Of speaking and prophesying CHAP. XIV. in an unknown tongue. CHAPTER XIV. We should earnestly desire spiritual gifts; but prophesying is to be preferred, because it is superior to the gift of tongues, 1, 2. Prophesying defined, 3. How to regulate this supernatural gift of tongues, in teaching for the edification of the church, 4-13. In praying and giving thanks, 14-17. Those who speak with tongues should interpret that others may be edified, 18-22. What benefit may accrue from this in the public assemblies, 23-28. How the prophets or teachers should act in the church, 29-33. Women should keep silence in the church, 34, 35. All should be humble, and every thing should be done in love, 36–40. NOTES ON CHAP. XIV. Verse 1. Follow after charity] Most earnestly Ebour to be put in possession of that love which heareth, believeth, hopeth, and endureth all things. It may be difficult to acquire, and difficult to retain this blessed state, but it is essential to your present peace and eternal happiness. This clause belongs to the preceding chapter. Desire spiritual gifts] Ye are very intent on getting those splendid gifts which may add to your worldly consequence, and please your carnal minds; but labour rather to get the gifts of God's Spirit, by which ye may grow in grace, and be useful to others; and particularly desire that ye may prophesy—that ye may be able to teach and instruct others in the things of their salvation. Verse 2. For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue] This chapter is crowded with difficulties. It is not likely that the Holy Spirit should, in the church, suddenly inspire a man with the knowledge of some foreign language, which none in the church understood but himself; and lead him to treat the mysteries of Christianity in that language, though none in the place could profit by his teaching. Dr. Lightfoot's mode of reconciling these difficulties is the most likely I have met with. He supposes that by the unknown tongue the Hebrew is meant, and that God restored the true knowledge of this language when he gave the apostles the gift of tongues. As the Scriptures of the Old Testament were contained in this language, and it has beauties, energies, and depths in it which no verbal translation can reach, it was necessary, for the proper elucidation of the prophecies concerning the Messiah, and the establishment of the Christian religion, that the full meaning of the words of this sacred language should be properly understood. And it is possible that the Hebrew Scriptures were sometimes read in the Christian con gregations as they were in the Jewish synagogues; and if the person who read and understood them had not the power and faculty of explaining them to others, in vain did he read and understand them himself. And we know that it is possible for a man to understand a language, the force, phraseology, and idioms of which he is incapable of explaining even in his mother tongue. We shall see, in the course of these notes, how this view of the subject will apply to the illustration of the apostle's words throughout the chapter. Speaketh not unto men, but unto God] None present understanding the language, God alone knowing the truth and import of what he says: : In the spirit he speaketh mysteries.] Though his own mind (for so TVεvμаT is understood here by many eminent critics) apprehends the mysterics contained in the words which he reads or utters; but if, by the Spirit, we understand the Spirit of God, it only shows that it is by that Spirit that he is enabled to speak and apprehend these mysteries. See the note on ver. 19. Verse 3. But he that prophesieth] The person who has the gift of teaching is much more useful to the church than he is who has only the gift of tongues, because he speaks to the profit of men: viz. to their edification, by the Scriptures he expounds; to their exhortation, by what he teaches; and to their comfort by his revelation.-Whitby. I must here refer to my sermon on this text, intituled, "The Christian Prophet and his Work," in which I have endeavoured to consider the whole of this subject at large. Verse 4. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue] In the Hebrew for instance, the knowledge of the depth and power of which he has got by a divine revelation, edifieth himself by that knowledge. But he that prophesieth] Has the gift of preaching. edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church. 5 I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied; for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying. a 6 Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine? 7 And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known a Ver. 26.- Or, tunes. Edifieth the church.] Speaketh unto men to edification, exhortation, and comfort, ver. 3. Verse 5. I would that ye all spake with tongues] The word 0 does not so much imply a wish or desire, as a command or permission. As if he had said: I do not restrain you to prophesying or teaching, though I prefer that; but I give you full permission to speak in Hebrew whenever it is proper, and when one is present who can interpret for the edification of the church, provided yourselves have not that gift, though you understand the language. The apostle said tongue, in the singular number, ver. 2, 4, because he spoke of a single man; now he says tongues, in the plural number, because he speaks of many speaking; but he has the same meaning in both places.