this movement: Greek-speaking Jews report that their widows are neglected in the daily service; the twelve call the community to select seven qualified men, prayer and laying on of hands follow, and the word spreads.
How certain? strongTheological contribution
God's action in Acts 6:1–6:7 is narrated as particular gift, judgment, guidance, or preservation; it is not a technique readers can control or a warrant for the misuse explicitly rejected here.
How certain? strongCommon ways this passage gets misusedFair explanation, context check, and stronger reading
The solution does not demean material care, make one office model universal, silence complaints, or erase the widows whose neglect prompted reform.
A vivid event or line in Acts 6:1–6:7 can be detached from its narrator, speaker, first audience, ancient institutions, literary placement, and later Acts parallels.
Greek-speaking Jews report that their widows are neglected in the daily service; the twelve call the community to select seven qualified men, prayer and laying on of hands follow, and the word spreads. The scene reports action, response, and consequence without making every action exemplary. Narrated sequence must be separated from a universal church or salvation rule.
Keep description distinct from command, actor interpretation distinct from authorial evaluation, and original setting distinct from faithful application.
Greek-speaking Jews report that their widows are neglected in the daily service; the twelve call the community to select seven qualified men, prayer and laying on of hands follow, and the word spreads.
Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and unit coverage.
Acts 6:1–6:7, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Supports: Greek wording and punctuation control, without pretending one edition is a complete apparatus.
SBLGNT official text, Acts 6:1-6:7
Supports: Morphology and lexical cross-check for words explicitly discussed in this unit.
STEP Bible Data, TAGNT rows for Acts 6:1-6:7
Supports: Verse-attached textual, translation, language, geography, chronology, and historical notes actually printed for the unit.
NET Bible First Edition Acts PDF, printed pp. 2104-2205, exact tn/tc/sn entries attached to 6:1–6:7
Supports: Introductory critical orientation to the unit's place in Luke-Acts, with contested judgments retained as interpretations.
Yale Bible Study Acts course, course unit 'Deepening Community, Growing Mission,' Acts 5-8 study guide
Supports: One complete confessional commentary reading, independently checked against the text and critical controls.
Thompson, online Acts commentary, heading and paragraphs explicitly covering Acts 6:1–6:7
Supports: Abstract-supported control for Jewish continuity and Gentile inclusion in Acts 6:1–6:7, not a settlement of every conflict scene.
Smith, JTS 72.2 (2021), pp. 738-765, official abstract and bibliographic record
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and unit coverage.
Exact location: Acts 6:1–6:7, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗Greek textual evidence
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition
Michael W. Holmes, editor; Society of Biblical Literature and Logos
Society of Biblical Literature and Logos Bible Software, 2010
Supports: Greek wording and punctuation control, without pretending one edition is a complete apparatus.
Exact location: SBLGNT official text, Acts 6:1-6:7
Open the Acts Greek text file ↗Lexical and grammatical evidence
STEP Bible Data
Tyndale House Cambridge
Tyndale House Cambridge, repository snapshot verified 2026
Supports: Morphology and lexical cross-check for words explicitly discussed in this unit.
Exact location: STEP Bible Data, TAGNT rows for Acts 6:1-6:7
Open source ↗open translation and translator notes
NET Bible First Edition Notes: Acts
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-attached textual, translation, language, geography, chronology, and historical notes actually printed for the unit.
Exact location: NET Bible First Edition Acts PDF, printed pp. 2104-2205, exact tn/tc/sn entries attached to 6:1–6:7
Open source ↗open university bible study course
Acts of the Apostles Course and Study Guides
Yale Divinity School faculty
Yale Bible Study, 2019
Supports: Introductory critical orientation to the unit's place in Luke-Acts, with contested judgments retained as interpretations.
Exact location: Yale Bible Study Acts course, course unit 'Deepening Community, Growing Mission,' Acts 5-8 study guide
Open source ↗open confessional commentary
The Acts of the Apostles
Alan J. Thompson
The Gospel Coalition, 2023
Supports: One complete confessional commentary reading, independently checked against the text and critical controls.
Exact location: Thompson, online Acts commentary, heading and paragraphs explicitly covering Acts 6:1–6:7
Open source ↗peer reviewed article abstract and metadata
The Jewishness of Luke-Acts: How Recent Scholarship Has Challenged the View that Luke-Acts Is Pro-Gentile and Anti-Jewish
Joshua Paul Smith
The Journal of Theological Studies 72.2, 2021
Supports: Abstract-supported control for Jewish continuity and Gentile inclusion in Acts 6:1–6:7, not a settlement of every conflict scene.
Exact location: Smith, JTS 72.2 (2021), pp. 738-765, official abstract and bibliographic record
Open source ↗