ABSTRACT
The author of Acts certainly considered the Hellenists to be Jews because he mentions them before he tells of the first conversion of a Gentile, i.e. Cornelius and in the list of the names of the Seven he discloses the fact that one of them was a proselyte. The two facts that they differed in language, that the Hellenists were driven away from Jerusalem at a very early date explains why no conflict appears to have arisen between the two groups, although their outlook in thought was very different. It is not surprising that Stephen’s ideas caused the Jews to react so violently that the Hellenists could not remain in Jerusalem. Considered in the framework of Christianity at Jerusalem the Hellenist movement was nothing more than a passing incident leaving no traces behind it. The expressions used by Stephen to describe his conception of the relationship between the new religion and the old, tradition transferred from him to false witnesses.
