Nicholas (Gr. Nikólaos, “conqueror of the people”; Gr. name that appears frequently in inscriptions). One of the 7 men appointed by the Jerusalem church to care for Greek-speaking widows and the poor (Acts 6:5). He is called a proselyte from Antioch, and he is the only man in the 839 NT specifically designated as a “proselyte.”
Source: Evangelical Bible Dictionary
Greek victor with the people. One of the Seven (deacons) of the primitive Church of Jerusalem, with the mission of supervising the distribution of goods and food, Acts 6, 5.
Digital Bible Dictionary, Grupo C Service & Design Ltda., Colombia, 2003
Source: Digital Bible Dictionary
†œProselyte of Antioch† . One of the “seven men of good report, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom” selected “to wait tables” in the early Christian community (Acts 6:1-6).
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
tip, BIOG HOMB HONT
see, NICANO
vet, (Gr.: “victorious of the people”). Proselyte of Antioch, one of the seven chosen at the request of the apostles to care for widows and poor Greek-speaking Judeo-Christians (Acts 6:5).
Source: New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
(People’s Winner).
1. One of the seven qualified men recommended to the apostles by the congregation for appointment as distributors of food, so as to ensure that all members of the early Jerusalem congregation would be treated equally after Pentecost 33 CE Nicholas he is the only one of the seven who is called “a proselyte from Antioch,” indicating that he may have been the only non-Jew of the group, since the Greek names of the others were common even among natural Jews. (Acts 6:1-6.)
2. The “sect of Nicholas” (or Nicolaitans). This sect is condemned in two of the seven letters to the congregations that appear in chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation. The “angel” of the Ephesian congregation was commended for hating “the deeds of the sect of Nicholas,” deeds that Jesus Christ himself also hates. (Re 2:1, 6) In the Pergamum congregation, however, there were some who “held fast the teaching of the sect of Nicholas,” and they were urged to turn and repent. (Rev 2:12, 15, 16)
Apart from what is written in Revelation about the sect of Nicholas, nothing else is known about it, its practices and teachings, which are condemned; Its origin and development are also unknown. The adverb of manner “so,” used immediately after the reference to the immoral behavior and idolatry of the Israelites who followed the “teaching of Balaam” (Rev 2:14, 15), may well indicate some similarity between it and the Nicholas sect, but in Revelation a distinction is made between the two. There is no basis for connecting—as some early church writers did—the Nicholas sect with the Antiochian Christian of the same name (No. 1), just because he is the only Nicholas mentioned in the Bible. Nor is it rigorous to say that an apostate group took his name in order to give authority to his improper behavior. It is most likely that Nicholas was an unidentified character in the Bible who gave his name to that ungodly sect.
Source: Dictionary of the Bible