ACC ~ Acts 6 v8

THE GIFT OF PREACHING ALONE NOT SUFFICIENT. CHRYSOSTOM: See how even among the seven there was one who was preeminent and who won the first prize. For although the ordination was common to all seven, he drew upon himself greater grace. And notice how he worked no [signs and wonders] before this, but only when he became publicly known. This was to show that the gift of preaching alone is not sufficient and that there is also need of the ordination. Thus was the assistance of the Spirit gained. For if they were full of the Spirit, clearly it came from the bath of baptism. HOMILIES ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 15.

FULL OF GRACE AND COURAGE. BEDE: The Greek word Stephen means “crowned” in Latin. In a very beautiful way he anticipated by the portent in his name what he was about to experience in reality—“abjectly stoned but crowned on high.”In Hebrew, however, his name means “your norm.” Whose norm, if not that of the subsequent martyrs, for whom, by being the first to suffer, he became the model of dying for Christ? COMMENTARY ON THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES 6.8.

Acts