Отдел седьмой. Церковь в Палестине до рассеяния христиан из Иерусалима

XXXI. The election of Matthew as an apostle. Pentecost and the Descent of St. Spirit on the apostles. The First Converts and the State of the Primitive Church Upon returning to Jerusalem, the disciples rallied into one community, which found room for itself in a special upper room, perhaps the same one that served as the place for the Last Supper. There all the believers gathered around them, among them the Most Rev. The Virgin and other disciples of the Lord, and all of them, recognizing themselves as a special society, different from the world around them, “continued with one accord in prayer and supplication” (Acts 1:14). This was a small herd that was aware of its insignificance before the power of this world; but his strength was in prayer and hope for that great gift that they expected to soon receive according to the promise of their ascended Teacher. During the ten days that elapsed between the Ascension and Pentecost, one of the first concerns of the Apostles was to fill the place that appeared in their society after Judas left it. This was done in the first meeting of believers in Jerusalem, who, due to the absence of many of those five hundred to whom Christ appeared in Galilee, gathered to the number of one hundred and twenty people. The terrible circumstances of the traitor’s suicide, about which various terrible tales were passed on, left in their hearts the deepest faith in God’s immediate retribution to the guilty party. For his villainy, he lost his high virtues and “retired to his own place.” That his place had to be taken by someone was considered necessary already because Christ himself chose twelve Apostles - according to the sacred number of the tribes of Israel. Ap took care of this. Peter, who addressed the meeting with a speech, setting out in it the very conditions of the apostleship. An essential condition for the new apostle was that he should be a witness of the Resurrection and be in communication with the disciples during the entire time the Savior was with them. The method of this appointment, unique in the New Testament, apparently resulted from the special position of the Church during the first days between the Ascension and the descent of the Holy Spirit. As if feeling that they did not yet possess the living power of true discernment of spirits, the Apostles chose two: Joseph Barsabas, who in pagan circles was usually called Justus, and Matthew, and then, according to Old Testament examples and Jewish customs (Luke 1:9), they prayed to God to show him whom He had chosen. The lot was cast, and it fell on Matthew, who was therefore accepted as one of the twelve Apostles, and the believers, at the head of their twelve leaders, began to prepare for the great feast of Pentecost. In the first days of the month of Sivan (June), the harvest in Palestine is already ending, the last ears of wheat are reaching the fields. It was the same in the year in which the earthly ministry of the Savior of the world ended. Having finished collecting wheat, the Jews prepared for the Feast of Pentecost, baking bread from the new wheat and choosing the best animals from their herds to sacrifice, according to the law. The holiday of Pentecost, which was associated with the memory of the elevation of the Israeli people to the degree of being the most chosen among all the peoples of the earth and the giving of the law to them at Sinai, had almost the same meaning for the Jews as Passover, and each of them considered it his duty at the first opportunity to be in Jerusalem on this holiday in order to make the established sacrifice there - and this was considered obligatory not only by the Palestinians, but also by the non-Palestinian Jews who lived in almost all of them. countries of the then known world. Therefore, in Jerusalem around this time one could meet Jews - strict zealots of the law, who arrived from Rome, Egypt, Crete, Arabia, Mesopotamia, from all regions of Asia Minor and Western Asia - from “every nation under heaven,” as well as proselytes from various pagan nations. Already crowded and noisy, Jerusalem at that time presented the appearance of an agitated sea of ​​people, crowding the streets, houses, and surrounding hills. The hum of multilingual conversations groaned over the city. On the pre-holiday days, when continuous crowds of pilgrims entered all the gates of the city, the orphaned disciples of Jesus Christ, as usual, gathered in the upper room, indulged in prayer and involuntarily reflected on the events they had experienced. How many events, the greatest, most terrible and joyful, took place before their eyes at this time. After all, only three and a half years have passed since Jesus the Nazarene, with His powerful words, tore them away from their wretched occupations and they unconsciously followed Him, obeying only the irresistible power of this word - but these three years are greater and more important than all eternity! Already, what these simple-minded Galileans experienced and witnessed during this time was enough to make them focused people, more deeply understanding the purpose of Christ’s ministry than before, when they were ready to argue among themselves over who should be first in the kingdom on earth established by the Teacher. But what made them even more concentrated was their expectation of that promised Comforter, who, having replaced them with the Teacher, would, according to the promise, clothe them with power from above and teach them everything that they were still vaguely aware of. But then the day of Pentecost came. It was about 3 o'clock in the morning. Countless crowds of people flocked to the church for prayer and sacrifices. Haram Square groaned with the chatter of multilingual masses of people. Sellers of sacrificial animals loudly invited buyers. Levites and priests hurriedly ran among the people, performing various priestly duties. The smoke and flames of the sacrifices rose high from the altars. The scribes and Pharisees thoughtfully followed the direction of the smoke and explained to the simple-minded people that Jehovah’s mercy is great for the chosen people, the Messiah promised and proclaimed by the prophets will soon come and restore Israel to a great and glorious kingdom, they added in a lowered voice, fearfully looking back at the Roman guards. So the blinded slaves of the Old Testament celebrated the day of the establishment of the law and did not know that the power of the law