human experience to bear on the illustration of divine truth. Henderson takes aoipin to be comprehensive of "the sublime truths of the (Jospel directly revealed to the apostles, of which the Xoyof was the supernatural abilitv rightly to communicate them to others;" and by ycwaic the ]i<)ssession by divine communication of " an exact and competent knowledge of the truths which God had already revcalc<i through the instrumentality of the prophets and apostles, in consecptence of which those w^ho possessed it became qualitied, independently of the use of all ordinary means, forthwith to teach the Church" (p, 188 sq.). Osiander makes aofia the ap- [irehension of divine truth in its totality, of the ends and purposes of God, of the ])lan and work of re<lemp- tion, of the revelation of salvation through Christ in its connection, its divine system and organism ; and yrwirif the penetrating knowledge of particulars given by God, with their inward appropriation and experience (.John vi, 69; xvii, 3; Phil, iii, 8). This last seems to be, on the whole, the least arbitrary and most probable inter- pretation, it being of course kept in view that the ap- prehension and experience of divine truth, whether as a whole or in its parts, as well as the power of giving this forth in discourse, is not such as mere human in- telligence and study could attain, but such as was sard TTi'ti'pa.
(2.) Fai/h (Trifrnc). — All are agreed that this cannot be understood of that faith which saves — justifying faith ; and most regard it as a Jides miraculosa, such as our Lord speaks of (Matt, xvii, 20; xxi, 21), and to which Paul refers (1 Cor, xiii, 2) — a firm persuasion that on fitting occasions the divine power would be put forth to work miracles, Meyer thinks this too narrow, because under iriffTiQ are ranked not only iafiara and ^vva^iHV, but also Trpo(pr]Tiin and StaKpiang Tri'ivfia- Tuji'. He would therefore understand by TrlariQ here "a high degree of faith in Christ — a faith -heroism whose operation in some was in healings, etc," As, however, such faith in Christ must mean faith in him as the risen Lord, the source of miraculous power, whether exercised in healing diseases or in utterances of knowledge, this opinion seems to resolve itself into a substantial identity with the other.
(3,) (jijts of JJectlinf/s {x"p- icpariov). — This all are agreed in understanding as the power of healing dis- ease directly without the aid of therapeutic api)lications. The [)lural is used to indicate the variety of diseases, and the various gifts of healing them possessed in the Church,
(4.) Wof/cinfjs of Powers {tvEpylj/i. ^vvafif^v). — This is generally referred to the working of miracles of a higher kind than the healing of disease— miracles which consist not in the performing without means what means may effect, but in the performance of wluit no means can efl'ect, such as the raising of the dead, the exorcism of daemons, the infliction, by a word, of death as a pun- ishment, etc.
(5,) Prophecy (irpotptjTiia). — This refers not to or- dinary rel^ious discourses for the edification of the Church, but to such a forth-speaking of the mind of (iod in relation to truth, duty, or coming events as the inward action of the Holy Spirit on the mind may pro- duce (Chrysost. o irpo(lit)Tfi'wv ■Kuvra otto tov izvtv- parot; <p^t'yysrat). That the gift of predicting future events was possessed in the early Church, we see from such instances as Acts ii, 27, 28; xxi, 11, etc; but the TTfWiiiifrtin of the New Test, does not generally relate to this : it usually has reference to the utterance of doc- trine given by revelation from God (comp. 1 Cor, xi, 3; xiv, 2<)-33, etc),
(<>.) J}iscerniiiffS of Spirits (dinKpirrgii; irrtvpnrojv). — From 1 Cor, xiv, 29 (comp, 1 Thess, v, 21 ; 1 .John iv, 1) we learn that professed jirophetic utterances were to be sidijecled to trial, that nothing unchristian or unedi- fyiiig might pass under ilial name; and it is to this that the gift now before us relates, ICven apostles would seem to have sul>mitte(l their doctrine to the judgment of these gifted critics (1 Cor. xiv, 37),
SPIRITUAL GIFTS
955
SPIRITUAL GIFTS
(7.) Kinds of Tongues (yivt] yXaxT/raiv). — That this refers to the XaXtlv jXwaffy or yXwcrTCftg which ex- isted in the Corinthian Church, and indicates that of these yX<S(Tffat there were various kinds, is undoubted ; but in what this gift consisted is a question involved in great difficulty, and to which very different answers have been given. We may at once dismiss some of these as not deserving serious consideration — viz., 1, that of Bardili and Eiclihorn, who take yXwrrcTa in the literal sense of tongue, and suppose that the XaXtlv was a sort of inarticulate babble, an ecstatic utterance of mere sounds made by the tongue — an opinion which is irreconcilable with the idea of this being a gift of the Holy Ghost, with the possibility of an interpret at ion of the sounds uttered, with what I'aul says (1 Cor. xiv, 18), and with the use of the plural in the phrase yXwacrcaq XaXdv; 2, that of Bleek, who takes yXaiffaa in the sense ot gloss — i.e. archaic, poetical, or provincial word or idiom — a meaning which belongs to the technicali- ties of the grammarians, and is quite foreign to the lan- guage of the New Test.; and 3, that of Billroth, who supposes yXiLaaa to mean a composite language formed of the elements of various tongues, and in its composi- tion affording a symbol of the uniting power and uni- versality of Christianity — which is at the best only a pleasing fancy. The only t\vo opinions worth consider- ing are the old view that these yXwGGca were actual foreign tongues which the gifted persons spoke without having learned them, and the opinion, subject to va- rious modifications, that they were new and divinely inspired utterances of a kind transcending the ordinary capacity and intelligence of men. — Kitto.