an οἰκονομία anda χάρις. The apostleship was not a mere office like that of a prelate or prince, conferring certain rights and powers; it was an inward grace, including plenary and infallible knowledge. You could no more appoint a man an apostle, than you could appoint him a saint. Neither inspiration nor holiness come by appointment. An apostle without inspiration is as much a solecism as a saint without holiness. Rome, here as every where, retains the sem- blance without the reality ; the form without the power. She has apostles without inspiration, the office without the grace of which the office was but the ex- pression. Thus she feeds herself and her children upon ashes.
To you-ward. Paul’s mission was to the Gentiles. It was in special reference to them that he had received his commission and the gifts therewith connected. When Christ appeared to him on his journey to Damas- cus, he said to him, “I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; deliver- ing thee from the people and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgive- ness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.” Acts 26, 16-18. Here we have an authentic account of Paul’s mission. He was appointed a witness of what had been and of
CHAP. Ill. vs. 3, 4. 161
what should be made known to him by revelation. He was sent to the Gentiles, to turn them from Satan to God in order that they might be saved.
V. 3. How that by revelation was made known unto me, ὅσο. This clause is connected with what precedes and explains it‘ Ye have heard of the grace which I have received, i. e. ye have heard how that by revela- tion was made known to me.’ Κατὰ ἀποκάλυψιν, after the manner of a revelation, i. 6. δι᾿ ἀποκαλύψεως, Gal. 1,12. He was not indebted for his knowledge of the Gospel to the instructions of others, as he proves in his epistle to the Galatians by a long induction of facts in his history. This was one of the indis- pensable qualifications for the apostleship. As the apostles were witnesses, their knowledge must be direct and not founded on hearsay. The thing made known
was a “mystery ;”
i.e. a secret, something undis- coverable by human reason, the knowledge of which could only be attained by revelation. This revelation was a grace or favour conferred on the apostle himself.
The mystery of which he here speaks is that of which the preceding chapters treat, viz. the union of the Gentiles with the Jews. Of that subject he had just written briefly; ἐν ὀλίγῳ, with little, 1. 6. few words.
V. 4. By reading what he had written, they could judge of his knowledge of the mystery of Christ. πρὸς 0, according to which. What he had written might be taken as the standard or evidence of his knowledge. Mystery of Christ, may mean the mystery 11