acts of practical help: Spirit-enabled deeds that come to the aid of people in need in the church
This word names concrete acts of help rather than a feeling or a helpful disposition. Paul lists it among the gifts God has placed in the church (1 Corinthians 12:28), setting it near the end of his list, beside guidance (κυβέρνησις), after apostles, prophets, and teachers. Both are practical, unshowy ministries that the Corinthians seem to have prized less than dramatic gifts like tongues, and part of Paul's point is that the community cannot do without them.
The picture behind the word is of reaching out and taking firm hold of someone in trouble in order to lift them. In everyday Greek of Paul's day it was the ordinary term for the help a weak or threatened person begged from a king or governor, and in the Greek Old Testament it became a favorite word for God's own rescue of his people. Paul takes that rich background and hands it to ordinary members of the church: those with this gift are the ones who quietly take hold of the vulnerable and carry them.
Scholars debate two things about the word here. One is whether it names a fixed office, an early form of what later became the deacon, or simply an activity that any gifted member might do; most now read it as an activity, not a title. The other is how wide the help is: whether it means specifically care for the poor, sick, and grieving, or any kind of practical and organizational support. The word itself leaves room for both.
Disputed
Whether ἀντιλήμψεις at 1 Cor 12:28 names an established church office (an early form of the deacon) or a Spirit-given activity/function that carries no formal title.
- majorityA charismatic function, not an office: the abstract -σις noun names acts of help, and Paul is describing a Spirit-given activity, not appointing office-holders.; A. Robertson & A. Plummer, First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians (ICC, 1914), 280-84; H. Conzelmann, 1 Corinthians (Hermeneia, 1975), 215; G. D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NICNT, rev. 2014), 619-20; A. C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC, 2000), 1019-22
- minorityAn early form of the diaconate: the word designates those set apart to serve the poor, sick, widows, and orphans.; Chrysostom, Homilies on 1 Corinthians 32; J. Calvin, Commentary on 1 Corinthians ad 12:28; G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), s.v. ἀντίλημψις
Whether the help in view is narrowly charitable care of the weak (poor, sick, bereaved) or broadly any practical and administrative assistance in the church's mission.
- contestedNarrowly charitable aid to the vulnerable, following the Septuagint pattern of help given to the weak by the strong.; A. Robertson & A. Plummer, First Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians (ICC, 1914), 281; C. Spicq, Theological Lexicon of the New Testament, 1:122-25; D. E. Garland, 1 Corinthians (BECNT, 2003), 594
- contestedBroadly any kind of practical assistance, including administrative and missional support, not merely benevolence to the poor.; A. C. Thiselton, The First Epistle to the Corinthians (NIGTC, 2000), 1020; J. N. Collins, Diakonia: Re-interpreting the Ancient Sources (Oxford, 1990)