Parallels Between Acts 6 and Later Deacons

Acts 6:1-6 can be seen as the demarcation of the beginning of what would eventually and officially be termed deacon ministry. First, there is a linguistic parallel. The key problem in Acts 6:1-6 is a diakonia (service) problem. The Hellenistic widows were not being served (6:1, diakonia). It was not agreeable to the apostle’s to forsake the word of God in order to serve (6:2, diakonein) tables, because the ministry (6:4, diakonia) of the Apostles would be devotion to prayer and the word. Acts 6:1-6 is fundamentally a passage about diakonia (service).

As noted previously, the term diakonia or diakonos can have a very broad range of ministry including physical service as well as the service of preaching and teaching. It clearly has both senses here. However, the focus of the passage is not upon the diakonia of preaching but upon the diakonia of serving the widows, because the Apostles needed assistance so as not to neglect the diakonia entrusted to them. The question remains then in the remaining two passages in the New Testament that directly refer to an official group of leaders who serve alongside the overseers (Philippians 1:1 and 1 Timothy 3:8-13), as to why they are called by this term (diakonoi)? When this linguistic parallel is seen in light of the yet to be mentioned structural/functional and selection parallels, it becomes much more clear that Acts 6 is referring to a deacon body; unofficial as of yet in the development of the church, but nonetheless, an acting body of servants.

Second there is a structural and functional parallel that indicates that Acts 6:1-6 is referring to what would be later understood as an official body of deacons. Two groups are clearly denoted in the Acts 6 account: Apostles and the Seven. The Apostles stated that their functional role in the Church was their relationship to the ministry of the Word (6:2, 4). They did not want to be distracted from the hard work of preaching and teaching (1 Timothy 5:17),[1] by the very necessary work of caring for the needs of the widows. Therefore, the creation of a second group of leaders who would care for those ministries would keep the Apostles serving in their God ordained primary ministry. Thus, one group whose priority is preaching and teaching is described and so is another group whose priority is allowing the first group undistracted attention to their God-given priorities, especially in the area of hands on service to the saints.

I would suggest that the connection between the overseers and deacons mentioned in Philippians 1:1 and 1 Timothy 3:1-13 are clearly paralleled in this account. Few commentators fail to see the connection between the Apostles and the eventual role of pastors/overseers/elders.[2] The qualifications for overseers and elders revolve around their role in preaching and teaching (1 Timothy 3:2; 5:17; Titus 1:9), just as the Apostles indicated that such were their roles. The connection between the Twelve and pastors seems obvious. How, then can one miss the connection between the Seven and deacons? Why do some fail to admit a parallel role with the Seven yet admit such a parallel with the Twelve? Even if the Seven did not continue in the long run in their ministry (which is tenuous) and they were not an official precursor to deacons, the same could be argued concerning the Twelve; they obviously did not continue as the only ones in the church who possessed an official role of preaching and teaching. The connection between the Seven and deacons can be made linguistically and interestingly, the only two passages in the New Testament that mention the official role of deacons also both mention them in connection with overseers, the very ones who are argued to replace the Apostles as the official preachers and teachers in the church. Acts 6 is the only passage that clearly shows the future ministry relationship functionally between overseers and deacons. Just as pastors find their precursor in the early days of the church in the preaching and teaching role of the Twelve, so deacons find their precursor in the early day of the church in the serving roles of the Seven.[3]

Third, there is a selection parallel. Just as the qualifications for deacons in 1 Timothy 3:8-13 are spiritual character qualifications, rather than functional qualifications or a job description, so are the qualifications for the Seven in Acts 6:1-6. These men were to be spiritually wise men, even though they were merely going to assist in the physical needs of the Hellenistic widows. The qualifications indicate that the Seven would be an official position – they had to meet high spiritual standards and would be working with the Apostles, actually carrying out and having charge over the very ministry it appears the Apostles themselves were previously handling (Acts 4:37). Only spiritually qualified men were to function in the role the Seven were appointed to, and only spiritually qualified men were to function in the role of servants found in 1 Timothy 3:8-13. Berkoff notes such a selection and qualification parallel in his theology: “The requirements for the office, as mentioned in Acts 6, are rather exacting, and in that respect agree with the demands mentioned in 1 Timothy 3:8-12, 12.”[4] The Linguistic, functional and selection parallels all give weight toward Acts 6:1-6 being the basis upon which the later developed official position of deacons was founded.[5]