had passed and grace had come! The representatives of the New Testament looked sadly from the heights of their upper room at this agitated sea of ​​unenlightened masses. How senseless and pitiful these people were in their eyes! Many of them came from the most distant countries, endured the hardships and enormous costs of travel - and for what? only in order to testify to his slavish devotion to the law that is no longer in force... There, a zealot of the law selects from the merchants “a lamb without blemish” (Num. 6:14), as prescribed in the law, and leads him to the slaughter, and after him another leads “a goat for a sin offering”... (Lev. 9:3) Fools! They do not know that they serve the futility of the Old Testament at a time when the New Testament of grace was proclaimed to the world in its place, they serve shadows when reality itself has appeared, they lead to the slaughter of a lamb and a goat, when the Divine Lamb has already taken upon himself the weight of the world’s sin and accomplished the salvation of the world, having suffered, being slain from this unreasonable crowd, not knowing what it is doing... And the disciples quietly prayed in spirit and truth - in spite of this bustling crowd, fulfilling the outdated letter of the law. In view of the national celebration that was visible in memory of the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, the prayer of the Apostles naturally had to have as its subject a petition to the ascended Teacher, so that He would quickly send them the promised Spirit, who would comfort them in their orphanhood and give that new law of grace, with the gospel of which they would joyfully go throughout the whole world. Their prayer was heard. While they were praying, suddenly “there came an extraordinary sound from heaven, as from a rushing storm of wind” (Acts 2:2) or as from the disturbance of many waters; the house where they were was shaken to its foundations, as if by a hurricane combined with an earthquake. Before they had time to recover from the surprise of this phenomenon that struck them, a new phenomenon followed: as if a fiery flame illuminated the house and its divided tongues rested, one on each of them. What is it? The Apostles asked each other in amazement. They knew that similar phenomena occurred on Mount Sinai on the day of legislation. That day, when morning came, peals of thunder were heard and dazzling lightning pierced the mountain, which was all smoking and trembling, and the Lord came down to Moses and gave him the law. Does not the ascended Teacher now give them a new law, from which they will learn all truth? But soon their bewilderment was dispelled. Already in the first questions of surprise with which they addressed each other, they saw that they were speaking different languages, hitherto unknown to them, and they felt the bubbling of new powerful forces within themselves. They felt as if they had been reborn. Sublime and deep thoughts swarmed in their minds, and faith, hot as a flame, blazed in their hearts. Instantly they remembered all the teachings that they had once heard from the Teacher, and every word of this teaching, like a red-hot iron, burned their hearts and demanded open public confession. They realized that “they were filled with the Holy Spirit and the Spirit gave them utterances” (Acts 2:4). The confines of the upper room were now too small for them: the irresistible force of inspiration drew them into this sea of ​​people, which was agitated in front of the church, so that there they could confess Christ in a divinely inspired sermon and preach His word. Meanwhile, the people, amazed by the extraordinary phenomena that had occurred, fell into confusion and rushed to the house in which the divinely enlightened Apostles were located. The apostles left the house. Their gaze shone like lightning, penetrating the crowds of people, and they joyfully looked around at these vast masses, representing a rich harvest for the workers and creators of the Kingdom of Christ. And they began an inspired speech. It flowed from their lips in an unstoppable stream, composed of words, each of which was their heart, embodied faith and love for their Heavenly Teacher. What did the most famous orators of the classical world mean before them then, composing their speeches according to the rules of art - speeches animated only by their wretched vanity? The inspired speeches of the Apostles roared like thunder shaking mountains and acted with the force of a hammer breaking rocks. The countless crowds of people silently listened to the wondrous speeches, and marveled more at these speeches than at the terrible phenomena that attracted them here. Under the first irresistible impression of these speeches, the masses of the people did not notice their wonderful external features. They only felt that these speeches were extraordinary speeches, that they penetrated to the marrow of the bones, and burned the hearts of the listeners like fire. But when the first impression passed and the masses of multilingual people looked at each other to share their impressions, they noticed with amazement that each of them heard the speeches they had just heard in their native language. Everyone's faces seemed frozen in amazement. How! and the Egyptian, who hitherto was proud of the fact that only those born in the land of the pyramids knew his language, and the Greek and Roman, who considered their language the property of only educated people - they all now hear each their own language, and from whom? - from these ignorant, abandoned, wretched Galileans, whose very name sounded contempt! At first silent amazement then began to express itself in words and exclamations. A buzz of exclamations and questions ran through the masses: everyone turned to each other for an explanation of the mysterious phenomenon. “Are not these all who speak Galileans?” (Acts 2:7) - the people asked each other in surprise. “How do we each hear our own dialect in which we were born, and hear them speaking in our own languages ​​about the great deeds of God? And again everyone was amazed and perplexed and said to each other: what does this mean? "(Acts 2:8,11,12) But an extraordinary phenomenon does not always cause mere surprise. Among the large crowd there will always be people for whose frivolity there is nothing extraordinary and wonderful, and who, either to justify their deep ignorance, or to achieve low selfish goals, will try to reduce the most extraordinary to the level of the only vulgarity