[Sissy]

I Corinthians 12
8For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;
9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;

Many refer to this as the "gift of healing" , yet I heard a person say that in the Greek it more closely comes out as a double plural, namely "Gifts of Healings". it would seem that Gifts of Healings would have a different implication than the expression "gift of healing".

That is to say, God does not give the "gift of healing" to any man, there is only one healer, but rather the Spirit as He chooses may manifest "Gifts of healings" to afflicted people.

I did notice that in Young's Literal Translation, he does go with the double plural.

What's your take on the Greek in I Corinthians 12:9?

Gifts of healings

allo de charismata iamaton (αλλω δε χαρισματα ιαματων)

Good observation!

Whenever I look up a verse that I have not read in Greek before, I play this little game with myself where I quess what the actual Greek will look like (from the assumption that the most common English translation is accurate, and there are no hidden meanings). If I am wrong in my guess, that means there is more going on in the Greek than is indicated in the English. I figured there were four possible ways for this phrase to be written (not including such subtlties as variations in the attributive position), and in order for the most common translation to be correct, the Greek would have to be the first one in the list.

• allo de to charisma iamatos (and to another the gift of healing)
  
  allo de charismata iamatos (and to another, gifts of healing)
  
  allo de to charisma iamaton (and to another, the gift of healings)
  
  allo de charismata iamaton (and to another, gifts of healings)

The first is nominative singular and genitive singular with the definite article. This is how the phrase should appear in order for most translations to be completely accurate. This would indicate one gift of healing (presumably a generic gift to cover all types of healing).

The second is nominative plural and genitive singular, indicating multiple different variations of a central gift: healing.

The third is nominative singular and genitive plural, which would emphasize that one gift that covers a wide latitude of different kinds of healing.

The last, and the one that actually appears in the text, is nominative plural and genitive plural, indicating a wide variety of gifts relating to a wide variety of different types of healing.

The root word translated "healing" means "to completely cure, to make whole, to heal." That does NOT indicate a variety of different diseases, but a variety of AREAS. This is the only place that this particular word for healing appears in the NT, and it is a specialized word indicating "a specific act of curing or making whole" and by being in the plural, it would seem to indicate there were different "kinds" or "types" of "curing" or "making whole." This is the word we would use to say that we have found a "cure for cancer," as opposed to claiming to have a means of curing all ailments (Dr. Lightning's All Purpose Curing Elixer).

However, since scripture doesn't really distinguish between PHYSICAL diseases (from a healing standoint), but it DOES distinguish between disease and mental illness, the most likely division here is that one gift specializes in making people PHYSICALLY WHOLE, while another specializes in making them MENTALLY WHOLE, while another specializes in making them EMOTIONALLY WHOLE, while another specializes in making them SPIRITUALLY WHOLE (corresponding to the four words used to describe the four areas of our life as it applies to loving God: with all our HEART - emotional, SOUL - spiritual, MIND - mental, and STRENGTH - physical).

And of course, there might be overlaps (i.e. making a person physically whole heals them mentally as well, etc.). Finally, the fact that "allo" (to another) is singular, rather than plural (to others) indicates that ONE person can have multiple gifts of healing.

No matter what the interpretation, the correct rendering is "gifts of healings" not "the gift of healing."

Just for the sake of being complete, here is the entire "gift" list showing singulars and plurals:

• 1) A word of wisdom (indicating a single "message," not a single word)
  2) A word of knowledge (again, message not word)
  3) Faith (singular)
  4) Gifts of healings
  5) Operations of miraculous powers
  6) Prophecy (singular)
  7) Discernings of spirits
  8) Kinds of languages (tongues)
  9) Translation (singular) of languages (plural)

As I was reading this list, something caught my attention. Greek has two words for "other, another." The first is "allos" and means "another of the same kind"; the second is "eteros" and means "another of a different kind." If I have an apple, and I ask for an "allos," you would give me another apple, but if I asked for an "eteros," you would give me another fruit of a different kind, such as an orange or banana.

Secondly, if people were walking through the front door, using "allos" would simply tell me that "another person" came in the front (they could be the same person who had previously come in the front door at a different time or different day). Using "eteros" would emphasize that the person who came through the door was a DIFFERENT person from the rest.

Having said that, most of the "anothers" in this list are "allos" (simply another person), but TWO of them are prefaced with "eteros" (a DIFFERENT person): #3, faith; and #8, languages (tongues).

The only thing that really makes sense here is that he is emphasizing with these two gifts in particular, that a DIFFERENT person is given this gift (because those TWO particular gifts have often been classified as gifts that "everyone" gets). In other words, this entire list is of gifts given to different people, but on two of them, he used extra emphasis to point out that not everyone gets these gifts.

Some people have the gift of faith, some do not. Some people have the gift of different kinds of tongues, some do not. While this is true of all the gifts, it is EMPHASIZED for two of them.

Grace and peace,

Rhomphaia