1 Corinthians 14:11 BSB

1 Corinthians 14:11

If, then, I do not know the meaning of someone’s language, I am a foreigner to the speaker, and he is a foreigner to me.

BSB

Parallel translations (2) ▾

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

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.

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Commentary

3 voices

Albert Barnes

1798–1870

Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)

The meaning of the voice - Of the language that is uttered, or the sounds that are made. I shall be unto him ... - What I say will be unintelligible to him, and what he says will be unintelligible to me. We cannot understand one another any more than people can who speak different languages. A barbarian - See the note at Rom 1:14. The word means one who speaks a different, or a foreign language.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

For thus says the polite Ovid, when banished into Pontus, Barbarus hic ego sum, quia non intelligor ulli, I am a barbarian here, none understand me. To speak in the church in an unknown tongue is to talk gibberish; it is to play the barbarian; it is to confound the audience, instead of instructing them; and for this reason is utterly vain and unprofitable.

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

Therefore--seeing that none is without meaning. a barbarian--a foreigner (Ac 28:2). Not in the depreciatory sense as the term is now used, but one speaking a foreign language.

Voices on this verse

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Original language & word study

18 tagged words

Original	Transliteration	Meaning	Word study
ἐὰν	ean	If	G1437 →
οὖν	oun	therefore	G3767 →
μὴ	mē	not	G3361 →
εἰδῶ	eidō	I shall know
τὴν	tēn	the	G3588 →
δύναμιν	dunamin	power	G1411 →
τῆς	tēs	of the	G3588 →
φωνῆς,	phōnēs	sound,	G5456 →
ἔσομαι	esomai	I will be	G1510 →
τῷ	tō	to the [one]	G3588 →
λαλοῦντι	lalounti	speaking	G2980 →
βάρβαρος	barbaros	a foreigner	G915 →
καὶ	kai	and	G2532 →
ὁ	ho	the [one]	G3588 →
λαλῶν	lalōn	speaking	G2980 →
ἐν	en	to	G1722 →
ἐμοὶ	emoi	me myself	G1473 →
βάρβαρος·	barbaros	a foreigner;	G915 →

Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.

The walk

The walk8

Where the connections lead

Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.

Through
1 Corinthians 14:21
It is written in the Law: “By strange tongues and foreign lips I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to Me, says the Lord.”
leads to
- Isaiah 28:11–12
  Indeed, with mocking lips and foreign tongues, He will speak to this people
- Jeremiah 5:15
  Behold, I am bringing a distant nation against you, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD. “It is an established nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know and whose…
- Deuteronomy 28:49
  The LORD will bring a nation from afar, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down upon you like an eagle—a nation whose language you will not understand,
Through
Colossians 3:11
Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free, but Christ is all and is in all.
leads to
- Galatians 3:28–29
  There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
- 1 Corinthians 12:13
  For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free, and we were all given one Spirit to drink.
- Romans 10:12
  For there is no difference between Jew and Greek: The same Lord is Lord of all, and gives richly to all who call on Him,
- Ephesians 3:6
  This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.
- Ephesians 1:23
  which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

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