they understand. There were such people among the masses of people surrounding the divinely inspired Apostles. These madmen were strangers to holy surprise at the extraordinary phenomenon, and they mocked and said, nodding at the Apostles: “they were drunk with free wine” (Acts 2:13) (a favorite morning drink in ancient times). Thus blasphemous frivolity always laughs at holy inspiration! The sensual and stiff-necked people could not understand what was happening before them: it was a miracle - great and mysterious, that wonderful gift that the heavenly Teacher promised before the Ascension, when he said that those who believe in Him “will speak with new tongues” (Mark 16:17). Now this promise was fulfilled: His disciples began to speak in other new languages, and said what the sent down Comforter, the Holy Spirit, taught them. Any miracle aimed at achieving lofty religious and moral goals, first of all, has in mind the elimination of natural obstacles to this. So it was now. The teachings of Christ had to be preached to all the peoples of the earth, and yet they were separated by a barrier in the form of differences in languages ​​and dialects. The gift of tongues removed this barrier, and the word of Christ could spread freely throughout the world. As a miraculous gift, it was incomprehensible not only to the ignorant crowd of that time, but will remain so for higher scientific knowledge, and all scientific attempts to explain it represent one vague fortune-telling. By the way, some of the interpreters thought to explain this miracle by attributing it mainly to the listeners, suggesting that the Apostles spoke in their ordinary language, but to the listeners, under the impression of extraordinary phenomena and animation, it seemed that they were each hearing their own native language, or that the Apostles, through the action of the Holy Spirit, had been returned to the Apostles that pure, primitive, generally understandable language that was lost during the Babylonian pandemonium - and this language is now was understandable to all nationalities. But with such an explanation, this phenomenon remains perhaps even more miraculous and mysterious. As for other free-thinking interpreters, who, without recognizing the gift of tongues as a miracle, try to explain it in a natural way, pointing to some cases of somnambulism, when those possessed by it suddenly, in ecstasy, began to speak words and speeches hitherto unknown to them, then this explanation, as attributing a miracle to an abnormal state, is obviously not new, and is only a modified repetition of the explanation of contemporary interpreters of the phenomenon, who, blasphemously mocking, said: “they got drunk.” sweet wine”... No, it was not sweet wine or somnambulism that acted in the Apostles, it was the wisdom of God that acted in them, clothing them with superhuman power! Meanwhile, the roar of exclamations spread more and more throughout the masses, who were unable to explain the miraculous phenomenon. But amid the exclamations of surprise, the mocking voices of the blasphemers began to be heard louder and louder, trying to give dominance to their frivolity. It was a terrible minute. The cause of God was threatened with general ridicule. But it never laughs! At that moment, the Apostle Peter stepped out from among the Apostles and addressed the excited crowd in a loud voice: “Men of the Jews and all who dwell in Jerusalem!” (Acts 2:14) he cried. The crowd, amazed by the courage of the Apostle, fell silent and held its breath. And the Apostle Peter continued: “Let this be known to you, and listen to my words: they are not drunk, as you think, for it is now the third hour of the day; but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: and it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh, and they shall prophesy” (Acts 2:14–17). The crowd was touched in their hearts when they heard the prophetic word, and the Apostle Peter moved on to an open sermon about Christ. "Men of Israel!" - he exclaimed again. “Hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man testified to you by God with signs and wonders, which God did through Him among you, as you yourselves know, Him you took and nailed with the hands of the wicked, and killed... But God raised Him up, breaking the bonds of death... of which we are all witnesses. Therefore, He, having been exalted by the right hand of God and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, poured out what you now see and hear... Therefore let all the house of Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:22–36). The Apostle finished his speech, but like a terrible thunder of heavenly justice, her words still resounded in the ears of those from this crowd who only fifty days ago in an insane frenzy shouted: “Crucify, crucify Him!” (John 19:6). With a cry of despair, many rushed to Peter and the other Apostles, exclaiming: “What should we do, men and brethren? Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:37–38). And these words were like healing oil for suffering souls. About three thousand people were baptized that day. These were the first fruits from the ripened national field, but the richness of these first fruits made clear the richness of the subsequent harvest. At the end of the holiday, the pilgrims spread the word about what they had seen and heard to all corners of the world and planted the first seeds of the teachings of Christ on the uncultivated soil of paganism. After the feast of Pentecost, the gradual growth of the society of Christ began, which completely acquired the character of the Christian Church, with its external forms and institutions. “All who believed were together and had all things in common” (Acts 2:44). They were not yet able to immediately break with the Old Testament institutions, so the church continued to serve as the very place of their prayer, where they “abided every day with one accord” (Acts 2:46); but at the same time, a completely Christian service began, consisting of the breaking of bread, according to the commandment of Christ. Their special difference from the rest of the world was their internal rebirth, which made them completely different from the selfish sons of this world. One of the significant shortcomings of modern Jews was extreme self-interest, which divided them into disparate units who cared only about themselves and were callous about the needs of others. The spirit of Gospel love conquered this selfishness in the believers, and they “sold