The group of words translated ' gift' {dOipov, duped, 86/xa., 86(ns, dwprjfjLa) forms an interesting study, upon which see note on Ja V in J. B. Mayor's Commentary (^London, 1910). ddiprj/jLa (Ja 1", Ko 5"*) is used of a gift of God, and so is duiped wher- ever we find it in the NT ; dQpov is used of ofier- ings to God ; ddpta (except in Eph 4^, a quotation from LXX) is used of human gifts ; while 660-11 may refer to either a human or a Divine gift. The use of duped as the ' free gift ' of God, spring- ing from His x<^P'5, or ' grace,' is found in Ac 2^^ 8'^' 10^5 11", Ro 5'5- 17, 2 Co 9l^ Eph 3^ 4', He 6^ and is also used by apostolic writers like Clement (cf. I Clem. xix. 2, xxiii. 2, xxxii. 1) and Ignatius [Smyrn. vii. 1).
Christ is pre-eminently the gift of God's volun- tary favour to the race, and is at once the type and source, along with the Holy Spirit, of all spiritual impartations and endowments. It re- mains to add that all gifts of love are gifts to God in the apostolic teaching. Gifts of the sacrificial order are mentioned by the author of Heb. in con- nexion with the Jewish priesthood only to be ele- vated into the region of Christian thought and to be liberated from the externalism and legalism of the Mosaic system. The gifts of the one High Priest, 'the mediator of a better covenant,' are inward ; the new law is written on the heart, and the covenant is one of forgiveness and grace (He 5' 8"^-). Likewise, the approach to God by the believer is ' a new and living way' in that it is by the medium of the soul and conscience, un- accompanied by outward gift or sacrifice, except that, like his Lord, the believer offers himself, or rather his body (cf. Ro 12'). This is the founda- tion of all giving, as St. Paul hints in 2 Co 8^, the giving up of self to God being the act that hallows all other gifts. The sanctions of Christian mag- nanimity, practical sympathy, and liberality are rooted in Christian doctrine, and especially its doctrine of God as the eternal love eternally im- parting itself and historically manifest in the gift of His Son. The grace of God and His kindness {(piXavdpojTria) have both appeared (Tit 2" S"*) ; and
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the Apostle asks elsewhere ' shall he not with him also freely give ixa-plfftTai) us all things?' (Ro 8^-).
2. Special. — The quotation last given reminds us that xapicytiti ('charism'), formed from the verb xapli'ofj.ai, means a ' free gift,' not of right but of bounty. Unlike 8wped, Avhich has a similar mean- ing, x^-P'-"'/^"- comes to be used almost in a technical sense in Christian terminology, of gifts or qualili- cations for spiritual service. F. J. A. Hort (The Christian Ecclesia, London, 1897, p. 153 f.) thus defines x^-p'-'^tJ^o. as used by St. Paul and by one other Avriter only in the NT, namely St. Peter :
' In these instances it is used to desig'nate either what we call " natural advantages " independent of any human process of acquisition, or advantages freshly received in the course of Providence ; both alike being rejrarded as so many various free gifts from the Lord of men, and as designed by Him to be distinctive qualifications for rendering distinctive services to men or to communities of men."
Even in the passages in the Pastoral Epistles which refer to the charism of Timothy (1 Ti 4^*, 2 Ti 1'^) Hort does not regard the specific gift of the young Apostle as a supernatural endowment suddenly or by miraculous means vouchsafed for a special mission or service : ' it was a special gift of God, a special fitness bestowed by Him to en- able Timothy to fulfil a distinctive function' (p. 185) ; bnt also an original gift, capable of being wakened into fresh life * by liis own initiative ; it was so distinctive as to mark Timothy out as a fit colleague of St. Paul himself, the fitness being authenticated to the Apostle by a prophetic oracle or message, and consecrated by a solemn act of benediction — the laying on of the hands of the body of elders. Schmiedel (EBi, s.v. 'Spiritual Gifts') distinguishes between the non-technical use of x°-P'-<^f^°- ill such passages as Ro 5'* (where the term means ' the whole aggregate of God's benevolent operation in the universe'; cf. Ro P' g23 ip9^ 2 Co 1''), and its technical use elsewhere, where ' charism ' and ' charisms ' denote distinc- tive aptitudes on the part of Christians ; cf. Ro 12^ (where ' the grace of God ' is mentioned as the source of the several capacities designated), 1 Co V 12J. 9- :;8. 31^ I p 4io_ In the great passage of Eph 4'i (with which Justin Martyr, Dial. c. Trijph. xxxix. is to be read) the term xaptcr/ia is not mentioned, but it is implied in the words 'He gave' [avrbs ^5iOK€v) with which the specification of functions or services commences. The term is not found in the Apostolic Fathers ; in the Did. i. 5 it is used only once, and then of temporal blessings in the general sense.