To another, the working of miracles That is, miracles of a different kind; such as taking up serpents, drinking any deadly draught without hurt, and especially casting out devils. But it may not be improper to observe here, that the original expression, ενεργηματα δυναμεων, here rendered the working of miracles, is translated by Dr. Macknight, the inworkings of powers, the former word being derived from ενεργεω, signifying not to work simply, but to work in another. And he thinks it is here intended to express the power which the apostles had of conferring the miraculous gifts of the Holy Ghost on those on whom they laid their hands: a power which was peculiar to the apostles, by which they were raised above all the other spiritual men, and by which they spread the gospel everywhere with the greatest success. To another, prophecy The foretelling of things to come. To another, the discerning of spirits That is, ability to discern whether professors of Christianity were of an upright spirit, or not; whether they had natural or supernatural gifts for offices in the church; and whether they who professed to speak by inspiration spoke from a divine, a natural, or diabolical spirit; and consequently to distinguish, with certainty, true doctrine from false. For, as there appeared very early among the professed disciples of Christ, false teachers, who, to gain credit to their errors, pretended to deliver them by inspiration, a gift of this kind was very necessary for preventing the faithful from being led away by them, especially in the first age, before the writings of the apostles and evangelists were generally spread abroad. Hence the caution, 1 John 4:1, Believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are from God, because many false prophets are gone forth into the world. Again, the gift of discerning spirits was bestowed on some, to enable them, on certain occasions, to discover what passed in the minds of their enemies, that they might make it known for the benefit of the church; 1 Corinthians 14:25. Thus Peter knew the fraudulent purpose of Ananias and Sapphira, and Paul the malice of Elymas. But here it is to be observed, that neither the knowledge of what passed in the minds of enemies, nor the knowledge of the characters of private Christians, or of the qualifications of those who aspired after sacred offices, was bestowed as a habit. On most occasions, it seems, the rulers were left in these matters to guide themselves by their own sagacity, or by that ordinary illumination which they received from the Spirit of wisdom.
To another, divers kinds of tongues Ability to speak languages which they had not learned. This gift was one of the primary causes of the rapid growth of Christianity. For by it the preachers of the gospel were able, immediately on their coming into any country, to declare the wonderful things of God, without waiting till, in the ordinary course, they learned the language of the country. The persons who were endowed with this faculty, had not the knowledge of all languages communicated to them, but of such only as they had occasion for. This appears from 1 Corinthians 14:18, where the apostle told the Corinthians that he spake more foreign tongues than they all did. And even the languages which were given them, may not have been communicated to them all at once, but only as they had occasion for them. To another, the interpretation of tongues Ability to interpret into a language known, suppose into the common language of the place, that which others, suppose foreigners, or those to whom a language was given by inspiration, delivered in a tongue with which the hearers were not acquainted. From this being mentioned as a distinct gift from that of speaking foreign languages, Macknight infers, that not every one who understood the foreign language, in which an inspired teacher spake, was allowed to interpret what he spake. The only person, he thinks, permitted to do this, was the interpreter, endowed with an especial inspiration for that end. Because, “the doctrines of the gospel, being entirely different from all the ideas which the heathen had been accustomed to entertain on religious subjects, any interpretation of what was delivered by the Spirit in a foreign language, made without a supernatural direction, might have led the church into errror. Further, the faculty of interpreting foreign languages by inspiration was, in another respect, a gift very necessary in the first age; for the books of the Old Testament being written in Hebrew, a language not then understood by the vulgar, even in Judea, and the writings of the apostles and evangelists being all in the Greek tongue, on account of its emphasis and precision; and that tongue being nowhere spoken by the common people, except in Greece and some cities of the Lesser Asia, if there had not been in every church inspired interpreters, who could translate these divinely-inspired writings into the common language, they would have been, in a great measure, useless; especially at the beginning, when the knowledge of them was most wanted. Whereas every church having inspired interpreters of foreign languages commonly present in their religious assemblies, to translate the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures into the language of the country, the common people, everywhere, had an opportunity of deriving from these writings all the knowledge and comfort they are fitted to yield. Such were the supernatural gifts with which the first preachers and ministers of the gospel were endowed; and by which they effectually and speedily established the gospel in the most populous and civilized provinces of the Roman empire.” And all these Diversities of gifts, the apostle adds, worketh that one and the self-same Spirit They all flow from one and the same fountain; dividing to every man severally, καθως βουλεται, as he willeth An expression which does not so much imply arbitrary pleasure, as a determination founded on wise counsel.