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Sahidic |
Arabic |
Ethiopic |
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(δε) If one says, "I
received gifts of healing through a revelation," hand shall not be laid
on him, for (γαρ) the work itself will reveal if he speaks [the] truth |
If anyone says, "I have
received the grace of healing by a revelation," hands are not laid on
him because events will show whether he is telling the truth. |
Concerning the grace of
healing, if someone says, "I have obtained the gift of healing through
prophetic means," they are not to place a hand on him until his action
shows whether he is trustworthy. |
. . .
"Gifts of healing" are mentioned among the list of
charisms bestowed by the Holy Spirit in 1 Cor 12:9, and there is abundant
testimony in the Christian literature of the first few centuries for the
expectation that any member of the church might possess these gifts. In the West a specific group of exorcists
(whose work was closely related to the ancient understanding of healing) first makes
an appearance in the mid-third century, in the list of offices of the church at
Rome in the letter of Cornelius written in 251. In the East the power of
healing was later associated with ordination, and features in the ordination
prayer for a bishop in the Canons of Hippolytus and that for a presbyter in the
Apostolic Constitutions (see above in chaps. 3 and 7). See also Apostolic
Tradition 34 below, where visiting the sick is the responsibility of the bishop.
It would seem that this chapter is resisting the creation of a
specific class or order of "healers" who are officially appointed by
the church, preferring to allow the results themselves to verify any claim to
possess the power of healing. (Paul
F. Bradshaw, Maxwell E. Johnson, and L. Edward Phillips, The Apostolic
Tradition: A Commentary [Hermeneia—A Critical and Historical Commentary on
the Bible; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002], 80)