Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Corinthians 14:27,28

The maxim πρὸς τ. οἰκοδομὴν κ. τ. λ. is applied to Tongues and Prophecy, as the two main competing gifts: “Whether any one speaks with a tongue (let them speak: sc. λαλείτωσαν) to the number of two (κατὰ δύο), or at the most three” (at one meeting) “fiat per binos, aut ad plurimum ternos” (Bz [2151]). καὶ ἀνὰ μέρος, “and in turn,” idque vicissim (Cv [2152]) not all confusedly speaking at once. Ed [2153] ingeniously renders the κατὰ and ἀνὰ clauses “by two or at most three together, and in turns” (antiphonally), as though the Tongues could be combined in a duet “the beginning of Church music and antiphonal singing amongst Christians”: but this does not comport with the ecstatic nature of the Glossolalia; moreover, the sense thus given to the second clause would be properly expressed by ἐν μέρει, not ἀνὰ μέρος (Hn [2154]). “And let one person interpret”: whether one of the γλωσσολαλοῦντες (1 Corinthians 14:13), or someone else present (ἄλλος, 1 Corinthians 12:10); the use of several interpreters at the same meeting might occasion delay or confusion. “If however there be no interpreter (present), let him (the speaker with the Tongue) keep silence in the Church, but let him talk to himself and to God”: unless his utterance can be translated, he must refrain in public, and be content to enjoy his charism in solitude and in secret converse with God (cf. 1 Corinthians 14:2 ff.); the instruction to “speak in his heart, noiselessly ” (so Cm [2155], Est., Hf [2156]) would be contrary to λαλεῖν, and indeed to the nature of a tongue. “ ᾖ for cl [2157] παρῇ, sit for adsit; cf. Luke 5:17; Iliad ix. 688” (Ed [2158]).

[2151] Beza's Nov. Testamentum: Interpretatio et Annotationes (Cantab., 1642).

[2152] Calvin's In Nov. Testamentum Commentarii.

[2153] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians. 2

[2154] C. F. G. Heinrici's Erklärung der Korintherbriefe (1880), or 1 Korinther in Meyer's krit.-exegetisches Kommentar (1896).

[2155] John Chrysostom's Homiliœ († 407).

[2156] J. C. K. von Hofmann's Die heilige Schrift N.T. untersucht, ii. 2 (2te Auflage, 1874).

[2157] classical.

[2158] T. C. Edwards' Commentary on the First Ep. to the Corinthians. 2

Continues after advertising

BibliaPlus

Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Corinthians 14:27,28

Old Testament

New Testament