1 Corinthians 14:7-17 | |
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 what is piped or harped? | 7. Quin et inanimia vocem reddentia, sive tibia, sive cithara, nisi distinctionem sonis dederint: quomodo cognoscetur, quod tibia canitur aut cithara? |
8. For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? | 8. Etenim si incertam vocem tuba dederit, quis apparabitur ad bellum? |
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. | 9. Sic et vos per linguam, nisi significantem sermonem dederitis: quomodo intelligetur quod dicitur? eritis enim in aerem loquentes. |
10. There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. | 10. Tam multa, verbi gratia, genera vocum sunt in mundo, et nihil horum mutum. |
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. | 11. Itaque si nesciero vim voeis, ero ei qui loquitur, barbarus: et qui loquitur, apud me barbarus. |
12. Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. | 12. Itaque et vos, quandoquidem sectatores estis spirituum, ad aedificationera Ecclesiae quaeerite, ut excellatis. |
13. Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. | 13. Quapropter qui loquitur lingua, oret ut interpretetur. |
14. For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. | 14. Nam si orem lingua, spiritus meus orat, mens autem mea fructu caret. |
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 sing with the understanding also. | 15. Quid igitur est? orabo spiritu, sed orabo et mente: canam spiritu, sed canam et mente. |
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? | 16. Alioqui si benedixeris spiritu, is qui implet locum idiotae, quomodo dicturus est Amen ad tuam gratiarum actionem? quandoquidem quid dicas, nescit. |
17. For thou verily givest thanks well, but the other is not edified. | 17. Nam tu quidem bene gratias agis, sed alius non aedificatur. |
7.
We must not, however, enter here upon any minute discussion as to musical harmonies, inasmuch as Paul has merely taken what. is commonly understood; as, for example, the sound of the trumpet,3 of which he speaks shortly afterwards; for it is so much calculated to raise the spirits, that it rouses up -- not only men, but even horses. Hence it is related in historical records, that the Lacedemonians, when joining battle, preferred the use of the flute,4 lest the army should, at the first charge, rush forward upon the enemy with too keen an onset.5 In fine, we all know by experience what power music has in exciting men's feelings, so that Plato affirms, and not without good reason, that music has very much effect in influencing, in one way or another, the manners of a state. To speak into the air is to beat the air (1 Corinthians 9:26) to no purpose. "Thy voice will not reach either God or man, but will vanish into air."
10.
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12.
The term
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The meaning of the term
But here a new question arises; for it is not credible (at least we nowhere read of it) that any spoke under the influence of the Spirit in a language that was to themselves unknown. For the gift of tongues was conferred -- not for the mere purpose of uttering a sound, but, on the contrary, with the view of making a communication. For how ridiculous a thing it would be, that the tongue of a Roman should be framed by the Spirit of God to pronounce Greek words, which were altogether unknown to the speaker, as parrots, magpies, and crows, are taught to mimic human voices! If, on the other hand, the man who was endowed with the gift of tongues, did not speak without sense and understanding, Paul would have had no occasion to say, that
I answer, that Paul here, for the sake of illustration, makes a supposition, that had no reality, in this way: "If the gift of tongues be disjoined from the understanding, so that lie who speaks is a
Let us take notice, that Paul reckons it a great fault if the mind is not occupied in prayer. And no wonder; for what else do we in prayer, but pour out our thoughts and desires before God? Farther, as prayer is the spiritual worship of God, what is more at variance with the nature of it, than that it should proceed merely from the lips, and not from the inmost soul? And these things must have been perfectly familiar to every mind, had not the devil besotted the world to such a degree, as to make men believe that they pray aright, when they merely make their lips move. So obstinate, too, are Papists in their madness, that they do not merely justify the making of prayers without understanding, but even prefer that the unlearned should mutter in unknown mumblings.17 Meanwhile they mock God by an acute sophism18 -- that the final intention is enough, or, in other words, that it is an acceptable service to God, if a Spaniard curses God in the German language, while in his mind he is tossed with various profane cares, provided only he shall, by setting himself to his form of prayer, make up matters with God by means of a thought that quickly vanishes.19
15.