-Lightfoot. Greater is he that prophesieth] A useful, zealous preacher, though unskilled in learned languages, is much greater in the sight of God, and in the eye of sound common sense, than he who has the gift of those learned tongues; except he interpret: and we seldom find great scholars good preachers. This should humble the scholar, who is too apt to be proud of his attainments, and despise his less learned but more useful brother. This judgment of St. Paul is too little regarded. in an unknown tongue. what is piped or harped? 8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? C A.M. 4060. A. D. 56. A.U. C. 809. Anno Imp. Nero nis Cæs. 3. 9 So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? for ye shall speak into the air. 10 There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. 11 Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian; and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me. 12 Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous e Gr. significant. a pipe or harp; if these were to utter mere sounds without order, harmony, or melody, though every tone of music might be in the sounds, surely no person could discern a tune in such sounds, nor receive pleasure from such discords: even so is the person who speaks in an unknown tongue, but does not interpret. His speech tends no more to edification than those discordant and unmeaning sounds do to pleasure and delight. Verse 8. If the trumpet give an uncertain sound] If, when the soldier should prepare himself for the battle, the trumpet should give a different sound to that which is ordinarily used on such occasions, the soldier is not informed of what he should do, and therefore does not arm himself; consequently, that vague, unintelligible sound of the trumpet, is of no use. Verse 9. Likewise ye] If ye do not speak in the church so as to be understood, your labour is useless; ye shall speak into the air-your speech will be lost and dissipated in the air, without conveying any meaning to any person: there will be a noise or sound, but nothing else. Gifts of that kind, thus used, are good for nothing. Verse 10. There are, it Verse 6. Speaking with tongues] Without inter- example. preting. What shall I profit you?] i. e. I shall not profit you; Except I shall speak to you either by revelation] Of some secret thing; or by knowledge, of some mystery; or by prophesying, foretelling some future event; or by doctrine, instructing you what to believe and practise. See Whitby. These four words are taken in different acceptations by learned men. The general sense of the terms is that given above: but the peculiar meaning of the apostle is perhaps not easily discerned. Verse 7. And even things without life] I may, as if he had said, illustrate this farther by referring to may be] E TUXO, For So many kinds of voices] So many different languages, each of which has its distinct articulation, pronunciation, emphasis, and meaning; or there may be so many different nations, each possessing a different language, &c. Verse 11. If I know not the meaning of the voice] Ty dvvajuv τns pwvns, The power and signification of the language. I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian] [ shall appear to him, and he to me, as a person who had no distinct and articulate sounds which can convey any kind of meaning. This observation is very natural: when we hear persons speaking in a language of which we know nothing, we wonder how they Of praying and A. M. 4060. A. U. C. 809. Anno Imp. Neronis Cæs. 3. CHAP. XIV. * of spiritual gifts, seek that ye | sing with the understanding 13 Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue, pray that he may interpret. 14 For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. 15 What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will can understand each other, as, in their speech, there appears to us no regular distinction of sounds or words. For the meaning and origin of the word barbarian, see the note on Acts xxviii. 2. Verse 12. Forasmuch as ye are zealous] Seeing ye affect so much to have spiritual gifts, seek that ye may get those by which ye may excel in edifying the church. Verse 13. Pray that he may interpret.] Let him who speaks or reads the prophetic declarations in the Old Testament, in that tongue in which they were originally spoken and written, pray to God that he may so understand them himself, and receive the gift of interpretation, that he may be able to explain them in all their depth and latitude to others. Verse 14. For if I pray in an unknown tongue] If my payers are composed of sentences and sayings taken out of the prophets, &c., and in their own langungeny spirit prayeth, my heart is engaged in the work, and my prayers answer all the purpose of prayers to myself; but my understanding is unfruitful to all others, because they do not understand my prayers, and I either do not or cannot interpret them. See the note on ver. 19. Verse 15. I will pray with the spirit] I will endeayour to have all my prayers influenced and guided by the Spirit of God; and to have my own heart deeply affected in and by the work. And I will pray with the understanding also] I will endeavour so to pray that others may understand me, and thus be edified and improved by my prayers. And therefore I will pray in a language in the public congregation that may be understood by all present, an that all may join, not only in the act, but in the pint of devotion. I will sing with the spirit] It does appear that aging psalms or spiritual hymns was one thing that implied in what is termed prophesying in the Old Testament, as is evident from 1 Sam. x. 5, 6, 10, &c. And when this came through an immediate afflatus or inspiration of God, there is no doubt that it was exceedingly edifying; and must have served greatly to improve and excite the devotional spirit of all that were present. But I rather suppose that their singing consisted in solemn, well measured recitativo, than in also. giving thanks. A.M. 4060. 