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Acts 6 · a question people ask

"a complaint arose from the Hellenists against the Hebrews" (6:1). Who were they?

In the text

Acts doesn't explain the two names here. It says only that the complaint arose "because their widows were neglected in the daily service" (6:1). The dictionaries Favor uses give the words' meanings: Strong's gives Hellenist as "a Hellenist or Greek-speaking Jew", and the word behind Hebrews as "a Hebræan (i.e. Hebrew) or Jew" (tap Hellenists). Acts names the Hellenists again in 9:29, "He spoke and disputed against the Hellenists", and in 11:20, where some "spoke to the Hellenists, preaching the Lord Jesus". These notes add nothing about either group from outside the Bible, and set neither against the other.

The verses

“Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, a complaint arose from the Hellenists against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily service.”
Acts 6:1 · World English Bible
“preaching boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus. He spoke and disputed against the Hellenists, but they were seeking to kill him.”
Acts 9:29 · World English Bible
“But there were some of them, men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who, when they had come to Antioch, spoke to the Hellenists, preaching the Lord Jesus.”
Acts 11:20 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Acts 6

Acts 6: Full of faith and of the Holy Spirit

In Greek, the "daily service" in which the widows were neglected (6:1) and the twelve's "ministry of the word" (6:4) are one noun, diakonia. And the two things the twelve asked for in the seven, "full of the Holy Spirit and of wisdom" (6:3), come back in what those who disputed with Stephen "weren’t able to withstand": "the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke" (6:10).

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Last reviewed October 7, 2026. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions