The Relationship of Jewish and Gentile Believers to the Law Between A.D. 30 and 70 in the Scripture

46 the meaning of the Stephen incident, i.e., the distinction between Hellenists and Hebrews. Two questions which need to be addressed are: (1) were the Hellenists a definable and more progressive sect of Jewish society which saw beyond the bounds of orthodox Judaism and (2) was Stephen an eloquent spokesman for this group? Next we will analyze the meaning of Stephen's speech and its relationship to the charges offered against him. Finally , in light of that research we will evaluate the contribution of the whole incident to the argument of Acts. The Role of Hellenism in the Section The issue of Hellenism first arises because of the complaint on the part of the Hellenists C E1111rivtcrTwv ) against the Hebrews C E~pa(ouc;), "because their widows were being overlooked in the daily serving of food" (6: 1). When the solution is found to appoint seven men who have common Greek names (6:5) some have made the assumption that Stephen is a Hellenist whose lifestyle and theology differ from his Hebrew contemporaries . Scott represents this line of reasoning when he says: The murmuring over the support of hellenistic widows (Acts 6:1) wa probably a relatively insignificant incident that exposed latent tensions within the early Church . The potential for this and other problems between Jewish Christian groups ... lay, at least partially, in the cultural divisions of the Judaism from which they had come . The emergence of this distinctively hellenistic Jewish influence within Chri tianity ugge t the existence of a form of the new faith that viewed Jewi h in titution , cu tom and traditions differently than did the Hebraic Chri tians . As a re ult of thei r di tinct outlook and emphases , tephen and the Christian Jewish helleni t with him em t have forced both the Jewi h leader and the early Chri tian them el th nature and ultimate mi ion of the Chri tian community . 6 i t fl t tl u h th iI · nti-t m 1 , nt1 ntu h t1 bia f G d," h i