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VIII.       Baker New Testament Commentary – 1 Cor

28. And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, next prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helpful deeds, administrations, kinds of tongues.

In earlier verses, Paul taught that God arranges the parts of the human body (v. 18) and combines its various members (v. 24). This is true not only for a person’s physical body but also for the church. God distributes to the members in the church a variety of gifts designed to serve its membership. The appointment to an office or the giving of a function comes from God himself. He calls individuals to an official position within the church, even though church members call, ordain, or install them in the position. As the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews says, “No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God” (Heb. 5:4). So, for instance, Paul and Barnabas were called by the Holy Spirit and ordained by the church in Antioch (Acts 13:1–3). They functioned in the church as apostles, prophets, and teachers.⁵⁸ Conclusively, the phrase in the church applies to the church universal and not merely to the Corinthian congregation.

In descending order, Paul enumerates three groups of persons who have received spiritual gifts. They are apostles, prophets, and teachers. In another epistle, he lists four groups: “It was [Christ] who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers” (Eph. 4:11; compare Rom. 12:6–8). He also lists five gifts, though by implication persons are given and exercise these gifts.

A.   “First apostles.”

Jesus directly commissioned twelve people to be apostles, including Matthias, who succeeded Judas (respectively, Luke 6:13–16; Acts 1:23–26). The apostolic circle extended beyond the Twelve, however, for Paul was an apostle (Rom. 1:1) and so was Barnabas (Acts 14:14). Paul writes that Andronicus and Junias were highly regarded among the apostles but probably did not function as such (Rom. 16:7). This text apparently means that the apostles had great respect for these two people.⁵⁹ The apostles served as Christ’s ambassadors to proclaim, teach, and record the good news.

Paul is not saying that every individual congregation had its own apostles. Certainly not. The apostles served the entire church in its formative years. The apostolic office was temporary and ceased with the death of the last apostle, John, who died probably in a.d. 98. Indeed, the stipulations laid down for apostleship made it impossible to have successors. First, the apostles were to have followed the Lord Jesus from his baptism to his ascension and, second, they were to be a witness of his resurrection (Acts 1:21–22). Although Paul did not accompany Jesus, he had seen the Lord and thus was able to testify of his resurrection (9:1; Rom. 1:1–4). This is the reason that Paul calls himself “one abnormally born” (15:8).

B.   “Next prophets.”

Unlike the apostles, who served the entire church, the prophets often served local congregations (e.g., Acts 13:1). Even though an apostle (e.g., John in the Book of Revelation) could utter prophecies, a prophet never functioned as an apostle. In a few passages Paul lists the apostles and prophets together (Eph. 2:20; 3:5), but he does not equate the two; they remain distinctly separate, for apostles are apostles and prophets are prophets.⁶⁰ We cannot equate the office of apostle and prophet in the current text and other passages (Eph. 4:11; Rev. 18:20; Didache 11:3).

Apostles spoke and wrote with the same authority God had entrusted to the Old Testament prophets. They were witnesses to Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Prophets in the New Testament era also spoke with the authority of the Holy Spirit. They stood next to the apostles in the work of laying the church’s foundation (Eph. 2:20) and, in rank, they were second to the apostles. Furthermore, the statements of the prophets had to be evaluated (14:29) to guard against the utterances of false prophets whose influence undermined the well being of the church.

The early church had predictive prophets, among whom was Agabus (Acts 11:28; 21:10); John on the island of Patmos also filled that role (Rev. 1:3; 22:9, 18). At Antioch, the church was instructed by teachers and prophets, namely, Barnabas, Simeon Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen, and Paul (Acts 13:1); in Jerusalem were Judas and Silas (Acts 15:32); and in Caesarea resided the four daughters of Philip the Evangelist (Acts 21:8–9). Prophets were engaged in teaching the members of local churches. They gave instruction on Christian conduct,⁶¹ and they stood next to those people who had received the gift of teaching the content of the Scriptures.

Although prophets received the gift of prophecy, we have no evidence that they filled a permanent office in the early Christian communities. Their gift was an ability to prophesy, that is, to receive God’s revelation and to preach his Word. “In the sub-apostolic period the prophet could still take precedence over the local minister, but the day was not far off when this gift of prophecy passed to the local ministers who preached the word to edify the members of the Christian fellowship.”⁶²

The early church had a number of prophets, among whom were Agabus (Acts 11:28; 21:10) and Judas and Silas (Acts 15:32). The influence of prophecy came to an end in the second century, however, when Montanus, claiming to be a prophet with new revelation concerning Christ’s return, arose in Asia Minor. For some time Montanism became influential but soon was condemned as spurious.⁶³ Because of its fraud, Montanism was held in low esteem. Prophets no longer enjoyed prominence when the church relied more on the Scriptures than on prophecy.

