1 Corinthianschapter 14
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Speaks with:1 Corinthians 14×191 Corinthians 12×71 Thessalonians 5×5Acts 2×3Ephesians 5×31 Corinthians 13×3
Summary
Chapter summary
Prophecy edifies the church; tongues edify the speaker unless interpreted. Let all things be done unto edifying. I had rather speak five words with my understanding than ten thousand in an unknown tongue. God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. Let your women keep silence in the churches. Let all things be done decently and in order. Henry reads the chapter as the apostolic rulebook for public worship. Order serves edification, which serves love.
Context
Epistle · Paul — 1 Corinthians overview
- A. 1–5 Prophecy Builds the Church; Tongues Build the Speaker
- B. 6–19 A Trumpet With No Clear Call
- C. 20–25 Tongues Signal Outsiders; Prophecy Exposes the Heart
- D. 26–33 Two or Three, in Turn, With an Interpreter
- E. 34–40 Let Everything Be Done Decently and in Order
The outline
A.Prophecy Builds the Church; Tongues Build the Speakervv. 1 to 5
Read vv. 1 to 5 →B.A Trumpet With No Clear Callvv. 6 to 19
Read vv. 6 to 19 →C.Tongues Signal Outsiders; Prophecy Exposes the Heartvv. 20 to 25
Read vv. 20 to 25 →D.Two or Three, in Turn, With an Interpretervv. 26 to 33
Read vv. 26 to 33 →E.Let Everything Be Done Decently and in Ordervv. 34 to 40
Read vv. 34 to 40 →
The world behind this chapter
1 Corinthians 14The history
Greek religion had a long tradition of inspired but unintelligible utterance. The Delphic oracle, only a day's travel from Corinth, delivered sayings through a priestess in a trance that priests then interpreted. A congregation impressed by ecstatic speech was behaving in a way its whole culture found normal and prestigious.
Paul's test is comprehension, not authenticity. He says he speaks in tongues more than any of them, and then says he would rather speak five intelligible words in the assembly than ten thousand in a tongue, because the aim is to build others up.
The unbeliever or outsider walking in mattered because these were house meetings on ordinary streets. Neighbours, curious visitors, and household members could and did appear. A room full of people all speaking at once would look, Paul says, like madness.
His practical rules are strikingly ordinary: two or three at most, one at a time, with interpretation; prophets weighed by the others; the spirits of prophets subject to the prophets. Inspiration does not remove self-control.
The instruction about women keeping silence in this chapter has been debated since antiquity, not least because Paul has already assumed women pray and prophesy in the assembly. Readers differ on whether it addresses disruptive questioning, the weighing of prophecies, or something else, and the honest thing is to name the difficulty rather than paper over it.
What it meant to them
The first hearers were given a governing principle they could apply to anything: let all things be done for building up, and let all things be done decently and in order, because God is not a God of confusion but of peace.
That reordered their whole value system. The gift they ranked lowest, prophecy in plain speech, was the one that actually reached the outsider — who might fall on his face and say that God was really among them.
Sources cited
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament
- Bruce W. Winter, After Paul Left Corinth
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on 1 Corinthians 14. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.