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No.6.
"God's unspeakable gift" (II Cor. 9: 15).
pp. 139, 140
When Carlyle spoke of "the unspeakable Turk" he used the word in the extremely
opposite sense from that of Paul when he thanked God for "His unspeakable gift", or
when Peter spoke of "joy unspeakable". Tyndale speaks of "God's ineffable gift"
(II Cor. 9: 15), and it is in this sense that both apostles have used the word.
There is, however, a slight difference in the intention of Paul when he spoke of God's
"unspeakable" gift, and of Peter when he spoke of joy that is "unspeakable".
Paul uses the Greek word anekdiegetos, whereas Peter uses aneklaletos. The "a" in
each case is the negative, and the peculiar meaning of the two words may be discovered
by their usage. There are but two occurrences of ekdiegeomai in the N.T. and in both
passages the A.V. renders it "declare":
"A work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you"
(Acts 13: 41).
"They passed through Phenice and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles"
(Acts 15: 3).
Paul may have been enabled to "declare" with a great amount of completeness and
comprehension, the message of the prophet, and Peter may have given a very
circumstantial account of the conversion of Cornelius, but to contemplate Christ, the Son
of God, the Saviour, the Lord, in all the plenitude of His Majesty and Humility, His
Grace and His Power, was confessedly beyond the power even of an inspired apostle. It
is good for us to recognize that not only the Invisible God is past finding out, but that the
Saviour, even in His condescension as "the gift of God" is "unspeakable". Truly, said the
Prophet as he spoke of the "child" yet to be born, and of the "son" yet to be given, His
name is "Wonderful".
The words of the apostle that are engaging our thoughts come at the close of the
two chapters in II Corinthians, in which Paul had urged upon the church with many an
entreaty and argument the realization of his desire to take to Jerusalem a tangible
expression of fellowship from the Gentile churches.
Early in his appeal, he had introduced the example of Christ, saying:
"Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for our
sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich" (II Cor. 8: 9).
Whether Paul had entertained the idea of appealing to other phases of the Saviour's
life and work to encourage the Corinthians, we do not know. He spoke of the necessity
of a willing mind (II Cor. 8: 12) and quoted scripture to encourage liberality (8: 15).
He appealed to their honour (9: 2, 3); added a proverb of his own (9: 6); and
supplemented the early remark concerning a "willing mind" with the words "God loveth