his arrival in Corinth, the apostle there, upon an additional sheet, wrote xvi. and entrusted it with the letter to Phoebe. Eichhorn(1) supposed that the parchment upon which the Epistle was written was finished at xiv. 23; and, as Paul and his scribe had only a small sheet at hand, the doxology only, xvi. 25-27, was written upon the one side of it, and on the other the greetings and the apostolic benediction, xvi. 21-24, and thus the letter was completed; but, as it could not immediately be forwarded, the apostle added a fly-leaf with ch. xv. Bertholdt(2) Guericke(3) and others adopted similar views more or less modified, representing the close of the Epistle to have been formed by successive postscripts. More recently, Renan(4) has affirmed the epistle to be a circular letter addressed to churches in Rome, Ephesus, and other places, to each of which only certain portions were transmitted with appropriate salutations and endings, which have all been collected into the one Epistle in the form in which we have it. David Schulz conjectured that xvi. 1-20 was an epistle written from Rome to the church at Ephesus; and this theory was substantially adopted by Ewald,—who held that xvi. 3-20 was part of a lost epistle to Ephesus,—and by many other critics.(5) Of course the virtual authenticity of the xv.-xvi. chapters, nearly or exactly as they are, is affirmed by many writers. Baur, however, after careful investigation, pronounced the two chapters inauthentic, and in this he is followed by able critics.(6) Under all these circumstances it is obvious
that we need not occupy ourselves much with the passage in Rom. xv. 18, 19, but our argument will equally apply to it. In order to complete this view of the materials we may simply mention, as we pass on, that the authenticity of 2 Cor. xii. 12 has likewise been impugned by a few critics, and the verse, or at least the words [———], as well as Rom. xv. 19, declared an interpolation.(1) This cannot, however, so far as existing evidence goes, be demonstrated; and, beyond the mere record of the fact, this conjecture does not here require further notice.
It may be well, before proceeding to the Epistles to the Corinthians, which furnish the real matter for discussion, first to deal with the passage cited from Gal iii. 5, which is as follows:—"He then that supplieth to you the Spirit and worketh powers [———] within you [———], (doeth he it) from works of law or from hearing of faith?"(2) The authorised version reads: "and worketh miracles among you;" but this cannot be maintained, and [———] must be rendered "within you," the [———] certainly retaining its natural signification when used with [———], the primary meaning of which is itself to in-work. The vast majority of critics of all schools agree in this view.(3) There is an evident reference to iii 2,
and to the reception of the Spirit, here further characterised as producing such effects within the minds of those who receive it,(1) the worker who gives the Spirit being God. The opinion most commonly held is that reference is here made to the "gifts" [———], regarding which the Apostle elsewhere speaks,(2) and which we shall presently discuss, but this is by no means certain and cannot be determined. It is equally probable that he may refer to the spiritual effect produced upon the souls of the Galatians by the Gospel which he so frequently represents as a "power" of God. In any case, it is clear that there is no external miracle referred to here, and even if allusion to Charismata be understood we have yet to ascertain precisely what these were. We shall endeavour to discover whether there was anything in the least degree miraculous in these "gifts," but there is no affirmation in this passage which demands special attention, and whatever general significance it
may have will be met when considering the others which are indicated.
the first passage in the Epistles to the Corinthians, which is pointed out as containing the testimony of Paul both to the reality of miracles in general and to the fact that he himself performed them, is the following, 2 Cor. xii. 12: "Truly the signs [———] of the Apostle were wrought in you [———] in all patience, both in signs and wonders and powers [———]"(1) We have to justify two departures in this rendering from that generally received. The first of these is the adoption of "wrought in you," instead of "wrought among you" and the second the simple use of "powers" for [———], instead of "mighty works." We shall take the second first We have referred to every passage except 1 Cor. xii. 10, 28, 29, in which Paul makes use of the word [———], and fortunately they are sufficiently numerous to afford us a good insight into his practice. It need not be said that the natural sense of [———] is in no case "mighty works" or miracles, and that such an application of the Greek word is peculiar to the New Testament and, subsequently, to Patristic literature. There is, however, no ground for attributing this use of the word to Paul. It is not so used in the Septuagint, and it is quite evident that the Apostle does not employ it to express external effects or works, but spiritual phenomena or potentiality. In the passage, Gal. iii. 5, which we have just discussed, where the word occurs in the plural, as here, it is understood to express "powers." We may quote the rendering of that passage by the Bishop of Gloucester: