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Bible Dictionaries
Governments
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or In each of the five lists of spiritual gifts or of gifted persons which St. Paul places in his Epistles (1 Corinthians 12:8-10; 1 Corinthians 12:28-30, Romans 12:6-8, Ephesians 4:11) there are at least two items which are not found in any other list. In 1 Corinthians 12:28 we have ‘helps’ or ‘helpings’ (ἀντιλήμψεις) and ‘governments’ or ‘governings’ (κυβερνήσεις). In 1 Corinthians 12:23 ‘gifts of healings’ are followed by ‘helpings’ and ‘governings.’ These two form a pair, and refer to management and direction in things external. ‘Governings’ is a word which comes from the idea of a κυβερνήτης, a shipmaster (Acts 27:11, Revelation 18:17) or pilot (Ezekiel 27:8; Ezekiel 27:27-28), directing the course of a ship. The word occurs nowhere else in the NT, but in the Septuagint we have it in the sense of ‘wise guidance’ in peace or war (Proverbs 11:14; Proverbs 24:6). St. Paul probably uses it of those who superintended the externals of organization. It would therefore denote those who are over the rest, and rule them, the προϊστάμενοι of 1 Thessalonians 5:12, Romans 12:8 and the ἡγούμενοι of Hebrews 13:7; Hebrews 13:17; Hebrews 13:24, Acts 15:22. The ‘governors’ are directors and organizers, not teachers; still less are they ‘discerners of spirits,’ as Stanley suggests. They are persons with a gift for management. It is possible that they afterwards developed into a class of officials as ‘elders’ or ‘bishops,’ but that stage had not been reached when 1 Cor. was written. See Helps and Church Government.
A. Plummer.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Governments'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/g/governments.html. 1906-1918.
