Vincent's Word Studies in the NT

1 Thessalonians 5:20

Prophesyings [π ρ ο φ η τ ε ι α ς]. The emphasis on prophesyings corresponds with that in 1 Corinthians 14:1-5; 1 Corinthians 14:22 ff. Prophecy in the apostolic church was directly inspired instruction, exhortation, or warning. The prophet received the truth into his own spirit which was withdrawn from earthly things and concentrated upon the spiritual world. His higher, spiritual part [π ν ε υ μ α], and his moral intelligence [ν ο υ ς], and his speech [λ ο γ ο ς] worked in harmony. His spirit received a spiritual truth in symbol : his understanding interpreted it in its application to actual events, and his speech uttered the interpretation. He was not ecstatically rapt out of the sphere of human intelligence, although his understanding was intensified and clarified by the phenomenal action of the Spirit upon it. This double action imparted a peculiarly elevated character to his speech. The prophetic influence was thus distinguished from the mystical ecstasy, the ecstasy of Paul when rapt into the third heaven, which affected the subject alone and was incommunicable (2 Corinthians 12:1-4). The gift of tongues carried the subject out of the prophetic condition in which spirit, understanding, and speech operated in concert, and into a condition in which the understanding was overpowered by the communication to the spirit, so that the spirit could not find its natural expression in rational speech, or speech begotten of the understanding, and found supernatural expression in a tongue created by the Spirit. Paul attached great value to prophecy. He places prophets next after apostles in the list of those whom God has set in the Church (1 Corinthians 12:28). He associates apostles and prophets as the foundation of the Church (Ephesians 2:20). He assigns to prophecy the precedence among spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 14:1-5), and urges his readers to desire the gift (1 Corinthians 14:1; 1 Corinthians 14:39). Hence his exhortation here.

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Vincent's Word Studies in the NT

1 Thessalonians 5:20

Old Testament

New Testament