What Does Acts 6:2 Mean?
Then the twelve called the full crowd of the disciples near, and said, It is not pleasing that we should leave behind the word of God and serve tables.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables.THE KEY
The Greek names serving tables and serving the word as two forms of the same service.
THE MEANING
When many needs press at once, your attention can be pulled between keeping the word in view and tending immediate material needs. The verse recognizes a limit of capacity while holding both works within a shared life of service; each calls for its own attention.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the belief that tending practical needs is lesser work: table service belongs to the same family of service as ministry of the word.
THE ROOT
διακονεῖν
diakonein
GROWS FROM
διακον-
diakon-
The shared Greek word stem for serving or attending to another’s needs.
“serve tables” in this verse is diakonein. English makes serving tables and attending to the word sound like different kinds of work, but Acts 6:4 uses this same word family for the ministry of the word. The passage distinguishes assignments while keeping both within service.
ALSO GROWS
diakonia: service, ministry
διακονία
In Acts 6:4, this noun describes the ministry of the word, linking it to the table service named here.
diakonos: servant, minister
διάκονος
This related word names a person through the same service family, keeping attention on the work of serving.
THE PATTERN
One shared service takes distinct forms according to the needs and gifts entrusted to each person.
For who is greater, the one reclining at table or the one who serves? Is it not the one reclining? But I am among you as the one serving.If service, let us serve in our serving. If teaching, let the one who teaches teach.As each has received a gift, serve it to one another as good stewards of the many-colored favor of God.THE THREAD
But we will hold fast to prayer, and to the serving of the word.“Ministry” here is διακονία (diakonia), from the same Greek word family as “serve” in verse 2. The two verses distinguish table service from word service without separating either from service itself.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us