The Fivefold Gift
The Original Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Shepherds, and Teachers
What is the fivefold gift?
The Bible says, “He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ” (Ephesians 4:11–12).
If you have heard this passage taught from a pulpit, you might be familiar with the concept of “the fivefold gifts.” The idea is that God distributes these various roles and titles among an assembly of disciples. Some people receive the calling to be apostles, which may be a type of church planter or a missionary. Some receive the calling to be prophets, which may be understood as one with the gift of prophecy or as one who preaches with a prophetic type of authority. Some receive the calling to be evangelists, usually understood as those most adept at persuading others to become believers, sometimes in the context of large meetings to present the gospel, like the Billy Grahams of the world.
Some are called to be shepherds, that is, pastors who care for and tend the local community. Some are called to be teachers, that is, Bible teachers. Someone who feels called to ministry just needs to figure out which job description God has best suited them to fulfill.
At the risk of irritating the charismatic Christian world and anyone currently identifying himself or herself as the recipient of one of the five offices of the gifting, I would like to propose an alternative way of thinking about the fivefold gift.
I argue that the five offices mentioned in Ephesians 4:11–12 refer not to a general charismatic gifting for church leaders in every time and place but to specific Jewish people from the first century. My argument builds on the work of Lionel Windsor’s Reading Ephesians & Colossians after Supersessionism, which makes a compelling case that (in the context of Ephesians 4) all five categories are best understood as descriptions of offices held by specific individuals within the original community of Jewish disciples.
Messiah’s Gift
In the opening chapters of Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians, the apostle to the Gentiles presents himself as an emissary and representative of the Jewish people, bringing the message of Messiah’s revelation to the nations. He sees himself and his Messianic Jewish colleagues as missionaries (so to speak) acting in accordance with Israel’s national destiny to be a priestly people among the nations and a light to the nations. He says regarding himself and his Messianic Jewish colleagues, “Grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of the Messiah’s gift” (Ephesians 4:7).
In this context, “grace” refers specifically to the “favor” that Paul and the other apostles enjoyed as official emissaries for the Messiah. The “Messiah’s gift” is the anointing of the Holy Spirit, a gift that Yeshua obtained through his ascension to the right hand of the Father. He gifted the Spirit of God that rested on him to his disciples and first followers.
All five categories are best understood as descriptions of offices held by specific individuals within the original community of Jewish disciples.
Two similar stories from the Hebrew Scriptures illustrate the idea. In the Torah, Moses asks God to help him with the task of leadership. He selects seventy elders. The Torah says, “Then the LORD came down in the cloud and spoke to him, and took some of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. And as soon as the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied” (Numbers 11:25). In this way, the Spirit of the LORD that rested upon Moses was shared with the elders.
Another similar story concerns Elijah and his disciples. When the Prophet Elijah was about to ascend, his disciple Elisha requested a double portion of the Spirit of God that rested on Elijah. He asked Elijah to bequeath it to him. This means that all of Elijah’s disciples (the school of the sons of the prophets) received a portion of the Spirit that rested upon their teacher, Elijah. Elisha wanted twice the amount that the others would receive. Elijah told Elisha that the request would be granted him if he saw him ascend. Elisha saw him ascend, and the Spirit that was on Elijah came to rest on Elisha. God’s Spirit rested on the prophets.
The story of Yeshua’s ascension (Acts 1) and the outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost (Acts 2) alludes to these stories. Paul explains, “Therefore it says, ‘When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men’” (Ephesians 4:8). The gift that he gave was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on his disciples and first followers (who were all Jewish at that time), designating from among them some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, and some as shepherds and teachers.
Consider my translation:
He gave the apostles, and the prophets, and the evangelists, and the shepherds and teachers, for the equipping of the holy ones, for the work of servanthood, for building up the body of Messiah. (Ephesians 4:11–12, my translation)
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