My Notes
Authors
John Calvin - Commentaries
**For he that speaketh in another 808808 It is remarked by Granville Penn, that “the context shows that the Apostle means, a language _foreign to that of the auditors, and, therefore, not known to them” — as “we learn from verse 21 that we are to supply ἑτερᾳ — ‘other,’ not αγνωστὟ — ‘unknown.’ We have,” he adds, “had lamentable proof of the abuse to which the latter injudicious rendering can be perverted in the hands of ignorant or insidious enthusiasm, by assuming the term to mean, ‘a tongue unknown to all mankind;’ and from thence, by an impious inference, supernatural and divine; instead of relatively, ‘unknown to another people.’ _And yet, after all, ‘unknown’ is not the Apostle’s word, but only an _Italic supplement _suggested by the English revisers of the seventeenth century.” — Ed tongue, speaketh, etc. He now shows from the effect, why it was that he preferred prophecy to other gifts, and he compares it with the gift of _tongues, _in which it is probable the Corinthians exercised themselves the more, because it had more of show connected with it, for when persons hear a man speaking in a foreign tongue, their admiration is commonly _excited. _He accordingly shows, from principles already assumed, how perverse a thing this is, inasmuch as it does not at all contribute to the edifying of the Church. He says in the outset — He _that speaketh in another tongue, speaketh not unto men, but unto God: _that is, according to the proverb, “He sings to himself and to the Muses.” 809809 “Comme on dit en prouerbe — I1 presche a soy-mesme et aux murailles;” — “As they say proverbially — He preaches to himself and the bare walls.” The proverb, “Sibi canit et Musis” — (“He sings to himself and the Muses,”) is believed to have originated in a saying of Antigenides, a celebrated musician of Thebes, who, when his scholar Ismenias sung with good taste, but not so as to gain the applause of the people, exclaimed — “Mihi cane et Musis;” — (“Sing to me and the Muses”) — meaning that it was enough, if he pleased good judges. — Ed. In the use of the word _tongue, there is not a pleonasm, 810810 A pleonasm _is a figure of speech — involving a redundancy of expression. — Ed. as in those expressions — “She spake thus _with her mouth,” _and _“I _caught the sound _with these ears.” _The term denotes _a foreign language. _The reason why he does not speak to men is — because no one heareth, that is, _as an articulate voice. _For all hear a sound, but they do not understand what is said.
He speaketh in the Spirit — _that _is, “_by a _spiritual gift, (for in this way I interpret it along with Chrysostom.) He speaketh _mysteries _and hidden things, and things, therefore, that are of no profit.” Chrysostom understands _mysteries _here in a good sense, as meaning — special revelations from God. I understand the term, however, in a bad sense, as meaning — dark sayings, that are obscure and involved, as if he had said, _“He _speaks what no one understands.”