19. So that from Jerusalem, etc. He joins also a testimony from the effect; for the success which followed his preaching exceeded all the thoughts of men. For who could have gathered so many churches for Christ, without being aided by the power of God? “From Jerusalem,” he says, “I have propagated the gospel as far as Illyricum, and not by hastening to the end of my course by a straight way, but by going all around, and through the intervening countries.” But the verb πεπληρωκέναι , which after others I have rendered filled up or completed, means both to perfect and to supply what is wanting. Hence πλήρωμα in Greek means perfection as well as a supplement. I am disposed to explain it thus, — that he diffused, as it were by filling up, the preaching of the gospel; for others had before begun, but he spread it wider. (455)
(455) The clause is rendered by [ Beza ] and [ Grotius ], “ Impleverim praedicandi evangelii Christi munus — I have fulfilled the office of preaching the gospel of Christ.” The gospel is put for preaching the gospel. See Acts 12:25; Colossians 1:25 [ Vatablus ] renders the verb “ plene annunciaverim — I have fully announced;” and [ Mede ], “ propagaverim — I have propagated.” Some, as [ Wolfius ] and [ Vitringa ], think the verb is used in a sense borrowed from Hebrew: the verb גמר, which in its common meaning is to fill or to finish, is used in the sense of teaching, not indeed in the Hebrew bible, but in the Talmud. That the idea of teaching, or propagating, or preaching, belongs to it here, and in Colossians 1:25, is evident. The notion of filling up, which [ Calvin ] gives to it, is hardly consistent with what the Apostle says in Romans 15:20. The full preaching is referred by [ Erasmus ], not to its extent, but to its fidelity, “omitting nothing which a faithful evangelist ought to have proclaimed.” — Ed.