Seven Deacons

The seven deacons, Nicanor, Stephen, Philip, Procorus, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicholas, were a particular of the Apostles body which took over certain management tasks in the Jerusalem church. They will be decided in the book of Acts (Acts 6:1-7 EU), but also reported in later traditions. They are seen as part of the seventy disciples.

All seven deacons - they are not yet mentioned in the Book of Acts, but only in the Epistles of the Apostle Paul - bear Greek names and Hellenists, which distinguishes them from the Aramaic-speaking Hebrews, the early church. Their task was the service at the communal meal of the community and the care of widows, while the spiritual leadership of the community continued to be subject to the twelve apostles, under the leadership of Peter. The Seven Deacons officiated until the flight of the first community of Jerusalem at the beginning of the Jewish War in 66

In the book of Acts will be discussed mainly on Stephen and Philip. Stephen was the first martyr of the Christian community, as one of Saul of Tarsus, later the Apostle Paul, incited crowd stoned him. Philip evangelized in the area of Samaria, where he converted Simon Magus. Procorus was according to tradition, a nephew of Stephen and a companion of John the Evangelist, who made him bishop of Nicomedia in Bithynia. Timon is considered Hellenized Jew, who became bishop in Greece or Syria Bosra. Nikolaos had a bad reputation in many early church historians; as Irenaeus of Lyons sees him as the progenitor of the Gnostic sect of the Nicolaitans, whose name is said to derive from it.