MINISTRATION
MIRACLES
3S
ship, the group XftToi'/>7i5s, \eiTovpyla, \eiToiipyeiv is more common. The cliissical use of these words for the renderinp: of pulilic sers'ices, or contribu- tions to the State, at Athens, prepared the way for the religious use ; and it is probahlo that tlie employment of these expressions by the writers of the NT in describing Cliristian worship is not entirely due to the influence of the LXX. Numerous papyri of about 160 B.C. or earlier show that \eiT- ovpyia and XeiTovpyeif were frequentlj' used in Kgypt in this ceremonial sense (Deissniann, Bible Studies, Eng. tr., 1901, p. 140). The different members of the triplet occur in the writings of St. Liike and St. Paul, and all three in Hebrews : e.g. Lk 1-', Ac 13°, Ph 2", He8=-i= 10" (see Westeott, Ep. to Hebrews, 1889, ad foe). In his full notes on Ph 2" {Philip- plans*, 1878) Lightfoot remarks : ' The Philippians are the priests ; their faith (or their good works springing from their faith) is the sacrifice : St. Paul's life-blood the accompanying libation. Com- mentators have much confused the image, by representing St. Paul himself as the sacrificer.' This passage is one of those which point to ' the fundamental idea of the Christian Church, in which an universal priesthood has supplanted the exclusive ministrations of a select tribe or class.' In the NT all Christians have in Christ that immediate access to God which is the special privilege of priests, and the sacrifices which they otter are spiritual — their wills, praises, and prayers. The priesthood belongs to Cliristians, not as individuals, but as members of the Church, in the ' royal priesthood' of which each has a share ; and the sacrifice which each brings is service and self-consecration, made accept- able by union with the sacrifice ottered by Christ. When certain selected individuals exercise priestly functions on behalf of the whole, they act as organs or representatives of the community. But we need to consider the point at which ' sacrifice ' and ' priest- hood ' become metaphors.
LlTERAHTRE. — F. J. A. Hort, The Christian Ecclesia, 1897 ; T. M. Lindsay, The Church and the Ministry in. the Early Centuries, 1002 ; A. W. F. Blunt, Studies in Apostolic Chris- tianity, 1909 ; C. H. Turner, ' The Organisation of the Church ' in The Cambridge Medieval History, i. [1911] ch. vi., .Sti/dies in Early Church History, 1912 ; L. Duchesne, Early History of the Christian Church, ii., Eng. tr., 1912.
A. Plummer. MINISTRATION (Ac 6').— Neither AV nor RV, except in the margin, indicates that ' ministration ' (5iaxo;'(a) in v.' and 'serve' (diaKoveiv) in v.- are cognate words ; or that ' ministration ' in v.' is the same word as 'ministry' in v.*. The 'ministra- tion ' or ' serving tables ' is the distribution of food at the common meals : tables of exchange for money cannot be meant. Hellenist converts com- plain that Hebrew distributors ' overlooked ' Hel- lenist widows. The Twelve forthwith initiate and regulate the first .attempt at self-government made by the Church. They state the number and quali- fications of the new officials, leave the election to the whole body of Christians, and ordain the elected. A. Plujimer.
MINSTREL (ai!X7;T7i5, from ai\6^, 'pipe').— The word appears twice in the NT. In Mt 9-^ avX-qris is translated ' minstrels ' in the AV, and more correctly in the RV 'flute-players.' In Rev 18-^ avXrjTwv is rendered 'pipers' in the AV, while the RV retains ' flute-players ' ; but the latter version specifies the general term liovaiKwv in the same verse as 'minstrels' (see Pipe, Flute).
Archibald Main.
MIRACLES. — In this article we may consider the meaning of the words used in the NT for 'miracles,' and the evidence for the apostolic belief in them ; the evidence will then be compared witli that for miracles in the succeeding ages, and the evidential value of miracles will be weighed. But
the limits assigned preclude a general investigation of the a priori credibility of miracles as such. As, however, this has been done very fully by Bernard in HDB iii., it is scarcely necessary here to repeat what has there been well said.
1. Meaning of the words used. — [a] The principal NT words for what wc should now call a ' miracle ' are ari^ilov, ripa^, duvafxis, ^pyov. Of these, ff-nfjiuov, 'sign,' denotes that which conveys spiritual ami symbolic instruction; Wpas, 'wonder' or 'pro- digy,' denotes a work above the ordinary working of nature ; dui'a/ns denotes a work showing ' power ' ; while Ipyov, ' work,' is in itself a neutral word, the context of which in many passages, especially in Jn. (5^^ etc.), shows it to denote a ' miracle' (so Mt IP; but in Jn 17* the word includes the whole of Jesus' deeds). It is noteworthy that the mighty deeds of our Lord and His disciples are never called 'prodigies' (ripara) alone; the only apparent ex- ception to this rule is in Ac 2'" (' 1 will show wonders in heaven'), which, however, is a quota- tion from Jl 2'°, and ' wonders in heaven ' are coupled with 'signs on earth,' and both are inter- preted by St. Peter as ' powers and wonders and signs ' in v.''^. A Christian miracle is not a mere prodigy exciting astonishment, but is intended for instruction ; and here we see at once the great difference between the NT miracles and most of those of the apocryphal Gospels, which are mere exhibitions without any teaching purpose, and are often repulsive to the Christian sense of reverence. It must be added, also, that herein lies the ditt'er- ence between the NT miracles and most of those commonly known as ' ecclesiastical ' (see below, i). The mighty deeds related in the NT did, indeed, excite wonder and fear (Mk 2'= 4« 6*' 7^, Lk 7'^ Ac 3""), but this was not their only or even their chief object. Hence, when ripa.^ is used it is always combined with arj/i.e'ioi' (Jn 4*", Ac 2''- ^ 4™ 512 68 736 142 1512^ and [of false prophets] Mt242*, Mk 1322, and [with SiVomis added] Ac 2^-, Ro 15", 2 Co 12'^, 2 Th 2', He 2'') ; Sifa/j.!.! and arnielov are joined in Ac 8". It may be noticed that 6avp.a. is not used in the NT of miracles, but Oavixaaia ('wonder- ful things') is used in Mt 21'^ irapddo^a ('strange things') in Lk 5-% (vdo^a ('glorions things') in Lk 13".