their possessions and all kinds of property, and distributed it to everyone, according to each one’s need” (Acts 2:45). This was the first experience of that communal life, which later found a place in Christian communal monasticism. And this is how the first Christians lived, “praising God and being loved by all the people. The Lord added daily those who were being saved to the Church” (Acts 2:47). XXXII. Healing the lame man in the church. A warning from the Sanhedrin. Communication of estates. Ananias and Sapphira. Persecution. The Seven Deacons and Their Zeal to Spread the Gospel Endowed with extraordinary gifts, the Apostles began to preach the Gospel, reinforcing it with extraordinary deeds. Ap was ahead of others in this regard. Peter, acting together with John. Having gone to the church, they met a helpless lame beggar at the Red Gate of the church, who asked them for alms. Ap. Peter said to him: “I have no silver and gold; and what I have, this I give to you: in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, arise and walk” (Acts 3:6). When the Apostle lifted him up by his right hand, the lame man “jumped up, began to walk, and entered the church with them, walking and jumping and praising God” (Acts 3:8). Such a miraculous change with the beggar known to all the inhabitants amazed everyone: a multitude of people gathered around the Apostles, from whom the grateful beggar did not leave, and Ap. Peter addressed him with a sermon in which, on the basis of Holy Scripture and the entire Old Testament history, he proved that the Jews, through their blindness, “killed the Author of life” (Acts 3:15). But since they did all this out of ignorance, they still had the opportunity to repent. “So,” said the inspired Apostle, repent and convert to atone for your sins; let times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19–20). This sermon, which attracted many listeners, attracted the attention of members of the Sanhedrin, who, seeing in it a continuation of the very teaching that was preached by the Galilean Teacher who had been crucified by them, were extremely indignant at these insignificant, in their opinion, Galilean villagers who dared to preach in the church. The apostles were captured and taken into custody, but this only further contributed to the success of their preaching. “Many of those who heard their word believed; and the number of such people was about five thousand” (Acts 4:4). The next day the Sanhedrin met, to which the Apostles were brought. The council was composed of the main culprits in the death of Christ, the high priests Annas and Caiaphas, who now must have felt with embarrassment that, having crucified Jesus, they had not crucified His work. Ap. Peter, when asked: “by what power or in what name did they do” (Acts 4:7) a miracle that struck all of Jerusalem, boldly answered with a speech in which he directly said that they did it in the name of that very “Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom the Jews crucified, but whom God raised from the dead” (Acts 4:10). Then the prophecy of Christ was fulfilled, telling His disciples that when they were brought to judgment, they would have nothing to worry about what to say in response, because He would put wisdom into their mouths, which their enemies would not be able to resist. The extraordinary courage and glibness of speech, which was all the more striking since this speech came from the lips of obviously uneducated people, left no doubt in the council that these were worthy followers of Jesus, and the presence of a healed man made it impossible to reject the miracle. Therefore, the Sanhedrin decided to resort to half measures, limiting itself only to a strict prohibition on preaching in the name of Jesus. But the Apostles courageously answered this: “Judge, is it right before God to listen to you more than to God? We cannot help but speak what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:19–20). Such an answer forced the elders to gnash their teeth with malicious indignation, but since they were afraid of the people to use cocaia or drastic measures, they inevitably limited themselves to repeating the threats with which they released the Apostles. The believers greeted them with delight and expressed their gratitude to God through common prayer, representing the first example of public prayer for Christians (Acts 4:24-30). “And because of their prayer, the place where they were gathered was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31). The Apostles continued their work with even greater zeal, and the assembly of believers stood out even more for its virtues and its unparalleled unanimity. “The multitude of those who believed had one heart and one soul; and no one called anything of his property his own, but they had everything in common” (Acts 4:32). This does not mean that the first Christians accepted the dreamy and unrealizable theory known as communism, the essence of which is the rejection of all personal property. Communism presupposes the obligatory abolition of all personal property, while among the first Christians the sharing of estates was only an expression of the inner spirit of self-sacrifice with which they treated matters of philanthropy and sold everything in order to form, so to speak, a fund for helping their needy brothers. Hence, this communication of estates was obviously not obligatory, and if some persons, such as for example. Barnabas, Levite with Fr. Cyprus, even sold his land in order to bring the proceeds to the feet of the Apostles, then this case is noted as outstanding, and then another case - with Ananias clearly proves the optionality of such communication of estates. This Ananias and his wife Sapphira, carried away by the example of others, also sold their estate in order to contribute the proceeds to the common treasury of Christians. But at the same time, a sense of self-interest arose in them, and they withheld part of the amount received from the sale and, bringing the rest to the Apostles, assured that this was the entire amount they had received. The lie of this statement was clearly reflected on the face of the not yet completely corrupted Ananias, and St. Peter turned to him with strict reproof, saying that they lied not to the Apostles, but to the Holy Spirit. “What did you own,” said the Apostle to Ananias, “wasn’t it yours, and what was acquired by sale was not in your power?” (Acts 5:4) letting him know that the sale of the estate was by no means obligatory