16 Else, when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest? d 17 For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified. 18 I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all: 19 Yet in the church I had rather speak c Ps. xlvii. 7.-d Ch. xi. 24. the jingling and often foolish sounds which we use when a single monosyllable is sometimes shivered into a multitude of semiquavers! Here it may not be improper to remark that the spirit and the understanding are seldom united in our congregational singing. Those whose hearts are right with God have generally no skill in music, and those who are well skilled in music have seldom a devotional spirit, but are generally proud, selfwilled, contentious, and arrogant. Do not thesc persons entirely overrate themselves? Of all the liberal arts surely music is the least useful, however ornamental it may be. And should any thing be esteemed in the church of God but in proportion to its utility? A good singer, among the people of God, who has not the life of God in his soul is vox et præterea nihil, as Heliogabalus said of the nightingale's brains on which he desired to sup, he is nothing but a sound. Some of those persons, I mean they who sing with the understanding without the spirit, suppose themselves of great consequence in the church of Christ; and they find foolish superficial people whom they persuade to be of their own mind, and soon raise parties and contentions if they have not every thing their own way; and that way is generally as absurd as it is unscriptural and contrary to the spirit and simplicity of the gospel. Verse 16. He that occupieth the room of the unlearned] One who is not acquainted with the language in which you speak, sing, or pray. Say Amen] Give his assent and ratification to what he does not understand. It was very frequent in primitive times to express their approbation in the public assemblies by Amen. This practice, soberly and piously conducted, might still be of great use in the church of Christ. This response was of the highest authority and merit among the Jews; they even promised the remission of all sins, the annihilation of the sentence of damnation, and the opening of the gates of Paradise, to those who fervently say Amen. And it is one of their maxims that "greater is he who says Amen than he who prays." See many testimonies of this kind in Schoettgen. Now, allowing that this was of so much consequence in the time of St. Paul, it was Tongues are intended A. M. 4060. A. U. C. 809. nis Cæs. 3. tongue. I. CORINTHIANS. d e for a sign A. M. 4060. A. D. 56. A. U. C. 800. Anno Imp. Nero nis Cæs. 3. five words with my understand-| 21 In the law it is written, b 20 Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children; but in understanding be men. a Ps. cxxxi. 2. Matt. xi. 25. xviii. 3. xix. 14. Rom. xvi. 19. Ch. iii. 1. Eph. iv. 14. Hebr. v. 12, 13. a very serious matter for a person to be in a congregation where prayer was offered, who could not say Amen, because the prayers were in a language which he did not understand. Verse 17. Thou verily givest thanks well] Because he felt gratitude, and, from a sense of his obligation, gave praise to God; but because this was in an unknown tongue, those who heard him received no edification. Verse 18. I speak with tongues more than ye all] He understood more languages than any of them did; and this was indispensably necessary, as he was the apostle of the Gentiles in general, and had to preach to different provinces where different dialects, if not languages, were used. In the Hebrew, Syriac, Greek, and Latin, he was undoubtedly well skilled from his education; and how many he might understand by miraculous gift we cannot tell. But, even literally understood, it is very probable that he knew more languages than any man in the church of Corinth. Verse 19. Yet in the church] As the grand object of public worship is the edification of those who attend, five words, spoken so as to convey edification, were of much more consequence than ten thousand which, not being understood, could convey none. By the word yλwoon, tongue, to which we add unknown, I suppose the apostle always means the Hebrew, for the reasons offered in the note on ver. 1. Matt. xviii. 3. 1 are three words here to which we must endeavour to In malice] Kakia, In wickedness, vymiɑžete, be as infants, who neither speak, do, nor purpose evil. But in understanding] Teλeli yiveσ0ɛ, Be ye perfec men, whose vigour of body and energy of mind show a complete growth, and a well cultivated under standing. Verse 21. In the law it is written] But the pas sage quoted is in Isai. xxviii. 11. Here is no contra diction, for the term torah, LAW, was frequently used by the Jews to express the whole scriptures law, prophets, and hagiographia; and they used i to distinguish these sacred writings from the word of the scribes. With men of other tongues] Bishop Pearce pa raphrases this verse as follows: "With the tongue of foreigners and with the lips of foreigners wil I speak to this people; and yet, for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord." To ente into the apostle's meaning we must enter into the of the prophet. The Jewish people were unde the teaching of the prophets who were sent from God; these instructed, reproved, and corrected ther One of the greatest difficulties, says Bishop Pearce, in this epistle is contained in the words vevμa and vovs, spirit and understanding, which are frequently used in this chapter; and fixing the true meaning of these words will solve the difficulty. In this