Teacher Judy on "spiritual giftings"

My new bestest English pal, Judy Callarman, has found "gifting" is a proper word after all. Apparently, there is a very dated verb form of "gift," which means it can be used as a noun when -ing is added. As Judy writes:

In the latest Merriam-Webster dictionary, I found that the word “gifting” is a form of an obscure verb, dating back to 1550. Apparently, it is the basis for the word “gifted,” meaning to have an unusual ability, such as “a gifted artist.” This same usage is in the Oxford English Dictionary, the granddaddy of all dictionaries. Therefore, even though I at first proclaimed that “gift” is always a noun and never a verb, I now must admit that I was wrong.

Since it is a verb—-albeit a verb seldom seen—-my inner grammar program tells me that it could correctly be a gerund. A gerund is an “-ing” verb form used like a noun, for example, in the sentence “Swimming is fun.”

Wow. It's nice to know that even English teachers get it wrong sometimes, but of course do their homework to correct the mistake.

But while Judy shows "gifting" is a proper word, no one has explained its use in place of "gifts" when referring to spiritual gifts. As I wrote earlier, even the King James Version authors saw fit to use the word gifts, and there is no English translation that uses giftings anywhere. Was the introduction of "giftings" accidental or intended? Like the number of licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Tootsie-Pop, the world may never know ...