C.   “Third teachers.”

If Paul distinguishes between prophets and teachers, what then is the difference between them?

First, the teacher in Paul’s day received respect for his ability to instruct others. For instance, the people addressed Jesus with the Hebrew term rabbi, which literally means “my great [teacher].” In contrast to teachers, prophets were not always accorded high esteem, for the tactics of false prophets gave prophecy a bad name. Indeed Paul admonishes the Christians, “Do not treat prophecies with contempt” (I Thess. 5:20).

Next, while the true prophet waited with his message until he received a revelation (14:30), the teacher possessed the Scriptures as the revealed Word of God. Students had to learn sound doctrine and the traditions which the instructors taught them. (Books were so costly that only the rich could afford them. Thus, the teacher usually resorted to the pedagogical method of repetition to aid the students in committing his instruction to memory.) Paul relates that he was an apostle and a teacher of Christ’s gospel (II Tim. 1:11).

And last, according to Paul the work of the teacher is closely related to that of the pastor (Eph. 4:11). Much of the pastor’s time is devoted to teaching his people.

D.   “Then miracles.”

Paul calls attention to miracles and not to miracle workers. The literal translation is “miracles,” which by implication refers to those who perform them. Because miraculous deeds seldom occur, the gift of doing wonders is not permanent (read the explanation of verse 10).

E.   “Then gifts of healing.”

Gifts of healing also lack permanency (see the commentary on verse 9). The Greek word for “gifts” is charismata, which appears at the beginning of the list of spiritual gifts in verse 4 and at the end of the chapter in verse 30. Of all the gifts, Paul characterizes only healings (plural in the Greek text) as charismata.

F.    “Helpful deeds.”

The Greek word antilēmpseis occurs only once in the entire New Testament and is variously translated “assistants” (NAB), “forms of assistance” (NRSV), or “works of mercy” (Cassirer). The verb from which it derives appears three times in the New Testament. In Luke 1:54 the verb means to help Israel, as it also does in the Septuagint text of Isaiah 41:9; in Acts 20:35 it refers to helping the weak; and the verb form in I Timothy 6:2 means to benefit.⁶⁴

In the current passage the noun signifies the helping hand of love and mercy both within and beyond the Christian community. One commentator asserts that the term conveys “the definite suggestion of assistance given by governing authorities to any who are in need or oppressed.”⁶⁵ But it is more likely that members of the Christian community and not the government received the spiritual gift of helping one another.

G.  “Administrations.”

The Greek term kybernēseis also occurs but once in the New Testament. A related noun which appears twice (Acts 27:11; Rev. 18:17) means “pilot” or “sea captain.” The English verb to govern derives from the Latin gubernare and the Greek kybernan, which means “to hold the helm, to steer.” Paul seems to intimate that the spiritual gift kybernēseis is the ability to hold the helm of the church.

In the Pastoral Epistles, Paul writes that the elders who rule the church effectively, especially the ones who are engaged in preaching and teaching (I Tim. 5:17), are worthy of double honor. That is, Paul refers to ruling elders and to teaching elders.⁶⁶ The person who possesses the gift to be a statesman in the church is indeed worthy of great respect.

H.   “Kinds of tongues.”

This is the last of the nine gifts. Since Paul had in mind to list them by rank, the last one is the least important. We assume that some believers in the Corinthian church had excessively valued tongues, so that this gift became a controversial issue. Consequently, Paul corrected the misconception of these believers by placing the gift of tongues last in the list, writing an entire chapter on love, and then instructing the believers to communicate in intelligible speech.

The expression kinds of tongues is identical to the words in verse 10 (consult the commentary). Paul is not alluding to one particular language, intelligible or unintelligible, but to a variety of languages which were spoken in the metropolitan area of Corinth. Yet the speaking of unfamiliar languages or the practice of tongue-speech often causes alienation and estrangement, so that translators or interpreters are needed to overcome linguistic barriers. However, note that in this particular list Paul fails to include the spiritual gift of interpreting tongues.

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