When he says, I
16.
Paul's expression, however, intimates,23 that some one of the ministers uttered or pronounced prayers in a distinct voice, and that the whole assembly followed in their minds the words of that one person, until he had come to a close, and then they all said
Papists, on the other hand, reckon that to be a sacred and legitimate observance, which Paul so decidedly rejects. In this they discover an amazing impudence. Nay more, this is a clear token from which we learn how grievously, and with what unbridled liberty, Satan rages in the dogmas of Popery.28 For what can be clearer than those words of Paul -- than an
1 "C'est a dire, pour signifier quelque chose;" -- "That is to say, for signifying something."
2 "Sans mesure ou distinction;" -- "Without measure or distinction."
3 "It is well known that trumpets were exclusively employed in almost all ancient armies, for the purpose of directing the movements of the soldiers, and of informing them what they were to do -- as when to attack, advance, or retreat. This was the custom in even the most early Jewish armies, as the Law directed two silver trumpets to be made for the purpose. (Numbers 10:1, 2, 9.) Of course, a distinction of tones was necessary, to express the various intimations which were in this manner conveyed; and if the trumpeter did not give the proper intonation, the soldiers could not tell how to act, or were in danger, from misconception, of acting wrongly." Illustrated Commentary. -- Ed.
4 "Ils vsoyent plustost de fluste, que de trompette;" -- "They used the flute, rather than the trumpet."
5 The use of the flute on such occasions by the Lacedemonians, is supposed by Valerius Maximus to have "been intended to raise the courage of the soldiers, that they might begin the onset with greater violence and fury;" but the reason stated by Calvin accords with the account given of it by Thucydides (with whom the rest of the ancient historians agree) -- that it was designed to "render them cool and sedate -- trumpets and other instruments being more proper to inspire with heat and rage;" which passions they thought were "fitted rather to beget disorder and confilsion, than to produce any noble and memorable actions -- valor not being the effect of a sudden and vanishing transport, but proceeding from a settled and habitual firmness and constancy of mind." Potter's Gr. Ant. volume 2. -- Ed.
6 "That in this passage," says Dr. Henderson, "
7 "C'est a dire, nous monstre aucunement qu'il faut parler en sorte que nous soyons entendus;" -- "That is to say, it shows us, in a manner, that we must speak so as to be understood."
8 "The Greeks, after the custom of the Egyptians, mentioned by; Herodotus, (lib. 2,)called all those barbarians who did not speak their language. process of time, however, the Romans haaving subdued the Greeks, delivered themselves by the force of arms from that opprobrious appellation; and joined the Greeks in calling all barbarians who did not speak either the Greek or the Latin language. Afterwards, barbarian signified any one who spoke a language which another did not understand. Thus the Scythian philosopher, Anacharsis, said, that among the Athenians the Scythians were barbarians; and among the Scythians the Athenians were barbarians. In like manner Ovid. Trist. 5. 10, 'Barbarus hic ego sum, quia non intelligor ulli;' -- 'I am a barbarian here, because I am not understood by any one.' This is the sense which the Apostle affixes to the word barbarian, in the present passage. M'Knight. -- Ed.
9 "La langue doit estre comme vn image, pour expimer et representer ce qui est en l'entendement;" -- "The tongue should be like an image, to express and represent what is in the understanding."
10 He considers the term
11 "Les dons spirituels, il y a mot a mot, les esprits;" -- "Spiritual gifts -- it is literally, spirits."
12 "De parler a ostentation;" -- "From speaking for ostentation's sake."
