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? “FromJerusalem,” 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
- Thus striving to preach the gospel, etc. As it was necessary for Paul not only to prove himself
to be the servant of Christ and a pastor of the Christian Church, but also to show his title to the
character and office of an Apostle, that he might gain the attention of the Romans, he mentions
here the proper and peculiar distinction of the apostleship; for the work of an Apostle is to propagate
the gospel where it had not been preached, according to that command,
“Go ye, preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15.)
And this is what we ought carefully to notice, lest we make a general rule of what specially
belongs to the Apostolic order: nor ought we to consider it a fault, that a successor was substituted
who built up the Church. The Apostles then were the founders as it were of the Church; the pastors
who succeeded them, had to strengthen and amplify the building raised up by them.^456 He calls
that another’s foundation, which had been laid by the hand of another: otherwise Christ is the only
stone on which the Church is founded. See 1 Corinthians 3:11; and Ephesians 2:20
21.But as it is written, etc. He confirms by the testimony of Isaiah what he had said of the
evidence of his apostleship; for in Isaiah 52:15, speaking of the kingdom of Messiah, among other
things he predicts, that the knowledge of Christ would be spread among the Gentiles throughout
the whole world, that his name would be declared to those by whom it had not been heard of before.
It was meet that this should be done by the Apostles, to whom the command was specifically given.
an instance of the Apostle’s usual mode of stating things. “Word” means preaching; and “work,” the doing of miracles. He first
specifies the last, the work was that of “signs and wonders;” and then he mentions what belongs to the first, and shows how it
became effectual, that is, through the power of the Spirit. See a similar arrangement in 1 Corinthians 6:11; where he mentions
washed, sanctified and justified; and then he mentions first what belongs to the last, “in the name of the Lord Jesus,” and
afterwards what appertains to the first words, “and by the Spirit of our God.” “Signs and wonders” are often mentioned together:
they designate the same things by different names: miracles were called “signs,” because they were evidences of divine power,
and they were called “wonders,” or prodigies, because they were not according to the course of nature, but were extraordinary
things. By these words their design and character are set forth. — Ed.(^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 1:25Vatablus 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 , 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.
(^456) The participle, “striving,” rendered annitens by Calvin and by Erasmus, is μ μ , which means to strive honorably: it
is to seek a thing as an object of honor or ambition. It may be rendered here, “honorably striving;” Doddridge has, “It hath been
the object of my ambition;” Stuart, “I was strongly desirous;” and Wolfius, “honori mihi ducentem — esteeming it an honor to
me.” It is used to express both an honorable and an earnest or diligent pursuit. It is found in two other places, teeming it an
honor,” or, “Being ambitious.” — Ed.