The Meaning of 1 Corinthians 14:11 Explained

1 Corinthians 14:11

KJV: Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.

YLT: if, then, I do not know the power of the voice, I shall be to him who is speaking a foreigner, and he who is speaking, is to me a foreigner;

Darby: If therefore I do not know the power of the sound, I shall be to him that speaks a barbarian, and he that speaks a barbarian for me.

ASV: If then I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be to him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh will be a barbarian unto me.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Therefore  if  I know  not  the meaning  of the voice,  I shall be  unto him that speaketh  a barbarian,  and  he that speaketh  [shall be] a barbarian  unto  me. 

What does 1 Corinthians 14:11 Mean?

Context Summary

1 Corinthians 14:1-12 - The Gift Of "prophesying"
The word prophesy is used here, as so largely in Scripture, not in the limited sense of foretelling the future, but of pouring forth heaven-given speech. There was a strong tendency at Corinth to magnify the use of tongues; that is, forms of utterance which the assembly could not understand. The Apostle rebukes this, and says that it is far better to be able to speak to the edification of the hearers. Indeed, he directs that speech in an unknown tongue should be withheld, unless someone were present who could explain and interpret it.
The gift of tongues was a special sign intended for the convincing of that age, but it was not a necessary accompaniment of the filling of the Holy Spirit, and is certainly of inferior value. A mere blare of a trumpet, without note or modulation, conveys no meaning to the waiting ranks of soldiers; and the mere sound of an unknown tongue startles without teaching. Do not be content merely to make a sound; say something. Seek to do actual service to others is one of the three directions suggested in 1 Corinthians 14:3. Edification is the building up of the soul in truth. Comfort is for the distressed and weary. Consolation is the heartening of the soul to fresh enterprise. [source]

Chapter Summary: 1 Corinthians 14

1  Prophecy is commended,
2  and preferred before speaking in tongues,
6  by a comparison drawn from musical instruments
12  Both must be referred to edification,
22  as to their true and proper end
26  The true use of each is taught,
27  and the abuse rebuked
34  Women in the churches

Greek Commentary for 1 Corinthians 14:11

The meaning of the voice [την δυναμιν της πωνης]
The power (force) of the voice. [source]
A barbarian [βαρβαρος]
Jargon, βαρβαρ — baṙbar The Egyptians called all βαρβαρους — barbarous who did not speak their tongue. The Greeks followed suit for all ignorant of Greek language and culture. They divided mankind into Hellenes and Barbarians. Unto me (εν εμοι — en emoi). In my case, almost like a dative. [source]
Unto me [εν εμοι]
In my case, almost like a dative. [source]
Meaning [δύναμιν]
Lit., force. [source]
Barbarian []
Supposed to be originally a descriptive word of those who uttered harsh, rude accents - bar bar. Homer calls the Carians, βαρβαρόφωνοι barbar-voicedharsh-speaking (“Illiad,” 2,867). Later, applied to all who did not speak Greek. Socrates, speaking of the way in which the Greeks divide up mankind, says: “Here they cut off the Hellenes as one species, and all the other species of mankind, which are innumerable and have no connection or common language, they include under the single name of barbarians ” (Plato, “Statesman,” 262). So Clytaemnestra of the captive Cassandra: “Like a swallow, endowed with an unintelligible barbaric voice” (Aeschylus, “Agamemnon,” 1051). Prodicus in Plato's “Protagoras” says: “Simonides is twitting Pittacus with ignorance of the use of terms, which, in a Lesbian, who has been accustomed to speak in a barbarous language, is natural” (341). Aristophanes calls the birds barbarians because they sing inarticulately (“Birds,” 199); and Sophocles calls a foreign land ἄγλωσσος withouta tongue. “Neither Hellas nor a tongueless land” (“Trachiniae,” 1060). Later, the word took the sense of outlandish or rude. [source]

