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HELLENISTS

One of two groups, “Hellenists” (Gk. Hellēnistḗs) and “Hebrews” (Hebraíoi), at odds with each other in the early Church (Acts 6:1). The identity of the Hellenists is usually based on the meaning of the verb hellēnízein, either “to speak Greek (properly)” or “to live like a Greek.” The consensus view, following John Chrysostom, is that Hellenists were Jewish Christians who spoke Greek, and Hebrews were those who spoke Aramaic. Others have argued that Hellenists were either non-Jews, nonorthodox Jews who held lax views on the ritual laws and cultus, or diaspora Jews. Still other scholars claim that Hellenists represented a more progressively minded group in contrast to the particularistic Hebrews who dominated the Jerusalem congregation under James the Just. Since Hellēnistḗs occurs only three times in the NT (Acts 6:1; 9:29; 11:20), it is impossible to define the term conclusively as it is used in Acts.

Bibliography. H. A. Brehm, “The Meaning of ʿEllhnist©v in Acts in Light of a Diachronic Analysis of œllhn¾zein,” in Discourse Analysis and Other Topics in Biblical Greek, ed. S. E. Porter and D. A. Carson, JSNTSup 113 (Sheffield, 1995), 180-99; M. Hengel, “Between Jesus and Paul: The ‘Hellenists’, the ‘Seven’ and Stephen (Acts 6.1-15; 7.54-8.3),” in Between Jesus and Paul: Studies in the Earliest History of Christianity (Philadelphia, 1983), 1-29; C. C. Hill, Hellenists and Hebrews (Minneapolis, 1992).

H. Alan Brehm

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

HELLENISTS

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)