verse the apostle explains λaλe ry voï, to speak with the understanding, by iva adλovç karnxnow, that I might teach others; so that the sense of vovç, understand-by this divine authority. They however became s ing, seems to be, that understanding which the hearer refractory and disobedient that God purposed t has of what is said; and this sense will agree well cast them off, and abandon them to the Babylonians with, I will sing with the spirit, and with the under- then, they had a people to teach, correct, and repro standing, ver. 15. them, whose language they did not understand. Th He observes also that vevμa, spirit, and vovç, un-discipline that they received in this way was widel derstanding, have a sense opposite to each other; so different from that which they received while unde that if vous is rightly rendered, the understanding the teaching of the prophets and the government which another has of what is said; then vevμa will God; and yet for all this they did not humble them signify a man's own mind, i, e. his own understand-selves before their Maker that this affliction might b ing of what he himself speaks; and this sense agrees removed from them. well with ver. 2: In the spirit he speaketh mysteries. Verse 20. Be not children in understanding] There Verse 22. Wherefore tongues are for a sign] T miraculous gift of tongues was never designed for th benefit of those who have already believed, but for the instruction of unbelievers, that they might see from such a miracle that this is the work of God; and so embrace the gospel. But as, in the times of the prophet, the strange Babylonish tongues came in the way of punishment, and not in the way of mercy; take heed that it be not the case now: that, by dwelling on the gift, ye forget the giver; and what was designed for you as a blessing, may prove to you to be a curse. For if, because ye have the gift of tongues, ye will choose for your own aggrandizement to use them in the public congregation where pone understands them, God may curse your blessings. Prophesying] Teaching the things of God in a known language is of infinitely more consequence than speaking in all the foreign tongues in the uni verse. Verse 23. Will they not say that ye are mad?] So they well might, finding a whole assembly of people talking languages which those who had most need of instruction could not understand. Verse 24. But if all prophesy] If all those who teach do it in the tongue which all understand; if an unbeliever, or one who knows nothing of the sacred language, come in and hear things just suited to his own state, he is convicted by all, and he is judged by all. Verse 25. And thus are the secrets of his heart] As these, who were the prophets or teachers, had often the discernment of spirits, they were able in certain rasts, and probably very frequently, to tell a man the secrets of his own heart; and, where this was not directly the case, God often led his ministers to speak those things that were suitable to the case before them, though they themselves had no particular design. The sinner, therefore, convinced that God alone could uncover the secrets of his heart, would be often obliged to fall down on his face, abashed and confounded, and acknowledge that God was truly observed in the worship of God. A. M. 4060. A. D. 56. A. U. C. 809. Anno Imp. Neronis Cæs. 3. 26 How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. d 27 If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course; and let one interpret. 28 But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church; and let him speak to himself, and to God. 29 Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. 30 If any thing be revealed to another that d Ch. xii. 7. 2 Cor. xii. 19. Eph. iv. 12.- Le Ch. xii. 10. among them. This seems to be the plain meaning of the passages before us. Verse 26. How is it every one of you hath a psalm, &c.] Dr. Lightfoot understands this in the following manner: When the congregation came together, some were for spending the time in psalmody; others in explaining particular doctrines; others in reading, praying, or speaking in the Hebrew tongue; others were curious to hear of farther revelations; and others wished to spend the time in the interpretation of what had already been spoken. This may be specious, but to me it is not satisfactory. It seems more likely that, when the whole church came together, among whom there were many persons with extraordinary gifts, each of them wished to put himself forward, and occupy the time and attention of the congregation: hence confusion must necessarily take place, and perhaps not a little contention. This was contrary to that edifying which was the intention of these gifts. Verse 27. Speak in an unknown tongue] The Hebrew, as has already been conjectured. Let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course] Let only two or three in one assembly act in this way, that too much time may not be taken up with one exercise; and let this be done by course, the one after the other, that two may not be speaking at the same time: and let one interpret for all that shall thus speak. Verse 28. But if there be no interpreter] If there be none present who can give the proper sense of this Hebrew reading and speaking, then let him keep silence, and not occupy the time of the church, by speaking in a language which only himself can understand. Verse 29. Let the prophets] Those who have the gift of speaking to men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort, ver. 3. Two or three] As prophesying implied psalmody, teaching, and exhortation, Dr. Lightfoot thinks that the meaning of the place is this: Let one sing who |