inward gifts qualifying them for their work. This is clearly stated by Calvin in his comment on this verse ; to a certain difficulty, he says, “ Respondeo, quoties a Deo vocati sunt homines, dona necessarie conjuncta esse officiis; neque enim Deus, apostolos aut pastores instituendo, larvam illis duntaxat imponit ; sed dotibus etiam instruit, sine quibus rite functionem sibi injunc- tam obire nequeunt. Quisquis ergo Dei auctoritate constituitur apostolus, non inani et nudo titulo, sed mandato simul et facultate praeditus est.”
And some, evangelists. There are two views of the nature of the office of the evangelists. Some regard them as vicars of the apostles—men commissioned by them for a definite purpose and clothed with special powers for the time being, analogous to the apostolic vicars of the Romanists; or to the temporary superin- tendents appointed after the Reformation in the Scottish church, clothed for a limited time and for a definite purpose with presbyterial powers, i. e. to a certain ex- tent, with the powers of a presbytery, the power to ordain, install and depose. Evangelists in this sense were temporary officers. This view of the nature of the office prevailed at the time of the Reformation.*
* CALyIN in his comment on this verse, says: Apostolis proximi erant Fvangelistae, et munus affine habebant; tantum gradu dignitatis erant dis- pares ; ex quo genere erant Timotheus et similes. Nam quum in saluta- tionibus illum sibi adjungit Paulus, non tamen facit in apostolatu socium, sed nomen hoc peculiariter sibi vindicat. Ergo, secundum Aposto- los, istorum subsidiaria opera usus est Dominus.—And in his Institutes IV, 3, 4, he says: Per Hvangelistas eos intelligo, qui quum in dignitate
CHAP. Iv. VER. 11. 925
According to the other view, the evangelists were itinerant preachers, οἱ περιΐοντες ἐκήρυττον, as Theodoret and other early writers describe them. They were pro- perly missionaries sent to preach the Gospel where it had not been previously known. This is the commonly received view, in favour of which may be urged—l. The signification of the word, which in itself means nothing more than preacher of the Gospel. 2. Philip was an evangelist, but was in no sense a vicar of the apostles; and when Timothy was exhorted to do the work of an evangelist, the exhortation was simply to be a faithful preacher of the Gospel. Acts 21,8; Eph. 4,11; and 2 Tim. 4, 5, are the only passages in which the word occurs, and in no one of them does the con- nection or any other consideration demand any other meaning than the one commonly assigned to it. 3. Εὐαγγέλισθαι and διδάσκειν are both used to express the act of making known the Gospel; but when as here, the εὐαγγελιστής is distinguished from the διδάσκαλος, the only point of distinction implied or admissible is between one who makes known the Gospel where it had not been heard, and an instructor of those already Christians. The use of εὐαγγέλισθαι in such passages as Acts 8,4; 14,7; 1 Cor. 1,17, and 2 Cor. 10, 16, serves to confirm the commonly received opinion that an evangelist is one who makes known the Gospel. That Timothy and Titus were in some sense apostolic
apostolis minores, officio tamen proximi erant, adeoque vices eorum gere~- bant. Quales fuerunt, Lucas, Timotheus, Titus, et reliqui similes.
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