for him, and for the church the spirit of inner zeal, and not involuntary coercion, is more valuable in her sons. This reproof had such a strong effect on Ananias that he immediately fell lifeless. About three hours later, when preparations were already being made for the burial of Ananias, his wife Sapphira came, not knowing anything about what had happened. To the question of Ap. Peter, she repeated the lies told by her husband Ananias; The Apostle, seeing such deceit, turned to her with a similar reproof. “What is it,” he said, that you agreed to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, those who buried your husband are entering the door; and they will carry you out. Suddenly she fell at his feet and gave up the ghost” (Acts 5:9–10), and she was buried with her husband. Such a terrible event brought “great fear upon the whole church and upon all who heard it” (Acts 5:11), and naturally deterred some who did not feel sufficiently prepared from joining the church. But in general the work of conversion continued. The apostles and their followers gathered daily in Solomon's porch of the church. Their miracles multiplied. The sick were carried out to them into the streets on their beds, “so that at least the shadow of Peter passing would overshadow any of them. Many from the surrounding cities also converged on Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those possessed by unclean spirits, who were all healed” (Acts 5:15–16). Naturally, all this could not leave the high priests and elders of the Jews alone. The shadow of the Galilean whom they crucified apparently grew before their conscience. Unable to tolerate such success of the Apostles any longer, the high priests again ordered the Apostles to be seized and this time thrown into prison. The Sanhedrin assembled early for their trial. But when they were sent for them to prison, it turned out that the Apostles were no longer there and that, freed by the Angel of the Lord, they calmly taught in the church. In extreme embarrassment, the members of the Sanhedrin once again sent the church commander to arrest them, but this time without any violence that could lead to dangerous consequences. The apostles did not offer any resistance and were immediately placed where their Savior had once stood - in the middle of a menacing semicircle of angry judges. In response to the indignant reminder from the high priest about the warning they had received, Ap. Peter directly expressed his view on the matter that it is precisely when our duty to man collides with our duty to God that we should rather obey God. The high priest told them: “You want to bring the blood of that man upon us” (Acts 5:28). These words revealed in them the fear of terrible retribution for the insolent cry: “His blood be on us and on our children” (Matthew 27:25). The Sanhedrin did not fear Jesus then. Now he trembled at the thought of the vengeance that might be brought upon him by two of his most despised disciples. This phrase is also remarkable in that for the first time it represents an example of the Jews’ avoidance of calling Christ by name, which the Talmud also does, calling Him mostly an indefinite “someone.” Peter did not increase the anxiety of the Jewish leaders; he made no hint of impending vengeance; he only said that the Apostles and the Holy Spirit acting in them were witnesses of the Resurrection and glorification of Him Whom they killed. At these words, the members of the Sanhedrin gnashed their teeth in rage and began to plot a new legal murder, the commission of which, however, according to their own rules, could make them damned in the eyes of their compatriots, as an assembly devoted to the works of blood. This shame was averted by the speech of one wise man between them. This was Gamaliel, renowned as one of the greatest scholars of the law, and who acquired even greater importance in the Christian church as the former teacher of the greatest of the Apostles. He gave wise advice to wait and see what might come of the new teaching, left to its own devices. This was the age of various rebellious deceivers, such as Theudas and Judas the Galilean, who ended in open rebellion and were crushed by the power of Rome. This will undoubtedly be the end of these preachers, if only they are similar deceivers - and this will immediately relieve the Sanhedrin from all troubles and dangers. But another turn is also possible. This matter may turn out to be from God; and if so, then it is impossible to destroy it, and to oppose it means to directly act as opponents of God. This advice came from such a highly respected person and was in itself so reasonable that the Sanhedrin involuntarily bowed to it; but in order to at least somewhat satisfy his rage, he scourged the Apostles, subjecting each of them to forty blows minus one, as required by law. But of course, such a punishment could not at all weaken the zeal of the Apostles, who still continued their preaching activities in Solomon’s porch. This punishment not only did not frighten Peter and John, but on the contrary aroused in them extraordinary joy that they “were deemed worthy to suffer dishonor for the name of the Lord Jesus. And every day in the church and from house to house they did not cease teaching and preaching the gospel about Jesus Christ” (Acts 5:41–42). The activity of the Apostles, of course, took place mainly among the local Palestinian Jews, of whom the first meeting of believers in Christ was composed; but at the same time, on major holidays, there were many non-Palestinian Jews in Jerusalem who arrived in the holy city from all sorts of countries where the Jews of the Diaspora lived, and many of them also believed and were baptized. Thus, two classes of believers were formed in the Church - Jews in the proper sense of the word, and the so-called Hellenists. Hellenists were generally called all those Jews who, living outside Palestine, from the time of Alexander the Great, completely succumbed to Greek influence and even forgot their native language. Although many of them were also zealous keepers of the Mosaic Law, their very life among the pagans and their subordination to Greek culture and Greek customs instilled in the Palestinian Jews a certain sense of mistrust towards them, so that there was always some disunity between them, sometimes turning into mutual suspicion and hostility. This feeling was partly reflected in the Church of Christ, and when the number of believers increased, a clash between these two