Governments
Governments
In each of the five lists of spiritual gifts or of gifted persons which St. Paul places in his Epistles (1Co 12:8-10; 1Co 12:28-30, Rom 12:6-8, Eph 4:11) there are at least two items which are not found in any other list. In 1Co 12:28 we have helps or helpings () and governments or governings (). In 1Co 12:23 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 , a shipmaster (Act 27:11, Rev 18:17) or pilot (Eze 27:8; Eze 27:27-28), directing the course of a ship. The word occurs nowhere else in the NT, but in the Septuagint we have it in the sense of wise guidance in peace or war (Pro 11:14; Pro 24:6). St. Paul probably uses it of those who superintended the externals of organization. It would therefore denote those who are over the rest, and rule them, the of 1Th 5:12, Rom 12:8 and the of Heb 13:7; Heb 13:17; Heb 13:24, Act 15:22. The governors are directors and organizers, 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.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
Governments
(1 Cor. 12:28), the powers which fit a man for a place of influence in the church; “the steersman’s art; the art of guiding aright the vessel of church or state.”