1 Corinthians 14:18-25 | |
18. I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all: | 18. Gratias ago Deo meo, quod magis quam vos omnes linguis loquor: |
19. Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue. | 19. Sed in Ecclesia volo quinque verba mente mea loqui, ut et alios instituam, potius quam decem millia verborum, lingua. |
20. Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men. | 20. Fratres, ne sitis pueri sensibus, sed malitia pueri sitis: sensibus vero sitis perfecti. |
21. In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord. | 21. In lege scriptum est: (Ies. 28:11,12:) Alienis linguis et labiis alienis loquar populo huic: et ne sic quidem audient me, dicit Dominus. |
22. Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but propheying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe. | 22. Itaque linguae signi vice sunt, non iis qui credunt, sed ineredulis: contra prophetia non incredulis, sed s credentibus. |
23. If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad? | 23. Ergo si convenerit Ecclesia tota simul, et omnes linguis loquantur, ingrediantur autem indocti aut increduli, nonne dicent vos insanire? |
24. But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: | 24. Quodsi omnes prophetent, ingrediatur autem ineredulus aut indoctus, coarguitur ab omnibus, diiudieatur ab omnibus, |
25. And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth. | 25. Et sic occulta cordis eius manifesta fiunt; atque ita procidens in faciem, adorabit Deum, renuntians, quod Deus revera in vobis sit. |
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In that chapter the Prophet, inveighs with severity against the ten tribes, which had abandoned themselves to every kind of wickedness. The only consolation is, that God had still a people uncorrupted in the tribe of Judah; but straightway he deplores the corruption of that tribe also; and he does so the more sharply, because there was no hope of amendment. For thus he speaks in the name of God --
It is added --
It is added still farther -- He
Farther, lest the Corinthians should say in reply, that to be spiritually children, is elsewhere commended, (Matthew 18:4,) Paul anticipates this objection, and exhorts them, indeed, to be children in malice, but to beware of being
22.
Taking it in a general way, the meaning will be "
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Here Chrysostom starts a question' "If
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We shall find it, however, much easier to understand this passage, if we compare it with another that occurs in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 4:12.)
The Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword; piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow -- a discerner of the thoughts of the heart.9
For in both passages, it is the same kind of efficacy of the Word of God that is spoken of: only in that other passage it is spoken of more fully and distinctly. So far as the passage before us is concerned, it is not difficult to understand now, what is meant by being convinced and judged. The consciences of men are in a torpid state,10 and are not touched with any feeling of dissatisfaction on account of their sins, so long as they are enveloped in the darkness of ignorance. In short, unbelief is like a lethargy that takes away feeling. But the Word of God penetrates even to the farthest recesses of the mind, and by introducing, as it were, a light, dispels darkness, and drives away that deadly torpor. Thus, then, unbelievers are convinced, inasmuch as they are seriously affected and alarmed, on coming to know that they have to do with God; and, in like manner, they are judged in this respect, that whereas they were previously involved in darkness, and did not perceive their own wretchedness and baseness, they are now brought into the light of day, and are constrained to bear witness against themselves.
When he says, that they are judged and convinced by all, you must understand him as meaning
The Spirit, when he is come, will convince the world of sin,
(John 16:8;)
and this is what he immediately adds -- that
Here again Chrysostom asks, how it comes to pass that prophecy is so effectual for arousing unbelievers, while Paul had said a little before that it was not given to them. He answers, that it was not given to them as a useless sign, but for the purpose of instructing them. For my part, however, I think that it will be simpler, and therefore more suitable, to say that it was not given to unbelievers, who perish, whose hearts
Satan has blinded, that they may not see the light which shines forth from it. (2 Corinthians 4:3, 4.)
It will also suit better to connect this statement with the prophecy12 of Isaiah (Isaiah 28:11,12,) because the Prophet speaks of unbelievers, among whom prophecy is of no profit or advantage.
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1 Mimetice. Our author has here evidently in his eye the Greek adverb,
2 "Or le Prophete signifie;" -- "Now the Prophet means."
3 "It is written in the law. 'In the law,' that is, in the Scripture, in opposition to the words of the Scribes; for that distinction was very usual in the schools. 'This we learn out of the law, and this from the words of the Scribes. The words of the law (that is, of the Scripture) have no need of confirmation, but the words of the Scribes have need of confirmation.' The former Prophets, and the latter, and the Hagiographa, are each styled by the name of the law." Lightjbot. -- Ed.
4 Henderson on Isaiah, when commenting on the passage here quoted by the Apostle, (Isaiah 28:9-11,) observes, that it "contains the taunting language of the drunken priests and judges of the Jews, who repel with scorn the idea that they should require the plain and reiterated lessons which Jehovah taught by his messengers. Such elementary instruction was fit" (in their view) "only for babes: it was an insult to their understanding to suppose that they stood in need of it. The language of verse 10" (precept pon, precept, etc.) "more resembles that of inebriated persons, than any used by persons in a state of sobriety. The words are obviously selected to suit the character of those supposed to employ them; and, by their monosyllabic and repetitious forms, admirably express the initiatory process of tuition which they indignantly despise. 13-24The language they employed in caviling at the Prophetic warnings was all but barbarous: it consisted of barely intelligible sounds: they should, by way of condign punishment, hear the foreign, and to them apparently mocking accents of the Chaldeans, whom God would employ as the interpreters of his severe but righteous will. The passage is employed by Paul (1 Corinthians 14:20, 21) quite in the spirit of the connection in which it here stands. He tacitly compares the Corinthian faction, which boasted of the faculty of speaking in unknown tongues, to the puerile characters adverted to, 1 Corinthians 14:9, (
5 "En ignorance et bestise" -- "In ignorance and stupidity."
6 Calvin makes a similar observation when commenting on Ephesians 4:14. "Nam postquam Christo nati sumus, debemus adolescere, ita ut non simus intelligentia pueri. Hine apparet, qualis sub Papatu sit Christianismus, ubi, quam diligentissime possunt, in hoc laborant pastores, ut plebem in prima infantia detineant;" -- "For after being born to Christ, we ought to grow, and not to be children in understanding. (1 Corinthians 14:20.) Hence it appears what sort of Christianity there is in connection with Popery, in which the pastors labor as strenuously as they can to keep the people in infancy." -- Ed.
7 "Le sot abus de ce don, quand on le met en auant sans raison et consideration;" -- "The foolish abuse of this gift, when they bring it forward without, reason and consideration."
8 "En ceste faqon de faire;" -- "In this manner of acting."
9 "Des pensees et intentions du coeur;" -- "Of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
10 "Elles sont comme endormies et stupides;" "They are, as it were, drowsy and stupid."
11 "Afin de monstrer qu'il ne se faut point lasser de la prophetic;" -- "In order to show that they ought not to entertain a feeling of dislike for prophecy."
12 The reader will observe that this is the prophecy to which the Apostle refers in 1 Corinthians 14:2l. -- Ed.