Reverse Greek Commentary Search for 1 Corinthians 14:11

Acts 28:2 Barbarous people []
From the Roman point of view, regarding all as barbarians who spoke neither Greek nor Latin. Not necessarily uncivilized. It is equivalent to foreigners. Compare Romans 1:14; 1 Corinthians 14:11. The inhabitants of Malta were of Carthaginian descent. “Even in the present day the natives of Malta have a peculiar language, termed the Maltese, which has been proved to be essentially an Arabic dialect, with an admixture of Italian” (Gloag). [source]
Romans 1:14 Both to Greeks and to Barbarians [ελλησιν τε και βαρβαροις]
The whole human race from the Greek point of view, Jews coming under βαρβαροις — barbarois On this word see note on Acts 28:2, Acts 28:4; note on 1 Corinthians 14:11; and note on Colossians 3:11 (only N.T. instances). The Greeks called all others barbarians and the Jews termed all others Gentiles. Did Paul consider the Romans as Greeks? They had absorbed the Greek language and culture. [source]
1 Corinthians 12:10 Divers kinds of tongues [γένη γλωσσῶν]
I. Passages Relating to the Gift of Tongues. Mark 16:17; Acts href="/desk/?q=ac+10:46&sr=1">Acts 10:46; Acts 19:6; 1 Corinthians 12:10, 1 Corinthians 12:28; 1 Corinthians 13:1; 14. Possibly Ephesians 5:18; 1 Peter 4:11. II. Terms Employed. New tongues (Mark 16:17): other or different tongues ( ἕτεραι , Acts 2:4): kinds ( γένη ) of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:10): simply tongues or tongue ( γλῶσσαι γλῶσσα , Acts href="/desk/?q=ac+2:4&sr=1">Acts 2:4; Acts 10:46; Acts 19:6; 1 Corinthians 14:2, 1 Corinthians 14:4, 1 Corinthians 14:13, 1 Corinthians 14:14, 1 Corinthians 14:19, 1 Corinthians 14:27): to pray in a tongue ( προσεύχεσθαι γλώσσῃ , 1 Corinthians 14:14, 1 Corinthians 14:15), equivalent to praying in the spirit as distinguished from praying with the understanding: tongues of men and angels (1 Corinthians 13:1). -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
III. Recorded Facts in the New Testament. (1.) The first recorded bestowment of the gift was at Pentecost (Acts href="/desk/?q=ac+10:44-46&sr=1">Acts 10:44-46. (3.) Certain disciples at Ephesus, who received the Holy Spirit in the laying on of Paul's hands, spake with tongues and prophesied, Acts 19:6. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
IV. Meaning of the Term “Tongue.” The various explanations are: the tongue alone, inarticulately: rare, provincial, poetic, or archaic words: language or dialect. The last is the correct definition. It does not necessarily mean any of the known languages of men, but may mean the speaker's own tongue, shaped in a peculiar manner by the Spirit's influence; or an entirely new spiritual language. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
V. Nature of the Gift in the Corinthian Church. (1.) The gift itself was identical with that at Pentecost, at Caesarea, and at Ephesus, but differed in its manifestations, in that it required an interpreter. 1 Corinthians 12:10, 1 Corinthians 12:30; 1 Corinthians 14:5, 1 Corinthians 14:13, 1 Corinthians 14:26, 1 Corinthians 14:27. (2.) It was closely connected with prophesying: 1 Corinthians 14:1-6, 1 Corinthians 14:22, 1 Corinthians 14:25; Acts 2:16-18; Acts 19:6. Compare 1 Thessalonians 5:19, 1 Thessalonians 5:20. It was distinguished from prophesying as an inferior gift, 1 Corinthians 14:4, 1 Corinthians 14:5; and as consisting in expressions of praise or devotion rather than of exhortation, warning, or prediction, 1 Corinthians 14:14-16. (3.) It was an ecstatic utterance, unintelligible to the hearers, and requiring interpretation, or a corresponding ecstatic condition on the part of the hearer in order to understand it. It was not for the edification of the hearer but of the speaker, and even the speaker did not always understand it, 1 Corinthians 14:2, 1 Corinthians 14:19. It therefore impressed unchristian bystanders as a barbarous utterance, the effect of madness or drunkenness, Acts 2:13, Acts 2:15; 1 Corinthians 14:11, 1 Corinthians 14:23. Hence it is distinguished from the utterance of the understanding, 1 Corinthians 14:4, 1 Corinthians 14:14-16, 1 Corinthians 14:19, 1 Corinthians 14:27. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
VI. Paul's Estimate of the Gift. He himself was a master of the gift (1 Corinthians 14:18), but he assigned it an inferior position (1 Corinthians 14:4, 1 Corinthians 14:5), and distinctly gave prophesying and speaking with the understanding the preference (1 Corinthians 14:2, 1 Corinthians 14:3, 1 Corinthians 14:5, 1 Corinthians 14:19, 1 Corinthians 14:22). -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
VII. Results and Permanence. Being recognized distinctly as a gift of the Spirit, it must be inferred that it contributed in some way to the edification of the Church; but it led to occasional disorderly outbreaks (1 Corinthians 14:9, 1 Corinthians 14:11, 1 Corinthians 14:17, 1 Corinthians 14:20-23, 1 Corinthians 14:26-28, 1 Corinthians 14:33, 1 Corinthians 14:40). As a fact it soon passed away from the Church. It is not mentioned in the Catholic or Pastoral Epistles. A few allusions to it occur in the writings of the fathers of the second century. Ecstatic conditions and manifestations marked the Montanists at the close of the second century, and an account of such a case, in which a woman was the subject, is given by Tertullian. Similar phenomena have emerged at intervals in various sects, at times of great religious excitement, as among the Camisards in France, the early Quakers and Methodists, and especially the Irvingites. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
[source]