different classes became almost inevitable. This is exactly what happened: “there was a murmur among the Hellenists against the Jews” (Acts 6:1). A particular reason for this murmur was the real or imagined neglect of the Hellenistic widows during the daily distribution of food and alms. Some dissatisfaction may have arisen due to the fact that all positions in the church were in the hands of Jews, who naturally could pay more attention to the needs of their fellow countrymen. Widows were the class that most needed help. It is known what attention the ap. Paul addressed their situation even in Corinth, and some of the wisest decrees attributed to Gamaliel were directed towards the relief of the sufferings inseparable from their situation. Thanks to the confinement in which, according to centuries-old custom, women in the east lived, the lot of a widow in the absence of people who could take care of her could be truly bleak. Inequality in treatment of them could naturally arouse grumbling, especially since before their conversion to Christianity these widows had the right to benefits from the corvan, that is, the treasury of the church. But the Apostles treated these complaints with that impartiality and generosity, which serves as the best proof of how little they were guilty of partiality towards the widows of the Jews. Having called the disciples to a meeting, they told them that the time had come when it became inconvenient for the Apostles to deal with the distribution of alms, a matter that could distract them from higher and more important responsibilities. Therefore, they proposed to the meeting to elect seven people from persons of impeccable character, high spiritual talents and business wisdom in order to form a special degree of narrowing in the church, the degree of deacons, in order to relieve the Apostles from the economic burden and give them the opportunity to devote all their energies to prayer and pastoral labors. The council was accepted and the seven most suitable persons for this position were presented to the Apostles. They were admitted to the duties of their ministry by prayer and the laying on of hands, which from that time became the usual ordination to the office of deacon. These seven chosen ones were: Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmen and Nicholas of Antioch, a convert from the pagans. The Greek names of these chosen ones show that all or most of them were chosen from the Hellenists, and thus not only was complete satisfaction given to those who complained, but also the very reason for further displeasure was taken away. These chosen ones, before taking office, were solemnly ordained by the Apostles, and thus in the Church, at the very beginning, hierarchical degrees began to be developed, which were supposed to gradually form the Christian hierarchy with its three divinely established degrees of the priesthood. Until now, all three degrees were concentrated in the persons of the Apostles, who were bishops, presbyters, and deacons. The needs of church and social life, which became more complex with the increase in believers, required the allocation of these degrees, and first of all, in accordance with the current need, the position of deacon was allocated, which was entrusted to the seven chosen ones. The natural consequence of this church institution was that the Apostles, freed from worries about the material provision of their poor brethren, devoted themselves entirely to the highest ministry of the word, finding at the same time active helpers in the deacons themselves. And so “the word of God grew, and the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem” (Acts 6:7); Now not only ordinary Jews, but also persons of the holy order began to accept Christianity. Thus, already earlier, the Levite Josiah, nicknamed by the Apostles Barnabas, that is, the son of consolation, entered the number of believers - the same one who declared himself exemplary zeal and selflessness in the matter of communicating estates; and now “very many of the priests submitted to the faith” (Acts 6:7), and of course became elders in the new Church, completing and completing its three-order hierarchy. XXXIII. Archdeacon Stephen, his sermon and martyrdom. Persecution of the disciples and their scattering from Jerusalem. Spreading the Gospel. Philip's sermon in Samaria. Simon the Magus. Conversion of an Ethiopian eunuch. State of the Church at the end of the reign of Tiberius The elected deacons, having taken upon themselves the management of the affairs of charity, not only provided the Apostles with more freedom in the work of preaching, but at the same time they became worthy helpers in this great work. Stefan was especially remarkable in this regard, representing one of the remarkable personalities in the primal church. Having been elected one of the seven deacons, St. Stephen, “full of faith and power” (Acts 6:8), immediately became the most prominent of them. He “performed great wonders and signs among the people” (Acts 6:8), so that in this respect he seemed to be on the same level with the Apostles. Possessing extraordinary talents and at the same time a high education, he, of course, could not limit his service to distributing alms. He was drawn to the broader and more fruitful field of preaching, and he actually entered it. The alms giver, of course, often had to meet with all sorts of personalities and often start conversations about Christianity and its relationship to Judaism. Hitherto the Christians, who consisted mostly of converted Jews and Hellenists, differed little from the Jews and continued to observe the external forms of Jewish worship, gathering in temples and synagogues. But this connection, of course, was temporary, and it should have been completely broken as independent forms formed in the Christian Church, which more and more spiritually enlightened people have now begun to realize. Ahead of them stood Deacon Stefan, who began the sermon in this very spirit. The place of his preaching was the Hellenistic synagogues. Being a Hellenist himself, he preached primarily to his fellow citizens. His preaching attracted attention, but at the same time it met with opposition. Hellenists from various countries usually had their own separate synagogues, of which there were up to four hundred in Jerusalem, and in one of these synagogues, to which the Libertines (i.e., freed slaves), Cyreneans and Alexandrians belonged, entered into a heated argument with Stephen. Some other people