Nicolas

One of the seven deacons. (Acts vi. 5.) Some have supposed that he was the head and leader of the sect called the Nicolaitaines; but there are no authorities in Scripture for this. Our Lord saith, (Rev. 2: 6.) that he hated the deeds of the Nicolaitaines, but he doth not say that Nicolas the deacon was the founder of that sect.

Nic´olas, a proselyte of Antioch, and one of the seven deacons (Act 6:5). Nothing further known of him; but a large body of unsafe tradition has been connected with his name, under the supposition that he was the founder of the heresy of the Nicolaitanes, stigmatized in Rev 2:6; Rev 2:15 [see NICOLAITANES].

A proselyte of Antioch, that is, one converted from paganism to the religion of the Jews. He afterwards embraced Christianity, and was among the most zealous of the first Christians; so that he was chosen one of the first seven deacons of the church at Jerusalem, Mal 6:5 .\par

Nic’olas. (victor of the people). Act 6:5. A native of Antioch. And a proselyte to the Jewish faith. When the church was still confined to Jerusalem, he became a convert, and being a man of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and of wisdom, he was chosen by the whole multitude of the disciples, to be one of the first seven deacons, and was ordained by the apostles. There is no reason, except the simplicity of name, for identifying Nicolas, with the sect of Nicolaitans, which our Lord denounces, for the traditions on the subject are of no value.

Of the seven. Probably having no connection with the Nicolaitans, though Epiphanius (adv. Haer. i. 2, section 25) represents him as sinking into corrupt doctrine and practice. Clemens Alex. (Strom. iii. 4) says that Nicolas, when reproached by the apostles with jealousy, offered his wife to any to marry, but that Nicolas lived a pure life and used to quote Matthias’ saying, "we ought to abuse (i.e. mortify) the flesh." No church honours Nicolas, but neither do they honor four others of the seven men. Confounders of Nicolas with the Nicolaitans probably originated these legends.

Nicolas (nĭk’o-las), conqueror of the people. A Jewish proselyte of Antioch, who afterwards embraced Christianity, and was among the most zealous of the first Christians, so that he was chosen one of the seven to minister in the church at Jerusalem. Act 6:5.

[Nic’olas]

A proselyte of Antioch, one of the seven chosen to look after the poor saints at Jerusalem. Act 6:5.

NICOLAS (lit. ‘conqueror of the people’).—Among the Seven chosen in Act 6:1-15 to minister to the Hellenists or Greek-speaking Jews, was Nicolas, a ‘proselyte of Antioch.’ The remaining six, we infer, were of Jewish birth, for ‘proselyte’ is the emphatic word (Act 6:5). At a later age the Jews divided converts to Judaism into two classes, ‘proselytes of righteousness,’ who were circumcised and who kept the whole Law, and ‘proselytes of the gate,’ who had only a somewhat undefined connexion with Israel. It is probable that this difference in its essence also holds in NT, where the latter class are called ‘God-fearing’ or ‘devout,’ a description which in Acts appears to be technical (so Lightfoot, Ramsay; this is disputed, however). If the view here stated be true, there were three stages in the advance towards the idea of a Catholic Church: (1) the admission of Nicolas, a full proselyte, to office in the Christian Church, followed by the baptism of the Ethiopian eunuch, also probably a full proselyte (Act 8:27); (2) the baptism of Cornelius, a ‘God-fearing’ proselyte, i.e. of the latter class; (3) the direct admission of heathen to the Church without their having had any connexion with Judaism.

Nicolas is not further mentioned in NT, but Irenæus and Hippolytus assert that he was the founder of the Nicolaitans of Rev 2:6; Rev 2:15 (if indeed a real sect is there meant); and Lightfoot thinks that ‘there might well be a heresiarch among the Seven’ (Gal 6:1-18, p. 297). It is, however, equally probable that this was only a vain claim of the late 2nd cent. sect of that name mentioned by Tertullian, for both heretics and orthodox of that and succeeding ages apocryphally claimed Apostolic authority for their opinions and writings; or it is not unlikely that the Nicolaitans of Rev 2:1-29 were so called because they exaggerated and distorted in an antinomian sense the doctrine of Nicolas, who probably preached the liberty of the gospel. Irenæus and Hippolytus are not likely to have known more about the matter than we do.

A. J. Maclean.

Nicolas, one of the Seven appointed to look after the ministration of alms to the Hellenist widows, is described in the Acts as a proselyte of Antioch (Act_6:5). He comes last in the list. This description of him is inserted because his admission to office in the Christian Church marks a step taken towards the extension of the Church to the Gentiles. As far as we know, no proselyte, i.e. convert to Judaism from the heathen world, had been given office in the Church, up to this point. A. Harnack (The Acts of the Apostles, Eng. translation , 1909, p. 172) quotes the description of him as a proselyte of Antioch as a proof that this section of the Acts was probably derived from an Antiochene source-surely a very uncertain inference. On his supposed connexion with the Nicolaitans of Rev_2:6; Rev_2:15 see article Nicolaitans.

W. A. Spooner.

(Acts 6: or Nicola)

- Nothing more is heard of Nicolas. There is little reason to associate him with the "hated" Nicolaitans of the cities of Ephesus and Pergamum in Revelation chapter 2