Biblical commentary on the New Testament - The Christian ...

894 Matthew IX. 35; X. 1.
upon his apostles, at diflfercnt times, concerning their relation to the
world. This becomes the more probable, because many expressions
occurring in the instruction (com. specially the remarks on Matth.
X. 23) went beyond the knowledge which the apostles had at the
thue when they were sent forth. The special reference of the in-
struction to the impending mission of the twelve has assumed, in
the hands of the Evangelist, a general character ; so that in this
discourse of Jesus to his disciples, we have received instruc-
tions for them and for their whole apostolic work, nay, for all the
missionaries of all times. How far this may have been the intention
of Matthew, I leave undecided ;•'• but the Spirit, who spoke through
him, has given that rich fulness to his representation.
Ver. 1.—Jesus on sending out the twelve apostles by two and
two (Mark vi. 7), for their mutual assistance, gives to them, in the
first place, a seal of their official authority, viz., the power of healing
(e^ovoia). It is obvious that the communication of such power
of healing could only be by a communication of the power of the
Spirit. Hence we find in this passage the first trace of a communi-
cation of the Spirit of Jesus to his disciples, which is increased in
John XX. 22, and consummated on the day of Pentecost. From
this also comes the. relation in which the miraculous cures of the
apostles stood to their other ministrations. The outward work of
healing was the most subordinate and the first ; their purely spirit-
ual labours in preaching the word they could begin only after the
Pentecost. So also the Saviour began by healing the body ; but
afterward, he exercised his redeeming power by healing the soul
also. It is therefore no great loss which the church sustained, if, at
a subsequent period, the gift of healing departed from her ; the
higher gift, the word by which souls are redeemed, remained. A
remarkable instance of such communication of the Spirit to others
is found in Numb. xi. 17, et seq., where it is related how Moses laid
upon the seventy elders of Israel the Spirit which rested upon himself.
This is by no means a view of the Spirit bordering on ma-
terialism, but is, on the contrary, a representation of him in his
essential nature. As God is love, and, as being love, it is his nature
to communicate himself ; so it is also the nature of the Spirit, as a
divine substance, to communicate himself unceasingly, creating
life, and, as a stream, strengthening and refreshing the heart.
A Spirit who would or could not communicate himself would be no
spirit, or not a divine spirit. Now Christ, as the image of the
invisible Father, continually pours out a fulness of living Spirit,
but communicates to every one according to his wants and suscepti-
* Compare on this point my " Festprogramm iiber die Aechtheit. des Mat.," Abth,
ii, S. 17.