Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 14:18
I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:
18. I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than you all ] St Paul, no doubt, had the gift of interpretation. Yet apparently he did not often exercise in public, whatever he may have done in private, the gift of speaking with tongues unknown to his hearers. See next verse.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I thank my God – Paul here shows that he did not undervalue or despise the power of speaking foreign languages. It was with him a subject of thanksgiving that he could speak so many; but he felt that there were more valuable endowments than this; see the next verse.
With tongues more than ye all – I am able to speak more foreign languages than all of you. How many languages Paul could speak, he has no where told us. It is reasonable, however, to presume that he was able to speak the language of any people to whom God in his providence, and by his Spirit, called him to preach. He had been commissioned to preach to the Gentiles, and it is probable that he was able to speak the languages of all the nations among whom he ever traveled. There is no account of his being under a necessity of employing an interpreter wherever he preached.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Our Saviour, in the parable of the good shepherd, gives us this as his character, that the sheep hear his voice, and follow him, Joh 10:4; and we shall observe this great apostle every where propounding himself for imitation to them. They are bad shepherds over Gods flock, that must only be heard, but not followed. The apostle lets them know, that God had not left him without the gift of speaking with divers tongues, nay, he had it in a more eminent manner than them all; put them all together, they could not speak with so many tongues as he did.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
18. tonguesThe oldestmanuscripts have the singular, “in a tongue [foreign].”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than you all. This the apostle says, to observe to them that he did not despise speaking with tongues: nor did he endeavour to beat them off, and dissuade them from desiring them, or envied their having them, because he was destitute of them himself; for he had this gift in a very eminent manner, and oftentimes made use of it, and was frequently under a necessity of so doing; he could speak with more tongues than any of those that had them, and spoke them oftener than they did; having occasion for them through his travelling into different countries, and preaching the Gospel to people of divers languages; and this he mentions also not in a boasting manner, but in great humility, giving thanks to God, and acknowledging him to be the author of this gift.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
More than you all ( ). Ablative case after . Astonishing claim by Paul that doubtless had a fine effect.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “I thank my God,” (eucharisto to theo) “I give or offer thanks to God.” Paul used himself as an example for the brethren to follow in this matter of the charismatic desire and use of the gifts of tongues and prophecy. 1Co 9:22-27.
2) “I speak with tongues more than ye all:” (panton humon mallon glossais lalo) ‘I speak in tongues more than all of you all.” Rather than speak lightly of tongues or languages, Paul exalts or glories in them. As a learned scholar and international traveler he could speak five languages, plus any special charismatic one.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
18. I thank, etc. As there are many that detract from another’s excellencies, in which they cannot themselves have distinction, Paul, that he might not seem to depreciate, through malignity or envy, the gift of tongues, anticipates that suspicion, by showing that he is, in this respect, superior to them all. “See,” says he, “how little occasion you have to suspect the design of my discourse, as if I depreciated what I myself lacked; for if we were to contend as to tongues, there is not one of you that could bear comparison with me. While, however, I might display myself to advantage in this department., I am more concerned for edification.” Paul’s doctrine derives no small weight from the circumstance, that he has not an eye to himself. Lest, however, he should appear excessively arrogant, in preferring himself before all others, he ascribes it all to God. Thus he tempers his boasting with modesty.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(18, 19) I thank my God.Here the Apostle resumes in the first person, coming back, after the parenthesis, to the continuation of his own desire and example. He does not undervalue that gift the misuse and exaggeration of which he is censuring; he possesses it himself in a remarkable degree; yet in the Church (i.e., in any assembly of Christians for prayer or instruction) he would prefer to speak five words with his mind rather than ten thousand with a tongue only; for the object of such assemblies is not private prayer or private ecstatic communion with God, but the edification of others. The word used for teach in this verse is literally our word catechise.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
18. Thank God Paul here indicates, 1. That the charism of tongues was a gift to be thankful for; 2. Calls to mind, in a manner implying that the Corinthians would not deny, the affluence of his gifts; 3. Implies that he not only possessed, but used, the power in actual exercise; 4. That, therefore, he assigned tongues a subordinate place from no envy to those displaying them; and, 5. Prepares by all this for his decisive sentence next to be uttered against the use of tongues uninterpreted.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘I thank God, I speak with tongues more than you all. Howbeit in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.’
