Ethnicity, supersessionism and leadership in Acts 6:1-7 and beyond: assessing, with perspectives from rhetoric and deconstruction, the possibilities of appropriation in a contemporary denominational context

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to pose possibilities in addressing the problem of ethnical discrimination, its development into supersessionism and the perpetual discriminatory practices in the contemporary church by engaging Acts 6:1-7 from a rhetorical and deconstructive perspective. The episode in Acts 6:1-7, where the seven men have been selected to deal with the issue of the “daily distribution of food” presents a problem with regard to its interpretation. The problem resides in the fact that the text itself contains a certain number of inconsistencies. The most obvious is the contradiction between the task assigned to the seven and their actual function in the subsequent narrative. The account of the selection of the seven has attracted the attention of many scholars. However, although they have identified the contradictions and incoherencies, the methodologies applied by these scholars to uncover the original meaning, did not enable them to dismantle the hierarchical dichotomies underlying the text, and to question how ethnical discrimination can be prevented as well as how the leadership is differently constructed. The objective of this study is to expose these contradictions and to ask how we can deal with this exposure, and how we can think with a text such as Acts 6:1-7 in addressing the problem of ethnical discrimination, supersessionism and leadership, not only in the church but also in its wider political manifestations. The research methodology used in this study derives from deconstruction and rhetoric within the wider ambit of critical theory. Acts 6:1-7, when read from a conjunction of rhetorical and deconstruction perspectives, demonstrates that there is indeed a problem of ethnicity in Acts 6, reveals how the author of Acts privileges an engendered masculinity ethos, exposes the absence of taking the plight of widows into full consideration, shows that the roots of supersessionism can be found in Acts 6: 1-7, and also infuses the notion of leadership with an ethical overturning that requires rethinking the implications for leadership. The significance of the study lies in considering how a continuation of ethnical discrimination in contemporary denominational context can be resisted via my thinking with Acts 6:1-7.