also intervened in this debate, namely “some from Cilicia and Asia,” so that the dispute became extremely heated. The consequence of this dispute was the complete triumph of St. Stefan over his opponents. The Hellenists were unable to “resist the wisdom and the Spirit by whom he spoke” (Acts 6:10). The arrogant scribes must have seen with amazement that the preacher was not an ordinary villager, such as they were accustomed to seeing preachers of Christianity, but had not only a pagan education, but Jewish learning. The dispute, of course, took place regarding the Messiah, and the Jewish scribes, with their perverted idea of ​​the Messiah, must have been furious when they heard that St. Stephen with irresistible force proved to them on the basis of St. Scriptures and stories that this Messiah has already come and that the Jewish people, and especially the commanded lawyers, not only did not recognize and recognize Him, but also crucified Him on the cross as a villain. And this Messiah was Jesus of Nazareth, whose preacher Stephen acted. Enraged by such preaching and not feeling able to resist it any longer, the Hellenists resorted to violence. They stirred up the people and the elders against him, spreading the rumor through bribed false witnesses that he “spoke blasphemous words against Moses and against God, against this holy place (the church) and against the law” (Acts 6:11,13). Taking advantage of this support, they unexpectedly attacked St. Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. The usual analysis began on the part of the court, which had already stained itself with blatant injustice and bloodthirstiness. The indispensable members of this trial appeared - false witnesses who assured that the accused said, “that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us” (Acts 6:14). These false testimonies were all the more dangerous because they were based on a distortion of the truth. St. Stephen actually preached about the abolition of the entire Old Testament economy completed by Christ, but this abolition should be accomplished not through violence, but by the internal action of the Spirit of God, as it has already begun to occur now. And he wanted to solemnly clarify this truth before the very Sanhedrin, which, with all its prejudice towards the preacher of a hated name, could not help but admire the beauty and God-enlightened face of this man, and “they saw his face like the face of an Angel” (Acts 6:15). When the false witnesses were exhausted in their fabricated testimony, the high priest asked: “Is this so?” (Acts 7:1) and to this question St. Stephen responded with a divinely inspired defensive speech, in which the origin of Christianity was clarified as a new, higher, in comparison with Judaism, stage of God’s economy. Recalling the entire Old Testament history from the calling of Abraham, he proved by its very presentation that in the general course of the formation of the Jewish religion and law there was a gradual development of the covenant and better promises, which, however, the chosen people constantly resisted. Having thus shown, on the basis of history, that it was they, his accusers, who constantly turned out to be violators and opponents of God. law, St. Stephen outlined the history of their fathers' opposition to Moses himself, and then prophetically pointed out the possibility of their opposition to that supreme prophet whose appearance Moses had predicted. Then, turning to the accusation of blaspheming the church, he again showed historically how they were precisely the greatest blasphemers of the church of God and, since the time of Moses, had constantly deviated from true worship to idolatry. But the church itself is not the only place of God’s co-presence. Although Solomon built a house for Him, in his very dedicatory prayer he expressed the great thought that “The Most High does not live in churches made with hands, as the prophet says: heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool” (Acts 7:48–49). The general conclusion from these evidences was the self-evident truth that at the basis of their imaginary zeal for the law and the church lay the most vile hypocrisy, combined with gross sensuality and misanthropy. Carried away by holy indignation, the accused became an accuser and courageously exclaimed: “Stiff-necked ones! people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! you always resist the Holy Spirit, just like your fathers and you. Which of the prophets did not your fathers persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, Whom you have now become traitors and murderers. You who accepted the law under the ministry of angels, and did not keep it! (Acts 7:51–53). Such a fearless and terrible denunciation inflamed the rage of the members of the Sanhedrin, who, like wild beasts, “broke their hearts and gnashed their teeth at him” (Acts 7:54). Then St. Stephen saw that he was destined to follow his Teacher along the sorrowful path of martyrdom, and his eyes turned to heaven. There he “saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55). Admired by this wondrous manifestation of God above any thought of danger, he, as if wishing to make his enemies participants in this vision, exclaimed: “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!” (Acts 7:56). But these sublime words could not withstand the feelings of his listeners. Stopping their ears, as if to protect them from the desecrating blasphemy, they rose en masse from both sides of the semicircle in which they sat, and with a wild roar rushed at Stephen. There was no longer any question of a legal solution to the case. In their rage they forgot all law and dragged St. Stephen outside the city gates to be stoned there. When the execution began, the martyr exclaimed: “Lord Jesus! accept my spirit! (Acts 7:59). And when, wounded and bleeding, he could still kneel down, he, in the spirit of his Lord, prayed for his murderers, and even the cry of his suffering sounded like forgiveness, showing how little malice there was in his stern words that he had uttered before: “Lord, he prayed, do not impute this sin to them!” (Acts 7:60). With this exclamation, he walked away from the wrath of people into the world of God and “rested.” His body was buried by some reverent men, who at the same time “made great mourning for him” (Acts 8:2). This was the first martyr for the name of Christ, and he was the first to justify the great truth that “the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christianity.” Among