1 Corinthians 14:10-11

“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 force of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.”

The asyndeton here denotes, as it almost always does a strong reaffirmation of the foregoing idea. 1 Corinthians 14:10-11 indeed confirm by a new example the proof given in 1 Corinthians 14:7-9. By the expression: kinds of tongues (voices), the apostle certainly does not understand what we call families of human languages; every existing language is in his view a kind. These languages are exceedingly many: τοσαῦτα, so numerous. But the exact number he does not know; the expression εἰ τύχοι, with names of number, has the force of taking away from them all precision. Edwards: “whatever may be their number.”

The pronoun αὐτῶν, of them, is a gloss, but a correct gloss. We must beware of understanding οὐδέν in the sense of no human being (Bleek) or no nation (van Hengel), as if Paul meant: “No man or no people is without language.” This idea would be unconnected with the context. The meaning is: “No language exists without articulate words.” Only the apostle expresses this idea in a striking form, saying, in a manner: “No tongue is not a tongue” (Aucune langue n'est une non-langue). The articulation of words and syllables belongs to the essence of human tongues. The Greeks are found of such paradoxical expressions; comp. βίος ἀβίωτος, a life which is no life; ἄχαρις χάρις, etc. (see Heinrici). The force here denotes the signification of the sounds.

The Greeks and Egyptians called those peoples barbarians who did not speak their language.

The ἐν ἐμοί might certainly signify: in my judgment (Heinrici, Edwards); but according to the context the meaning rather is: in what concerns me; as between this man and me.

The application of this example is given in 1 Corinthians 14:12, in the form of a practical direction: