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Verse Takeaways
1
Clarity Over Spectacle
Paul uses hyperbole, contrasting 'five understandable words' with 'ten thousand words in a tongue,' to stress a vital principle. Commentators agree that the primary goal of speech in a church gathering is to instruct and build up the community. The Greek word for 'instruct' is the root of 'catechize,' emphasizing clear, foundational teaching over impressive but incomprehensible displays.
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Book Overview
1 Corinthians
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Commentaries
7
Albert Barnes
On 1 Corinthians 14:19
18th Century
Theologian
Yet in the church. In the Christian assembly. The word church does not refer to the edifice where Christians worshipped,…
AT Robertson
On 1 Corinthians 14:19
Howbeit in church (αλλα εν εκκλησια). Private ecstasy is one thing (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:1–9) but not in church worshi…
Charles Ellicott
On 1 Corinthians 14:18–19
19th Century
Bishop
I thank my God.—Here the Apostle resumes in the first person, coming back, after the parenthesis, to the continua…
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Expositor's Bible Commentary
On 1 Corinthians 14:19
Having said that he has the ability to speak in foreign tongues more than all of them (an ability he could properly use), Paul hastens to add he wo…
John Calvin
On 1 Corinthians 14:19
16th Century
Theologian
I would rather speak five words. This is spoken hyperbolically, unless you understand five words, as meaning five se…
John Gill
On 1 Corinthians 14:19
17th Century
Pastor
Yet in the church I had rather speak five words
Referring not to the five books of Moses, as Jerom suggests, and muc…
Matthew Henry
On 1 Corinthians 14:15–25
17th Century
Minister
There can be no agreement with prayers that are not understood. A truly Christian minister will seek much more to do spiritual good to people's sou…