Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.
Truly ... There is understood some such clause as, 'yet I have not been commended by you.'
In all patience [ hupomonee (G5281 )] in signs ... A B Delta G 'Aleph (') f g, Vulgate, omit "in." "Patience," or enduring continuance, is not a "sign," but the element IN which the signs were performed. Translate, 'IN ... patience, BY signs,' etc. His expression is modest, putting himself, the worker, in the background: "were wrought," not 'I wrought.' The first "signs" means the evidences; the second, miracles. Since the signs have not been transmitted to us, neither has the apostleship. The apostles have no literal successors (cf. Acts 1:21-22).
Mighty deeds, х dunamesin (G1411)] - works of divine omnipotence. The silence of the apostles in fourteen letters, as to miracles, arises from those letters being hortatory, not controversial. The passing allusions to miracles in seven letters prove that the writers were not enthusiasts, to whom miracles seem the chief thing. Doctrines were with them the important matter, except when convincing adversaries. In the seven the mention of miracles is not obtrusive, but marked by a calm assurance, as of facts acknowledged on all hands, therefore unnecessary to dwell on. This is a stronger proof of their reality than if they were formally asserted. "Signs and wonders" is the regular formula of the Old Testament, which New Testament readers would understand of supernatural works. Again, in the gospels the miracles are so inseparably tied up with the history, that you cannot deny the former without denying the latter also. Then you have a greater difficulty than ever-namely, to account for the rise of Christianity: so the infidel has something infinitely mere difficult to believe than that which he rejects and which the Christian accepts.