The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 32

him thllt the gift was oonferred in conjunction with C,.n-cl, not lltd) the !!lying on of the bands of the eldership.1 This last circumstance of the 81\Cred rite illustrated tAe hlgb character of the commission then entrusted to him. It marked him out, in fact, 11s being in that ministration on whioh he was then going forth, an apostle of the Church, and so an "apostle of Christ." The eldership, by laying their hands upon him, in the 110lemn hour in which, before many witneS!=ee (1 'l'im. vi. 12), he was set apart for the service of an evangelist, set to their seal of the Church's formal autho1ization in it■ discharge.2 We are thus brought t.o tbe conclusion that when St. Paul says to the Thessalonians, "We might have been burdensome as Christ's apostles," he speaks of both Silvanus and Timotheus as standing in conjunction with himself. Thus had all three been delegated by authoritative expdnents of the Church's practical judgrnent to go forth into the world to proclaim the gospel and to propagate , the Church. Different (Jhurch officers specified in Eph. iv. 11. In the passage of the 'Ephesia.ns (iv.11) in which St. Paul illustrates, with reference to the ascended Lord, the psalmist's words, " He gave gifts unto men," he writes, " He it was that·' gave'. some t.o -be apostles, some to be prophets, some t.o be evangelists, some to be shepherds and teachers." Viewed as spiritually called forth and endued by Christ as the world's Benefactor, Paul was himself an "apostle" in that supreme sense in which the word is there used, standing by the side of the august twelve; Silvanus was a "prophet," (Acts :x:v. 32), Timotheus an "evangelist" (2 Tim. iv. 5). Viewed as parts of the visible Church, they were likewise the Church's accredited messengers and agents. Bt. Paul's reserve respecting his holding the higher form of apostleship in the earlier years of his ministry. Up to this time, that is, up to the latter part of St. Paul's first joUIDey into Europe, there is reason to doubt whether that Divine direction under· which he habitually acted had led him openly and distinctly to announce and insist upon the office of supreme apostleship with which in actual fact Christ had from the first endued him. So far as can be discovered, he had hitherto acquiesced in his being regarded as an apostle in the like sense as that in which St. Barnabas was an apostle, or Silas, or even Timotheus; namely, as an apostle of Christ because he was an apostle of Christ's Church, delegated and sent forth· either by some particular Christian community or by lea.ding representatives of the Christian body. It is true that at the very commencement of his ministry, immediately after his conversion, as we learn from this Epistle to the Galatians (i.), he acted more independently;· for he proceeded at once to act upon the commission which he had received immediately from Christ, preaching the gospel which he had likewise received. immediately from Christ, without waiting for any ecclesiastical delegation whatever, But later, at the 1 No'lrhere are charisma said to be conferred by presbyters. Apostles only;' µi that npreme sense of the word in which it applied only to the twelve and to St. l'aul, appear capable of conferring them by the laying on of bands. . • ' TirnotheUB's function is defined as being that of "an evangelist" by the apostle hitnself (2 Tim. iv. 5). This was a distinct ordor of ministrants, as appears from Eph. iv. 11 ; Acts xii. 8 ; but the precise limits of their office e.re not now determinable. In the main it shonld seem to have been that of missionaries, to propagate the' gospel; including, at least occasionally, as we may judge from the so-called pastoral Kµi,tles, the. organizing superintendence of nascent Churches, involving the appointment of "bishops" and "dee.coill!." Timotheus's work at EphesUB, as well as tliat. of Titus in Crete, was probably that of an evangelist discharging an occasional service io thu.t ncighLvu1·hood, mther than that of a permanently located bishop.  DISSERTATION I J:lv