He sums up the point from his own example. It is not that he is against tongues, in fact he uses them frequently. Indeed he can thank God that he is sure that he speaks with tongues more than all of them. (So let them not think that they are so very special).
But in the church he would prefer to speak only five intelligible words in order to instruct others than to speak ten thousand words in a tongue which is not understood Thus he follows his own guidance.
(These words in fact throw a great light on Paul’s prayer life. This confidence must arise because of the hours he spent in private prayer. He was clearly certain that it was more than those Corinthians who thought themselves ‘ultra-spiritual’. And as he also prayed equally as much with the understanding it demonstrated how much he prayed, although he does not point the fact out specifically. He leaves them to infer it).
We note from this that he considers that genuine tongues are composed of words, and thus are languages of a kind. And the previous verse has suggested that a main use of tongues is thanksgiving, so that we are beginning to get some idea of what tongues are.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Co 14:18. I speak with tongues more, &c. The occasion shews, that the Apostle considered this acquirement as a spiritual gift; and his using the present time shews that he spoke of it as then in his possession. But why did he speak with more tongues than all of them?For a good reason: he was the peculiar Apostle of the Gentiles, and was to preach the gospel among remote and barbarous nations. See 1Co 14:4.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Co 14:18-19 . Confirmation by the apostle’s own example of what has been said against the public speaking with tongues.
I thank God, more than you all speak I with the tongue , in a higher degree than you all I have this charisma. Such direct modes of expression, instead of a connecting , occur likewise in Greek writers; see Stallbaum, ad Gorg . p. 460 A; Hartung, Partikell . II. p. 134; Khner, 760 a. Even the Recepta would have to be taken as stating the ground of the . (comp. 1Co 11:29 ; Act 4:21 , al. ), not, with Reiche (whom Hofmann follows in his explanation of this reading, which, however, he rightly rejects), as referring to the manner of it (I make more frequently and more fervently than any of you thanksgiving-prayers in glossolalia to God). There would thus result a declaration, the tenor of which hardly suits the character of the apostle, as indeed such an unconditionally expressed assertion could not be upheld by him. can only denote the greater measure of the endowment ; see already in Chrysosto.
.] in the assembled church , opposite of private devotio.
] The preferential will (malle) is implied in the logical relation of the relative verbal notion to the particle, without there being any need of supplying . See Hartung, II. p. 72; Klotz, ad Devar. p. 589 f.; Baeumlein, Partik. p. 136.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
18 I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:
Ver. 18. I thank my God, &c. ] Skill in tongues is, as now, a great blessing. Indeed at first when men began , to fight against God, they were compelled , to babble in divers languages, 72, as Epiphanius affirmeth. But God hath turned this curse into a blessing unto his people, Act 2:4-13 , and as in the first plantation of the gospel, so in the late reformation; God sent it before, as his munition to batter the forts of Antichrist, who had banished arts and languages, overspreading all with barbarism and atheism. Graece nosse suspectum erat. Hebraice fere haereticum.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
18, 19. ] Declaration of his own feeling on the matter, highly endowed as he was with the gift . I thank God, I speak with a tongue (have the gift of speaking with tongues) more than you all . This juxtaposition of two clauses, between which ‘ that ’ is to be supplied in the sense, is not unusual: : ‘fac videas,’ Eur. Hippol. 567, , . Hom. Od. . 195, , . See Hartung, Partikell. ii. p. 134.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Co 14:18-19 . Again ( cf. 6, 1Co 4:6 ; 1Co 4:9 ) the Ap. uses himself for an instance in point. Even at Cor [2105] , where this charism was abundant, no one “speaks with tongues” (mark the pl [2106] ) so largely as P. does on occasion; far from thinking lightly of the gift, he “thanks God” that he excels in it. 2Co 5:13 ; 2Co 12:1-4 show that P. was rich in ecstatic experiences; cf. Gal 2:2 , Act 9:12 ; Act 16:9 ; Act 22:17 ; Act 27:23 f., etc. The omission of after is exceptional, but scarcely irregular; it belongs to conversational liveliness, and occurs occasionally after a number of the verba declarandi in cl [2107] Gr [2108] : cf. note on . . ., 1Co 4:9 ; and see Wr [2109] , p. 683. The Vg [2110] , omitting , reads omnium vestrum lingua loquor , making P. thank God that he could speak in every tongue used at Cor [2111] ; Jerome, in his Notes, refers the to the other App ., as though P. exulted in being a better linguist than any of the Twelve! . . .: “but in church-assembly ( cf. note on 1Co 14:4 ) I would (rather) utter five words with my understanding, that I might indeed instruct