13 "What is it," says Witsius, (in his "Sacred Dissertations,") to pray with the tongue? with the spirit? with the mind? (1 Corinthians 14:14, 15.) The tongue means here a language unknown to others, and employed by one who is endowed with a supernatural gift of the Holy Spirit. To pray with the tongue, is to pray in a language unknown to others; as, for instance, to pray in the Hebrew language in presence of Greeks. In that sense he had said, (1 Corinthians 14:2,) 'He that speaketh with the tongue, speaketh not unto men, but unto God; for no man understandeth him;' that is, he who speaks in a foreign tongue, the knowledge of which he has acquired by an extraordinary gift of the Spirit, has God only for a witness. He cannot reckon as his witnesses, or as persons aware of what he is doing, those who are ignorant of the language, and to whose edification he has contributed little or nothing. The spirit means here that extraordinary gift, by which a man is led to act in a certain way, accompanied by almost ecstatic emotions, so that sometimes he is neither aware what he says, nor do others understand what he means. To pray with the Spirit, is to pray in such a manner as to show that you feel the presence of an extraordinary gift of the Spirit, which moves and hurries you along, in a powerful manner, to those actions which excite astonishment.
14 "Que c'est que prier de langue, (car il y a ainsi mot a mot, la ou nous traduisons Prier en langage. incognu);" -- "What it is to pray in a tongue, for such is the literal meamng, where we render it -- to pray in an unknown language. Wilclif (1380) gives the hteral rendering -- For if I preie in tunge. Tyndale, (1534,) If I pray with tonges. Cranmer, (1539,) For if I praye with tongue. Rheims, (1582,) For if I pray with the tongue. -- Ed.
15 "Quel danger il y a, quand on abuse;" -- "What danger there is, when one abuses."
16 "What the Apostle means by
17 "Mais qui plus est, aiment mieux que les idiots et ignorans barbotent des patinostres en langage qui leur est incognu;" -- "But, what is more, they like better that unlearned and ignorant persons should mutter over paternosters in a language which they do not understand."
18 "Ils ont vne solution bien aigue et peremptoire;" -- "They have a very acute and peremptory solution."
19 "Vne pensee esuanouissante en l'air, qu'ils appellent Intention finale;" -- "A thought vanishing into air, which they call final Intention."
20 "Que ne soit point sans intelligence;" -- "That it be not without understanding."
21 The original word is
22 Pliny's letter, referred to by Calvin, (written A.D. 107,) is given at full length (as translated by Dr. Lardner) in Horne's Introduction, volume 1. -- Ed.
23 "Signifie et presuppose;" -- "Intimates and presupposes."
24 "'Amen,' or ' So be it,' was, among the Jews, used by the congregation at the end of a prayer or blessing, to denote their assent to, or appropriation of, that which one person had pronounced. Many instances of this practice occur in the Old Testament. From the Jewish Synagogue this, with many other customs of worship, passed to the Christian Church, in which it is still generally retained. Justin Martyr particularly notices the unanimous and loud 'Amen' at the conclusion of the Lord's Supper, observing, that when the minister had finished the prayer and the thanksgiving, all the people present, with a joyful exclamation, said ' Amen.' -- ( Apol. volume 2..)" llustrated Commentary. -- Ed.
25 The word to which Calvin. refers is
26 "Confirmation et approbation;" -- "Confirmation and approbation."
27 "Amen," says Witsius, in his Dissertations on the Lord's Prayer, "is a Hebrew particle, expressive both of strong affection and of ardent desire. Luther, with his wonted liveliness of manner, wrote to Melancthon in the following terms: -- 'I pray for you, I have prayed, and I will pray, and I have no doubt I shall be heard, for I feel the Amen in my heart.'" -- Biblical Cabinet, volume 24. -- Ed.
28 "Par lequel nous voyons comment Satan a tenu ses rangs, et domine en la Papaute furieusement, et d'une license merueilleusement desbordee;" -- "From which we see how Satan has maintained his place, and has ruled in Popery with fury, and with a liberty amazingly reckless."