2 Corinthians 12:6 Of me [εις εμε]
To my credit, almost like dative (cf. εν εμοι — en emoi in 1 Corinthians 14:11). [source]
Galatians 1:16 To reveal his Son in me [αποκαλυπσαι τον υιον αυτου εν εμοι]
By “in me” Once (1 Corinthians 14:11) εν εμοι — en emoi is almost equivalent to the dative (to me). On the whole Lightfoot seems correct here in taking it to mean “in my case,” though the following words suit either idea. Certainly Paul could not preach Christ among the Gentiles without the rich inward experience and in the objective vision he was called to that task. [source]
Colossians 3:11 Barbarian, Scythian []
See on 1 Corinthians 14:11. The distinction is from the Greek and Roman point of view, where the line is drawn by culture, as between the Jew and the Greek it was drawn by religious privilege. From the former stand-point the Jew ranked as a barbarian. Scythian. “More barbarous than the barbarians” (Bengel). Hippocrates describes them as widely different from the rest of mankind, and like to nothing but themselves, and gives an absurd description of their physical peculiarities. Herodotus describes them as living in wagons, offering human sacrifices, scalping and sometimes flaying slain enemies, drinking their blood, and using their skulls for drinking-cups. When a king dies, one of his concubines is strangled and buried with him, and, at the close of a year, fifty of his attendants are strangled, disemboweled, mounted on dead horses, and left in a circle round his tomb. The Scythians passed through Palestine on their road to Egypt, b.c. 600, and a trace of their invasion is supposed to have existed in the name Scythopolis, by which Beth Shean was known in Christ's time. Ezekiel apparently refers to them (38,39) under the name Gog, which reappears in Revelation. See on Revelation 20:8. [source]

What do the individual words in 1 Corinthians 14:11 mean?

If therefore not I know the power of the sound I will be to the [one] speaking a foreigner and the [one] speaking to me
ἐὰν οὖν μὴ εἰδῶ τὴν δύναμιν τῆς φωνῆς ἔσομαι τῷ λαλοῦντι βάρβαρος καὶ λαλῶν ἐν ἐμοὶ

εἰδῶ  I  know 
Parse: Verb, Perfect Subjunctive Active, 1st Person Singular
Root: οἶδα  
Sense: to see.
δύναμιν  power 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Feminine Singular
Root: δύναμις  
Sense: strength power, ability.
τῆς  of  the 
Parse: Article, Genitive Feminine Singular
Root:  
Sense: this, that, these, etc.
φωνῆς  sound 
Parse: Noun, Genitive Feminine Singular
Root: φωνή  
Sense: a sound, a tone.
ἔσομαι  I  will  be 
Parse: Verb, Future Indicative Middle, 1st Person Singular
Root: εἰμί  
Sense: to be, to exist, to happen, to be present.
τῷ  to  the  [one] 
Parse: Article, Dative Masculine Singular
Root:  
Sense: this, that, these, etc.
λαλοῦντι  speaking 
Parse: Verb, Present Participle Active, Dative Masculine Singular
Root: ἀπολαλέω 
Sense: to utter a voice or emit a sound.
βάρβαρος  a  foreigner 
Parse: Adjective, Nominative Masculine Singular
Root: βάρβαρος  
Sense: one whose speech is rude, rough and harsh.
  the  [one] 
Parse: Article, Nominative Masculine Singular
Root:  
Sense: this, that, these, etc.
λαλῶν  speaking 
Parse: Verb, Present Participle Active, Nominative Masculine Singular
Root: ἀπολαλέω 
Sense: to utter a voice or emit a sound.
ἐμοὶ  me 
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Dative 1st Person Singular
Root: ἐγώ  
Sense: I, me, my.

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