others, than ten thousand words in a tongue!” contradicts the seeming implication of 1Co 14:18 “but for all that”: one might have supposed that P. would make much of a power in which he excels; on the contrary, he puts it aside and prefers to use every-day speech, as being the more serviceable ; cf. for the sentiment, 1Co 9:19-23 , 2Co 1:24 ; 2Co 4:5 ; 2Co 4:12 ; 2Co 4:15 ; 2Co 11:7 ; 2Co 13:9 , 1Th 2:6 ff. With his Tongue P. might speak in solitude, “to himself and to God” ( 1Co 14:2 ; 1Co 14:28 , 2Co 5:13 ); amongst his brethren, his one thought is, how best to help and benefit them . For in contrast with , see note on 1Co 14:14 ; for its declension, cf. 1Co 1:10 . (see parls.) differs from as it connotes, usually at least, oral impartation (“ut alios voce instituam ,” Bz [2112] ), including here prophecy or doctrine (1Co 14:6 ). On , dispensing with , see parls.; malim quam , Bz [2113] For the rhetorical , cf. 1Co 4:15 .
[2105] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.
[2106] plural.
[2107] classical.
[2108] Greek, or Grotius’ Annotationes in N.T.
[2109]
[2110] Latin Vulgate Translation.
[2111] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.
[2112] Beza’s Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).
[2113] Beza’s Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
thank. Same as “give thanks”, 1Co 14:17.
I speak = speaking (as I do).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
18, 19.] Declaration of his own feeling on the matter, highly endowed as he was with the gift. I thank God, I speak with a tongue (have the gift of speaking with tongues) more than you all. This juxtaposition of two clauses, between which that is to be supplied in the sense, is not unusual: : fac videas,-Eur. Hippol. 567, , . Hom. Od. . 195, , . See Hartung, Partikell. ii. p. 134.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
1Co 14:18. , I give thanks) Paul uses thanksgiving and ,[125] anticipatory precaution against the charge of egotism, when he is to speak his own praises.-, more than you all) more than you individually or even collectively.-, than you) Frequently, those, who are less accomplished are more proud and act with greater insolence.
[125] See Append.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
1Co 14:18
1Co 14:18
I thank God, I speak with tongues more than you all:- Paul as an apostle spoke more languages than all the Corinthians. His travels and labors among so many different peoples made this necessary, and it was with him a subject of thanksgiving that this power had been bestowed upon him.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
1Co 1:4-6, 1Co 4:7
Reciprocal: Act 2:4 – began 1Co 1:14 – thank 1Co 14:4 – edifieth the 2Co 12:12 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Co 14:18. Being an apostle, Paul could speak in a multitude of tongues, which was a necessary qualification for one who was to preach the Gospel in various parts of the world. He was grateful for the gift, but also was considerate of the church in the exercise of it in any established congregation.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
1Co 14:18. I thank God, I speak with tongues more than ye all: yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understandingso as to be understood by others (see on 1Co 14:14).that I might instruct others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
1Co 14:18-19. I thank my God, &c. As if he had said, I do not speak thus of foreign languages because I myself am deficient in them, for I must say, to the glory of that Being from whom all my gifts and talents are derived, I speak with tongues more than you all More than the whole society taken together. The apostle had this great variety of languages given him by inspiration, that he might be able immediately to preach the gospel to all nations, without spending time in learning their languages. But it must be remembered that the knowledge of so many languages miraculously communicated, was a knowledge for common use, such as enabled the apostle to deliver the doctrines of the gospel clearly and properly; and not such a knowledge of these languages as prevented him in speaking and writing from mixing foreign idioms with them, especially the idioms of his mother tongue. An attention to such trifles was below the grandeur and importance of the work in which the apostle was engaged, and tended to no solid use; these foreign idioms being often more expressive and emphatical than the correspondent classical phrases. Macknight. Yet in the church, &c. Yet so far am I from being vain of this gift, that in the church I had rather speak were it only five plain words with my understanding In a rational manner, so as not only to understand myself, but to be understood by others; than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue However sublime and elegant that discourse might be: yea, I had rather be entirely silent in an assembly, than take up their time, and prostitute the extraordinary gifts of God to such a vain and foolish purpose.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Vv. 18, 19. I thank God, I speak in tongues more than ye all; 19. yet in the Church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in tongues.
The apostle means by 1Co 14:18 that he by no means disdains the gift of tongues, so highly prized at Corinth; he even thanks God for having bestowed it on him richly. These words have been understood in two ways; by some: I give thanks, I bless, I adore, in the form of discoursing in tongues, more than you all. In this sense, we should have to prefer the reading , speaking, of the T. R. or that of the Alexandrinus, which simply rejects the word or : I give thanks in tongues, more than you all. But I think it probable that these two poorly supported readings are corrections whereby it has been sought to give the word the same meaning as it had in 1Co 14:17 : to thank God in an ecstatic discourse. The true reading is undoubtedly , I speak. This verb would require in strictness to be connected with the foregoing , I give thanks, by the conjunction , for the fact that (as is the case in the reading of F G); but very often in classical Greek this conjunction is omitted, and the two verbs are simply put in juxtaposition: I give thanks, I speak… for: I give thanks for the fact that I speak. This is probably the true reading. Moreover, this meaning might also be that of the reading .
We must, with the Alex. and Greco-Lats., reject the after , for which there is no sufficient ground in the context.
There is room for hesitation between the plural (tongues) and the singular. Both readings are admissible. But what is inconceivable is, how Meyer in such a passage can still apply the term tongue to the material organ: Paul giving thanks to God because he speaks more than all the Corinthians by means of his tongue! And if we read the plural, then this meaning becomes altogether absurd (comp. 1Co 14:5).
It should be remarked that he does not say: Because I speak in more tongues than you all; as he would require to do if he was thinking of actually existing foreign tongues; but: Because I speak in tongues more than you all. It is a mode of speaking in which he surpasses them all.
Vv. 19. After paying this homage to glossolalia, the apostle consigns this gift to its place. This place is the domain of private edification, not public worship. The emphasis is on the word , in the assembly. The contents of the verse are explained by 1Co 14:4 : He that speaks in tongues edifies himself; but he gives nothing to the Church.
In the reading , the words denote the mental state of the speaker (of sober sense). In the received reading ( ), the , the understanding, comes in as the instrument of assimilation by means of which the intuitions of the prophet and the thoughts suggested to the teacher are conveyed to the Church. The also before signifies: Not only myself, as would be the case with the gift of tongues, but others also.
In the form , the , than, depends on the idea of comparison contained in . Classic Greek thus uses with and (see Edwards). The verb , to make a sound penetrate to the ears of any one, comes thus to signify to instruct, catechise. The term includes the two gifts of prophecy and teaching. The apostle concludes this whole development with a saying intended to lead the imprudent and frivolous Corinthians to serious reflection.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
I thank God, I speak with tongues more than you all:
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
14:18 {8} I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:
(8) He sets himself as an example, both that they may be ashamed of their foolish ambition, and also that he may avoid all suspicion of envy.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Corinthian tongues-enthusiasts could not reject Paul’s instruction because he did not have the gift himself and so failed to appreciate its value. He believed in the validity of the gift but did not value it highly. [Note: See Chadwick, p. 269.] He almost deprecated it. Edifying instruction was 10,000 times more important than personal private exultation for the building up of the church gathered for worship. This is another use of hyperbole, which was common in antiquity. [Note: Keener, p. 114.] The edification (building up) of the body is, of course, God’s great purpose for Christians today (Mat 16:18).
Paul affirmed the gift that the Corinthians apparently regarded as the sign of genuine spirituality, but he did so by correcting their thinking about what was really important in their meetings. Worship should never be selfish, and it should always be intelligible. [Note: Barclay, The Letters . . ., p. 145.]