Romans 15:18

f. All other boasting he declines. οὐ γὰρ τολμήσω τι λαλεῖν ὧν οὐ κατειργάσατο διʼ ἐμοῦ ὁ Χ.: in effect this means, I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ wrought through me. This is the explanation of ἔχω οὖν καύχησιν ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ. The things which Christ did work through Paul He wrought εἰς ὑπακοὴν ἐθνῶν with a view to obedience on the part of the Gentiles: cf. Romans 1:5. This combination Christ working in Paul, to make the Gentiles obedient to the Gospel is the vindication of Paul's action in writing to Rome. It is not on his own impulse, but in Christ that he does it; and the Romans as Gentiles lie within the sphere in which Christ works through him. λόγῳ καὶ ἔργῳ : λόγος refers to the preaching, ἔργον to all he had been enabled to do or suffer in his calling. 2 Corinthians 10:11; Acts 7:22; Luke 24:19. ἐν δυνάμει σημείων καὶ τεράτων. σημεῖον and τέρας are the words generally employed in the N.T. to designate what we call miracle: often, too, δύναμεις is used as synonymous (Mark 6:2). All three are again applied to Paul's miracles in 2 Corinthians 12:12, and to similar works in the Apostolic age of the Church in Hebrews 2:4 : all three are also found in 2 Thessalonians 2:9, where they are ascribed to the Man of Sin, whose Parousia in this as in other respects is regarded as counterfeiting that of Christ. τέρας is always rendered “wonder” in the A.V., and, as though the word were unequal to the phenomenon, it is never used alone: in all the places in which it occurs σημεῖον is also found. The latter emphasises the significance of the miracle; it is not merely a sight to stare at, but is suggestive of an actor and a purpose. In this passage, “the power” of signs and wonders seems to mean the power with which they impressed the beholders: more or less it is an interpretation of ἔργῳ. So “the power” of the Holy Ghost means the influence with which the Holy Spirit accompanied the preaching of the Gospel: more or less it answers to λόγῳ : see 1 Thessalonians 1:5 and cf. the ἀπόδείξει πνεύματος κ. δυνάμεως, 1 Corinthians 2:4. ὥστε με κ. τ. λ. “The result of Christ's working through His Apostle is here stated as if the preceding sentence had been affirmative in form as well as sense” (Gifford). ἀπὸ Ἱερουσαλὴμ : this agrees with Acts 9:26-29, but this, of course, does not prove that it was borrowed from that passage. Even if Paul began his ministry at Damascus, he might quite well speak as he does here, for it is not its chronology, but its range, he is describing; and to his mind Jerusalem (to which, if let alone, he would have devoted himself, see Acts 22:18-22) was its point of departure. καὶ κύκλῳ : most modern commentators have rendered this as if it were τοῦ κύκλῳ from Jerusalem and its vicinity, by which they mean Syria (though some would include Arabia, Galatians 1:17): for this use of κύκλῳ see Genesis 35:5, Jdt 1:2. But most Greek commentators render as in the A.V. “and round about unto Illyricum”. This is the interpretation taken by Hofmann and by S. and H., and is illustrated by Xen., Anab., vii., i., 14 (quoted by the latter): πότερα διὰ τοῦ ἱεροῦ ὄρους δέοι πορεύεσθαι, πορεύεσθαι, ἢ κύκλῳ διὰ μέσης τῆς Θράκης. μέχρι τοῦ Ἰλλυρικοῦ can (so far as μέχρι is concerned) either exclude or include Illyricum. Part of the country so called may have been traversed by Paul in the journey alluded to in Acts 20:1 f. (διελθὼν δὲ τὰ μέρη ἐκεῖνα), but the language would be satisfied if he had come in sight of Illyricum as he would do in his westward journey through Macedonia. πεπληρωκέναι τὸ εὐαγγ. τοῦ Χριστοῦ : have fulfilled (fully preached) the Gospel of Christ. Cf. Colossians 1:25. Paul had done this in the sense in which it was required of an Apostle, whose vocation (to judge from Paul's practice) was to lay the foundation of a church in the chief centres of population, and as soon as the new community was capable of self-propagation, to move on.