the Hellenists of Cilicia, who argued with Stephen in the synagogue, there was one “young man named Saul” (Acts 7:58), from the city of Tarsus, a disciple of the famous Gamaliel. For all his learning, he could not withstand St. Stefan and like others burned with hatred towards him, forcing him to look at his martyrdom with gloating. Saul not only approved of this heinous murder, but also cooperated with the murderers, who laid their clothes at his feet in order to throw the first stones, as the law prescribed. And this furious enemy of Christianity, for the first time on this terrible occasion, felt in his heart a painful spark of self-accusation, which, gradually flaring up into an all-burning flame, finally led him to the fact that he himself became the “chosen vessel” (Acts 9:15) of the persecuted Christ, the greatest Apostle and disseminator of Christianity. Meanwhile, the success of the enemies of Christianity in the murder of St. Stephen served as a signal for a general persecution of Christians, and in order to save their lives they had to disperse from Jerusalem. This involuntary dispersion, however, served to further spread the Gospel, and precisely beyond the borders of Judea, since “those who were scattered went about and preached the word” (Acts 8:4). “So Philip came to the city of Samaria and preached Christ to them” (Acts 8:5), confirming his preaching with signs and wonders that forced the people to unanimously listen to the preacher. There, by the way, a meeting took place between the preacher of Christianity and the famous sorcerer of his time, Simon, who, posing as the Messiah, deceived the simple-minded people with his spells. But his sorceries, which consisted of pitiful tricks and imaginary miracles, immediately lost their charm in the face of the real signs and wonders of the Christian evangelist, according to whose word the people began to be baptized in the name of Christ. Simon, seeing that his sorceries were no longer able to deceive the people who had seen the light from spiritual blindness, decided to accept baptism himself, hoping through this to receive new power to deceive the people. Meanwhile, the rumor about the success of preaching the Gospel in Samaria reached Jerusalem, and the Apostles sent Peter and John there to confirm the converts in the faith, who, having arrived there, brought down on all believers through the laying on of hands the abundant gift of the Holy Spirit. This last aroused extreme envy in Simon the Magus, and he, in his pagan view, began to offer money to the Apostles so that they would give him the power to bring down the gifts of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands. In response to this criminal simony (as, as a result, all attempts to obtain the grace of the priesthood through purchase began to be called) St. Peter turned to Simon with a strict reproach, which had such an effect on the sorcerer that he began to ask the Apostles to pray for him. The Apostles themselves, “having testified and preached the word of the Lord, went back to Jerusalem, and preached the Gospel in many villages of Samaria” (Acts 8:25). Soon afterwards Philip had to make another important conversion, which was to prove even more decisively that the day had come when the rules of Judaism were to lose their validity. Guided by Divine inspiration and the voice of an Angel, he headed south along the deserted road leading from Eleutheropolis to Gaza, and there he met the retinue of a rich Ethiopian eunuch, who occupied the high position of treasurer of Candace (queen) of the then strong Ethiopian monarchy, whose capital was the city of Meroe. There is reason to believe that this country was to a certain extent converted to Judaism by the Jews who penetrated into it from Egypt in the time of Psammetichus, whose descendants still exist under the name of Phalasians. The eunuch, as if fulfilling the duties of a stranger from the gates, which in his position was more than possible, went to Jerusalem on pilgrimage to attend one of the great holidays, and now returned to his homeland, riding in a carriage, accompanied by his retinue, he, in accordance with the rules of the rabbis, spent time reading the Holy. Scripture and at that very moment he read loudly from the Greek translation 70 the prophecy of Isaiah: “He was led like a sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb that is silent before its shearers, so He opened not His mouth. In His humiliation His judgment was completed, but who will explain His generation? for His life will be taken up from the earth” (Isa. 53:7–8, Acts 8:32–33). Philip asked him if he understood what he was reading? The eunuch admitted that all this was dark to him, and, inviting Philip to sit in his carriage, asked him who it was that the prophet was talking about? Philip was thus able to reveal the Christian interpretation of this great prophecy and had such an effect on his listener that when they arrived at the source of water, the eunuch asked Philip to baptize him. Philip told him: “If you believe with all your heart, you can” (Acts 8:37). And when the eunuch solemnly confessed his faith, saying: “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God” (Acts 8:37), he ordered the chariot to stop and Philip immediately baptized him. “When they came out of the water, the Holy Spirit descended on the eunuch, and an angel of the Lord took Philip away, and the eunuch no longer saw him, but continued on his way, rejoicing” (Acts 8:39). According to legend, the baptized dignitary became a preacher of Christ in his country, and Philip ended up in Azotus, from where he began his preaching in various coastal cities all the way to Caesarea. In this last city, he apparently remained permanently and subsequently had four daughters who possessed the gift of prophecy. Thus, by this time, coinciding approximately with the death of Emperor Tiberius (37 A.D.), the Church began to successfully spread among Jews of all denominations - pure Jews and despised Samaritans, among the Jews of the dispersion - Hellenists and proselytes of the most distant countries. And by this time, the main culprits of Christ’s death experienced the well-deserved wrath of God. Pilate, on the complaint of the Samaritans, was deprived of his post and sent to trial in Rome, and the high priest Caiaphas in the same year was deposed by the Syrian prefect Vitellius, who began to strictly persecute the abuses of the Jewish authorities. You might be interested in: