Exegetical study on: 1 Corinthians 14:1-6 Principles of Biblical Interpretation Dr. Dale Hutchcraft 10/23/09 Alex Sullins The passage that I chose to exegete is 1 Corinthians 14:1-6, the main idea of this passage is for the apostle Paul to confront the Corinthian church in Corinth about their misuse of the spiritual gifts, namely the use of tongues.
The following is a full outline of the passage with the main point of each verse, it goes as follows: 1 Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.Paul starts out this verse strongly with the word “pursue” and “earnestly” showing the importance he is putting on pursuing the spiritual gifts. He stresses the importance though of the gift of prophecy, showing right away what he is passionate about and what to pursue (Mare). 2 For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God; for no one understands, but in his spirit he speaks mysteries.
Here in verse 2 Paul addresses the gift of tongues and explains the use of it and how it is directed to God and not to men. He uses the word “mysteries” to describe that the speaker knows not what he is saying. But one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. Paul is explaining in this verse that prophecy is a “greater” gift because is edifies (builds up) the church.
This is seen by his use of “but”, inferring that he prefers prophesy over the gift of tongues, introducing the topic for the rest of the passage. 4 One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church. He continues to explain that the gift of tongues is a personal use of the gifts, and continues to explain that prophecy is the “greater” of the gifts because it builds up the church. Now I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy; and greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may receive edifying. In this verse Paul explains that tongues is a good thing and should be sought after, but again stresses the idea that prophecy is much greater, unless the tongue can be interpreted, because then it can help the church, which is the main idea Paul is trying to get across.
But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking in tongues, what will I profit you unless I speak to you either by way of revelation or of knowledge or of prophecy or of teaching? The entire idea is now put into perspective for the Corinthians with an example of if Paul came to them speaking in tongues; he asks how it would help them if they did not understand. Prophetic revelations and speaking in tongues are controversial topics in this day and age. The debates on these topics have been raging in churches for years on this is one of the passages that are usually brought up in these discussions.The purpose of this passage is to confront the church in Corinth about their misuse of the gift of tongues and possibly their obsession with it.
In almost every on of the six verses Paul brings up that tongues is not as important as prophesying because prophesying is something that can bring truth and revelation to the church. Although he does bring up an exception of sorts, which is if there is an interpreter present that can share the message to the church (vs 5). It is obvious that Paul’s main concern is that the church is using their gifts to help build up the church.The city of Corinth was a large city with about 250,000 free people and as many as 400,000 slaves (Barker). As with any large city their was much immorality that went on within the city, so it is obvious that the church in Corinth was plagued by the sexual immorality and the surrounding temples supporting false gods. Paul had gained information from certain sources that the condition of the Corinthian church was in need of a wake up call.
Some members from the household of Chloe had informed him of the conditions that existed (Barker). The church in Corinth was immature and unspiritual (1 Cor. :1-4), but it is clear that the church was very gifted (1:4-7). Paul felt though that it was necessary to write them for instruction and restore areas of weakness such as divisions, immorality, and abuse of the Lords supper (Barker). The book of first Corinthians is full of Paul’s frustrations and his advice on how to fix the things that they have fallen into. It is apparent that Paul had written to the Corinthians before which may explain his abrupt way of confronting them.
In the passage previous to chapter 14 Paul speaks of the three main components of a church, faith, hope, and love, and he states, “The greatest of these is love”.In chapter fourteen he starts with the phrase “pursue love”, and even more importantly the word “pursue”. After he states that he goes on with the term “desire” in reference to the spiritual gifts. Beginning the chapter strongly with “pursue” tells us that his main concern is that love is the focus of the church even though from this passage (14:1-6) it seems he is solely concerned on tongues and prophesy. In the following passage he continues to talk about tongues, which shows that it must have been one of the main problems at the church.
Although he does speak more lightly about tongues in verse 13, telling them that if they are praying for tongues to also pray that he can interpret them, and he speaks lightly even more so when he says that he speaks In tongues more than them all, assuring them that it is not a bad thing to do. Verse 1 Prophecy is the most important word to know in this passage because of the extent to which it is talked about so there is much information to be learned about it. The NT understands prophecy to be a divine and inspired message from God.This word has several meanings: a) To proclaim the revelation, the message of God, imparted to the prophet.
b) Prophecy can have a special sense to foretell or proclaim future events. c) Prophecy can also mean to bring to light by prophetic speech something concealed. d) In Paul the word denotes teaching, admonishing, and comforting (1 Cor. 14:3) e) In Acts 19:6 it shows that prophecy is used to inspire and ecstatic magnifying God (Acts 10:46) (Kittel).
Only Paul speaks of the gift of prophecy, in some instances as in 1 Th. 5:20 it is not clear whether the reference is to “the prophetic gift or the prophetic saying” (Friedrich).Verse 2 Verse 2 explains that the misuse of tongues was one of Corinthians “major problems in their exercises of their spiritual gifts during worship (Blomberg). “When speaking in tongues they felt enlarged and elevated, their whole being was for a time expanded by this emotion” (Exell). These gifts are all used by the spirit, in understanding these gifts it is essential to understand what the “spirit” is.
In Jewish thought the spirit denotes the power that humans experience that relates them to the spiritual realm, the realm that lies beyond human control (TDNT).The human spirit is the aspect of a person that God most immediately encounters him or her (Rom. 8:16) the spirit is also referred to as the breath of God (2 Thes. 2:8, Jn 20:22) and also the breath of life (Rev. 11:11, 13:15).
To Paul the spirit is a divine power whose impact on a life is discernable by its effects. In some cases this manifestation was “charismatic utterance” and act (1Cor. 1:4-7), but in others it was evidently an overwhelming experience of being expected by God (Eph. 1:7-8) of being swamped by divine love (Romans 5:5), or of experiencing joy that made light of affliction (TDNT).
Mysteries simply refer to that which “no one can understand”, Paul speaks of this in reference to speaking in tongues, and it is a mystery to the speaker to what he or she is saying. The word “mystery” is rarely found in the NT, only 28 times, which Paul referred to it most of them (21x) (TDNT). A mystery is also referred to as a secret, Jesus stressed that “the secret” of his kingdom to its appearing are expressed in his parables. The original form is Mysterion, in most cases; wherever this word occurs in the NT it is found with verbs denoting revelation or proclamation that is now revealed (so it’s not a secret anymore).
This is vividly expressed in Colossians, where Paul proclaims the mystery of Christ (Col. 4:3). Paul gives practical expression to the “mystery” and carries it on toward its “final consummation” (TDNT). In Ephesians also the mystery of Christ is essentially the fact that through Christ the Gentiles have been given access to the father of all creation (Eph 3:15, Rom 16:25) (TDNT). Verse 3 This verse shows Paul’s heart and what he’s passionate about, he is obviously very passionate about prophecy knowing that it is edifying to the church.
The original word for edification is Oikodome, which means to build or build up.The most important passages for understanding this concept occur on Paul’s letters, where almost all the occurrences of the verb are found. This word describes Paul’s apostolic activity, how he is concerned for the church community and the “building up” of the church (2 Cor. 10:8, 12:19).
Apart from the activity of the apostle, Oikodome describe the “inner growth and outer expansion of the community through the spirit” (TDNT) Verse 4 In this verse Paul continues to say the point that prophecy is much more edifying than tongues because it builds up the church, except this one is a little different.It seems that Paul is addressing not only the church in Corinth, but also the church of God in general (Exell. Before Paul was just addressing the Corinthians but this statement is much more general, it seems he wants them to know that this applies to everyone. The idea of speaking in tongues can have several meanings.
“The chief theology lies in Acts 2, and Cor. 12 and 14, the tongues of fire that rested on the disciples (Acts 2:1-4)” (TDNT) this is a picture of the baptism of fire of the Holy Spirit. Paul did not forbid speaking in tongues (1 Cor. 4:39) he himself practiced it freely as he says in 14:18, but the “urgently exhorted examination, discipline, and restraint is the message he sent (14:14-17)” (TDNT). The tongue is obviously also “represented as an organ of speech that can actually reveal ones inmost self, which can be subject to demonic binding (Mk. 7:33)” (TDNT) which shows the power of the tongue and the effect it can have in the spiritual realm.
Verse 5 In this passage it seems that Paul is admitting that it would simply be nice if everyone were to speak in tongues, but because of their abuse he asks them to speak out more edifying gifts like prophecy.The only time that Paul seems ok with them speaking in tongues over prophecy as long as there is an interpreter. The original word for interpret in hermeneno (Study Light), which is related to words such as “translate” in a straight forward sense, for instance: Immanuel is translated directly into “God with us” (Matt. 1:23) or messiah which means “Christ” (Jn1:41). Many of the forms of this word are used in reference to the interpretation of speaking in tongues.
It also is related to the interpretation of the bible as a whole, which essentially is called Hermeneutics; notice the similarity in the original word.Verse 6 This last verse seems to be a point where Paul draws a conclusion; he ends with a practical example to make sure that they get the point. For the last time Paul proves the point that without teaching, or a certain knowledge gain, or revelation, what’s the point? Paul has brought up the idea of a revelation many times, revelation denotes, not the “impartation of knowledge, but the actual unveiling of intrinsically hidden facts, or the manifestation of transcendence within immanence” (Kittel). It is turning of the holy and gracious God to men who are lost in sin and death.That action is not called revelation but when the listener receives the message and understands they then receive the revelation.
As stated before this topic is very controversial, but it seems to make sense and apply today. I believe that many churches struggle with the same issues that the church in Corinth did. Whether you believe in modern-day prophecies and speaking in tongues or not this passage has a good message for us all. This church seemed so caught up in what they were doing, almost trying to be “too spiritual” and missing the heart of it all, the heart, and building each other up.It is strange when thinking about tongues that the church in Corinth is almost legalistic in that they were missing what church was about and making it something that it wasn’t. I do believe that God consistently is trying to use other people to give us divine revelations whether it is through prophecies or tongues, the point is we need to heed Paul’s advice and focus on the things that will edify the church and build community within the body.
I also think that it is worthwhile to notice the writing style of Pau as mentioned earlier.He was straight forward, he told the church what they were doing wrong and how they could fix it. We as Christians can learn a lot from this type of attitude, we have to sharpen each other as iron sharpens iron (Proverbs 27:17). Even if that means putting ourselves out of our comfort zone and writing someone a letter, if you feel God is asking you to do it, it must be done, and through that we can slowly become the church that we were meant to be, the kind of church that Paul was trying to create. Bibliography 1) Gerard , Kittel.
TDNT. 3. Grand Rapids: WM. B.
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Grand Rapids: WM. B. Eerdmans puplishing, Print. 3) Blomberg, Craig. NIV Application Commentary.
1 Corinthians. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994. Print. 4) Mare, Harold W. Expositor's Bible Commentary. 10.
Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1976. Print. 5) Exell, Joseph. The Pulpit Commentary. 19. Grand Rapids: WM.
B. Eerdmans puplishing, Print. 6) Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, Print.
7) Barker, Kenneth. NASB Study Bible. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, Print. 8) StudyLight. org.
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