1 Corinthians 14:6

“But now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking in tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you either in revelation, or in knowledge, or in prophesying, or in doctrine?”

The first example Paul offers to the Corinthians is that of his own person; they all knew what power his presence in a Church exercised; many of them promised themselves considerable edification from the visit he announced to them. Well! there was a way of making this visit utterly useless: in place of prophesying and teaching, let him set himself to play among them the part of glossolalete; and if this holds in Paul's case, how much more in all others!

The δέ is adversative; it contrasts the glossolalia without translation, which Paul by hypothesis ascribes to himself in 1 Corinthians 14:6, with glossolalia with interpretation in 1 Corinthians 14:5 b.

Νυνί, now: “things being so.” Hofmann gives this word the temporal meaning: “If I come now among you;” but this connection of νυνί with ἔλθω is forced.

By the address brethren, he appeals to their good sense. Meyer thinks that the second ἐάν, if [ἐὰν μή, if not = except], is subordinate to the first, and that the speaking, referred to at the close of the verse, relates to the interpreting of the discourse in a tongue, so that the meaning of the verse would amount to this: “Wherein shall I be useful to you if I speak to you in a tongue, but without giving an interpretation in the form either of prophecy, or doctrine, of what I at first said in an unintelligible form?” This meaning is inadmissible; for nowhere are prophecy and doctrine represented by Paul as the interpretation of a tongue. The meaning is this: “Wherein should I be useful to you if I figured among you only as one speaking in tongues, and not besides as prophet or teacher?” Of course he speaks of glossolalia in itself and apart from interpretation.

The four terms at the end of the verse evidently form two parallel pairs. On the one hand: revelation and knowledge these are inward Divine gifts; on the other: prophecy and doctrine these are the external manifestations of the twofold Divine communication: revelation expressing itself in prophecy, and knowledge in doctrine. Revelation, which makes the prophet, is a sudden and lively perception, produced by the Spirit's operation, of some aspect of the Divine mystery, the work of salvation; this view, immediately expressed in its first freshness, forms prophecy (1 Corinthians 14:27). Knowledge is the result of an exercise of thought directed by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:8: κατά, according to), which leads to the distinct understanding of some element of salvation and of its relation to all the rest; this knowledge is expressed in a doctrinal discourse. In the two first terms, the meaning of the ἐν, in, is therefore this: “a speaking resting on a revelation, on an act of knowledge,” and, in the two last terms: “a speaking taking effect by a prophecy, by a doctrine.” Heinrici's objections to this double correlation of the four terms: revelation, prophecy, knowledge, doctrine, seem to me without force. Modern commentators are unanimous in recognising it.

To this decisive example, the apostle adds others, taken from ordinary life. And first he instances musical instruments: