John Calvin Commentary 1 Corinthians 14:16

"Else if thou bless with the spirit, how shall he that filleth the place of the unlearned say the Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he knoweth not what thou sayest?" — 1 Corinthians 14:16 (ASV)

Else, if you will bless with the spirit. Until now he has been showing that the prayers of every one of us will be vain and unfruitful if the understanding does not go along with the voice. He now comes to speak of public prayers also. “If he who frames or utters prayers in the name of the people is not understood by the assembly, how will the common people add an expression of their desires at the end, so as to take part in them? For there is no fellowship in prayer, unless when all with one mind unite in the same desires. The same remark applies to blessing, or giving thanks to God.”

Paul’s expression, however, intimates that one of the ministers uttered or pronounced prayers in a distinct voice, and that the whole assembly followed in their minds the words of that one person, until he had come to a close, and then they all said Amen — to intimate that the prayer offered up by that one person was that of all of them in common.

It is known that Amen is a Hebrew word, derived from the same term from which comes the word that signifies faithfulness or truth. It is, accordingly, a sign of confirmation, both in solemn affirmations and in expressions of desire. Furthermore, as the word was, from long use, familiar among the Jews, it made its way from them to the Gentiles, and the Greeks made use of it as if it had belonged originally to their own language.

Hence it came to be a term in common use among all nations. Now Paul says — “If in public prayer you make use of a foreign tongue that is not understood by the unlearned and the common people among whom you speak, there will be no fellowship, and your prayer or blessing will be no longer a public one.” “Why?” “No one,” says he, “can add his Amen to your prayer or psalm, if he does not understand it.”

Papists, on the other hand, consider that to be a sacred and legitimate observance, which Paul so decidedly rejects. In this they display an amazing impudence. Moreover, this is a clear sign from which we learn how grievously, and with what unbridled liberty, Satan rages in the dogmas of Popery.

For what can be clearer than those words of Paul—that an unlearned person cannot take any part in public prayer if he does not understand what is said? What can be plainer than this prohibition — “let not prayers or thanksgivings be offered up in public, except in the vernacular tongue.” In doing every day what Paul says should not, or even cannot, be done, do they not consider him to be illiterate?

In observing with the utmost strictness what he forbids, do they not deliberately despise God? We see, then, how Satan revels among them with impunity. Their diabolical obstinacy shows itself in this — that, when admonished, they are so far from repenting, that they defend this gross abuse by fire and sword.