Ephesians 4:11

And he gave The "He" is emphatic; it was He who gave. See above on Ephesians 4:7. Immediately, the Holy Spirit is the Giver (1 Corinthians 12:8, &c.; cp. Acts 2:4; Acts 13:2). But His action is in Divine union withthat of the Son, and vicariously forHim.

some apostles I.e., some men as apostles, and so through the passage. Cp. 1 Corinthians 12:28. The gift is to the Church, from the Lord, of spiritually called and enabled human ministers. "Apostles" :see above on Ephesians 1:1.

prophets In the enumeration, 1 Corinthians 12:28, this "ministry" comes second, as here. On the "prophets" of the N. T. see above on Ephesians 2:20, and Appendix F.

evangelists The word occurs thrice in N.T.; here, Acts 21:8, and 2 Timothy 4:5. It seems, like our word "missionary," to indicate not a defined ecclesiastical order (for Timothy "does the work of an evangelist," while also an authoritative superintendent of pastors and churches), but rather a special kind of personal function in the ministry; the work of one called and devoted to direct proclamation of the Gospel message. It was thus an elastic word, like "missionary," sometimes and oftenest denoting a minister's special function, sometimes one only of his functions. "This passage," our present passage, "would lead us to think of the evangelists as standing between the two groups," (apostles and prophets, pastors and teachers,) "sent forth, as missionary preachers of the Gospel, by the first, and as such preparing the way for the labours of the second" (Smith's Dict. of the Bible, under the word Evangelist). "The omission of evangelists in the list of 1 Corinthians 12 may be explained on the hypothesis that the nature of St Paul's argument there led him to speak of the settled organization of a given local Church" (Ibidem).

pastors and teachers Not, "some pastors and some teachers." The two functions are regarded as coinciding and combining in the one settled guardian of a local flock; an instructive fact. Such a "pastor-teacher" had St Paul himself been at Ephesus (Acts 20), where indeed he had also been so conspicuously the "evangelist." On the pastoral aspect of the Christian ministry cp. John 21:16 (Gr. "shepherdmy sheep"); Acts 20:28 (Gr., "shepherdthe church of God"), 29; 1 Peter 5:2-3. See also Luke 17:7 (Gr., "a slave … shepherding"). And note the Lord's own references to His supreme Pastorate, Matthew 25:32; Matthew 26:31; John 10; and Hebrews 13:20; 1Pe 2:25; 1 Peter 5:4; and Matthew 2:6 (Gr., "shall shepherdmy people"). On the teaching aspect of the ministry, cf. esp. Acts 13:1; Acts 15:35; Romans 12:7; 1 Corinthians 12:28-29; 1 Timothy 3:2; 2 Timothy 2:24.