J. MOFFATT.
GOVERNMENT, GOVERNOR — (1) The term 'government' occurs twice in the AV of tiie NT, in neither case with reference to civil government. In the first passage, 1 Co 12-^ it occurs in the plural, being a translation of the Greek Kv^epvriaeis, which, like the English ' government,' is a metaphor from steersmanship (see following article). In thesecond passage, 2 P 2'" (cf. Jude^), the word appears to be abstract, but to have an implicit reference to the domination of angels (see art. Dominion).
(2) The word ' governor ' occurs many times in the NT, In nearly every passage it is a translation of Tj-yeuwi' or some word connected with it. This word is tlie most general term in this connexion in the Greek language ( = Lat. prceses). This can be seen in two ways. In the first place, in ^Ik 13* (and parallels) and 1 P 2'* the word is coupled with 'kings' (emperors), and the two words togetiier include all the Gentile authorities before whom the followers of Jesus will have to appear. In tlie sticond place, the term, or its cognates, is used with reference to authorities of such diverse status as
goveiinme:nts
GRACE
507
the Emperor Tiberius (Lk 3'), the legate P. Sul- picius Quirinius (Lk 2^, a special deputy of consular rank sent by the Emperor Augustus in an emergency to have temporary rule over the great province of Syria), and the successive procurators of the small and unimportant province of Judsea, Pontius Pilate and Eelix ; for 2 Co IP^ see Ethnarch. It was in accordance with Greek genius to avoid specific titles and to use general terms, and to the Oriental the king (emperor) dwarfed everyone else. The -procurator (agent) was really a servant of the Emperor's household, never of higher rank than equestrian, and belonged to the lowest class of governor. He is never called by his own (Greek) name {iirlTpoiros) except in a variant reading of Lk 3\ A. SouTER.
(50YERNMENTS.— In each of the five lists of spiritual gifts or of gifted persons which St. Paul places in his Epistles (1 Co i28-io- ^s. ss-so, Ro 126-8, Eph 4") there are at least two items which are not found in any other list. In 1 Co 12^ we have • helps ' or ' helpings ' (dvTL\ri/j,\}/€ii) and ' govern- ments' or 'go vernings' (Ki/^e/jvijo-ets). In 1 Co 12-^ 'gifts of healings' are followed by 'helpings' and 'governings.' These two form a pair, and refer to management and direction in things external. ' Governings ' is a word which comes from the idea of a Kv^epvTjrrjt, a shipmaster (Ac 27", Rev 18") or pilot (Ezk 27*' ^' ^*), directing the course of a ship. The word occurs nowhere else in the NT, but in the LXX we have it in the sense of * wise guidance ' in peace or war (Pr IV* 24^). St. Paul probably uses it of those Avho superintended the externals of organization. It would therefore denote those who are over the rest, and rule them, the ■n-po'CcrT&fi.evoi of 1 Th 5^2^ Ro 12« and the ■^yoifxevoi of He IS^-"'^^, Ac 15"^'^. The ' governors ' are directors and organ- izers, not teachers ; still less are they ' discerners of spirits,' as Stanley suggests. They are persons with a gift for management. It is possible that they afterwards developed into a class of officials as 'elders' or 'bishops,' but that stage had not been reached when 1 Cor. was written. See Helps and Church Government. A. Plummer.
GRACE. — 1. General meaning and presapposi- tions. — (a) Divine prevenience and generosity. — Grace is a theistic idea. It emerges inevitably in the progress of religious thought and practice with the idea of God's separateness from man (cf. in India, Brahmanisra ; in Greece, Orphism). It deepens in character and content in the growing sense of separateness, with the concurrent con- viction, ever deepening in intensity, of the Divine goodness in sustaining fellowship with man (cf. in Israel, Hebraism, Judaism). It attains perfect form in Christianity, whose Founder exhibits a personal life so dependent on and penetrated by God as to reach absolute maturity simply through the Divine power immanent within it — the cease- less sense, possession, and operation of the Divine Spirit. Irresistibly the soul's interior experience of that fellowship postulates a realm of Divine prevenience and generosity. Generally the postu- late embraces three features : the priority of God, His self-donation to man, His regard and care for man's salvation — all making emphatic the given- ness of man's best life, the Divine action inviting his. Grace is thus a purely religious affirmation expressing the soul's assurance that God's good- ness is the beginning, medium, and end of its life. Here God is not simply a great First Cause : first in time, foremost in space ; He is rather the back- ground and dynamic force of man's inner being, and, for its sake, of all created being ; enfolding and comprehending it, giving it its origin, reason of existence, unity, completeness, final end ; the
envelope of the whole by which the parts do their best and issue in their most fruitful results, so that the soul is a harmony of linked forces,* Divine and human. Here, too, the soul's blessed- ness is not simply the gift of God. The soul's life is through Himself — ' His very self and essence all-Divine.' t Its various stages, the growing pro- cess of His grace, do not depend, nay, disappear when made to depend, on merely mental reference to His acts, or on merely self-originating impulses. Such attachment of the human to the Divine is too superficial. The inadequacy of man's spirit to work out its own perfection is irremediable. Salvation is only secure in utter and entire de- pendence on the Divine Life, distinct from man's, the life which precedes and from which proceeds all his capacity for good : in which, truly, ' we live and move and have our being.'