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Mar 16:17. Τοῖς πιστεύσασι, in the case of them that believe) by the instrumentality of that very faith, of which Mar 16:16 treats: comp. Heb 11:33, etc. The state of mind [faith] whereby Paul was saved, was not different from that whereby he performed miracles. Even in our day, faith has in every believer a hidden power of a miraculous character: every effect resulting from our prayers is really miraculous, even though that miraculous character be not apparent; although in many, both on account of their own feebleness, and on account of the unworthiness of the world,-not merely because [as some say] the Church, being once planted, needs not the continuance of miracles, though no doubt the early miracles of the New Testament have ‘made’ for the Lord Jesus “an everlasting name” (comp. Isa 63:12),-that power does not exert itself in our day. Signs were in the beginning the props and stays of faith: now they are also the object of faith. At Leonberg, a town of Wirtemberg [A.C. 1644, thirteenth Sunday after Trinity], a girl of twenty years of age was so disabled in her limbs, as hardly to be able to creep along by the help of crutches; but whilst the Dean [Raumeier was his name] was, from the pulpit, dwelling on the miraculous power of Jesus’ name, she suddenly was raised up and restored to the use of her limbs.[12]-ταῦτα, these) Miracles are here alluded to of a most palpable kind, and such as are altogether removed from every suspicion of trickery.-παρακολουθήσει, shall follow in the train of) The word and faith precede the signs, Mar 16:20.-ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί Μου, in My name) which believers call upon.-καιναῖς, new) Such as they themselves had not previously known: or even such as no nation had previously spoken: 1Co 12:10. For in Act 2:4, the tongues of the Parthians, Medes, etc., are called other tongues, not new tongues. Ἕτεραι, other tongues, were such as were used before, viz., by the various nations: but καιναὶ, new tongues: for instance, as at Corinth, where one spake in the tongue, and another had to interpret it, although there was no one present who used the foreign tongue; a proceeding which was as it were a kind of prophetical exercise.
[12] This happened in the presence of Duke Eberhard III. and his courtiers, and was committed to the public records, which are above all suspicion. However D. Ernesti, Bibl. Theol. T. ii. 416, regards the whole affair as not worthy to be dignified with the name of miracle. The very words of the Dean are given by E. B. in his Ed. of Beng. Gnom., which the curious reader can consult. The girl had been for nine years continuously disabled. E. B. tells a marvellous tale in addition. At Lavingen, in the year 1606, Nov. 26, Joseph Jenisch was born of the noble stock of the Kellers; he was destitute of a tongue from his birth, but in consequence of the earnest prayers of his parents and family, when he had not yet finished his first year, he was able to name distinctly the several members of the family, and was, therefore, dedicated to the service of the ministry, which for forty years he discharged at Böblingen and Münchingen: he died on the 10th of April 1675.-ED. and TRANSL.