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There is one further point that needs attention. In verse 13 we read: "That ye may
abound in hope"--en dunamei pneumatos hagion. Many of our readers will be
acquainted with Dr. Bullinger's work entitled "S or s, or The Giver and His gifts" and
with Appendix 101 in The Companion Bible, which deals wit the same point. In the
particular case of Rom. 15: 13 the article is absent, indicating that it is the gift referred
to, and not the Giver. The passage does not read To pneuma, to hagion ("The Spirit, the
Holy One") but pneuma hagion ("holy spirit").
Acts 2: 4 is a good example of this twofold usage:
"They were all filled with pneuma hagion (the gift) and began to speak with other
tongues as to Pneuma (the Giver) gave them utterance."
To return to Rom. 15:--the Apostles prays in verse 13 that the God of hope would
"fill" these believers with all joy and peace in believing, and in the next verse goes on to
express his assurance that they had been "filled" with all knowledge. In this connection
we must remember that "the word of knowledge" is one of the gifts of the Spirit
mentioned in I Cor. 12:, and that the next chapter speaks of this as destined to "vanish
away" (I Cor. 13: 8).
The Apostle concludes this section of Rom. 15: with the words:
"Nevertheless, brethren, I have written the more boldly unto you in some sort, as
putting you in mind, because of the grace that is given me of God" (Rom. 15: 15).
The Apostle felt, perhaps, that he had been unduly insistent upon the place that the
Gentiles occupied in the mercy of God, and so he seeks to soften any apparent austerity
by these concluding words. We quote below Weymouth's free rendering of verses 14
and 15, which is worth recording because it seems to express the spirit in which the
Apostle links his earlier emphasis upon Gentile acceptance with the immediately
following elaboration of his own personal ministry as the Apostle of the Gentiles.
"But as to you brethren, I am convinced--yes, I, Paul am convinced--that, even apart
from my teaching, you are already full of goodness of heart, and enriched with complete
Christian knowledge, and are competent to instruct one another. But I write to you the
more boldly--Partly reminding you of what you already know--because of the authority
graciously entrusted to me by God, that I should be a minister of Christ Jesus among the
Gentiles . . . . ."
This introduces us to the central theme of this section--the ministry of Paul and
Gentile acceptance (A2 | 15: 16-33).
We shall hope to consider this in our next
article.